Editorial | The beauty of The Witcher 3.

By Sam Coles:

You know a game has had an impact when we are still talking about it years later, which is the case of The Witcher 3 a game that came out in 2015 which we are still talking about now. My love of The Witcher stems back to 2012 when I played the second game when it was ported to the Xbox 360, as well as reading The Last Wish as that was the only book to be translated into English at the time. I want to look back at The Witcher 3 and why people are still talking about it, now I know what you’re thinking it is only 3 years old. Yes that is true but it gives me an excuse to talk about this game as I have a deep love for the series.    

Let’s start with Geralt of Riva, he is fantastic character I felt I connected with him more in this game, because in the second game he was rather stilted and that may have been intentional due to his amnesia but he is more relatable in this game. I think it has to do with the voice actor having a better range and where he feels more comfortable within the role, he cracks more quips and loves having a good time as well as being emotional in some scenes. His determination to find Ciri is truly beautiful, as he is willing to do anything he can to find his adopted daughter, even if that involves defying the orders of the Emperor.

The main quest is good, but what I like about in this game is that they bother to put more focus on side quests. In most RPGs side quests are generally tedious fetch quests, but in The Witcher 3 they can be just as important as the main quest with their own cinematic angles with dialogue exchanges. These can range from hunting terrifying and interesting monsters to quests that poke fun at RPG fetch quest tropes, where you have to find a sauce pan for an old woman. It truly is amazing with how much effort CD Projekt Red put into the side quests, most developers would have put meaningless collectables or climb towers *cough* *cough* Ubisoft.

Most open world games players will want to use fast travel to cut down the journey, but I found in the Witcher 3 I never used the fast travel system, to this day I still don’t use it because the world is a joy to explore. The northern kingdoms and region of Toussaint are beautiful; they are exactly how I imagined them from the books. From the slum streets of Novigrad where racial tension are at an all-time high, to the academic institutes of Oxenfurt where the intellectual thrives.

When I first stepped into the sun soaked region of Toussaint I was awe stricken, it truly is a wonderful place to explore with its Mediterranean Italy inspired landscape, coupled with the locales French inspired accents and yes that does come with a passion of food and wine.  Think of Toussaint as a medieval fair, but it is everyday where you have daily jousting and duelling tournaments, it’s funny because the locals do it with a straight face as they deliver lines with weight and in a grandiose manner.

Even the gameplay is a step from the second game, the second game as much as I love it had its issues during combat as the hit detection was rather questionable, to put it politely. The Witcher 3 fixes most of the issues with the combat, as Geralt’s movement are fast and fluid and more akin to how his sword fighting are described in the books with his pirouettes being dancelike.

The Witcher 3 is a game that will be held in the same regard as Bioshock, Red Dead Redemption and Skyrim with its impact, as well as showing Polish culture to the rest of the world. The series is truly a beautiful multimedia art, if you haven’t read the books and play the games, and you may fall in love like I have.