The Year is 2015; gamers are looking for the next big title to play, talk about, have discussions and even fight about. There was one game that was on the horizon that veteran fans anticipated, calling the previous games masterpieces of storytelling, world and character building that was missing from games even to this day.
That game is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, I know that game was not to everyone’s taste. I know people had problems with the combat, story and pacing.
I fully understand but you can’t argue or overlook the impact the game and CD Projekt RED has had on the industry.
What studio in the past ten years can anyone name that has cared so much about making a good game with meaningful content and didn’t try to sell you cut content day one as “DLC”, Name a studio that created an RPG that supports the game for 2+ years with patches, well priced and expansive DLC that another studio would charge for, or call a sequel. UI changes and quality of life changes to make the player experience better, years after the games are released.
The Titans of the industry have fallen so very far, Bioware who have created some of the best RPG’s in the industry can’t make a good decision let alone a good game, with the recent news coming out of Bioware about Mass Effect’s development and the failure of Mass Effect: Andromeda they have now been dethroned.
The only other studio that is a big name that makes RPGs is Bethesda. They have not made a good game or at least story character, world building wise since Fallout: New Vegas which they didn’t make – Obsidian Entertainment did.
This is why the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the game of this generation. The game goes out of its way to make the world real, living, breathing and dynamic. Doing quests that at first appear small and meaningless, then become a meaningful, sad, shocking and brutal story. The quests are so subtle giving you very small hints about the story, just enough to hook you. (In particular “A Tower Full of Mice” quest)
For me, characters are easily the best things about Witcher 3. Characters like Yennefer Strong will not take “no” for an answer and will go the ends of the earth to help and save Ciri no matter the cost. Vesemir the ancient Witcher is a master of his Craft and a father figure to Geralt. Then we get to the man himself Geralt. I love his sarcastic attitude when speaking to people - even Kings and Emperors. Whilst Geralt is stripped of emotion, when he and Ciri are first reunited the look on Geralt’s face truly shows that not all emotion has gone. These are just a few characters in a sea of amazingly well-written and acted Characters.
With The Witcher 3, CD Projekt RED has created a legacy that has so far been unmatched and their DLC policy wipes the floor with any other studio out there. Add to this the fact that they care so much about their consumers which is just another reason that I sincerely hope that they keep doing what they clearly love.