The medieval fantasy RPG that will win Game of the Year

The highly-anticipated third installment of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is my Game of the Year. Having never played the other two Witcher games, I was apprehensive about all the hype but as soon as I killed my first Griffin I was hooked.

Take on the role of the stark white-haired protagonist Geralt of Rivia (not actually of Rivia), a monster hunter for-hire who’s training and physical modifications have given him superhuman physical and mental abilities, as he rides his trusty steed, Roach, through the perfectly crafted fantasy world that Polish video game developers, CD Projekt RED, have painstakingly put together.

With over 100 hours of gameplay, a script reported to be over 4 novels long, 950 voice actors and 2.5 years of voice recording behind it, you can say goodbye to your social life and become engrossed in the rich storyline. Even the secondary quests, witcher contracts and treasure hunts are extremely rewarding and satisfying, leaving you happy to spend hours outside of the main story, just exploring the world where you’ll come across anything from a group of unruly bandits who need to be decapitated in slow motion to a monster who needs to be slayed. I regularly ran into much higher level monsters, sometimes failing miserably trying to kill them but other times achieveing a very, very satisfying kill and looting some amazing items. Leveling up or acquiring better items , there’s an almost endless feel to The Witcher 3 that makes it so profoundly good. The world of Witcher beckons to be explored.

Amazing Graphics

The world doesn’t need a hero, it needs a professional

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is for a mature audience and unabashedly flaunts sex scenes, slow motion decapitations, and doesn’t shy away from knowing its target audience and what we want. Your choice in the storyline affects the outcomes and you always have options in the dialogue between the interesting characters, even influencing them by using one of Geralt’s magical signs called ‘Axii’.

While the game is not perfect, it’s very close.  It is reported that CD Projekt RED will continue to work on The Witcher 3 for another 2 years, already releasing several patches and free DLC for the console versions.

While I did run into some glitches and have seen several online, like Roach running INTO the ground, it is often with hilarious results and not a game breaker. It’s immediately made up when you take in the change from late afternoon into dusk, complete with glorious magic hour moments. The small text is a bit annoying but hopefully there’s a patch to fix it soon. I did get lost in the inventory system and found it too complicated but eventually spent some time and mastered it.

Battle Epic Beasts

A heavyweight contender

This is one of the best games that I’ve played in a long time. With its rich main storyline, detailed world that feels endlessly explorable, rewarding secondary quests, Geralt is going straight to the top. Do yourself and the developers of this fantastic game a solid, use your hard-earned money to buy this amazing game if you haven’t already, you won’t be dissappointed. Now I need to go and play the other 2 Witcher games.