The Witcher III

I have never played any of The Witcher games, but after talking with two people I dove right into the third installment. After Fallout 4 I needed to get some high fantasy going to wash away the wasteland post apocalypse.

Now all I know going in is that you play a witcher, named Geralt, who is  a monster hunter that has magic, sword, cat and dog abilities. That was all I cared to know about. The events of the previous two games and the world I am immersed in I wasn’t concerned about. I just want to hunt monsters and look awesome doing it while in a crazy open world.

Boy oh boy did I get that!

I’m 18 levels into this game and all I know is that I am looking for my not daughter Ciri and am trying to stop the Wild Hunt ( a kick-ass version of Ring Wraiths) from snacthing her and/or destroying the world. Thanks to her special Elder Blood that allows her to warp time or some such. I am not overly concerned about that really.

Why?





I am too damn busy exploring the vast and crazy world where this game takes place. Holy crap snacks this game is huge! Like Skyrim huge!

This world is lousy with wolves and wild dogs.

Plus there are so many side quests that are much more enjoyable than the main story, so far. It seems everyone needs a monster destroyed so they put out contracts. I do my best to slay every beast that my level permits. Why? Well because monster hunting is awesome! Then there are the treasure hunts that lead to better gear than I can buy. Plus every settlement has at least one mission for you. Then there is just random exploring that leads to cool locations, hidden treasures to uncover, ladies to help (with some time sexy results) monster nests to destroy, abandoned settlements to repopulate, brothels to explore and my second favorite…camps full of bandits to slaughter! There is so much to do I have really neglected the main story, but I’ll get to it eventually.

Monster contracts are the best quests!

How does it play. Well it kind of  feels like Grand Theft Auto, the recent Batman games, Assassins Creed with a wanna-be Bioware conversation engine set in a third person Skyrim sized world. The sword combat is great ( sometimes it gets janky with targeting) and the deaths are brutal! You cut villains in half, remove heads or limbs in almost comical fashion. It is a delight. The ranged combat with the crossbow is useless except when underwater shooting at fishmen. The magic is alright, with five signs (spells) to run through. Personally, I like the fire spell Igni, but I’m a recovering pyro and seeing guys stumble around on fire yelling is just good fun. Well that or I’m some psychopath…….

Look at the height that severed head achieved!

There is a crafting bit that helps make useful potions, oils, bombs, armor and weapons. I’m fine with that. Then there is a card game, Gwent that I avoid like the plague since I didn’t pay attention to the tutorial and am not a fan of collectible card games in real life and even less when tacked on to a video game.

You get a bit of customization as you level with a skill tree set for combat, spells, alchemy and misc. This allows for everyone to build Geralt differently. I have dumped a lot of points into fast melee attacks, defense, fire spells and tiny bit into mind control for the conversation altering ability. There are also the fantasy standard light, medium and heavy armor choices and weapon choices that affect your combat prowess and allow for a smidge more player customization.

Eventually I’ll get back to the main story but now I’m off to either try and bed the sexy ginger Triss Merigold or to try and test my mettle against the beast terrorizing the Byways.

Hello pretty lady.
Come back to Geralt's room.

The Witcher 3.

Big fan. Really fun game.

There is even an evil newborn undead baby monster quest.
Creepy. Undead. Baby.
Love this game!