Date Completed: October 23rd, 2021
My wife seems to think that The Witcher is some sort of witch banging simulator and not a traditional video game as advertised. She had a peculiar habit of walking it at the exact wrong moments of which there were many in the course of the game. It’s not just the witch banging parts that are questionable, several characters (enemies and non-enemies included) prance around sans vetements and would sometimes engage in highly questionable activities (just what was that druid doing with the goat lady???) so this wasn’t the type of game I’d let the kids (or wife) observe.
I purchased the game in early 2020 during a post-holiday sale for about 10$. I don’t know how long I spent playing the game as it took two years to beat it but I suspect I was well into the hundreds of hours. The cost / hour ratio for this game is perhaps the best of any game I’ve ever played. Many segments of the game are excruciatingly long and you’re constantly bombarded by side quests and exploration that really soak up the hours.
I had never played a Witcher game before and wasn’t familiar with the story except for bits and pieces I’d picked up from around the Internet. The game doesn’t waste a lot of time trying to catch you up so you have to learn as you go. The story follows Geralt of Rivia as he searches for someone named Ciri and there is a ‘Wild Hunt’ or something and that’s bad. I actually ignored the main story most of the time as the side-stories were often more interesting and were certainly more immediate.
There are many choices you can make during the game which affect the outcome of the story. One of these outcomes relates to Geralt’s relationship choice. Geralt can end up in a relationship with either Yennefer or Triss (or being a cad Geralt can pursue both and end up with neither). Starting out I had no strong preference for any of the characters so I followed the course that seemed to make the most sense and pursued Yennefer. By the end of the game I really didn’t like Yennefer as a character and I would have greatly preferred another option.
The game is buggy as heck and hard crashed on me several times. Most bugs didn’t completely crash the game but would cause a sub-optimal experience. The most common bug I observed would cause music to stop playing and voice audio would get out of sync. The only way I found that resolved this issue was quitting and restarting the program which was doubly frustrating because this game has loooong loading times.
Witcher III plays very similar to Dragon Age : Inquisition but I found it to be far preferable for a variety of reasons. The story and the world of the Witcher are more fully realized. Dragon Age had a small hub world you returned to and you’d set out on quests from there. The Witcher felt more like one cohesive, massive world. I was also pleased to see children NPCs in the Witcher. Dragon Age didn’t have any children which I thought was odd. In the Witcher children are featured frequently and they often had roles to play in the many, many side quests.
After all the time I put into this game I feel burned out on it. The edition I bought came with two expansion packs but I currently have no intention of playing them. The game was a lot of fun but there are only so many games of this length you can play in your life. Overall it’s a fantastic game. Just be sure you know what you’re getting into.
Is it fun: Yes
Score: 9/10
Length: 100+ hours
System: Playstation 3
Genre: Action / RPG
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