The Witcher 3 is set in a world with a vast, rich history and mythology. It is based off of a series of novels by author, Andrzej Sapkowski, and is set in a medieval fantasy world. The Witcher 3 follows the story of, Geralt of Rivia, as does the novels and the two previous games. A witcher is someone who is basically a monster hunter for hire who has supernatural powers. They are put through a series of dangerous rituals and if the subject survives they are now a witcher, and possess supernatural powers of various kinds. I went into this game knowing nothing about the story or the characters and found myself a little overwhelmed by it all, so let's talk about the story of the Witcher 3 a little bit.
In the Witcher 3 you play as Geralt of Rivia, a silver haired man with cats eyes. You are a monster hunter and possess a number of powers and strengths to help you fight and track. At the beginning of the game you, Geralt, and your friend Vesemir are tracking a girl named Yennefer. Her trail takes the two of you to a town called White Orchid. A captain there knows where she might be but needs your help first. He needs you to kill a beast that is attacking the villagers. That is your first monster hunt of the game, a deadly Griffin. After you dispatch the Griffin the captain tells you to head to Vizima and talk to the Emperor.
Before you can reach Vizima, Yennefer, the woman you were looking for, approaches you and you all get attacked by the Wild Hunt. You dispatch them and continue on.
The Emperor tells you that his daughter Ciri, has gone missing and that the Wild Hunt is after her. That's why she's on the run. Geralt agrees to help find the girl. Geralt knows Ciri quite well, he basically adopted her at a young age and taught her to fight like a Witcher. Although she never had the final ritual done so she is not a Witcher like Geralt, but she does have the Blood of the Elders in her and possesses supernatural powers of her own. That's why the Wild Hunt are after her because she can travel between worlds and dimensions and they need this to fully pass through to this world.
This was a lot of information for me to take in at first. There are a lot of characters and places with strange hard to pronounce names. A lot of strange terms and stories to try and remember, but I was along for the ride and was enjoying it so far. It's kind of like Game of Thrones, there's a lot of stuff to keep track of and remember, but with the Witcher, I missed all the novels and the first two games so I had no idea who all these people were or what was going on. But I got the gist of it, I was a monster hunter who was looking for Ciri, who also has powers that the evil Wild Hunt want for nefarious reasons. The Wild Hunt being these armor clad demons from some other realm, trying to come into this one.
You then move on to the region of Velen, where you follow the trail of Ciri. You meet the Bloody Baron and learn a little more about Ciri's travels and what's going on in Velen. That takes you over to Crookbag Bog, where you have an encounter with the three Crones. They are like three old witches who live in the swamp, and they tell you a little more about Ciri's travels. Eventually you learn that you are going to need to recruit many allies to help combat the forces of the Wild Hunt and ultimately save Ciri from them. Now, I could go into great detail about everything you do in this game, but I would be here forever. This game is massive and long as heck so if you want to know more about what happens I suggest checking the game out yourself, it's worth it.
The Witcher 3 is a huge world with so much to see and do. I put in over 100 hours into this game and still didn't come close to completing everything I wanted to. There are so many places to go and quests to do that you get lost in all of it. That's not a bad thing though. The world of The Witcher is so beautiful that just exploring the vast landscape was one of my favorite things to do. Every sunset was worthy of me snapping a screenshot, in fact I probably took more screenshots of this game than any other, with the exception of mabey Horizon Zero Dawn. The characters are so fleshed out and real feeling that I enjoyed getting to know each one. The voice acting was top notch so that also helped. The density of the cities and just the world in general was staggering, almost overwhelming. So much to see you don't know where to begin. But every inch of it beautifully detailed and lifelike, you can tell CD Project Red, the development team, put a lot of time and care into the making of this game.
As far as game play and character leveling, there's a lot to learn. There's a pretty in depth crafting system where you'll be collecting all sorts of materials to craft things. There's a whole magic system that you can level up and pick your favorites of. There's many different weapon and armor types to try out and play around with, but you always have two swords. One made of steel that is for killing human enemies, and one made of silver for killing all types of monsters. You must use the right sword for the right enemy of you'll be ineffective. All of this is fun but I have to admit, at first I wasn't a fan of the combat. It felt very imprecise and wonky at first, sometimes difficult to hit your opponent. Luckily this felt more natural as the game goes on and you get used to it, at least I did, I know some people have an issue with it. To traverse the land you have your horse Roach, that you can call to at anytime and he'll come running.
This is a game that I put so much time into and still feel like I missed a lot. It's so huge and detailed that you will love just getting lost and exploring all the different locations, battling all the unique monsters, and getting to know the living breathing world of the Witcher. It truly is one of the most impressive games I've ever played and still go back to it every once and a while. There are some DLC's for it that really add a lot to the game as well. One called Blood and Wine that is a full on expansion that takes you to another region of the map entirely. It's so big I didn't want to include it in this review and I'll probably do a separate one for it later.
If you are a fan of fantasy rpg games, than you should not miss out on the Witcher. It really is one of the best crafted games I have ever played. The characters and world are so rich and well done that this is a joy to play through, and it's so massive that you'll be busy for over 100 hours easy. It might take a little getting used to but it's worth the time to play such a masterful game. I give The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt a score of:
A+