He showed up in 2007 carrying two swords – steel sword was for humans and silver one for monsters. There were plenty of monster-slayers back-then, some of them prettier, some of them stronger, but as soon as he defeated striga from Vizima, we knew that he was here to stay. His name was Geralt of Rivia, The White Wolf, and he was The Witcher.
The Quest for Closure
The Witcher series should serve as a shining example to all Risens and similar RPGs who fail to get off the ground as the time goes by, how to improve with every sequel. First game in the series, published in 2007 was developed by polish studio CD Project RED and served as a continuation of polish fantasy book series that followed eponymous monster-slayer for hire. It had some great ideas and some drawbacks. Its sequel The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings came out in 2011 and was huge step in the right direction. “The Witcher3: Wild Hunt” delivers big time. Set in the environment reassembling Medieval Europe with strong addition of Slavic mythology, games tells the story of Geralt, who sets on the quest of finding long lost love, sorceress Yennefer, and adopted daughter Ciri roaming through war-torn country filled with monsters, where desperate people and other non-human characters dealing with growing pains are maybe the largest threat of all. It is very personal, gritty and adult, dealing with themes such as racism, but it is also admittedly slower-paced than the one of its predecessor, so it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
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Game to get Lost In
Wild Hunt is one of the best and most immersive open world RPGs ever made, period. The world it offers is huge and aside from main story, which takes minimum 30+ hours, you can multiple that time by 10 if you choose to fully explore map and follow optional quests and Witcher contracts, that will set you up against werewolves, strigas, ghosts of dead maidens and other fantasy creatures. Here, you will not only have to show your fighting skills, with the polished gameplay mechanics that is still based on two swords system, but also some detective work, because many quests will demand of you to find certain location or discover the grudge that brought monster to life in order to dispatch it. Thrill of exploration and abundance of treasures will keep you going to every inch of the map and high degree of armor customization, elaborate alchemy system and perfect content balance will made that journey fruitful. Along the way you will have to make some difficult and game-altering decision, but nobody will hold you by the hand and tell you what choices are good and what bad. You will have to follow your own moral compass and live with the consequences.
Graphics and Sound
Considering the looks The Witcher 3 deserves nothing but praises. This is one beautiful game and only bad thing we can say is that it is poisoned with some visual bugs. Don’t worry though, they are benign enough and expected with such large and open environments. Beautiful visuals will give your machine a run for its money, but considering how good-looking The Witcher 3 is we can say that its engine is flexible and well-optimized. Soundtrack is packed with epic, Slavic-themed tunes and it’s worth listening on its own. Voice acting is top-notch, as usual.
System Requirements
Intel CPU Core i7 3770 3.4 GHz
AMD CPU AMD FX-8350 4 GHz
Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 770
AMD GPU Radeon R9 290
RAM 8GB
OS 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)
Direct X 11
HDD Space 40 GB
Conclusion
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a game that will serve as a landmark in RPG genre. The fact that it was made for just a fraction of budget some AAA games have on disposal and still manages to be as good as them, or even surpass them is achievement of its own. Good things outweigh several flaws by far. It is not a perfect game by any mean, but it is very close to be one.
10/10
