A Witcher 3 Postmortem

I finally finished (the main story of) Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt! Good Old Games tells me that I’ve logged 123.5 hours on it since it came out back on May 18th. Slow and steady, right? I’m sure less than a dozen of those were spent playing Gwent with every merchant I came across. Regardless, this article is long overdue and I’m pretty happy to finally be getting around to it. So with over three solid work weeks worth of game play behind me, where do I even start with my thoughts on Geralt, Ciri, and the rest of the cast of The Wild Hunt?

Honestly, I barely touched the original Witcher and the second never even got booted up. So it goes without saying that I’m not really familiar with Geralt and his backstory. That doesn’t seem to be much of an issue when it comes to enjoying The Wild Hunt. Frankly, most of it can be picked up along the way. Despite not being well acquainted with Geralt, I enjoyed being able to shape him as a hero through my decisions and actions in the game. He’s certainly the most masculine character I’ve played without going to the extreme of Duke Nukem, but the story allows for a lot of emotional exploration in his relationships with Yennefer, Triss, and Ciri. When side characters are brought in, enough context is given that it’s easy to figure out the relationships that would have been established in previous games. I felt as if I had enough agency over the course of the game that I was allowed to tell my version of Geralt’s story. What I’m really getting at here is that Witcher 3 was enjoyable even though I hadn’t played the other games in the series.

I do feel like Witcher 3 has a bit more scope than was really needed. The core story was great and I enjoyed the pursuit aspect of it where I was just one step behind and trying to make up lost ground for most of it. I can understand the desire to throw in a few side quests and even some of the witcher contracts that allow an opportunity to gain much needed coin for crafting or repairs. However, the volume of these activities can be downright staggering. And that was just the scripted activities. After I explored for a while I found my maps littered with so many question marks that it would drive the Riddler to utter madness. Imagine playing Skyrim and constantly seeing every unexplored place on your map. It was brain melting being taunted by all of those damn things, but also a great excuse to keep coming back for more.

Skyrim, for many, is a damn lofty thing to compare any game to. It’s true that I probably wouldn’t have to play even another hundred hours to completely finish every activity in Witcher 3. There aren’t any random events to tell friends about or any crazy quests simply waiting to be found in a cavern someplace. There are, however, a number of specific areas to be sought out and explored which can be quite beneficial to the player. One thing that I feel Witcher 3 has over Skyrim is an actual freaking ending sequence instead of a quick pat on the back. Following the main story was more rewarding to me as a result. I was unreasonably glad to be treated to a cinematic sequence after following the game through to its intended finale. I know that’s not exactly uncommon, but I feel like it’s a necessary thing to do even when a game is intended to serve as a open world game. (Spoiler: the vast majority of quests can be completed after the end of the main story.)

Can we talk about mini games in RPGs? They’re fucking stupid. Ever since Final Fantasy VIII introduced Triple Triad, I have endured an array of gimmicky time wasters built into games that serve virtually no purpose other than bloating the number of hours of playable content. (Don’t even get me started on Blitzball.) Witcher 3 suffers from this in the form of a card game called Gwent. There are cards to be obtained and quests to be completed and it serves no real significant purpose in the game other than wasting time. Geralt, the woman you see as the daughter you never had is being pursued by an otherworldly menace, you don’t have time to play cards with every merchant and innkeeper you stumble across.

By the end of the game I still felt that the combat system was rewarding. I had also explored the crafting system and hunted down the patterns for a full mastercrafted set of the Cat School armor since I favor mobility and quick cooldowns. There were more potions that I was ever going to use, but I enjoyed adding them to my arsenal anyway. Thankfully, I recent patch added a player stash to the game because I wanted to experiment with different weapons and armor, but poor Roach (Geralt’s horse for those not already acquainted with the game) cold only carry so much crap. Look, I’m an RPG pack rat and I need help, okay?

I’m not really sure where else to fit this in, but Witcher 3 has a lot of opportunity for sex. A lot. I like a little titillation, but this game is lousy with nudity and sex. Apparently Geralt is really good at the sex. I mean, he’s definitely a hunky guy and thanks to the barbers in the game I could absolutely refine his rugged good looks however I wanted. But goddamn did the developers want to make sure players could live out as many teenage wet dreams as they desired. It’s not required, of course, but it’s not like trying to romance a character in Dragon Age. Outside of brothels, it’s really only going to take two to three lines of glaringly direct dialogue before clothes are shed and nipples abound. I just thought it was worth mentioning.

So after running through the main story of Witcher 3 and a good chunk of the side activities, I would recommend it to players that crave an involved story with a single hero. It’s not for those that enjoy commanding a squad of heroes with that one customizable protagonist (I’m looking at you, Bioware) and any number of ways to essentially put themselves into the game. Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt is for those that want an involved story with a lot of choices and the feeling of being a bad ass monster killer. There’s already a lot of free DLC and the main game has been constantly patched and improved since launch. It’s clear that CD Projekt Red believes in this title and is willing to support the crap out of it. It’s going to be a great investment for players that want a lot of content for their money.