The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Review - Gain Experience As A Witcher As You Lose Yourself In A Beautiful Land Full of Monsters

Written by Stephen Varner on May 29, 2015

Reviews: Witcher 3 is one of the most deep and interesting RPGs I’ve played in a long time and I feel like I’m just scratching the surface.

My initial worry with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one that many probably shared. I never played the first game, and only just dabbled in the second. Would I be lost when it comes to the story and characters? How difficult would it be for a newcomer to the series like me to just get in and start slaying monsters? I’m happy to say that these initial concerns were increasingly relaxed as I dug deeper into the game. There’s enough exposition from Geralt’s long time relationships to give you an idea of where they stand with each other but it’s delivered in a natural feeling way. The result gives the world and characters a sense of history without sacrificing the gravitas of what’s happening in the present. It’s truly a game that’s accessible to anybody that hasn’t played the first two games. That’s not to say that Wild Hunt doesn’t have a learning curve but the progression of the early game introduces you to the mechanics without burdening you with just how deep they can all go. Suffice to say that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a game that anybody can jump into without feeling hopelessly lost.

The first thing that captured my attention is just how alive the world feels. Colors are bright and capture beautiful vistas of lush forest hillsides and craggy rock faces on the edge of the sea in a way that looks natural. There were a number of occasions when I would just let my horse Roach slowly trot along to my next destination just so I could take in a sunset, or listen to the wind rustle the trees in a realistic way. The weather is dynamic so the wind will howl and blow in storms that Geralt will sometimes even comment on. Animals and beasts roam through the wilderness often attacking Geralt. It’s easy to wander and get lost in a world so large but be wary. High level creatures can end your exploration in an instant if you’re not strong enough to fight them but often defend a cache of treasure that you’ll find useful if you go back once you’re strong enough.

I found the main story missions to be the quickest way to level up and make forward progress on my character. While it feels a bit padded at times with fetch quests for characters that have information on the whereabouts of Geralts’ adopted daughter Ciri, I didn’t often find myself annoyed with the tasks they set before me. Most of it wasn’t terribly relevant to my own objectives but I found it interesting regardless because of how well written the characters I encountered were. Everybody had a level of realism to them that I didn’t expect because of their personal (and sometimes conflicting) agendas. The Witcher’s characters and morality is colored in shades of gray rather than archetypical good and evil. Dialogue is smart and well acted. All of this lends itself to a level of believability I don’t often expect in a video game.

Side quests in the game are primarily set around killing monsters of various types and sizes. Unsurprising seeing as that’s a Witchers’ job. I say job because you’re not going around ridding people of haunted houses and problematic griffins out of the goodness of your heart. Getting paid for your work is part of the Witcher code so don’t be afraid to ask what your reward will be for completing tasks for strangers. The start of the games “Contracts” quests will have you haggling out a price for the job you’re asked to complete. It’s a simple system that entails managing a character’s “annoyance meter” if you ask for too much, but I found myself always trying to get the best price I could. Other side activities range from blowing up monster nests for experience, tracking down hidden treasure via notes and maps and helping a wide range of well written and interesting characters with any number of problems they have with the world or with each other. The games card based side activity Gwent is also likely to have many players trying to collect all the cards and win tournaments that are held in some of the world’s larger towns.

Every activity will net you some kind of progress in either money or experience. Both are crucial to making forward progress so I never felt like I was wasting time with any given activity. The economy is such that I always thought carefully about what I bought and sold. Rarely did I ever feel like I was so overflowing with gold that I could just go on a spending spree without consequence. It’s often a good idea to stock up on food and replenishment items before venturing out into the wilderness or taking a contract, especially on higher difficulties where meditation will not refill your health. It all adds a level of value to your cash flow that I don’t often feel in most RPG’s. The skill tree is extremely deep and how you build it will vastly affect how you approach combat with the game’s enemies. I opted for a fair balance between sword and sign combat and every skill I purchased and mutagen I assigned to their respective slots reflected that. The number of slots you can fill with active abilities increases with your level but I would often swap a few around if I was fighting certain enemy types in order to maximize my advantage.

Preparation is crucial when hunting monsters. It’s important to know what you are fighting so that you can attack it appropriately. This comes down to which signs are most effective to oils and poisons you can apply to your sword. Some enemies will regenerate health and demand that you press your attack so they can’t regenerate and gain the upper hand, whereas others will allow smaller attack windows for you to exploit and require more patience if you are to defeat them unscathed. Every monster is different and puzzling out how best to defeat them proved to be one of the most rewarding things in the game. The deep and responsive combat was engaging enough that it never felt like I was just slashing through enemies without thinking. You’re required to use your dodges, rolls, parries and ripostes effectively if you want to keep from being cut down constantly and this is especially true when fighting a number of enemies at one time. Wolves will attack in packs and try to get behind you and human enemies won’t just dumbly wait around to attack you one at a time. There was a time or two when I would find the AI wouldn’t follow me past a certain point when trying to engage them and they would get stuck on an invisible barrier but this seemed to be the exception rather than the rule.

The game has a few technical hitches of note on the Xbox One but I’ll point out that none of them diminished my experience in any meaningful way. I didn’t once experience a crash to Home but the framerate would drop enough to be noticeable at times. There also seemed to be a glitch where the sound would stutter and not keep up with what was happening on screen. It never lasted more than a couple of seconds but happened often enough for me to suspect it wasn’t just an anomaly. I would also see a bit of fade in on distant objects and scenery when galloping at high speed through the countryside. If all of this feels like it’s a bit nitpicky it probably is. Nothing I experienced in my 60 plus hours with the game felt detrimental to the overall experience.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is beautiful, well written and exceptionally engrossing. Its open world is one of biggest, and most believable I’ve ever played in and is just begging you to get lost in it. The main story is a little padded out with fetch quests for secondary characters but I never minded because of how fleshed out and genuinely interesting they all are. After more than 60 hours with the game I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of everything Temeria has to offer. This is one of the deepest and most interesting RPG’s I’ve played in a long time and shouldn’t be missed by fans of the series or newcomers alike.