For those of you who have been logging on, and the blog statistics page does say that there are a few of you (God knows why, since there are only 6 posts on this so-far terrible blog) The Witcher 3 is the reason why there isn't much content. It's that damn good.
SETTING
In the Witcher 3 you play as medieval monster hunter/jedi Geralt of Rivia. He's a grumbly old bastard who has come to do three things: kill monsters, play cards and fuck sorceresses. Oh, and when he gets tired of doing all of that, he'll occasionally spend some time searching for his 'daughter' Ciri, who he knows is in mortal danger. But it's not like that's something he should be concentrating on. Killing griffins and harpies really does need to stay atop his to-do list.
Aside from the substantial main quest line, there are metric ass-tons of side-quests in this game, many of which are deep, story driven mini masterpieces in and of themselves. Others are as simple as: bring the goat back to the hermit. But even the latter variety tend to be fun. There is also an intriguing collectible card game, Gwent, to be mastered. Think of it as a cross between Triple Triad from Final Fantasy 8, and Magic The Gathering (minus the individuals with hygiene issues - you know who you are).
Once you've completed all of the side quests, mastered the card game, and hunted down every monster causing trouble in every village, you should really get on saving Ciri from the aforesaid mortal danger. She is being pursuer by the Wild Hunt: a band of space pirate-knights who want Ciri for her special blood, or something. I'm not 100% sure why they want her, but they do, and one gets the impression that they aren't intending to be super nice to her when they lay their hands on her. So Geralt, when he can be bothered, must find Ciri before the Hunt do, and find some way of defeating them. Given that they appear to be pretty much invincible, Big G really has his work cut out for him.
GAMEPLAY
So who is this Geralt person anyway? As I've alluded to above: he's like a jedi without the lightsaber. He can 'force shove', bend the weak-minded to his will, but unlike a jedi, he can also shoot blasts of fire from his hands, or surround himself with a magic shield to nullify enemy attacks. Additionally Geralt has the power to lay some magical traps on the ground, which as far as I can tell do just about fuck all to 99% of the enemies in the game (top tip: don't spend your ability points on that power). Geralt is armed with a pair of swords: one steel, and one silver. To assist with monster (and sometimes non-monster) slaying, Geralt, as a witcher, has the option of brewing various poisonous oils to apply to his swords, or potions to take himself to tip the balance in any given fight.
The number of monsters in this game is huge. Each has its own style of attacking which has to be learned and overcome. Geralt is not as nimble as, for example, the nameless main characters in the Dark Souls games, but the combat system is not a million miles off. It's all a matter of knowing when to block, when to attack, when to use magic, or when to GTFO altogether, taking into account the fact that your character is a brawler, not an acrobat.
The alchemy and crafting are both quite deep, but straightforward systems. Although it must be said, while the oils are useful to exploit the weaknesses of a category of enemies, and do make a difference, I only used 2 potions my entire play through: the one that makes your magic/stamina bar refill more quickly, and the one that allows you to see in the dark. I never paid much attention to the rest, and managed to complete the game without too much trouble. There never really appears to be any monster that requires a particular potion to be brewed to be beaten, which is surprising given that one of the trailers suggested exactly this.
LOOKS
Very pretty.
At launch there was some bitter disappointment from the PC crowd, because the visuals are limited to the levels of the PS4 and Xbox One. Where the PC still has the advantage though is in the frame rates, which I understand suffer quite badly on the consoles, whereas PCs can maintain a decent rate no matter how many characters are on screen.
Speaking of characters: I recall having to cross a very busy bridge in the game and thinking "there are more NPCs on this one bridge than there are in the whole of Skyrim." It's a fairly obvious point, but makes the game world feel authentic. I didn't often enter a town or village and think 'where are all the people?', unless of course they had all been eaten by a monster, but that's a different story altogether.
The world has been crafted lovingly, with mind-boggling levels of detail. Everything looks fantastic and realistic. While it might not have been the huge step up that gamers were expecting from footage shown prior to the game's release, the game world is still beautiful.
The regions that make up the game world are vast. There are details, quests, and mini-missions like treasure hunts, guarded loot, and monster nests to be cleared in every corner of the map. However, at the end of the main quest, and having completed every secondary quest I could find, there were still several large chunks of the map that were unexplored for me. I had really expected to be sent to all four corners of the map, and see everything that had been created. Alas no. Perhaps a few more quests, or some re-tweaking of existing ones would leave the player at the end of the game feeling like he/she had seen absolutely everything on their journey.
THE NOT-SO GOOD BITS
This was originally part of my conclusion, but I want to bury it in the middle so that the conclusion is clear that this is an awesome game (aw, spoiled my own conclusion), and I don't want these very minor negatives to give off the wrong vibes. If these were anything that I thought should give rise to serious thought about whether or not to buy the game, I would have kept them in the conclusion, but they are not. Finish reading this review, then buy this damn game.
As I said at the outset: I spent 90 hours in this game. I enjoyed almost all of them. A few quests felt distinctly like filler. And towards the end of the game the monster contracts became a very formulaic. One was a big letdown. I don't want to spoil anything, but the game made it seem as if this contract was going to be an epic battle against an iconic fantasy monster. It was a high-ish level quest, so I got the feeling that this was perhaps to be the pinnacle of the monster hunts, but in the end it really wasn't what it had been made out to be.
HOW DOES THE RIG RUN IT?
As I alluded to in my earliest posts: this game was the reason I decided to buy and build a new PC. I have the game installed on my SSD along with the OS. It takes seconds to load, get to main menu, and start playing. I estimate that I can go from launching the game, to controlling Geralt within 30 seconds, which is pretty quick in my book. I'm sure there are people out there with rigs far better than mine who wouldn't piss on a game with a 30 second startup time if it was on fire, but this isn't Top Rig, it's Reasonable Rig. The load times at startup, when changing region, and after death, are all pretty fair. The load screens are like an animated storyboard with a narrator explaining the player's position in the game. In terms of loading time, normally I have to wait a few seconds, and listen to the narrator's blurb (which at some points I've heard a hundred times before), but I tend to be able to skip past the narration after the game's loading has completed, so I don't have to listen to the whole thing over and over again.
I experience an odd quirk with the graphics for the first few minutes after entering the game. If Geralt is moving quickly too soon after I start, the graphics stutter a little. This is only for the first few minutes. I have no idea what the technical reason for this is, but I imagine the graphics card like my car's engine, which needs a few minutes to heat up before it will run optimally. That's probably not right, but it doesn't stop me from making struggling engine noises at my rig.
One thing that does drive me batshit mad though is that the game will occasionally minimise itself and I'm returned to the Steam Big Picture menu. The thing that occurs to me is that this rarely happens on consoles. I've gotten used to it, but if I'm in the middle of a fight, or something tense is happening in the story, it's very jarring to be pulled out of the game. I don't know what the cause of this is. Sometimes it's because my copy of Windows hasn't been verified yet (I assure you it's a legitimate copy!) and Microsoft feel the need to remind me every so often that I may be the victim of software counterfeiting. So that one is on me. Other times it happens for no reason. I don't have the time, or inclination, to go hunting for a solution to this very vague problem. I assume once I get round to activating Windows it will stop.
VERDICT
Out of the 90 hours I spent playing this game, 89 were fantastic, 1 was a bit meh. That's a quite astonishingly good success rate. I cannot recommend this game enough. It's has both breadth and depth. It's pretty, has great lore, storylines, characters and voice acting. This is a game that comes along only once every few years, and is one that will be the game against which other games of this variety are measured. This is one of my very favourite games that I put up alongside Final Fantasy 7, Fallout 3, Morrowind, and Grand Theft Auto V.
If you like this sort of game, and haven't played it already: play it now.
BONUS REVIEW OF HEARTS OF STONE EXPANSION PACK
After completing the main game, I bought the expansion pack straight away. The storyline I won't spoil, but it's very good. The new characters introduced are as memorable as any in the main game. The boss fights are quite something to behold. The absolute high point of the expansion for me was the boss fight against The Gravedigger. I won't provide any details, but you will come away from that fight knowing that you have mastered the game's fighting system, or not at all.
There are some new Gwent players added (yay!), new side quests, and a new rune crafting system (which I paid about as much attention to as the potions in the main game).
This expansion was very fresh, and definitely wasn't just 'more of the same'. I have high hopes for the Blood and Wine expansion due out... eventually. Although I'm sadder than a grown man righttfully should be about the fact that once I complete Blood and Wine, that's it. No more Witcher 3. It's a game that I really wish could just keep going and going, but I know that it can't.
I can certainly say that CD Projeckt Red have a loyal fan for life, and they can shut up and take my money when their next game comes out.
