Review RPG Codex Review: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[Eyestabber]

Now, the million dollar question:

Triss or Yen, Angthoron?

RIP Shani lovers

Blame CDPR for starting W2 with naked Triss Merigold in bed with Geralt. Shani simply wasn't meant to be, best let it go.

 

[Stinger]

the best-written RPG since Torment

Yeah that's IGN level 11/10 bullshit.

The game only recently came out, crying greatest thing ever for every new half decent game is fucking ridiculous.

 

[Carrion]

The dialogue in TW3 is top-notch, definitely up there with pretty much any RPG you can name. The actual plot, however, doesn't quite hold up to the same standard and in my opinion is the weakest one in the series.

Lots of individually minor stuff that you need to stack up cumulatively to get a large effect doesn't sound that un-Sawyerian to me...

The smallest stuff comes in the form of +5% increases, yeah. You can also use a quite basic mutagen to give you a +40% increase in attack power (even higher if you have a really good mutagen), and you can have four of those active at any time. Like Excidium said, it's not just about stacking +5% stuff upon each other, you can have a combination of different abilities that support each other in various ways, not just giving cumulative increases to passive stats but having other synergies as well.

 

[Eyestabber]

Sadly, TW 3 doesn't deliver this level of FUN sillyness, but it's still pretty awesome.

 

[Zed]

the best-written RPG since Torment

In terms of weaving together plots and side-quests with the main quest, The Witcher 3 is actually the best written game I've ever played. It's not on par with Torment in terms of concept and themes, and exploring the weird, but that's not a comparison to make.

 

[Turok]

Nice review, very accurate.

:kwafuckyeah:

 

[Surf Solar]

One of the better games I played the last years, with flaws and pros in it, all covered by the review. Nicely written!

 

[Mortmal]

Yes good review, but why using the keyboard and alt key to roll, its designed for the pad ! its the case for every AAA games now . As for the storytelling its true its probably the best ever done.

 

[Excidium II]

Yes good review, but why using the keyboard and alt key to roll, its designed for the pad ! its the case for every AAA games now . As for the storytelling its true its probably the best ever done.

You mean dodge? Roll is with spacebar. And you can dodge with double tapping in any direction.

I prefer playing with KBM because of the UI shortcuts/inventory navigation

 

[Mortmal]

Yes good review, but why using the keyboard and alt key to roll, its designed for the pad ! its the case for every AAA games now . As for the storytelling its true its probably the best ever done.

You mean dodge? Roll is with spacebar. And you can dodge with double tapping in any direction.

I prefer playing with KBM because of the UI shortcuts/inventory navigation

yes dodge, I have not even tried the keyboard, as its cross platform that means its for the pad.

 

[Ulminati]

Took you long enough Ang. If I had known "2 hours tops" to finish it actually meant 2 weeks I wouldn't have withdrawn my review. :3

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Honestly, the game mostly impresses me as a production. Sure, it's not bad, but ultimately not so different from previous entries in the series. Good storytelling, music and art design, mediocre-to-shit combat, itemization and character system, plus their own peculiar brand of C&C. They just added a good looking but mechanically irrelevant open world to glue all the discrete locations together.

However, as a production, it's mind-boggling. All the content in the game is of a consistently above-average quality, and usually good-to-great, even. And it's all so consistent, both aesthetically and thematically, the same tone and style are preserved throughout all the dialogue, VA is great, characterization makes sense. How do you even do that if you have over 100 people in your team, plus subcontractors for stuff like voice acting? Most AAA games are all over the place because it's practically impossible to get so many people on the same page. I honestly just don't know. CDPR either have some god-tier project managers or an HR department full of wizards who can find the exact right person for every job. A mystery for the ages, truly.

 

[Excidium II]

It's just made with love and care. It's a symbol of national pride after all

 

[Cowboy Moment]

It's just made with love and care. It's a symbol of national pride after all

But afaik, they also hired a whole bunch of non-potato people specifically for this game. So how does that work? Like, apparently they started recording the VA at the end of 2012, and it took them 2.5 years. So what, they just knew exactly what they wanted to do from the beginning, and just carried it out without revisions? My software engineer mind does not compute that.

 

[Excidium II]

Guess they started by the things that were safe from being revisioned too much. The game does have a lot of side content.

 

[Lhynn]

Took you long enough Ang. If I had known "2 hours tops" to finish it actually meant 2 weeks I wouldn't have withdrawn my review. :3

you shouldnt have regardless, while not as positive it was a very good review.

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

Taking a break from the regular reviewing of niche RPG games

 

[Aenra]

Has no F.O.V. slider. At patch sixth come release.

My God, what a disaster for a third person ARPG

Your previous reincarnation was also annoying. It did however manage, and quite often, to provide some semblance of logic/criticism in its one-liners. So i suggest you get back to work. I can tell you have it in you, as that "world-eater" is by now missing. You are a shining beacon of an example already.

Now stop playing dense and admit you know what i meant, just as you know that it's what it signifies that bothers me

 

[Excidium II]

I know what you mean bro. I just don't see what's the big deal

 

[Aenra]

That you are no longer as relevant as a target audience.
That you too now accept. And accommodate.
That tits + gfx = win.
That even if only for the lolz, shit like that can now find itself featured here. Of all places.
Could go on.

Incremental. Starts with something small, and accumulates. All it takes is taking it in, one step at a time. Comes the time Change is not a concept to ponder on, it's a fact. One that occured in a past date. You let that happen. You in the figurative sense.

 

[Excidium II]

ok

 

[crawlkill]

I really wish I could just play Geralt as a sexless alien person. I like to imagine him as this weird, weary monk, refusing to help people who can't pay because only by paying is a transaction "sanctified," disinterested in fucking and romance, the only sane man, dimly aware of the fourth wall but cognizant that this grim world is all too real for everyone else in it. the suddenly romance with Jennefer is just too goofy. can't he just be friends with women? he seems really bad at not rescuing and/or fucking them. I'm not sure how women must feel playing this game. if Geralt weren't some ripped magical stud, he as written would probably be whining about getting friendzoned by all the sorceresses who don't want his dick.

that said, I do like it a lot, and I don't mind Geralt even when he's unable to resist fucking anything he can, just wish the option not to were more prominent (in fairness: the only opportunity to fuck some chick I've had so far I did actually get to turn down, but I wasn't entirely sure I could humor her with a date without boning her). the review's criticisms are valid, but they don't bother me too much. I'm kind of a sucker for semi-graceful third-person beat-em-ups with RPG elements, and playing on Deathmarch, that shit can be legitimately punishing, even if, as the review says, it's just in biggering enemy numbers and smallening your own.

it's sort of the anti-Dragon Age: Inquisition, where I did absolutely everything (fucking everything, kill me now) and then shrieked with rage when, in the end, none of it mattered. no ending slideshow, nothin! in TW3, I actually care about most stuff I'm asked to do -as I'm asked to do it.- if it turns up again later, that's SUPER awesome, but CDPR has convinced me that this region urgently needs help, and genuinely makes me believe I'm making a difference by scourging out the sickness in the world. (I also have this suspicion that later-game there's going to be some kind of 'are witchers popular or do lynch mobs spring up' moment and how much good I've done and how often I've refused pay is going to factor in.)

(some decoctions are just insane when combined with the right abilities)

I can't even imagine playing in alchemy spec, though. that UI is so, so terrible. I mean, do we REALLY need to manually swap silver and steel weapons? couldn't we've had at least four quickbar options? maybe as many as ten if we were playing with a keyboard? I'm sure something better could've been done, even with controller support (press up and hold on the D-pad and you open a menu and enter slow-time instead of just chugging what's on up-d?).

 

[you know what time it is]

I'm not so sure about writing, considering that Baron's quest is the highest point of the game. It was good enough for me to keep looking forward for more interesting stories, but then Novigrad happened.

 

[crawlkill]

considering that Baron's quest is the highest point of the game

is it really? =\ I did quite like it, although I wouldn't've minded if the Baron/wife dynamic were SLIGHTLY more uneven ("she was cheating on me" really isn't an excuse for his behavior). haven't gotten that far in Novigrad yet, does it really suck?

 

[Metro]

Honestly, the game mostly impresses me as a production. Sure, it's not bad, but ultimately not so different from previous entries in the series. Good storytelling, music and art design, mediocre-to-shit combat, itemization and character system, plus their own peculiar brand of C&C. They just added a good looking but mechanically irrelevant open world to glue all the discrete locations together.

However, as a production, it's mind-boggling. All the content in the game is of a consistently above-average quality, and usually good-to-great, even. And it's all so consistent, both aesthetically and thematically, the same tone and style are preserved throughout all the dialogue, VA is great, characterization makes sense. How do you even do that if you have over 100 people in your team, plus subcontractors for stuff like voice acting? Most AAA games are all over the place because it's practically impossible to get so many people on the same page. I honestly just don't know. CDPR either have some god-tier project managers or an HR department full of wizards who can find the exact right person for every job. A mystery for the ages, truly.

This post was deviously calculated to tread the middle to harvest as many brofists as possible. It's not clear whether you're praising and criticizing it.