Turin Turambar
Member
Such a good game. One of the best ever. But... why?
We had several threads, LTTP and the like, where gaffers showers the game with praise, for example:
Feeling of emptiness after beating The Witcher 3 (Major Spoilers)
LTTP - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (is the greatest game of all time)
The Witcher 3 is the realistic open world Zelda people are waiting for (LTTP)
LTTP: The Witcher 3, or everything a fantasy RPG should be (Mark spoilers)
LTTP - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3 is the most "consensus" Game of the Year since at least 2003
LTTP: The Witcher 3
But in my opinion there has been little talk of why, exactly, is such a good game. You can argue is self-explanatory but that's lazy. Most people point to "very good writing", "great side quests" (apart from "Gwent!" and "that soundtrack!") but there hasn't been a very deep analysis, it's always very general appreciation.
Which also I'm not going to do, I don't have time for that, but at least I wanted to point out three unique aspects where I feel make the game special, and I haven't seen any other people commenting them:
The Witcher 3 is long, epic game and gives you tons of variety
It should be obvious, but I don't think people give it enough credit to this. Not only The Witcher 3 is a long, epic game which gives to the players more than 100 hours of fun, so hey lots of bang for your buck, but additionally the developers wisely know how to exploit that length. Smaller games are usually more focused in one style, one tone, as they don't have time for more, but within The Witcher 3 you can find stories and scenes that go from drama and tragedy to romance and sex, to silly, amusing moments full of wit, to political and cloak & dagger intrigue, to good ol' epic fantasy, to hilarious scenes. From serious and morally ambiguous to the whimsical, from politically complex to the deeply personal drama.
All in the same game, and almost all with great quality. As good as the Bloody Baron or A Towerful of Mice quests were and everybody agrees on that, I also remember how well they nailed moments like when Yennefer teleports Geralt to a lake in the middle of a heated discussion, or when Geralt covers his face before entering a magical portal, or the lovely charm of Keira or Shani.
Geralt works as a believable as character
He is the typical silent, scruffy mercenary. Man of few words and of plain, dry personality. But it works, you can feel him as a real person. And the key imo isn't in his inner personality, but in the exterior. He has a place in the world. He has relationships. He knows people, and people know him, this makes him so much grounded.
In the game he meets and interact with a broad range of people who he already knows:
-Friends
-Co-workers
-Mentors
-Family
-Lovers
-Ex-lovers
-Enemies and opponents
-Enemies turned allies
-Old clients
-Acquaintances
-Admirers
When you are walking in the world and meet an old friend or someone who you fought previously, it makes the world feels much more real and tangible.
Thanks to embracing the past two games and the books the games are based on (despite trying on theory attracting new players on consoles), there are tons of characters like Dijkistra, Philippa, Keira, Roche, Radovid, Letho, Lambert, Crach, Cerys, Thaler, Dudu and others (I was mentioning only secondary characters!) that have links with Geralt.
This is very much unlike tons of other RPGs, where the protagonist is an amnesiac (funny how in the first game started with the same trope), or they come from another land or he is just a blank slate of a character and no explanation is given.
You do cool things. There is life out there, outside of action in a RPG
Yes, usually a good story have interesting things happen. Shocking I know. But somehow lots of RPG miss that bit.
And when I say 'interesting things' I mean really interesting, hitting bandit #243 or monster #331 with a pointy metal stick doesn't count. A good story, also one in a video game needs more than thrilling action scenes. Think how even in a good adventure book there are more than cool action scenes, in fact action is usually a small % of the total. But most games don't try to do the same??
The Witcher 3 has a fair share of combat, as gameplay wise is pretty much an Action-Adventure RPG. As expected. But it knows it has to do more than that to be truly great.
So many other RPGs seems trapped by combat, because it's the main (or only) gameplay mechanic, all quests and stories are focused on combat, or are just pretty window-dressing for what in the end it's another combat scene. Some designers seems to not care, others seem to try but finally fall again in the familiarity of the old formulas.
The Witcher 3 feels more than that, and it's one of the main reasons it's one of my favorite games. Just from memory, without looking at wikis, in the game you:
-Investigate a big hit done to a major criminal family in the underworld
-Plan a heist yourself
-Participate in a luxury card tournament
-Help opening up a reformed brothel
-Catch a serial killer
-Go to a nobility ball
-Participate in a play as an actor
-Have a chat with royalty and vampires
-Help your bro with chicks (*cough* Crimson Avenger)
-Teach fencing lessons to nobility
-Prove yourself in a viking hazing ritual
-Explore a dungeon inhabited by cheese-obsessed mage
-Be possessed by a ghost and go to a wedding party
-Help family issues and discover their sordid past
-Go to an auction, and participate yourself
-Participate in the assassination of a king
-Go to prison
-Visit alien worlds
-Take some magical mushrooms and explore a dream cave
-Suffer the worst evil of the world: slow bureaucracy
-Recover the penis of a statue
-Get drunk with your friends before a big fight
-Go see horse racing
-Steal cards for a friends
-Prepare for a date
Notice I'm skipping all the 'free the curse of X' or 'investigate this murder' or 'stop monster Y', or 'recover magical mcguffin in dungeon for the main quest', that's the typical Witchery stuff you do, which is also done with high quality, but my point is more about 'original' things you do, usually more about human interaction.
Which is maybe the secret, human interaction, that's what drives most novels and films and tv series, but somehow videogames fear to go there, and limit the interaction in the known value: combat.
Maybe it's the type of player I am, basically when I found I could go to the Auction House in Hearts of Stone or the night party in Blood & Wine I was like 'fuck yeah!", more than when I'm going to fight a boss, meanwhile when Bioware is all like 'stop the ancient evil awakening again! Recruit all factions and defeat the Demons/Reapers!" I have to roll my eyes and think if there wasn't anything more interesting to do.
And in fact it could be, I remember some really interesting descriptions of the exotic society of origin of some of my companions in Dragon Age: Inquisition. I remember thinking: Wait, why can't the game be about exploring that society, instead of being this bland-ass hero saving the world against the generic bad guy? That would be much more interesting!
We had several threads, LTTP and the like, where gaffers showers the game with praise, for example:
Feeling of emptiness after beating The Witcher 3 (Major Spoilers)
LTTP - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (is the greatest game of all time)
The Witcher 3 is the realistic open world Zelda people are waiting for (LTTP)
LTTP: The Witcher 3, or everything a fantasy RPG should be (Mark spoilers)
LTTP - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3 is the most "consensus" Game of the Year since at least 2003
LTTP: The Witcher 3
But in my opinion there has been little talk of why, exactly, is such a good game. You can argue is self-explanatory but that's lazy. Most people point to "very good writing", "great side quests" (apart from "Gwent!" and "that soundtrack!") but there hasn't been a very deep analysis, it's always very general appreciation.
Which also I'm not going to do, I don't have time for that, but at least I wanted to point out three unique aspects where I feel make the game special, and I haven't seen any other people commenting them:
The Witcher 3 is long, epic game and gives you tons of variety
It should be obvious, but I don't think people give it enough credit to this. Not only The Witcher 3 is a long, epic game which gives to the players more than 100 hours of fun, so hey lots of bang for your buck, but additionally the developers wisely know how to exploit that length. Smaller games are usually more focused in one style, one tone, as they don't have time for more, but within The Witcher 3 you can find stories and scenes that go from drama and tragedy to romance and sex, to silly, amusing moments full of wit, to political and cloak & dagger intrigue, to good ol' epic fantasy, to hilarious scenes. From serious and morally ambiguous to the whimsical, from politically complex to the deeply personal drama.
All in the same game, and almost all with great quality. As good as the Bloody Baron or A Towerful of Mice quests were and everybody agrees on that, I also remember how well they nailed moments like when Yennefer teleports Geralt to a lake in the middle of a heated discussion, or when Geralt covers his face before entering a magical portal, or the lovely charm of Keira or Shani.
Geralt works as a believable as character
He is the typical silent, scruffy mercenary. Man of few words and of plain, dry personality. But it works, you can feel him as a real person. And the key imo isn't in his inner personality, but in the exterior. He has a place in the world. He has relationships. He knows people, and people know him, this makes him so much grounded.
In the game he meets and interact with a broad range of people who he already knows:
-Friends
-Co-workers
-Mentors
-Family
-Lovers
-Ex-lovers
-Enemies and opponents
-Enemies turned allies
-Old clients
-Acquaintances
-Admirers
When you are walking in the world and meet an old friend or someone who you fought previously, it makes the world feels much more real and tangible.
Thanks to embracing the past two games and the books the games are based on (despite trying on theory attracting new players on consoles), there are tons of characters like Dijkistra, Philippa, Keira, Roche, Radovid, Letho, Lambert, Crach, Cerys, Thaler, Dudu and others (I was mentioning only secondary characters!) that have links with Geralt.
This is very much unlike tons of other RPGs, where the protagonist is an amnesiac (funny how in the first game started with the same trope), or they come from another land or he is just a blank slate of a character and no explanation is given.
You do cool things. There is life out there, outside of action in a RPG
Yes, usually a good story have interesting things happen. Shocking I know. But somehow lots of RPG miss that bit.
And when I say 'interesting things' I mean really interesting, hitting bandit #243 or monster #331 with a pointy metal stick doesn't count. A good story, also one in a video game needs more than thrilling action scenes. Think how even in a good adventure book there are more than cool action scenes, in fact action is usually a small % of the total. But most games don't try to do the same??
The Witcher 3 has a fair share of combat, as gameplay wise is pretty much an Action-Adventure RPG. As expected. But it knows it has to do more than that to be truly great.
So many other RPGs seems trapped by combat, because it's the main (or only) gameplay mechanic, all quests and stories are focused on combat, or are just pretty window-dressing for what in the end it's another combat scene. Some designers seems to not care, others seem to try but finally fall again in the familiarity of the old formulas.
The Witcher 3 feels more than that, and it's one of the main reasons it's one of my favorite games. Just from memory, without looking at wikis, in the game you:
-Investigate a big hit done to a major criminal family in the underworld
-Plan a heist yourself
-Participate in a luxury card tournament
-Help opening up a reformed brothel
-Catch a serial killer
-Go to a nobility ball
-Participate in a play as an actor
-Have a chat with royalty and vampires
-Help your bro with chicks (*cough* Crimson Avenger)
-Teach fencing lessons to nobility
-Prove yourself in a viking hazing ritual
-Explore a dungeon inhabited by cheese-obsessed mage
-Be possessed by a ghost and go to a wedding party
-Help family issues and discover their sordid past
-Go to an auction, and participate yourself
-Participate in the assassination of a king
-Go to prison
-Visit alien worlds
-Take some magical mushrooms and explore a dream cave
-Suffer the worst evil of the world: slow bureaucracy
-Recover the penis of a statue
-Get drunk with your friends before a big fight
-Go see horse racing
-Steal cards for a friends
-Prepare for a date
Notice I'm skipping all the 'free the curse of X' or 'investigate this murder' or 'stop monster Y', or 'recover magical mcguffin in dungeon for the main quest', that's the typical Witchery stuff you do, which is also done with high quality, but my point is more about 'original' things you do, usually more about human interaction.
Which is maybe the secret, human interaction, that's what drives most novels and films and tv series, but somehow videogames fear to go there, and limit the interaction in the known value: combat.
Maybe it's the type of player I am, basically when I found I could go to the Auction House in Hearts of Stone or the night party in Blood & Wine I was like 'fuck yeah!", more than when I'm going to fight a boss, meanwhile when Bioware is all like 'stop the ancient evil awakening again! Recruit all factions and defeat the Demons/Reapers!" I have to roll my eyes and think if there wasn't anything more interesting to do.
And in fact it could be, I remember some really interesting descriptions of the exotic society of origin of some of my companions in Dragon Age: Inquisition. I remember thinking: Wait, why can't the game be about exploring that society, instead of being this bland-ass hero saving the world against the generic bad guy? That would be much more interesting!
