Reviewed on PlayStation 4
Reviewed by Cody Bradbury
Reviewed by Cody Bradbury
IGNORANCE IS BLISS
I'm not going to try and sugar coat it. I went into this game knowing next to nothing about this series. I dabbled (at best) with The Witcher 2 when I worked at GameStop, only sinking around 4 hours into it.
That being said, The Witcher 3 blew me away.
Not knowing exactly what to expect made the experience of playing Witcher 3 that much better. What I did play of Witcher 2 definitely turned me on to the series, but I never found the time to go back and finish it. This game is going to make me find the time.
Starting with what came with the game. I only purchased the standard edition. What came with it, however, made it feel better than most collector's editions I've purchased. You have the regular things, game manual, stickers, a mini Witcher compendium to catch you up. It's the extra stuff that was sent with the game that really shines. CD Projekt Red also sends with Wild Hunt a complete soundtrack, a map and (my personal favorite) a note explaining that we as gamers (and consumers) prove that we support them, simply by spending the 60 bucks to buy their product. Their reward to us, however, is the coup de grace to all the other standard editions out there. 16 (16!!!!) future DLC packs that we get absolutely free over to the course of the game's lifetime. Wow. Kudos to CD Projekt Red. They hit this one completely out of the park.
Visually, this game is the best looking game I've played on PS4, inadvertently making it the best looking game I've ever played, or close to it at least. The draw distance, the change in color palettes as you move from one area to another and the water graphics all caught my eye. The one thing that attracted me to Witcher 3 like a moth to flame, though, was the way the game looks while in combat. Fluid, continuous and as smooth as a running stream of water, the combat in this game is what makes it worth playing to the extent that I'm sure I will. Geralt looks almost like the world's most badass ballerina, the way he slices and dices his way through enemies, all while jumping and flipping from side to side. Simply put, it looks really, REALLY good.
For all my audiophiles out there, look no further than The Witcher 3 for one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard in a video game. I have not been this happy with a game soundtrack (Grand Theft Auto series aside) since Final Fantasy X. Every song seems to fit every scenario in the story perfectly, as it should. Plus the fact that a copy of the soundtrack comes with the game makes it that much more delightful of an experience.
Moving along to one of the more important subjects in an RPG; the story. The story, while long, is kind of a let down. I searched so long for this mysterious person named Ciri that I wound up feeling a bit let down when I finally found her. Fortunately, this is all acceptable. If only because while the story may lack, the side quests and optional things, like the addicting card game Gwent (imagine Hearthstone), make it all worthwhile. That being said, the story is still relatively interesting. Familiar faces that even I knew from the Witcher 2 make a reappearance in Wild Hunt.
In terms of replay value, Wild Hunt offers almost endless possibilities for how you can play the game. There are too many options to choose from in just a single play through. Offering a combined 100+ hour game (50 for the story, approximately 50 for side quests), Wild Hunt offers one the most in depth and non-linear stories I have ever played.
Even though Wild Hunt is big and amazing, that doesn't mean it doesn't have its short comings. One of the main things wrong with The Witcher 3 is that the framerate does lower from time to time during battle. It's like the game is so big that even the almighty PlayStation 4 can't load everything that is going on. Aside from that, my particular console froze up, causing me to restart my game and the system. Upon restarting the game, I got a message stating that my data had been corrupted. After my mini panic attack, all I had to do was load up my save and everything was fine. If you get this message, don't freak out and erase everything like I almost did, calmly and collectively hit load, and go back to work. Keep in mind, I'm reviewing the Day 1 edition of Wild Hunt, and a patch is actually coming next week to resolve these issues.
THE VERDICT:
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt offers some of the best story telling I've ever played in a video game. From running around doing the story missions to doing the side quests, Wild Hunt offers up one of the biggest and most incredible worlds to roam about freely in. Framerate and possible data corruptions issues aside, this game is a must to play for any RPG fan.
9.5/10