“to save his loved ones and protect the
world from an ancient threat.” Of course
no indication what this threat is just yet,
but I’d be willing to bet we’ll see a return
of the Wild Hunt that was introduced in
the second game.
T
he announcement of a non-linear
open world for The Wild Hunt I
won’t deny made me somewhat
nervous. Each game is already so rich
and detailed, would the introduction
of a vast, free-roaming open world (30
times the size of The Witcher 2 and
20% larger than Bethesda’s Skyrim)
damage this in any way? I guess we
can only wait and see, but CD Projekt
RED seem pretty confident that this
won’t be an issue. They’ve introduced
a number of new exploration methods
including horse riding and sailing in
order to cover ground more quickly
in this huge new world which it is
anticipated might contain as much as
100 hours of gameplay.
100 hours of gameplay! Holy crap! That
makes my knees all weak and wobbly and
gives me heart palpitations.
Confirmed lands are currently
Skellige, a rugged archipelago, the delta
of the Pontar river which contains at its
heart the city of Novigrad, and the warravaged No Man’s Land. Considering
how many environments there were to
explore in The Witcher 2, combined with
my love of exploration based RPGs in
general, I have a feeling that I might be in
hibernation for a good few months after
The Wild Hunt comes out.
From the moment I picked up The Last
Wish I have had an absolute fascination for
Geralt’s universe. It draws on so many of
the things I was interested in as a child – the
variety of different monsters in particular
(I was a weird kid) and the completely
ghastly ways they can kill you if you don’t
have some weird garlic/nightshade/herb
talisman/potion (you get the idea) about
your person. CD Projekt RED draw on the
kind of less prominent European folklore
that I’ve always found fascinating.
Each game brings with it some familiar
monsters such as werewolves and
vampires, as well as some others that
perhaps are on the more obscure end of the
scale. I have no doubt that The Witcher 3
will bring with it another set of weird and
wonderful beasties to battle.
The world is as beautiful and rich as ever,
with high quality models, amazing light and
atmospheric effects that add real ambience
to each scene. The world is populated by a
vibrant NPC population and supplemented
by a gorgeous soundtrack that is brilliantly
suited to every scenario. Character design
as always is wonderfully contextualised
within the setting, from clothing and
hairstyles, to dialogue and tavern music.
Throughout every game in this
franchise, the ripple effect and
consequences of your actions has made a
bigger and bigger impact. The Wild Hunt
is no exception, and the developers have
repeatedly emphasised the impact Geralt
has on the world. Everything he says and
does affects the game and the way it plays
out in a variety of different ways, impacting
on the narrative, your quests and your
interactions. With 100 hours of gameplay
for a single playthrough, I cannot actually
fathom how much replay value this feature
could give a game such as this.
A
fter the narrative elements,
one of my favourite parts of
The Witcher has always been
the combat. This says a great deal for the
combat design, because I’m not normally
the person who will go out of my way
to play a game on a super high insane
difficulty level. I want to enjoy the game
I’m playing not die every five minutes and
get frustrated. And The Witcher is HARD.
I mean really hard. Yet I have absolutely no
problem dying continuously to get it right.
Perhaps it’s an affinity with the game, or
perhaps it’s just a really well thought out
combat system (I suspect a bit of both),
feature / GAMING / The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt
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