But where The Witcher 2's focus on plot came at the expense of characterization, the sequel gives the wartime struggle great heft by giving Geralt intimate connections to every major player. Political tensions run as hot as they always have in this series, and your decisions still divert the paths of barons and kings in intriguing ways. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings touched on similar repercussions, but The Witcher 3 makes them personal. Yet there she was, a reminder that my actions-actions that felt righteous and reasonable as I made them-allowed this woman to rot in this faraway place. The Witcher 3's story did not script this moment it was merely a passing detail that might have been lost in the waves or overlooked in favor of the harpies circling overhead. It's a chilling sentence, of course, but it was only later, when I accidentally sailed past the tiny island where her corpse still rested, that the horror of her punishment sunk into my heart. At one point, I witnessed a woman sentenced to death, doomed to starve after being chained to a rock. But it was my natural exploration of the game's vast expanses that proved most affecting. The central story, which sees you seeking your ward and daughter figure Ciri, as well as contending with the otherworldly force known as the wild hunt, often forces this anguish upon you. Talk about an identity crisis.Īs returning protagonist Geralt of Rivia, you, too, face the anguish of mere existence, sometimes in unexpected, unscripted ways. Now Playing: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Review Every horse Geralt has owned is called Roach. Every triumph demands a sacrifice.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's On the isles of Skellige and in the city of Novigrad, there is no joy without parallel sorrow. Don't worry that these vague descriptions spoil important events: they are simple examples of the obstacles every resident faces. In another, a corpulent spouse-abuser must find a way to love two different lost souls, each of which test the limits of his affection. In one quest, you reunite two lovers, one of which is now a rotting hag, its tongue lasciviously lolling from its mouth.
But the moments that linger are those that reveal the deep ache in the world's inhabitants. Excellence abounds at every turn in this open-world role-playing game: excellent exploration, excellent creature design, excellent combat mechanics, excellent character progression. It is more than its thematic turbulence that makes The Witcher 3 extraordinary, actually. It's the way this incredible adventure portrays the personal tragedies and underhanded opportunities that such battles provide that makes it so extraordinary. That The Witcher 3 depicts the immediate brutality of battle in great detail is not a surprise many games fill the screen with decapitated heads and gory entrails.
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The series has always contrasted its world's physical glamor with its intrinsic violence, but never has that contrast been this uneasy, this convulsive. In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the sacred is always at war with the profane, and beauty is always at war with blood.
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