The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a tough game to assess at E3. The reason for this is twofold; firstly, because regardless of what’s shown at press events or to journalists, there’s a strong inkling (not to mention CD Projekt RED’s superb track record) that the end product will be great. Just ask anyone who’s played The Witcher 2! Though CD Projekt RED’s showing behind closed doors today wasn’t entirely flawless, it was mightily impressive, and cements most if not all of the hype surrounding the game. It’s that good.
It’s important to begin by reasserting just how gorgeous this game is. Though not bleeding edge, it’s far and away a visual feast for the genre of open-world fantasy. The draw-distance is superb, character models and faces in particularly look detailed and crisp even up close, and short of the occasional visual glitch (which will likely be fixed well before release), you’d be hard pressed to find even a single blurry texture. The Witcher 3 has reached the point where graphics have entirely ceased to be an immersion-breaker in a fantasy world, and though it may not sound all that monumental, in practice it really is.
CD Projekt RED’s demo focuse on a particular quest-chain for main character Geralt of Rivia, the Witcher himself. Not to be confused with a witch hunter, mind you; he specifically clarifies his capabilities with a penurious NPC early in the demo. The tasks Geralt takes on aren’t necessarily innovative, nor are they all that groundbreaking in every case. Instead, The Witcher 3 impresses by simply being the best at doing what a fantasy RPG does.
First Geralt meets a shady fellow named Dijkstra in a smoky saloon, making an exchange for valuable information. From there, he’s told to meet a gremlin-like child named Johnny in the woods (a mix between Gollum and an adorably lugubrious child of 12 or 13). Upon luring Johnny from his cave in the Wetlands-esque swamp which he resides, Geralt consults three wise women from an ancient tapestry, fights head-to-head with a formidable werewolf, and handily decommissions a cursed, imprisoned plant-spirit accused of murdering dozens of innocent villagers. Considering that this all occurred within the span of a 40-minute demo, and it was but a single quest-chain, it’s safe to say that The Witcher 3 is brimming with original, compelling quest content.
Combat throughout the E3 quest proved interesting, and the smattering of spells and abilities Geralt is granted access to proved substantial. There are a handful of fire-based elemental spells, some of which can be used to distract and allow for a quick melee aftershock, while other spells can be used to confuse or even temporarily incapacitate particularly nasty foes. The Projekt RED developer playing the demonstration stuck with melee outside of the werewolf encounter (Geralt is “no mage,” as he repeatedly pointed out), but it’s clear that the Witcher has a formidable array of tools at his disposal when the going gets tough. If this means a dependence on tough-guy hack n’ slashing during the game’s early stages in exchange for amped-up arcane abilities down the road, I’d call it a fair trade. Luckily, the quests appear involved enough to sustain interest regardless.
At last year’s E3, CD Projekt RED iterated that the most important aspect of any Witcher game is its story. While I don’t dispute their claim, I must admit that today’s demo contained a handful of moments that induced a chuckle where they ought to have caused something else. Geralt is almost… too stoic. Upon his arrival to a town that had been ravaged by murder and decay, he proclaimed to its leader bluntly, “nice village.” Later, when the same fellow is forced to slice off his own ear as sacrifice, Geralt aptly proclaims in a gruff monotone, “why’d you cut off your own ear?” There’s nothing particularly wrong with how these moments unfolded, and a game as long as The Witcher 3 very well ought to have its fair share of comic relief. Still, I just hope those moments are deliberate if and when they do occur.
The Witcher 3 looks fantastic on the whole, and despite the occasional framerate hiccup or voice acting quirk found in its current build, it’s already clear that its 20%-larger-than-Skyrim world will host a fantasy RPG experience the likes of which the world simply hasn’t yet experienced. Whether or not it transcends its boundary-breaking bulleted list with a gripping narrative (an asset that CD Projekt RED holds in extremely high esteem) isn’t yet clear, but regardless of whether Geralt makes me laugh or break down and cry, I couldn’t be more excited for the third Witcher installment.
