A Timeless Adventure – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Review

The Witcher 3

<p>No other RPG has reached the precipice of what <em>The Witcher 3&colon; Wild Hunt&&num;8217&semi;<&sol;em>s achieved&period; The stunning visuals&comma; huge alive open world&comma; and stellar story all make up for an adventure that you&&num;8217&semi;ll never forget&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In this third entry&comma; you play as Geralt of Rivea&comma; who is a magically enhanced being called a witcher&period; In this game&comma; there is an ominous force called the Wild Hunt&comma; who are after a long lost ally of Geralt&comma; Cilla&period; This woman is called the child of prophecy with the Elder Blood in her veins&semi; with it can bring the end of the world&comma; and it is up to Geralt to find her&period; Among this central plot&comma; there are various interweaving stories that occur within this deep RPG&comma; which are all well written and fit the time period that this game is in&period; The writing is also layered with the misogynistic nature of men at the time&comma; and even though they speak certain slang from centuries past&comma; they are easy to understand&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The writing&&num;8217&semi;s authentic&comma; yet makes sense to a casual gamer&period; The humor&&num;8217&semi;s spot on too&comma; especially with the conversations between the witch&comma; Keira Metz and Geralt&period; The characters are also three-dimensional as they reveal certain emotions and their past endeavours in life&period; One character by the name of the Bloody Baron&comma; at first has the impression of a ruthless ruler&comma; but he&&num;8217&semi;s greatly humanized as the story moves forward&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Your decisions and accomplishments alter the world too&period; Say you decide to save a woman with a Swallow potion&comma; and later on in the game&comma; you meet her lover who is at a garrison far away&comma; not knowing whether to thank you or hate you for saving her&comma; due to the Witcher potions having side-effects&period; Who knew that a small act such as this can have a reaction on the other side of the open world&quest; You can also decide whether or not kill the guards outside&comma; or run away through the back door&period; If you go outside and kill all the guards&comma; a main character in the game&&num;8217&semi;s story mentions it&period; These two incidents are incredible as it really immerses the player into the world&comma; but sometimes after trying to talk to these characters again&comma; they give a generic response of a normal NPC&comma; which is a great shame&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What adds to the immersion are the random conversations that NPCs have in the game&period; Characters fart&comma; slander Geralt&comma; speak to each other with some hilarious conversations&comma; and so much more&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s amazing to see how much thought and detail CD Projekt Red put into this game&comma; and due to this&comma; <i>Wild Hunt <&sol;i>feels like a living&comma; breathing world that you can adventure in and reacts to your actions&period; Shopkeepers can even die from a sudden wolf attack that you are unable to react to until it&&num;8217&semi;s too late&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; <em>Wild Hunt <&sol;em>manages to break the immersion at very rare occasions&period; Some NPCs have strange collision detection with the ground as they fly up in the air&comma; horses become invisible&comma; and at one time the character flickered like a ghost in a gray colour and then returned to his normal self&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not much of an issue as it occurs very rarely&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s worth mentioning&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;41271" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-41271" style&equals;"width&colon; 1282px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2013&sol;03&sol;06031826&sol;6&lowbar;The&lowbar;Witcher&lowbar;3&lowbar;Wild&lowbar;Hunt&lowbar;Tavern&lowbar;Interior&period;png"><img class&equals;"wp-image-41271 " src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2013&sol;03&sol;06031826&sol;6&lowbar;The&lowbar;Witcher&lowbar;3&lowbar;Wild&lowbar;Hunt&lowbar;Tavern&lowbar;Interior&period;png" alt&equals;"6&lowbar;The&lowbar;Witcher&lowbar;3&lowbar;Wild&lowbar;Hunt&lowbar;Tavern&lowbar;Interior" width&equals;"1282" height&equals;"721" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-41271" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The particle effects from flames are stunning&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Despite some very rare technical faults&comma; the game impresses with its beauty&period; The weather&&num;8217&semi;s phenomenal with rain pouring&comma; the daylight peering into the sky&comma; the sunset skies&comma; and the realistic sway of the trees during a heavy storm&period; The grass and the water as well look realistic too&comma; with the swaying of the wind and waves&period; With the rain&comma; you see wet skin&comma; clothes&comma; and the raindrops falling between two characters in conversation&period; The facial expressions are also remarkable and accurately portray happiness&comma; sadness&comma; amusement&comma; and other emotions&period; In addition&comma; the particle effects from flames and the sparks from two swords clashing are superb&comma; and add so much to an intense battle&period; Another cool attention to detail they have added is how spells affect the light bar from the controller&period; The light-bar even pulses with the use of the pulse spell sign&comma; Aard&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The battling and the visual spectacle of <em>Wild Hunt<&sol;em> come hand in hand as your enemies aren&&num;8217&semi;t just regular cronies&period; Each enemy type in the wilderness is noted in the bestiary&comma; which displays which spells and oils are effective against said creature&period; Trapping spells weakens the wraiths&comma; and the water beasts&comma; the Drowners&comma; are weak to fire&period; This addition of strategy adds to the game&&num;8217&semi;s combat system immensely and once again makes <i>Wild Hunt<&sol;i> feel so much more immersive than its peers&period; Unlike other action titles that will be left unmentioned&comma; enemies attack in packs rather than initiating battles one by one&period; It makes the game more challenging and has the player focus more on spells and spacing to succeed in battles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The controls feel solid in battle&comma; but maneuvering&&num;8217&semi;s much trickier exploring and using Geralt&&num;8217&semi;s Witcher Sense&period; When you&&num;8217&semi;re trying to initiate the collection of objects or an examination of an area&comma; moving Geralt feels awkward given the delay between moving left and right&period; Moving Geralt&&num;8217&semi;s easy most of the time&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s still frustrating when you have to stand at a particular point on the map to get a highlight to press X&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;jogodigital&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;witcher-3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While nothing particularly new&comma; the Witcher Sense allows players to investigate an area for clues on where to find items&comma; people or monsters&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s interesting to see the story unravel as Geralt becomes a detective and interrogates people involved about what he finds&comma; but this feature is used very often in both main story missions and side missions&period; As a result&comma; there is a overlying presence of repetitiveness throughout the game&&num;8217&semi;s missions&period; The end result of finding what the Witcher Sense gives you&comma; in terms of story or loot&comma; is worth the monotonous nature of the task&comma; but perhaps having alternate paths to take depending on what evidence you find may have gone a long way to making this feel less linear and repetitive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Another monotonous facet of <em>The Witcher 3&colon; Wild Hunt<&sol;em> are the lack of varied activities in the open world&period; You can defeat bandit camps&comma; find different locations&comma; get treasure&comma; or retake abandoned areas swarmed with bandits or monsters&period; While this may be a completionists&&num;8217&semi; dream&comma; CD Projekt Red could&&num;8217&semi;ve implemented more activities in the world to make it feel less repetitive to just go out explore&comma; forgetting the main missions and side missions&period; Plus&comma; if you don&&num;8217&semi;t save manually often and get killed after finishing multiple open world activities&comma; you have to reload a previous save due to the game not autosaving at these critical moments&semi; it&&num;8217&semi;s frustrating to re-do these sections and deters from exploration&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The side missions&comma; on the other hand&comma; are far from general&period; Each one has a set of fully voiced characters who have their own story to tell&period; Even though the Witcher Sense is used often&comma; each story is different and does not feel recycled in the slightest&period; You may be trying to save a girl from death with a potion&comma; defeating enemies while protecting a group of ritualists&comma; or lifting a curse from a tower&period; Once again&comma; these side missions have consequences&comma; and help determine which side you are on&period; The main missions and side missions are of the same quality in terms of writing or attention to detail&period; Some are even more interesting than the main story missions themselves&period; The side missions are so gripping that when I planned to play the game for 30 minutes&comma; I ended up playing for 3 whole hours&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;83403" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-83403" style&equals;"width&colon; 1243px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;05&sol;04231059&sol;the-witcher-3-town&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-83403 " src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;05&sol;04231059&sol;the-witcher-3-town&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The view distance in this game is insane&period; " width&equals;"1243" height&equals;"699" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-83403" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The view distance in this game is insane&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; the sound design and soundtrack are stellar&comma; but there&&num;8217&semi;s one major issue which plagues the game from being an epic adventure experience&colon; The lack of exciting music while exploring the world&period; The overworld theme is drab&comma; and adds little personality to <em>Wild Hunt<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s&period; With <em>Skyrim&&num;8217&semi;s<&sol;em> &&num;8220&semi;Far Horizons&comma;&&num;8221&semi; the melody of the trumpet&comma; choir and violins &lpar;in the main chorus&rpar; gave a mystical and epic adventure feel to the game&period; In<em> Wild Hunt<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s field theme&comma; there are a quiet set of violin string sets&comma; drum beats&comma; and a dull melody&period; The music itself does not inspire exploration or adventure&period; It may set the mood of the game&&num;8217&semi;s world&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s dull and depressing to listen to&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the other hand&comma; when the battle theme – &&num;8220&semi;Silver For Monsters&&num;8221&semi; – kicks off&comma; the acoustic guitar&comma; the powerful percussion in the background and rock-like singing in the background pumps you up for battle&period; The soundtrack fits the game well&comma; as it is primarily made with ye olde instruments and vocals&comma; and it mostly sounds fantastic when you excuse the dull field themes&period; The sound effects are also immaculate&period; Hearing the sparks off struck blades&comma; the waves of the ocean&comma; and the spells is wonderful&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The scale of <i>Wild Hunt&&num;8217&semi;<&sol;i>s gigantic&comma; and one of CD Projekt Red&&num;8217&semi;s own <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;the-witcher-3-takes-over-200-hours-to-fully-complete&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">claims<&sol;a> that it&&num;8217&semi;ll take over 200 hours to beat&period; With different outcomes in the story for you to replay&comma; many places to explore&comma; and a lot of fully-voiced side missions to complete with in-depth stories&comma; there is a lot that <i>Wild Hunt<&sol;i> offers to those who love the genre&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>Wild Hunt&&num;8217&semi;<&sol;i>s the type of game that will keep you addicted for months&period; Its well written story&comma; in-depth world&comma; interesting side missions&comma; stunning graphics&comma; and strategic combat system will keep you coming back time and time again with over 200 hours to enjoy&period; Despite a few issues like repetitive mission structure&comma; the lack of auto-save in the open world&comma; and dull music in the over-world&comma; <i>Wild Hunt&&num;8217&semi;s<&sol;i> of the greatest RPGs ever made&period; Now&comma; if you&&num;8217&semi;ll excuse me&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ll get myself soaked up in this game for many hours to come&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong><em>This review was written with the use of a PS4 review code provided by CD Projekt Red&period; <&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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