The Witcher 3 - Wild Hunt review

[Golgo]

EDIT: the glitches I took to be glitches were not glitches, but rather me being stupid. Ahem...as you were, men. Back to adventure!

[Golgo]

Still pootering around White Orchard. Amazed by how the sidequests and even the stuff that would pass for dreary busywork/collect-em-ups (in any/every Ubisoft game and in Dragon Age Inq for example: pick 5 mushrooms of a certain type, collect 10 badgers' arseholes, etc.) are integrated into the plot here and help build a composite picture of a complicated world, e.g.

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the Temerian bandits opportunistically preying on fleeing Temerians and even slaughtering their own soldiers for coin

. Although fundamentally it's the same kind of collect-em- mechanic they're made to feel much more meaningful. Gonna spank the

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Griffin

later (again, I re-started), then head out of town. Before I go, though, anyone know what I can do with

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the broken monocle

in my quest log, or indeed where the key is

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for the windmill

?

[danholo]

I thought NG+ meant New Game +, you know like when you can continue with all your gear after completing the game.

New Game+ i.e., starting the game from the beginning with your equipment and levels.

[Golgo]

I re-started the game after only getting 3-4 hours into it, and it offered me NG+ mode. Go figure.

[danholo]

Yeah, why not?

I'll probably go into it at some point, but I have no time at the moment. The enemy levels will be boosted and you should be gaining experience more rapidly from them, so it's a good incentive to replay the game and make different choices. No need to wander around looking for useless loot, either.

Waiting for the expansions to be released, though. Paid for the expansion pass in advance the other day.

[wakka]

I finally finished this yesterday, after getting pretty much everything I wanted to finish finished. I didn't complete all of the boxing sidequests or all of the horseracing sidequests, but I did most of them, and did finish every Gwent quest going (but unfortunately didn't manage to collect every card - I must have been missing just a couple as I felt I had a pretty complete set by the time I beat the awesome High Stakes).

As for my ending...

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I loved my ending and was really happy with it. I got the 'Witchers forever' ending, so Ciri survived her battle with the White Frost - Geralt told Emhyr she died, and they reconvened in White Orchard where Geralt handed her a new sword engraved 'Zirael'. She then went off on The Path and became a true Witcher

I made Cerys ruler of Skellige, who led the land to prosperity instead of war (although 'dulled its fangs' in Dandelion's words).

Because I assisted in the assassination of Radovid but sided with Vernon Roche rather than Djikstra, Emhyr was successful in his expansion - but eventually abandoned Temeria due to the ongoing guerilla warfare with Roche's band of rebels. This meant that Temeria once again became an independent sovereign state within the empire of Nilfgaard.

And as for Geralt...he lived happily ever after with Yen, 'breakfasting after noon' and spending his days on long walks with her. Awww!

The perfect ending for me. I love how the game never makes it obvious that you're making key choices that will affect the futures of the characters and the political situations of the various territories, but the decisions' significance do make sense in the wider context of the story.

How did everyone else fare ending-wise? I've heard there's one where:

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Ciri dies fighting the White Frost, and a grief stricken Geralt returns to Crookback Bog to fight the surviving Crone who stole Ciri's pendant. Once she's defeated, he recovers the pendant, breaks down in tears and is swarmed by monsters! The end. I would have hated to have gotten that one.

Apparently there are 32 total possible combinations of end states. Amazing.

[Yakumo]

I got the same ending as you in regards to Ciri and Geralt but can't remember the political aspect. Great ending though.

[danholo]

I got the same ending. Waiting for the next expansion.

[Golgo]

I suspect I'm very far from the ending...

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doing the Black Baron quest in Velen

. Continue to be blown away by the quality and imagination and humanity in the writing, scenarios and characterization - also by the acting. Has made it difficult for me to remember a thing about Dragon Age Inquisition, apart from something about 'rifts' and a 'chosen one'. Also much enjoying the RPG elements and solid combat (went for Blood and Broken bones to force me to take the various systems seriously, and the difficulty seems just right). So far it's the best game of it's type that I've ever played. Gwent also is proving addictive as hell - I'd buy a real life set if they were ever made available. Back to adventure.

[danholo]

Yes, honestly the main story isn't that impressive but what makes up for it is the excellent characters and filler story to flesh them out. Definitely one of the best games I've played.

[Golgo]

Main story in itself seems aimless (

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piecing together clues to find Ciri

) but I suspect it's deliberate as it serves an open world structure full of small quests very well. Each one seems to bring you a tiny step closer. DAI, which had a strong yet simplistic central narrative of 'the chosen one finding his destiny', had about 8 or 9 really key main quests, but everything else (i.e the vast bulk of the game) felt largely inconsequential and unrelated.

[Golgo]

One minor criticism, although this is aimed more at RPG games as a whole: surely a more plausible method of resource gathering can be found than robbing people's cupboards as they look on, happily chatting to you? You could argue that this could be avoided, but given the paucity of cash it's really essential. Also some quests are initiated only by finding documents in people's drawers. This is a sizeable niggle against RPGs in general, for me.

[QualityChimp]

I've been playing Deus Ex recently and had to rifle through every set of drawers I come across.

Erm... do you find yourself doing weird habits too?
Every flat I enter in Deus Ex, I have to pick up and move the fridge-freezer because I imagine the people coming home and being confused and angry because they have to shove it back to where it should be!

[wakka]

Agree with the above posters that the writing and characters in this are head and shoulders above the vast majority of games. The characters are actually memorable and relatable - they actually feel like people rather than crude ciphers that exist only to dole out objectives! Really superb and puts the Elder Scrolls series (which I love) massively to shame.

The quest does pick up later on - the first act (searching for Ciri) is very much just a macguffin while you do loads of sidequests. By the third act I was really into the story.

[Golgo]

Lol - yeah, RPGS either induce crazy behaviour or - more worryingly - reveal what we'd like to be. On this reckoning I aspire to be a petty kleptomaniac robbing mushrooms and bits of string from sacks, and someone who insists on engaging every body I see in pointless chit-chat, just in case...

Chrono Trigger - I remember - played with some of these conventions cleverly, like putting you on trial for robbing someone's house.