Now Playing: The Witcher 3

There were times when playing The Witcher 2 that I wished for more of an open world experience. Because the world of The Witcher series is a rich, fascinating world, full of interesting locations, characters and creatures. I wanted to see more of it, and The Witcher 3 undoubtedly delivers in this regard. But I must admit, I now somewhat regret this wish, because though the open world of TW3 is a joy to explore, it also proves somewhat detrimental to the overall experience.

I’ve spoken in previous reviews about quality versus quantity, about the importance of focus and pacing, about how less can be more. Though its open world is split into two major zones (Velen/Novigrad and Skellige), each of these is massive and packed to the brim with content and quests. But did The Witcher 3 need so many quests?

Many side missions in TW3 are great, typically the ones which spin off from the core quests or feature particular characters. Why? Because they feel relevant and important to the story or series. You then have slightly more elaborate side missions which, though unrelated to the overall narrative, still feel worthwhile. And then you have the side quests that can only be politely described as ‘filler’. And there’s a lot of them.

It feels wrong to complain about too much content – but in this case, it only serves to dilute the experience. Quests frequently blur into one another. By the end of the game I had over 220 quests listed in my log, but a good 60-70 of these added nothing of value to the overall experience. The Witcher 3 is sadly bloated by unnecessary content. There are many ‘quests’ which are typically completed in 2-3 minutes. Some are unique, but ultimately forgettable, and many others follow a repetitive structure of say – find body/find key/open chest.

 

Did these quests need to be tracked as such? Did they need to be treated as ‘quests’ at all? Having everything added to your log and tracked, even if it’s just to collect some junk from a chest, results in a quest log that rapidly becomes more like an ever growing check-list of tedious and repetitive tasks. Yes, you can ignore much of this content, but it still clogs up your quest log until you clear it – not to mention, you’re never quite sure when a seemingly insignificant side mission will lead to something far more elaborate.

Not everything needs to be a ‘quest’. I’d have loved it if they’d just tracked the core and the more elaborate side missions and let everything else be there for the player to discover and explore on their own. The side content is also badly balanced in terms of distribution throughout the game, but I’ll talk more about this later.

The Witcher monster contracts, which I was really looking forward to, are also something of a mixed bag. Some are elaborate and highly enjoyable, requiring an investigation or preparation of sorts, but many others follow the same basic structure of – go to where monster was last seen/follow monster tracks using Witcher sense/ kill monster. I loved seeing so many monster types, but as quests, the Witcher contracts offer a fairly simplistic and repetitive experience. But what about the core quests and story?

The opening ‘prologue’ zone (White Orchard) is fantastic at balancing core and side missions in an area that feels just the right size. It’s well paced and serves as a great introduction to the open world nature of TW3. This zone leads you onto the ‘Velen’ arc of the story involving the Bloody Baron. These are also fantastic and lead to several interesting (and related) side quests. This part of the game feels perfectly paced with an appropriate level of side content available at your level.

Velen, however, is then followed by the Novigrad arc, which is where the story runs into trouble. I’m going to keep this review as spoiler free as I can, so I’ll try to be brief. You arrive in Novigrad on the trail of a certain character. In order to find them you intend to seek out another character for help. But this character is missing. Once you find them, they point you to another character who isn’t so much missing as indisposed and requires another quest be completed before they send you to find another character. Who is also missing.

Do you see where this is going? In order to find this character you must first complete more quests in order to find another character who is also missing and in order to find them you must OH GOD PLEASE MAKE IT STOP. This is the part where I had to quit the game for a day or two because I wanted to punch it. 

The Novigrad arc has serious pacing issues and frankly, just isn’t very interesting to play. Even though it features certain characters who I was pleased to see return, the Novigrad chain is really f**king tedious and needlessly drawn out. It was the only time in the game I began skipping through dialogue because I just wanted it to be over.

 

Thankfully, things improved a lot once I’d hit Skellige, and the core and ‘main’ side quests here revolving around the island clans were great fun to play and be involved in. From here, the pace picked up significantly and the plot, which had begun to drag, started to gain momentum once again.

These three separate arcs essentially compromise the first act of the game. This is followed by two more acts, although these tend to be more linear in terms of quest structure – not necessarily a bad thing, as by the time you hit Act 2, you’ll really be wanting the story to kick into high gear. And it certainly does!

Act 2 has some of the best moments in the game, moments that will make you laugh and maybe even shed a tear or two. With one or two exceptions, everything that follows from Act 2 onwards is excellent, and the pacing issues of Act 1 are all but forgotten. Some of the final quests do feel a little rushed, and I suspect quite a bit of late-game content had to be cut due to time/budget reasons, but the way the game brings everything together at the end is fantastic.

For all the flaws of TW3, it delivers where it matters the most – by providing a satisfying ending to the series. It’s thoughtful and perhaps a little bitter-sweet. It’s an ending with three main variations determined by certain choices you’ll make towards the end. These choices aren’t really signposted as such, and may not even seem all that important at the time, but they add up in a way that feels meaningful and has genuine emotional impact.

In terms of story and characters, The Witcher 3, overall, is one of the best written games I’ve played. The Bloody Baron arc alone is incredible, especially when you factor in the variations depending on your choices. The game has a fantastic range of characters, including what is probably the strongest cast of female characters I’ve seen in a game.

The only character I felt needed more work was the main villain of the piece who, somewhat unusually for this series, lacked in shades of grey. Even when we learn his motivation – which is actually reasonable to a degree – it’s a little glossed over and he’s treated very much as a straight up bad guy when there was far more room to expand and develop his character.

I also think you’ll find the story far more enjoyable if you’ve played the series from the start. There’s moments at the very end of TW3 that touch upon the end of the first game, and if you’re new to the series it may seem like certain elements of the ending are introduced a little abruptly.

There are moments in the game when you get to play as another character, but though I found these segments fun to a degree, they are very limited in terms of gameplay or narrative and overall, I considered them to be somewhat unnecessary. Some characters played less of a role in the overall story than I would have liked, and I also wish a little more attention had been granted to particular story threads still outstanding from TW2. Some aren’t even addressed at all. Something for the planned expansions, maybe?

 

The open world in terms of locations offers a good variety, and when I reached the Skellige region it almost felt like stepping into entirely new game thanks to the change in scenery and music. Navigating the world is easy thanks to the fast travel points, but riding between locations is equally enjoyable. Sailing, however, feels somewhat unnecessary and doesn’t really add much to the experience. Oh, and swimming controls are irritatingly fiddly, especially as you flail about trying to loot an underwater chest. Your horse, bless him, also has a few issues when you call – tending to get stuck on scenery, or in one instance, spawning inside a house.

The Gwent mini-game is fantastic, addictive fun but also extremely easy. I must have only lost one or two games out of more than a hundred. It’s far too easy to bait your opponents into playing their entire hand in a single round. Also, once you start building up your deck, nobody can really compete. Another mini-game of sorts – horse racing (although it’s treated more as a ‘quest’ event) – feels a little tacked on and doesn’t really offer any serious challenge. It’s a fun little diversion, however. This also applies to the fist fighting quests which are all a simple matter of counter and strike.

In terms of visuals and sound, TW3 is exceptional. As I mentioned in my First Impressions post, the game can look stunning at times. Yes, are there certain moments, animations or textures you can scrutinise but overall, The Witcher 3 builds a fantastic, living world. The VA is excellent throughout – with the exception of the bloody awful loading screen dialogue – and the music is also excellent, perfectly complementing the experience whether in combat or out. There’s certainly room for improvement in terms of performance, but it provides a solid, playable experience and it does seem to gradually be improving with each patch release.

The economy of the game world is virtually irrelevant to the experience. Aside from purchasing upgrade diagrams to various potions or bombs, I rarely spent a single coin. With the Witcher set gear being the best, overall, you can get, there’s little reason to purchase or craft alternatives – and even then, you’ll find plenty of alternatives upon dead foes or in treasure chests. Food and herbs are required on occasion, but both can also be found in the world. Junk loot is everywhere in sight and able to be sold. By the time I was level 20, I had over 30k in my pocket and nothing to spend it on.

Combat is a major piece of The Witcher 3 puzzle. You have your two swords – steel and silver, various blade oils, magic Signs, a crossbow and a variety of bombs. There are no traps this time, which is a little disappointing, but overall, TW3 offers a good variety of offensive options which can be quickly combined to devastating effect.

Combat is certainly faster paced than in TW2. In addition to his dodge roll, Geralt can now also side step. There’s more emphasis on mobility during fights – especially during group battles. And there is some strategy involved in terms of managing groups of opponents using Signs or bombs, or applying the appropriate oils. The combat system is more skill than stat based, which means you can tackle opponents of a much higher level. However, these battles tend to be more of a grind than truly exciting, as you simply dodge and strike until you whittle down their health.

 

And really, when you boil it down, that’s all the combat really is – side step and strike. The animations are great, especially the finishing moves, but there’s no great variety in terms of combat moves. You do have a parry and counterstrike mechanic, but it’s rarely needed. Thankfully, by combining different bombs and Signs, and also by taking advantage of the environment, you can create quite varied and enjoyable combat encounters – but it’s very much in the hands of the player to take advantage of these abilities and vary their tactics, even though it usually isn’t necessary.

Over time, as you unlock new skills – different sword strikes or alternate Sign abilities – it does evolve into something a little more interesting – it’s just a shame it takes so long to get there. And the way the character level system works – by assigning skills to slots – just feels needlessly restrictive.

Whilst the game has a fantastic roster of monster types to fight, they typically fall into 3 or 4 attack pattern types, and their attacks tend to be quite choreographed, making them easy to avoid. The majority of monsters, for example, have a dash and lunge strike. It might catch you out the first time or two, but once you get the hang of the side step, you’ll never be troubled by it again. The open nature of the world can also play havoc with some fights, as enemies get stuck on or in scenery.

Also, because of the somewhat limited enemy attack styles and patterns, there’s very few fights in the game that really stand out, aside from a ‘boss’ style fight or two. Although there are some story based ‘epic fights’ they sadly aren’t all that epic to actually play.

And then we have the problem with enemy ‘aggro’. Enemies tend to have a set ‘range’ at which they’ll attack. Stray just out of this range and they’ll forget you exist. What’s worse, this range tends to have a ‘sweet spot’ where enemies just stand and growl at you, allowing you to whittle them safely down with your crossbow. It’s a cheap, boring tactic and not something I recommend, but it really shouldn’t be possible.

In terms of difficulty, the Easy and Normal modes aren’t worth your time. I played on Hard, but as I progressed, I began to wish I’d set it to Extreme. Fights around or above your level range offer a solid challenge, but often I was 2-3 levels above the enemies I was fighting. If you’re someone who likes to explore all content and complete all side quests, you will begin to out-level the content very rapidly. By the time I reached Act 2, the quests suggested a level of 19 or so, but I was already level 25.

Something else to note is the way TW3 handles combat preparation. Oils can only be applied out of combat, but potions (and food, bizarrely) can be used at will. These can also be fully replenished simply by meditating. Whilst I appreciated not having to scour the world constantly for herbs, with so many herbalists available, it wouldn’t have really been an issue. Why not let the player collect or use coin to purchase the herbs (which would also make money more meaningful) and create as many potions as they please?

Instead, each potion (and bomb) is limited to a set amount depending on its ‘upgrade’ level. I’m a little torn on this system, as it does encourage you to experiment with all the various potions, including the very powerful ‘decoctions’. I think I would have preferred it, however, if the more powerful, single shot decoctions were free to replenish, but the other potions were not – and only limited in number by player choice. I also found being able to only assign two potions or bombs to slots a little annoying, as it meant continually going into the menu during fights to switch things out, which only served to disrupt the flow of combat.

 

Another minor issue is the lack of storage options. I ended up carrying around all the various Witcher gear I’d crafted because I had no place to safely store it save dropping it to the floor and hoping it didn’t de-spawn. The level requirements on gear also irritated me a little – if I defeat an opponent 6-7 levels higher and then can’t use the reward because it’s rated 6-7 levels higher, that’s just annoying. And (due to the lack of storage) because I don’t want to lug the bloody thing around for 6-7 more levels taking up inventory weight, I usually just sell it.

And, as I mentioned, it’s very easy to out-level content as you progress, meaning many quest ‘rewards’ end up being completely useless. There’s also something of a shortage of side quests beyond level 28 or so. The bulk of the content seems catered to the 14-26 level range. This didn’t bother me too much because it left me free to focus almost entirely on the core story missions towards the end-game, but if you’re looking for challenging content towards the end, or even after, there won’t be much to do except sail to all those little points of interest in Skellige.

Returning to the idea of too many quests – it’s not just the number of quests, or even so many filler type quests that causes such a bloat, but more that this content is loaded throughout almost all of the first Act. If the side content had been spread more evenly throughout, rather than a massive chunk in Act 1 and barely anything in Act 3, then it would have certainly solved a lot of the game’s pacing issues.

It must seem like I’m being really hard on TW3, but when I like a game a lot, I’m all the more inclined to pick it to pieces. And there’s a lot to pick apart in a massive game like TW3. The question is, are these flaws, both large and small, seriously detrimental to the overall experience? I’d say no – but I must admit, they do impact the experience more than I would like.

Which is why, if I were to compare TW3 to TW2, I’d consider TW2 to offer a slightly better experience. Though lacking the scope of TW3, it does provider a tighter focus and a balanced pace. TW3 may be more expansive, but it’s diluted by unnecessary content and littered with small, but irritating design choices. What it does provide, however, is an emotional and satisfying conclusion to a fantastic series. And it’s interesting how each game in the series stands alone and plays in its own unique way.

The Witcher 3 provides an extensive and comprehensive Witcher experience. Even after completing the game (120 hours) I still want to keep playing. It’s flawed, but fantastic. It can be exhausting at times and occasionally overwhelming, but it always manages to pull things together and keep you on track. It’s bloated, messy, frustrating and wonderful. And for all its problems, it’s still one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played.

9/10