Looking at: The Witcher 3

Witcher Hour

The Wild Hunt spreads fear and icy death whereever it goes, and it's up to you to stop them.

The Witcher 3 is a game so good it's created a backlog for me. There were other games that I really meant to play, but that I put off because of TW3. It's a damn good thing I have a full time job, or I probably wouldn't have left my apartment for the 70 or so hours it took me to finish TW3.

I really liked this game. 

Alright, let's break this down so I can explain why I liked this game so much. The Witcher 3, as to be expected, is the third in the Witcher series by CD Project Red, a Polish studio that also runs GOG.com. CDPR don't make games that often, in fact the Witcher series and the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 are the only things they've ever made. My theory for that is because CDPR knows that good games take time, indeed Witcher 3 had a development cycle of at least two years that we know of, and damn does it show. TW3 is, hands down, one of the finest RPG experiences I've ever had, and joins the pantheon of great Western RPGs like Morrowind, Dragon Age: Origins, or Baldur's Gate. 

Call a Professional

As a witcher you'll take contracts from anyone, including emperors.

TW3 once again places you in the boots of Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher, that is, a mutated super-human that hunts monsters for a living. Although there is plenty of monsters to hunt, your primary goal this time around is to find a female Witcher named Ciri, Geralt's adopted daughter and the biological daughter of the Emperor of Nilfgaard, one of the two major factions in the game. Geralt is given a number of leads to follow to find Ciri, and... that's it actually. The story from there is pretty much left up to the player, as the main plot never really moves from the "find Ciri, save Ciri " angle.

Rather then focus on the main plot, TW3 is much more content to focus on it's side stories. While there are simple fetch or kill quests, many of the sidequests can spin out into their own miniture epics, taking you across the land and unraveling into stories worth telling, often with completely different outcomes based on your choices. There are some truly gripping tales to be found throughout the world, and it makes the game feel more like an episodic TV series at times.

Geralt of Rivia: monster slayer and lady killer.

Apart from the sidequests, there are also the monster hunts. One of the biggest complaints about The Witcher 2 was that the game forgot that Geralt is a monster slayer. Worry not, because there are monsters to slay in bulk here. At any point you can walk into a village, take a contract, haggle the price, and carry out the hunt just like a real Witcher would. Like the sidequests, these too often end up being more then they should be, behaving like investigations from the Batman games. You'll need to gather information, track down the monsters using Geralt's new Witcher sense, and plan your strategy.

The world is burning, but is it worth saving?

W3's approach to story telling, both in the main game and sidequests, is all about investigation. You'll need to learn about what you're doing, rather then charge in swinging your swords, and it's a refreshing change from most games these days, to content to just hand you everything. It can make the game feel overly long, and the plots have a tendency to drag on, with Geralt himself getting upset at the amount of backtracking, but it's all worth it and the delivery saves the game from tedium.

There's no set morality meter in W3, which is good because it would almost constantly be stuck right in the middle. The world is an awful, horrible place to live in, much closer, I imagine, to what living in an actual medieval country side might be like. Racism, sexism, xenophobia, rape, and murder are all common-place and it makes the concept of saving the world that much more challenging. There's bad blood in the land of Temeria, and it's spilling in bucketfuls.

Whereas Skyrim squandered it's set up of a war, Witcher 3 thrives in it, using it to craft the world and shape how events unfold. Everything and everyone is tainted with the constant threat of death, be it at the hands of monstrous beasts or one of the two armies burning the country side, or the Wild Hunt, a band of marauding interdimensional elves that kill indiscriminately. Not all of the monsters in the world of Witcher 3 have fangs and fur, and you'd do well to remember that throughout.  

Bombs, Blades, and Flaming Handshakes

Adventures will often lead you to the weird and unknown.

Combat is largely unchanged from TW2, but refined down to what it should be. Geralt now has the ability to dodge and roll, each with their own uses. Once again, you'll have access to a steel sword for normal opponents, and a silver sword for extra-normal enemies. There's a selection of bombs to craft, potions to brew, and magical signs to upgrade.  

The big change is just how fights feel. Geralt feels like he should, fast and fluid and a flurry of action. This isn't Dark Souls, and you'll need to learn how to fight properly against each different enemy. While dodging and heavy attacks might cut it for one enemy, you'll need to use signs and bombs on a different one. You'll need to master every part of the Wither's arsenal if you want to stay alive and claim your rewards. 

You'll be able to level Geralt however you see fit, mixing and matching skills and mutations.

TW2 tried to have an openness to it's levels, but at the end of the day they were only extra-large restrictions on relatively small maps. Once again TW3 is going whole-hog and features two of the largest, most detailed game maps I've ever experienced. There are two continents to explore in TW3, the European countryside of Velen, nicknamed No-Man's land due to the ongoing war, and the cold and bitter Viking-inspired islands of Skellige. Both are massive, easily rivaling any other open-world on the market, and the open nature of them is a natural fit for Geralt's adventure, letting you act like a real Witcher as you go town to town accepting contracts and saving lives. Even better is the fact that it's not an empty world. There are things going on around you, like packs of animals or patrols or bandit raiding parties, and it not only helps sell the world as immersive, but kept me engaged for that much longer. In a lot of ways it reminded me of Red Dead Redemption, and I say that as a point of very high praise. 

There's always a Dame

Ciri is more then capable of handling herself, and playing as her is a blast.

What good is a great world if there aren't any interesting people populating it? Thankfully TW3 features some of the most well written characters I've seen since Fallout: New Vegas, and it seems like every person has a complete backstory and a good reason for doing what they're doing. The whole game takes place in the midst of a massive war, and the effect this has had is clearly evident. People are scared, some are angry, and there's as much in-fighting between various factions as there is between the two armies. You'll need to contend with the armies of the Northern Kingdoms, the southern Empire of Nilfgaard, and the various independent groups like the Free City of Novigrad or the hyper religious Witch Hunters. As is often the case, helping one group can, and likely will, anger another one and you'll need to choose your allegiances carefully. Sometimes the smallest choice can have huge, unseen consequences and might mean the difference between a hard fight and a good conversation.

Most interestingly is how I found W3 handles it's female characters. Geralt may be an unkillable badass, but he does seem to have a weakness for women. I don't think it's unfair to say that most of his decisions are based on this weakness, whether it be for one of the various sorceresses that seem to use him for their own gains, or his adopted daughter Ciri. To often women characters are scrutinized in games these days, but I can honestly say the women of Witcher 3 are among my more favorite. Each seems to have their own motivations and alternate agendas that work to flush them out into three dimensional characters.

Your choices, no matter how minor, can greatly affect the outcome of quests.

By far the most interesting is Ciri, whom you actually get to play as in short sections throughout the game. When I heard there were going to be linear sections of playing as Ciri I was skeptical, seeing as it broke the flow of the game. But after the first few sections of her gameplay I began to look foreward to it, and the final few times I played as her were an absolute blast.

Ciri plays just the right amount of different from Geralt, having not been completely turned into a Witcher. She also has the power to warp time and space, allowing her to blink around, changing the dynamic of combat. By the end of the game she's a living super-weapon, and just awesome to see in action. CDPR hasn't said anything, but I would definitely play an entire game as her.

Flashing Steel

If you've paid attention to the development of Witcher 3 you've no-doubt heard about the graphical downgrade that happened during production. Here's the video from Digital Foundry that shows a comparison between the E3 2013 demo and the finished version in 2015:

It's pretty plain to see that the game doesn't look like what it should have, and it's been all but confirmed that it's because of the console version. The good news is, the game still looks great, and the better news is I played it on PC. 

People have commented how they don't like the cartoon-like look of TW3, and I don't know if I completely agree with that. On the one hand, it does sort of downplay the grimy feel of the game world, with the political meandering and rampant human hatred. On the other hand, despite the downgrade in graphical fidelity, I still really liked how the game looked. I'm a sucker for a splash of color in my games, and I really dug the almost idyllic feel of the country side. In a lot of ways it reminded me of games like Legend of Zelda, and it gave me just the right amount of nostalgia. 

That's not to say the game looks bad, quite the opposite. Temeria is a lush and gorgeous place to look at, and Skellige is the perfect mixture of Irish country side and Nordic viking heritage. I loved just walking around and taking in the sites, and every location felt unique and well realized. All of this is helped by some great lighting work that made the day feel bright and vibrant and darkness feel oppressive and mysterious. Dungeons in TW3 require the use of torches to navigate, and it's so nice to actually see a game that does this, rather then keep the brightness cranked to max. If there is one issue I had with the graphics it's that there's often a split second of pop-in when scenes transition, and it can be jarring when hair or armor loads before the 

If you have the rig to run it, Witcher 3 looks fantastic.

I've explained before that I don't inherently have anything against console gaming. Some of my favorite games of all time are on consoles and I understand the appeal of a game you can just sit down and play without figuring out configurations. That said, many recent releases reinforce why I prefer my PC over consoles, and Witcher 3 is another good example. I was able to consistently hit between 50-60 FPS on High settings, and I've seen people with much worse computers then mine get great results on lower settings too. The game scales great too, looking fantastic even on the lowest settings. Nevermind the ability to mod it. For my playthough I had installed a simple ENB graphics mod and it made the game look great. 

The audio design was equally great, which is nice considering audio was one of my bigger issues with TW2. Voice acting is once again fantastic, especially veteran Doug Cockle returning once again as Geralt. While Geralt's range of emotion is somewhat stunted, Cockle does a great job of making the character feel real, and delivers each line perfectly. The rest of the cast ranges from great to serviceable, and while it's unfortunate that the game too often uses the "generic UK regional dialect" trope, there's enough variety to make you forget about it. 

Geralt's heightened Witcher's sense highlight important quest markers, as well as loot. 

The real winner though is the ambient sound design. The music is great and all, fitting with the world when it's quiet and flaring up when shit is going down. Even better is everything else, and I loved just sitting in the forest and listening to the trees and grass sway in the wind. That's a weird thing to say, sure, but it's so well done and fits into the world that it really was an awesome experience. 

The best display of both the visual and audio aspects of TW3 is the monsters, particularity the bosses you often face at the end of Contract missions. Each fight with these beasts is memorable, not only for the investigation that leads up to the battle, but because the monsters themselves leave a lasting impression. Monsters look creepy, terrifying, and real, and the sound threatening and boisterous. These are beasts, wild and crazed, that won't hesitate to kill you at a moment's notice. Even the non-hostile creatures exhibit memorable design, and it made them really stand out. 

Fireside Epic

Sailing, horse back riding, and the card game Gwent are all welcome additions to the formula.

TW3 isn't a perfect game, but it's few issues are minor and the good outweighs the bad by a mile. There are issues we see popping up in open-world games all the time, most of which are just funny rather then annoying. Characters popping in for no reason, the AI not knowing how to react properly, character models not moving, and general oddities with the physics engine. It's rare that I ran into a glitch or bug that impeded progress, and I don't recall any issues that actually made me stop playing. 

If there is one major complaint I have it's the controls. I played the entire game with a gamepad, and while I've heard KB&M works ok, I prefer games of this type on a controller. The issue is how Geralt seems to react to your input. He's over 100 years old, sure, but he's supposed to be superhuman. I lost count of how many times he bumped into a wall, or just a random piece of the environment, and he felt sluggish and slow when just moving around. Combat largely avoids this issue, thankfully, but just walking around can be a bit off-putting. Even worse was the horse controls, which often just didn't work properly. I began to dread using my horse and was very thankful for the ability to fast travel. 

This is easily Geralt's finest hour.

The Witcher 3 is a rare breed of game, one that strings you along for an extended tour and manages to keep you engaged for the entire experience. It's an adventure that made me feel like an adventurer, solving problems, saving people, and being a sword swinging badass. It's an RPG that let me play a role, making me be a character while letting me define that character. Finally, it's a game that I enjoyed, even despite the occasional challenge and the extreme length. It's a game worth playing, that's for sure, and hands down one of the best and most engaging RPGs in a very long time. 

Looking at: The Witcher 2

Kingslayer

As Geralt, you'll often face insurmountable odds. 

I hate the word "epic". Like most things it gets it's hands on, the internet has all but ruined this word, turning into a shambling, stupid, meme-spitting buzzword. I hate "epic"

But there's no other word to properly describe The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

Witcher 2 is a huge, sweeping, mature epic fantasy that demands that you take it seriously as it strings you along. Is this a journey worth taking or just idle talk by the firelight?

From Poland with Love

The Witcher 2 can be beautiful when it wants to be.

The entire franchise of The Witcher comes to use courtesy of Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. The series centers around Geralt of Rivia, the White Wolf, and a Witcher. Witchers are mutated monster hunters that roam the land killing for money, and Geralt is considered the best among them. The books provide an entire back story, but the games are they're own self-contained tale, and you don't really need any fore-knowledge on the character or world to get what's going on. All you need to know is that shit is almost constantly in a state of fucked up, and Geralt really doesn't care at all.

The first game opened with Geralt running through the forest, waking up with amnesia, and slowly but surely piecing together everything that's happened to him. Throughout the first game he killed monsters, killed some great evil known as the Grand Master, and saved King Foltest of Temeria from assassination. There is more to it then that, but that's all you'll need to know about The Witcher in order to player Witcher 2.

The Witcher's Path

The upgrade, simplified thanks to the amazing Combat rebalance mod.

Witcher 2 opens with Geralt in prison. He's been accused of killing Foltest and is set to hang. Throughout the tutorial it's slowly revealed that another Witcher killed Foltest and that Geralt is just taking the blame. In exchange for his freedom, Geralt promises to track down the real kingslayer and bring him to justice. This serves as the central plot point throughout the game, as you track down the killer and deal with the fallout of Foltest's death.

The plot plays out like a medieval noir story, with secrets being revealed and motivations changing as more and more details come to life. It's a great story too, taking time to develop like a constant slow burn, and giving you time to digest what's going on. There's plenty of back story to wade through, with character descriptions, a full bestiary, and plenty of lore hidden throughout. The Witcher 2's world is easily one of the most well realized and complete worlds I've ever seen.

There are also side missions throughout every level, ranging from simple Witcher's work -that is killing monsters for money- to more involved quests like locating a lost laboratory, saving researchers from a haunted mansion, and more. The more involved sidequests will create entire stories independent of the main plot, with the majority of these being worth the time, if only for the great story.

Like I mentioned, choice means everything in Witcher 2. You'll often have to make decisions, whether minor or not, and live with the consequences. Practically this usually means things like avoiding a fight, or changing your opponents, but certain choices can vary the game's progression wildly, with the entire second act hinging on a few moments. These choices feel natural, and the game's reaction reciprocates this well so the entire process seems dynamic, rather then the "choose a color" scheme some other games choose to go with.

Whirling Dervish

Monsters are often as terrifying as they are massive.

Gameplay in Witcher 2 can best be described as "tactical swordplay". Geralt, despite his abundance of badassdom, can't really take a hit that well, even with late game armor. Instead his style of fighting relies on being faster then his opponents, be they man or beast, and making sure he doesn't get hit. In this regard I often found the most useful tool in the Witcher's arsenal his ability to dodge around like a madman, rolling or pirouetting out of harm's way in a second. More importantly, dodge was one of the few animations that would trigger correctly when I try to use them.

That brings me to the heart of the issue with Witcher 2's combat, is that it's all heavily animation based. That's fine, since all games are, but there's no real physics to the animations, and they play out regardless of what's going on. It's hard to explain, but play a comparable game like Dark Souls or even Skyrim and you'll understand. There's an odd lack of weight to your hits, like they're not really connected to anything, and this makes combat feel floaty and awkward.

This is an issue for two reasons: One, when combat does work, and you kill your enemies in a flurry of blows and feel like a master swordsman, it feels great. The second issue is that combat makes up the large majority of the game between just normal monster hunting and encounters with human foes.

Combat is a mixture between using one of Geralt's swords (silver for monsters, steel for humans, despite what the novels may say), using one of the limited, but insanely useful, magical signs, and making liberal use of alchemy. This last one is particularly of interest as it reinforces Witcher 2's theme of preparation. Geralt isn't the Dragon Born, and he can't heal in the middle of a fight by eating a sandwich. Instead, you'll need to brew and quaff potions when you have a spare second, meaning that trips outside of town are limited to about as long as your potions last. It's an interesting idea in theory, and certainly makes the game more challenging, but quickly becomes annoying and tedious, not to mention aggravating when the game constantly forces you into situations where you're not given time to prepare.

Troll maiden

A moment of quiet before a battle.

There's an almost constant sense of awkwardness to Witcher 2, like it's a game that wasn't meant to be as good as it it. Dialogue interactions are strangely stitched together, and rarely flow well. Scenes don't as much bleed into one another like they should, but feel patched together, like they were constructed independently of one another and assembled after the fact. There are so many strange and unintentionally hilarious animations I lost count halfway through the second act. I've seen games that punch above their weight class and impress me by doing things I didn't expect them to do, but Witcher 2 seems like the exact opposite, making mistakes that a game of its caliber shouldn't be making.

The one area where Witcher 2 is consistently great is it's graphics. While the character models have aged a bit in the years since it's release, there's no denying that it's a great looking game. The lighting work especially sells the scenes, but overall the world looks and feels great, even when the things inhabiting it don't. 

On that note, a special notice goes out to monsters. Despite the promise of monster hunting, there are only a handful of monsters to hunt throughout the game, but they all look great. Each monster looks terrifying, and really fits the dark, ugly tone of the game. Everything from the undead zombie nekkers, to the towering Kyran octopus creature looks great and fighting them is all the better for it.

On the audio side Witcher 2 once again fails to deliver. Voice acting on the main characters is great, particularly Doug Cockle as the voice of Geralt and Jaimi Barbakoff as Triss Merigold, the lead female. Voice acting on the other characters though ranges from mediocre to terrible, and the sound mixing doesn't really help. VO actors either seem to close or to far away from the mic at times, and conversations seem to happen regardless of your proximity to them in the world. I was across town from a pair of dwarves talking and yet I still heard every word of their conversation. Worse is that each location only has a small finite amount of ambient conversations that play over and over infinitely. I can completely recite one conversation from the second act because it's the only thing I ever heard whenever I was in town. Using the incredibly useful Cat potion, which grants the ability to see in the dark and sense living creatures, was always a hard choice because for ten straight minutes it would play a beating hear sound that drove me nuts.

Monster Slayer

As a Whitcher you'll often be called to deal with magical creatures like the undead.

I don't know what to make of Witcher 2. I didn't know what to make of it when it was released in 2011, I didn't know what to make of it after the enhanced upgrade release in 2012, and I still don't know what to make of it weeks before Witcher 3's release in 2015.  Witcher 2 is a game that's great, even amazing, despite how terrible it is. This isn't a case of The Room where it's a bad property that's accidentally great because how bad it is, rather it's a case of a property that is so great despite it's many shortcomings.

In the end, there's nothing else quite like Witcher 2. It's a game of political intrigue, endless conversations, and brutal violence. It's a world of grey, where black and white morality simply don't exist. It's a unique experience to be sure, but I don't know if it's for everyone. Trying to recommend Witcher 2 is difficult because looking at it's individual pieces it's not that great of a game. Only when looked at as a whole does the game work, and from a distance it's a masterpiece. If your looking for an RPG that will challenge you, both in terms of gameplay and morally, then The Witcher 2 is for you, otherwise this might be a tale left unheard.

image sources:
http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/The-Witcher-2.jpg