Every generation in the gaming world manages to produce one game that defines the very best a game has to offer. From Sonic The Hedgehog to Mario Kart, Doom, Halo CE, GTA and Call of Duty. Each game raises itself above the crowd and, in years to come, is widely regarded as the best of the best. CD Projekt RED’s Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be inaugurated into this gaming hall of fame.
For many of us who played and loved the second Witcher game, it seemed highly unlikely that CD Projekt RED could do much more than offer us more of the same albeit with a shinier coat and perhaps a few more missions thrown in. On reflection, if they had decided to rest on their laurels and simply give us an update to Witcher 2, that would have still been a great game. But instead CD Projekt RED have upped the ante and produced a game that sets new standards for anyone looking to develop an RPG franchise now or in the near future.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt casts you once again in the role of Geralt of Rivia. A witcher who is both feared, mistrusted and needed by the general population. This time your main goal is to track down your adopted daughter Ciri, and protect her from The Hunt who also want her for their own nefarious purposes. Along the way you will encounter quite literally hundreds of fascinating characters all with their own backstories , agenda’s. loyalties and side missions.
To say that playing through Witcher 3 and completing all of the side missions could take you up to a year is not an exaggeration. This game is huge. We’re talking bigger than a fat lady lying in the park with all her clothes on. It really is that big. Once you’re in the game, bringing up the map shows you a continent that has been painstakingly recreated from scratch and jam-packed with hundreds of unique locations that you can explore.
With possibly the largest open world environment of any game (yes, including GTA5), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a sprawling, majestic, unpredictable world that breaths life unlike any game we’ve ever played. With many developers promising a unique experience that moulds itself around your choices, CD Project RED have actually delivered a game that takes into account the decisions you make and subtly, and sometimes dramatically, shifts the direction of the plot. And, to give you another excuse to play the game again and again, you’re never overtly told could have happened had you made a different choice. The only way to find out is to replay the scene and make a different call. Excellent.
The ingame writing is also clearly pitched at an adult audience with the plot touching on mature themes such as the role of women in society and the effects of war.
As far as graphics go, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is by far one of the best looking games we’ve seen in a very long time. Each character’s facial expressions are as close to life as anything we’ve ever played. The PC version quite naturally looks a bit better. But the Xbox One version of the game zips along at just under 900p and a respectable 30 frame per second and offers a visual treat that compares to anything Naughty Dog and Uncharted could have done.
It’s worth noting that CD Projekt RED have also fine-tuned Geralt’s combat system.Now his movements are much more responsive and, although combat is slower than in the previous Witcher, it is also much more precise, allowing you to focus on one enemy and then switch to another with just the click of the controller. There is so much more to Witcher: Wild Hunt than we have room to talk about in this review. Suffice to say that for anyone who has even looked at an RPG game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a must have title. And to those new to the genre, there can be no better introduction. Go buy.