So, I’ve had over a week with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, I’ve clocked a solid 25+ hours and made my way through a respectable portion of the main quest too, I’ve played plenty of the game’s various side quests, monster hunting contracts, and treasure hunts. I’ve taken part in horse racing and lost a few rounds of the Gwent card game and more than a few coins betting on it too.
What can I say? What a week! It’s safe to say that the hype building around the game over the last few months, and leading up to release day was more than justified. In short, Wild Hunt is not just one of the best roleplaying games I’ve played in the last few years, it’s easily one of the best games I’ve ever played, but I digress; I have a review to write… but to get you in the mood before we dive into it check out the awesome “Go Your Way” trailer which I think perfectly reflects the mood of the game:
I will be touching on some storyline elements during the review, but I will keep it as spoiler free as possible and it’s nothing you won’t have already picked up from the trailers anyway.
If you haven’t played either of the previous games, don’t worry – I’ve played dozens of hours between them but never to completion (so far… watch this space), but that’s not an issue, even if you’re a complete newcomer to the series CD Projekt Red have made every effort to make introducing you to the world of The Witcher as straightforward and as accessible as possible, they did this in The Witcher 2 as well and there’s a very good reason for doing it; with the release of each new game they have made it available on a platform that it previously was not, with a new platform will come new players who may be playing the series for the first time, and will not be wholly familiar with the story, characters or setting.
In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt this introductory stage is done exceptionally well; the introduction of key characters, both protagonists and antagonists, important themes in the game as well as a general gameplay tutorial is done in the form of a dream sequence, or rather, a nightmare. We’re introduced to Geralt of Rivia, who the player will be controlling for most of the game, as well as Yennefer, Vesemir and Ciri, after a few minutes of dialogue between the characters the tutorial begins, it starts out pretty simply; running, jumping, climbing and eventually leading the player into a pretty intensive combat tutorial, upon completion we see Ciri going off to retrieve some equipment she sent flying over a nearby wall, she doesn’t return. As Geralt begins to grow concerned he calls for Vesemir but is shocked to find that the titular Wild Hunt, a ghastly army of spectres, have arrived and are intent on killing Ciri.
It’s at this point that Geralt awakens, visibly shaken by the nightmare, he’s travelling with Vesemir and they are searching for Yennefer, they discuss his nightmare, joke about the postscript of a letter Geralt received from her and begin to make their way into White Orchard, the first open area of the game. We’re promptly updated on recent events within the game’s world; the defeat of Temeria and the death of the Temerian leader, King Foltest, the subsequent Nilfgaardian invasion and their occupation of the Northern Kingdoms. If all of this is meaningless to you, don’t worry as it is quickly brought into context and starts to make sense (keep in mind I’ve never finished the previous games, so I’m not fully up to date on how the storyline or world was left off before Wild Hunt begins).
White Orchard itself is a beautiful location, open world as you might expect from an “open world game” but constrained in size, in some respects it’s an extension of the tutorials in Geralt’s nightmare, a proving ground occupied by low level enemies and a reasonably low level monster to hunt down as part of the main quest. You can very easily get through it in a couple of hours but personally, I chose to spend my first 6-7 hours there, exploring and getting the most out of it before moving on to the next, much larger area of Velen.
After leaving White Orchard the world of Wild Hunt never feels anything less than colossal, when CD Projekt Red said they were taking The Witcher open world, they meant it. There’s a very real sense of scale and proportion that defines every square inch of the game’s behemoth landscape; if something looks like it’s going to be a ten minute walk away bets are it will be, on the flip side of that you can spend literally hours just getting from place to place, exploring and almost literally getting lost, there’s always the in-game map on hand to help you work out just where you are though. True to form for an open world title, there is a quick travel system for getting from point A to point B, but you do need to visit the locations before it becomes available for them.
Thankfully along with quick travel there is now the option of travelling on horseback, and we are given a horse from the very start; Roach, who as it turns out has magical abilities – no I’m serious, no matter where you are, whistle and he’ll appear, it’s fantastic, especially out in the wilderness, when you whistle and he pops out from behind a tree, hours of entertainment just there! And that’s not as clumsy as it sounds; CD Projekt Red have ensured he will only appear in your general vicinity behind you and then walk his way into your field of vision, giving the impression he way following you the entire time. You smart cookies!
Along with the vast expanses of explorable world are rivers, lakes and other watery bodies dotting the landscape and all of them can be transversed much quicker by boat rather than circumnavigating them on foot or looking for a nearby bridge. Geralt can now also swim and there are entire areas which are only explorable by diving to get to them; underwater caves, abandoned wells and ancient ruins submerged over time.
The great thing about these new methods of travel is that they never feel tacked on or an afterthought, riding Roach isn’t just riding a horse from point A to point B, he has a fear meter that appears when nearby enemies attack and will panic if it fills up ending with Geralt getting thrown off, there’s horseback combat which comes with it’s own benefits including the ability to one-hit many enemies if you hit them while galloping past. Roach can have his gear upgraded with various effects; better saddles give a stamina boost, blinkers slow down how fast the fear meter fills and saddle bags allow you to carry more items, especially useful if you just cannot leave an area without looting everything (you know that’s exactly how I play it). Similarly to past titles Geralt can hold onto trophies from his monster hunting contracts that Roach will carry, which affords Geralt various bonuses; for example the trophy I currently have, the severed head of a noonwraith, gives me a 5% experience bonus from fighting both human and non-human enemies.
Similarly, the boating meshes well into the world of Wild Hunt, the various lakes and river banks of Velen are dotted with fishermen and their boats, and while boats don’t have the array of options that Roach does there are nice touches such as when the boat is damaged, it is visible degradation of your vessel’s condition, resulting in sinking if the damage is too much. Even the sound of the boat as a whole is really impressive, the sails flutter in the wind and the water slushes against the bow, this just ramps up the immersion in an already fully fleshed out, living, breathing world.
The architecture and layout of Wild Hunt’s various hamlets, villages, towns and cities feel like actual hamlets, villages, towns and cities. The larger cities such as Oxenfurt and Novigrad feel very organic and natural in their layouts; the streets and building don’t feel like they were plopped together in an effort to create something that “looks more or less like a city”, as you walk the streets and take in the architecture it feels like there is real history in these places, that they started out small and expanded from there as the population grew and the need for houses, businesses and services increased.
Like the rest of the game’s world these towns have a very realistic scale to them, houses look like houses and not like a shed with a chimney bunged on the top, businesses are prominent on the main streets and in the town squares, which are often encircling public marketplaces bustling with entertainers, trader and prospective purchasers. Children are at play, guards patrol the streets, preachers shout out their gospel to passers-by and devotees of the faith alike, there’s a palpable sense of a place inhabited and lived in by real people.
This same painstaking attention to detail has been afforded to the various ruins dotted around the map, natural caves both on land and under water, as well as the various abandoned places which Geralt can liberate from the hold of bandits or monsters, allowing the locals to return and make it into an active township once more.
When you’re not exploring you’re fighting, and the combat is a beautifully balanced mix of strategy and tactics, defeating an enemy comes with a real sense of accomplishment. It doesn’t labour too much under the more traditional numbers game that many roleplaying games do, very often your preparation and approach to a fight will be the deciding factor when it comes to victory or defeat. That said, investing in a better sword, stronger armour, upgraded spells and boosting Geralt’s stats though levelling up certainly won’t hurt your chances.
I’ve often found myself getting a bit too big for my own boots after a few easy wins and running straight into a fight only to have my arse handed to me, it’s a great reminder that while Geralt and other Witchers like him have enhanced reflexes, strength and endurance, this doesn’t mean they outmatch the monsters they hunt, it only really closes the gap, and the remainder is up to you in various ways.
It’s actually surprisingly easy to defeat spectres, beasts and other monstrosities several levels higher than you if you prepare correctly, utilise the right spells and make good use of the dodge and roll moves at the right moments during combat, of course by this same logic groups of lower level monsters can very quickly be the end of you if you’re overwhelmed and fail to react appropriately. The combination of drowners and a water hag slinging mud into your eyes is especially keen. Water hags everywhere be warned, I can hold a grudge for a good long while.
In one particular Witcher Contract it was a werewolf I needed to take down, my first time with him ended in a swift defeat, the second time… also a swift defeat if I’m honest, for the third time around I prepared and thought about the fight I was about to engage in. The game categorises a werewolf as a beast, so I applied Beast Oil to my silver blade for enhanced damage, werewolves are fast and attack quickly so I needed to dodge and roll out of it’s way and make my own attacks from the back or sides, and I used the Quen sign, a powerful protective spell, as good as I’ve become at dodging it’s always a good idea to have something to fall back onto. My earlier defeat became a hard-earned but well deserved victory.
Of particular note is the character animation, and I’m not just talking about the fluidity of Geralt when he’s dodging, rolling and pirouetting around enemies which is as impressive as all hell in and of itself. It’s in the way he moves, postures, and positions himself, the way he parts his lips, they way his eyes dart back and forth and the way he furrows his brow. I mentioned that early on in the game, Geralt and Vesemir discuss a nightmare that he had, the entire scene is rich with these miniscule details, and for a moment I found myself believing I was watching a real flesh and blood person on the other side of the screen. Just about every character who has more than a single throwaway line of dialogue has this impressive character animation as well. It’s a testament to the obsessive amount of attention to detail CD Projekt Red have invested into creating a world which looks, feels and behaves just like the real world.
This extends to the way the character’s present themselves and behave as well, if Wild Hunt has one unifying theme throughout, it is one of moral ambiguity. This shades of grey approach to storytelling and character building adds further depth to the world of Wild Hunt. While it is a fantasy story set in a somewhat fantastical world there’s no ongoing battle of good and evil, there’s no impending existential threat of apocalyptic proportions for Geralt to worry about. It’s a very personal story that has touched and affected many of the people around him and this really is the driving force behind the main quest, to find and help those close to Geralt who are in peril. It’s a very human story, driven by the need to protect and help those he loves.
Even Geralt himself is a heavily morally ambiguous character, sure he’s a mutagen-enhanced monster hunter who carries around two swords, wielding magical abilities and displaying the reflexes of a cat-on-steroids, but he’s not some foretold saviour of prophecy. He does what he does for much the same reason everyone else does what they do; to put a roof over his head and put food in his stomach, he doesn’t hunt monsters out of any altruistic sense of do-goodery, he does it because there’s a demand for it and he’s capable of meeting that demand, although the game certainly doesn’t preclude you from a kind hearted gesture here and there.
The various monsters and humans who attack Geralt aren’t inherently evil either, in the case of the monsters they’re simply a slave to their respective natures, and the game’s various bandits and other ill doers come across as acting out of desperation rather than malice; people put in a bad situation at an even worse time, and who like Geralt, do what they need to do to survive. Placed against the context of a world gripped in the uncertain stalemate of an massive ongoing war, it’s not all that hard to empathise with them, but they’ve made their choices and if those choices lead them to the tip of Geralt’s steel sword, so be it.
Wild Hunt, true to it’s roleplaying roots includes inventory management, crafting and the need to repair equipment that degrades with use, alchemy and potion making and character development through a skill tree. True to The Witcher’s pedigree, it’s a deep and engrossing system bringing together much of the games other facets. Exploring the world inevitably rewards you with loot, better weapons and armour, schematics and components for crafting, and other general loot for selling to merchants.
There are various plants, on land, under water and underground that are used in alchemy along with monster parts, that’s right; you can harvest monsters too, and don’t you dare tell me that the idea of using a drowner brain to make the healing potion, Swallow, doesn’t freak you out! Some monsters drop mutagens which can be paired up with the various skill tree items when made active in the character screen, you can even combine lesser mutagens to make more effective versions.
Every facet of this feeds into the next to create a cohesive and truly unified gameplay experience, investing the time into hunting down schematics and parts for crafting will reward you with some of the best gear in the game. And while fighting and slaying monsters doesn’t net you as much experience as completing contracts and quests, it does provide further ingredients for making various blade oils, decoctions and potions which will aid you by making completing those quests just a little easier. It feels like you’re tapping into a pre-existing ecosystem of flora, fauna and loot that all tie into each other. And it never feels forced; once you have created your first potion Geralt will replenish them automatically whenever you meditate, meditation being The Witcher’s version of sleeping or waiting for time to pass in-game, so long as you have the correct ingredients.
Graphically, Wild Hunt is nothing short of beautiful, everything has rich detail giving it it’s place in the game’s world, there’s an ever-present consistency no matter where you are that makes everything feel like it’s part of a much larger world. On PC, the maxed out settings are breathtaking, I’ve included screenshots directly from CD Projekt Red throughout the review for two primary reasons.
Firstly, on my PC I’m running the game on high settings with HairWorks disabled giving me a very comfortable 50+FPS at 1080p, meaning the game looks fantastic but it’s still capable of better rendition. Secondly, I just wasn’t able to get the dramatic looking action, sweeping vistas at sunset or moody environments in the same way as those shown in the screenshots I eventually included in the review, neither am I far enough in the game to get the variety of screenshots included. I can however confirm that what you can see is an accurate reproduction of the game when all settings are at their maximum, I have tried playing the game like this but the frame count drops too low for me to enjoy so it really wasn’t worth pressing on with it, also it’s surprisingly difficult to fight and take good screenshots at the same time, mostly due to the fact I was too busy trying not die.
On the consoles (Playstation 4 and Xbox One) the game has been somewhat graphically reined-in in order to cater to the consoles capabilities and provide gamers with a comfortable experience, with the Playstation 4 rendering 30FPS at 1080p and the Xbox One rendering 30FPS at 900p, dynamically upscaled to 1080p. Graphically the game is still beautiful and will give pretty much any other game on the respective console platforms a run for their money in the prettiness department.
Sound wise the game offers an exceptionally well designed array of sound effects, from the wind rustling through the leaves, to the crackling of an open fire and the smashing of steel upon steel when in a sword fight. Environment have fitting environmental sounds and sound effects; caves have the sound of air passing through them, the sound of water dripping from the ceiling and reverberation from Geralt’s footsteps, villages and towns sound like they are full of the hassle and bustle you see in the game.
Doug Cockle returns to voice Geralt, and is simply superb as usual, offering hours upon hours of voice acting which is genuinely a pleasure to listen to. In fact, many series regulars have returned to voice their respective characters as well as an array of new characters, all of whom offer excellent performances all round.
The game’s music is likewise excellent, setting the mood for many situations, whether that be combat, exploration or a particularly important character moment. In fact the soundtrack as a whole is enjoyable from start to finish, and I have listened to it a few times since release and enjoyed it thoroughly each and every time.
All of this praise is not to say the game has been without some issues; of particular note there has been been performance issues relating to nVidia HairWorks, the playback of cinematics and some general performance issues across all platforms, I have been playing the game since the initial release with patch 1.02, moving on to patch 1.03 late last week and I am currently running under patch 1.04, I can confirm these have been worked out for the most part.
Since I’ve never really used HairWorks anyway (primarily for the performance boost disabling it offers) I cannot comment directly on this but I can say the latest patch did offer improvements in HairWorks performance according to the press release that accompanied it and overall performance in general, the latter of which I can confirm; the game runs much smoother with a light FPS boost overall to sweeten the deal and the game no longer stutters after first loading up, which was never really a major issue anyway but the smoother experience is more enjoyable.
Beyond these more common issues I can’t say I’ve seen the game crash once, and I do run other software in the background for screen capturing of video and images. I have seen a few silly bugs crop up while playing, but nothing game breaking; I once ran across two unattended horses, one was skating around at about 50MPH, the other one was walking normally by would turn it’s head without it’s eyes or mane moving along with it. So, nothing too serious, but it did get a laugh out of me.
The great thing about CD Projekt Red is that these issues will be fully worked out sooner or later, and that the game will be enhanced and improved in many other areas as well, they have a proven track record of working on a game until it is refined to near perfection. We’ve seen this with both The Witcher and The Witcher 2, for which Enhanced Editions were eventually released; and completely free of charge to existing owners of the games. What over developer can you say that about?
Of particular note is CD Projekt Red’s take on DRM (digital rights management) and DLC, namely that it shouldn’t exist and that it should be free, respectively and in that order. All versions of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, no matter the edition (digital/standard/collectors), no matter where it was bought and no matter which platform it is on will receive 16 pieces of DLC free of charge, released weekly in sets of two. In fact in a major change from past releases, Wild Hunt will receive paid-for content in the form of full, real, honest-to-god expansion packs. It’s been a long time since I last uttered the words “expansion packs” without first including the words “I really miss”.
The first of these is due in October and is entitled Heart of Stone, an adventure based in and around Oxenfurt in Velen as Geralt undertakes a contract for the mysterious Man of Glass, requiring Geralt to use his cunning and strength to get through unscathed. The second is due in February 2016 and is entitled Blood and Wine, set in the new in-game region of Toussaint, a region untouched by the war in the Northern Kingdoms but which hold secrets and intrigue all of it’s own. Both expansions will reintroduce characters from the previous titles in the series as well as new character, plus new armour, weapons and other goodies.
Seriously, CD Projekt Red, where have you been my whole life? Oh yeah, that’s right, making other awesome games in The Witcher series. Bless you CD Projekt Red, bless you.
So, that’s Wild Hunt, on a personal note I have to say the single hardest part of writing a review of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is that at no point while typing away was I actually playing the game. No, seriously, it is that good, and believe me as soon as this review is edited and published for all of you lovely people to read I will be playing Wild Hunt once more. If there is one thing I’ve taken away from Wild Hunt it’s the respect, admiration and love CD Projekt Red clearly have for their fans. Wild Hunt is a game created by gamers, for gamers and that’s clearly evident for all to see. There’s a lot of sweat, blood and tears that’s been poured into Wild Hunt and that deserves recognition.
In summary, CD Projekt Red have created a beautifully crafted open-world roleplaying game of colossal proportions. Complete with a huge cast of complex, morally ambiguous and genuinely intriguing characters, both old and new. An ever-evolving, engrossing story culminating in any one of thirty six endings and deep roleplaying mechanics which while confusing at first quickly become rewarding when mastered. The graphics and sound design are top-notch, especially given the open world nature of the title, which usually involves a compromise between graphical fidelity and world complexity and interactivity. On top of an already excellent game, we have a slew of free downloadable content and the promise of at least 30 more hours of gameplay arriving later this year and early next year.
All in all, with everything weighed in I have to say that this game is a must play and gets a very well deserved 5 out of 5 from me. Lock you doors and windows, throw away your phone, say goodbye to that social life and prepare to have your summer taken over in the best possible way!
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