By now everyone in the editorial office knows: in general I love the role-playing video games but I'm not a fan of openworld. In short, it is not a factor that makes me cry out to a miracle when a title characterized by a structure of this type comes out.
With The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt I was forced to change my mind, and whoever reads me here on Player knows how much such an event is, for me, welcome and at the same time very irritating.
The third chapter of the videogame saga di Geralt of Rivia, witcher by profession and forced by vocation, is for many one of the rare pearls of this decade, while for a small but noisy minority of players this is yet another case of hype disappointed.
What is the truth? Is it in the middle, or is the center of gravity shifted to one side or the other? Let's see it together.
The story of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
La saga di The Witcher draws inspiration from the novels of Andrzej Sapkowski, and for this reason it seems correct to start our analysis precisely from the management of the plot, from the plot and, in essence, from the narrative aspects of this title.
I state that, unlike The Witcher 2, in this third installment of the series we don't find ourselves immediately projected into the main story: even after hundreds of hours of play, the presence of the developers' railroading is not felt at all.
Side Quests, Random Encounters, and Lore Moments are as curated as the main quest, if not more: il voice acting of some secondary characters is even more appropriate than a couple of the protagonists of the story, and the mix is able to keep high the suspension of disbelief practically for the entire gaming experience.
Furthermore, it is enough to leave the path for a moment to find yourself in an undergrowth of lore exquisitely developed, but above all of choices and ramifications unexpected, able to delight most of the fanatics of the Role playing game.
And if a pedantic and compulsive completionist like myself tells you, with about 250 hours assets on this title, you can generally trust.
A varied background for the main storyline
As already mentioned, for me the greatest strength of The Witcher 3 it is the synergy that is created between the main plot, which for a good part of the game he sees Geralt desperate for his goddaughter Characteristic, the setting which, in addition to being the background to the (mis) adventures of the witcher most loved by the Españoles, is greatly differentiated from region to region.
On the back of the bad caballo Aquilante alla fida Roach / Rutilia, or maybe with a few minutes of running, we can range from a war-torn land, soaked in blood and plagued by the stench of decay of foot soldiers and horses fused together in death, to a swampland that comes straight from the fairytale tradition of the Brothers Grimm.
However the fantasy substrate is that of Eastern European folklore, which we talked about at length in a special article in the mythological column of Bear's Lair, so we don't need to repeat ourselves. No?
And if we also take into consideration travel by sea, or medium-long journeys hurried up with a cutscene, the palette of landscapes and settings widens drastically: from alien planets to Scandinavian fjords, from the sandy deserts of an alternate dimension to the boundless ice of what, in essence, is the Fimbulvetr preceding the Ragnarok Norse.
A plot with the right number of twists
One of the things I like most about The Witcher 3 is that the game focuses on emotional involvement, more than on the wow effect: there are no twists every 15 minutes, nor surprising reversals of the initial point of view.
On the one hand we have a concept of morality which is always on shades of gray, and the clear division between black and white, good and evil, heroes and villains, is practically always absent. On the other hand, there are occasions when we come to discover that the Big Bad Evil Guy on duty is not so bad or so evil, and perhaps not quite all wrong.
These occasions, however, are not thrown away so much for the edgy effect or to flesh out a poor characterization, as I have found in other titles. When this happens in The Witcher 3, it is because history was written to establish, reaffirm and reinforce at every turn that life is much more complicated than the fairytale Good vs Evil clash, The Witcher 3 it's not that kind of fairy tale.
The gag relief moments of The Witcher 3: a necessity, more than a habit
If during the game we did not meet, with a regularity that suggests a precise authorial will, gods funny or tragicomic moments, the experience of The Witcher 3 it might turn out depressing, gram, bleak.
Whether it's having to escort a goat VIP or having to recover your favorite pan of a nice old woman, these brackets lighten the existential weight which, I like to think, characterizes the narratives ofEastern Europe.
I still can't forget the evil of living exquisitely instilled in me by reading the Cycle of the Guardians of the Kazakh-Russian Sergei Lukyanenko, even more deliberately disheartening than that of the Pole Sapkowski, author of the The Witcher novels.
Those moments peak for a moment the hood of misery which weighs on the region of Many, for example, but it is precisely in those passages that the dialogues and the narration shine even more: it's always there a bittersweet aftertaste, a flick of the tail that ultimately brings us back to the fantasy version of the Middle Ages Central-Northern Europe.
Maybe a little too much grinding for my taste
The hood of misery, on the other hand, hits me as a player when I'm forced to grind for hours, instead of continuing with the adventure. Have dozens of question marks on the map, i.e. unexplored points from Geralt, it usually causes me such a grind that there is no anti-bruxism bite to hold.
I HAVE to clean the map. I MUST explore everything. I HAVE to finish all the tertiary sub-quests, rather than the secondary ones, and in an order that allows me to have the maximum advantage from the point of view of the story, or even of the equipment.
This personal cross of mine as it translates into The Witcher 3? In a crescendo of neurosis and frustration that, from one nekker's nest to another, explodes at the height of the acute phase when I find myself improvising as Luna Rossa skipper so that I can complete all the Point of interest off the Isole Skellig.
The problem, therefore, is not the fetch quest and the "go there and kill twelve harpy boars", but the grinding in exploration. Lots of those Point of interestBesides, in the end they are nothing more than barrels with 20 coins and some ingredients, and maybe it took us ten minutes to reach that specific barrel.
Send help.
Of course, in some places even Geralt complains of this wanting to lengthen the broth at all costs, moreover in an absolutely superfluous way: the things to do in The Witcher 3 they are so numerous, and the potential hours of play so many, that it would have been more than possible to avoid this side dish and still have a long-lived, engaging and activity-rich product for the player.
Cross-references and links to previous chapters
An important aspect of a saga that came to third chapter, just like that of The Witcher, and the internal consistency. The character development that they remain true to themselves through the three volumes of the story as well as a advancement of the narrative that is congruent and free of contradictions, are essential elements for the player to perceive the presence of solid foundation at the base ofbuilding-saga.
What so far, in essence, is the magnum opus di CD Project Red, yes it succeeds in the enterprise, but in alternating phases. Just think of the figure of Triss Merigold, which in The Witcher 2 testifies in Summit a Loc Muinne, in fact accusing his colleague Philippa Eilhart, but in The Witcher 3 takes the participation of very badly Geralt to the witch hunt a Philippa called by that joker of Radovid.
Su Reddit many people wonder how smart it is to open a business in your own name, in the same city in which we had been a couple of days before sentenced to death. Well, Ranuncolo / Dandelion does just that: after being saved by Geralt due to the broken headset, he acquires a room a stone's throw from where he was about to be coupled, and restructures it according to his own tastes and those of the player, without even having the forethought of change your name.
Among geographical inconsistenciesinstead, I like to remember the Pontar river: a point of reference of some importance, which it should be waterways at least in the section between oxenfurt e Novigrad, not from boats but from ships like that of Re Radovid -as it is narrated in the game itself-, and instead in many places it is so narrow, swampy and shallow that it can be waded on foot without even getting your knees wet.
For the rest, it must be said, decisions in previous chapters have various repercussions in this third chapter: more or less secondary characters will be able to return to having to deal with Geralt, either positively or negatively, by offering him some pretty juicy side-quests, or by providing him with some kind of help, or even, in some cases, also affecting the finish of history.
The linearity of the main quest
On one side we have the primary theme, that of the spasmodic search for Ciri; every contract, every favor, every punch, pirouette and one-and-a-half-handed sword sweep carried out by Geralt, in essence, it is one step further along the interminable staircase that will lead him, perhaps, to hug her protégée again with ash-colored hair.
The story keeps its narrative rhythm well, not bored and it is rarely taken for granted. The problem, if we will, is that along the way Geralt -and therefore the player- gets lost dozens of times: gets distracted, is attracted to a sub-quest which perhaps is even more interesting than the main one, or from the search for information for lift a terrible curse in style Witcher, or of course from the inevitable match in Gwent with an unsuspecting innkeeper.
It is not just the usual fetch quests: if after a few days we return to the area where we helped a craftsman to retrieve his work tools, which ended up somehow in a monster's lair, we will see that even the smallest actions have an effect on social and economic dynamics of that remote village. Often unforeseen consequences which, at times, may surprise us in one way or another.
This forest of secondary activities that, after all, we find ourselves having to cross in order to find the main street, as far as I'm concerned it is an advantage and not a defect.
The main quest itself is quite linear: it goes from point A to point B, from there to point C and so on; there are no particular ramifications, and the endings depend on theattitude of Geralt and two or three key choices, more than from branching of the story.
For me this is right: it is not correct, in my opinion as an avid gamer, to sacrifice narrative coherence - and style, if you like - in the name of infinite replayability.
Especially since The Witcher 3, as we will see in a moment, he doesn't need these tricks to offer a different experience for each game.
The replayability of this title
In my first run, as usual, I started playing Geralt like a skilled swordsman; At some point, however, I must have been possessed by the Spirit of Christmas previous chapters, because I threw myself headlong into alchemy: Geralt became a war machine on heavy war methamphetamines.
In the course of second game it was the turn of a build based on the use of signs, that is of elemental magic revisited in a Witcher key: between Quen, Earth, Igni e Yrden, with the occasional strategic use of Axii, fencing mastery di Geralt has faded into the background.
Instead, it made a comeback in the third run, in which I returned to the original plane and concentrated on the pirouettes and turns, assisted by a shrewd defensive use of the sign Quen.
And so on. The plays were different, to the point that the total number of hours accumulated on this particular title, and on the saga di The Witcher in general, it has far exceeded the socially acceptable level. And now we will also see why.
Some of the best received DLCs in the history of video games
One of the biggest strengths di The Witcher 3 he understands, without any doubt, his own DLC. Pearls of the gaming landscape such as Hearts of Stone and even more, at least as regards, Blood & Wine.
The first emphasizesand shades of evil and the inherent danger of tightening a diabolical pact, but it takes us in dreamlike and surreal landscapes, and even in a wedding banquet, stuffed with some of the funniest and best-made scenes in the series.
The second one, on the other hand, he further treads his hand on the concept of monstrous nature. From the first chapter of the saga ours Geralt constantly wonders about the monster that resides in the heart of some humans and on the noble spirit di some monsters; in this DLC, in particular, philosophical reflection it becomes a necessity, since we come face to face with real ones superior vampires, and with some dear, old acquaintances.
No need to talk about it further: find our review of the DLC here Blood & Wine, one of the most loved of the entire series, while here is the review of Hearts of Stone, which in addition to a powerful narrative it also introduces some innovations in the system in crafting, with further enhancements for ours Owl preferred.
Lore, crafting and game mechanics
A very personal pet peeve of mine: in some games it happens to visit a library, read several volumes, and once they are released we know exactly as soon as possible: we have not learned anything, neither as characters nor as players.
Not so in The Witcher 3: Besides a huge amount of lore, which even dates back to the ancestral eras, ours Geralt he may come across books that make him discover invaluable information: weaknesses of the creatures he might face, alchemical recipes, diagrams for crafting, social customs, political intricacies and much more.
The magical builds, especially fun
This information is crucial in a system of real-time combat, without shifts: use a sign instead of another it can mean the difference between life and death, in some fights with particularly powerful creatures, such as the Leshen or Elementals.
Yes, because the magic system of the signs has been substantially modified with respect to the previous chapters, and I am not referring only to the absence of'Heliotrope unlockable in The Witcher 2. In the third chapter these mini-spells acquire one alternative casting mode, which modifies the behavior of the Signs and significantly increases them versatility.
Igni becomes a flamethrower, for example, while Earth generates a 360 ° shock wave, able to send all the opponents around us to the ground. My favorite, however, remains the Quen alternative: a bubble that surrounds us, and which can even restore Geralt's health when enemies try to step on us. She has saved my skin several times, believe me.
with the joy build ibridafinally, we can even deflect darts shot by bows and crossbows, for that feeling from Jedi which never hurts, to then blow up some severed limbs in the immediate vicinity of the Owl twirling.
A satisfying crafting system, even for the most demanding
Il crafting system quite successful: the power-ups we have to sweat it out, because first they have to be searched around the map, and then you have to craft them using rare ingredients, which we can get by hunting, trading and slicing monsters and - sometimes - humans of a very bad nature.
The same hunt for equipment diagrams as a witcher of the various schools, I must say, it's fun in itself: we need to investigate the fate of some of our colleagues from the past, follow its tracks backwards and recover their belongings, so as to keep them safe the secrets of the Witchers and, at the same time, empower our Geralt in the style we have chosen.
The armor and weapons of each Witcher school, once crafted and equipped, they grant us dei set bonus that enter into synergy with one style of play or the other.
Un Geralt nimble and fast, in perfect killer style, she'll prefer a set of the School of the Cat, while a North Witcher, on the other hand, more accustomed to old school combat and heavy armor, will be at ease with a nice Bear set, my favorite; similarly, a build based on Signs will need the equipment of the Griffin school, and so on, including the sets of the Manticore, the Wolfand Vipera, etc.
To conclude: The Witcher 3 is a masterpiece
In this third installment of the saga there is something for everyone: from various choices available in the dialogues, for fans of role-playing video games, until the min-maxing spinto for hardened optimizers, passing for lovers of exploration and fvideogame otography: Some of the game screenshots are an integral part of the wallpapers I periodically alternate on my desktop.
As we have already mentioned, there is a vast mythological repertoire that, together with the TV series American Gods, taken from the novels of Neil Gaiman, helped bring it to the fore the folklore and mythology of the Slavic lands.
Un technical sector more than appreciable, one stratospheric soundtrack which I often find myself listening to separately, as well as the REDengine, the same engine used for The Witcher 2 and developed by itself CD Projekt RED, they help bring to our screens an unforgettable videogame experience, which currently, five years after its release, still constitutes the reference standard they are confronted with i videogame story-driven, whether we like it or not.
Even being gigantic and at times frighteningly overwhelming, the open world environment di The Witcher 3 is the most satisfying there is to explore: authentic and above all alive landscapes, from swamps to medieval cities, from forests to Scandinavian fjords, with a day / night alternation able to drastically transform a landscape, depending on the time of day we visit it.
Il dynamic system for the management of the weather, sadly for the Witcher but luckily for our screenshots, he seems to be mad at death with Geralt.
Looks like rain.
Wind’s howling.
A storm, dammit!
The part the weather forecast, the bugs present at the launch have fed a generation of memes, although I personally never found themo Rutilia / Roach embedded in textures or stuck on a roof; the wide choice of modit also helps customize the game experience, to the point of reaching peaks that, as far as I'm concerned, I hadn't seen for too many years.
Bonus with related spoilers: my favorite scenes
Of course you will find gods here slight spoilers, but I will still try to avoid the details that could ruin your gaming experience.
My very personal Top 5 moments from The Witcher 3:
- the scene of the reunion between Witchers to Kaer Morhen, hilarious and moving;
- la Wedding party in Hearts of Stone, absolutely unforgettable;
- the meeting with the witches of the swamps of Velen, exquisitely disturbing;
- Crack the Craite and the challenges of Different, as was foreseeable for those who have followed me for some time;
- i bittersweet endings, which remind us that the Tales of the Brothers Grimm have been drastically sweetened, but always this type of storytelling never has a real happy ending.
While we await a future fourth chapter, we can devote ourselves to the vision of The Witcher TV series su Netflix, or face the reading of the homonymous literary saga dand Andrzej Sapkowski, with which CD Projekt RED had some disagreements, now resolved.
Fans Role playing game may find our guide for useful The Witcher RPG, but if you prefer to play Geralt of Rivia in D&D 5E, here is our tested and proven build for you.
>> Read also: the guide to The Witcher 3 endings<<
