 The Witcher 3- It's like
Skyrim, but focusing in on a specific character in an
established universe. While I love Skyrim and the various
roleplaying possibilities it allows, I find myself wanting
to tighten the focus of my scope of what I'm willing to
put time into. As more games advertise hours of infinite
possibilities, I become more aware of how limited my time
to explore the unlimited is...(I
say this as a player of Genshin Impact. Yes I am a
fool.)
This
is not to say that the Witcher 3 isn't a vast time
drain, but in my opinion it seems vast but measurable,
which I can deal with. Also, my stay in the world is made
easier by genuinely compelling worldbuilding, storylines,
characters, and creatures.
It also helps that I really
like the main character, Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher.
Witcher's in this universe are partially human, partially
monster mutants who take care of supernatural creature
problems. I think the thing that draws me to this concept
is that it's basically a detective procedural, but with a
gruff mutant man who hunts monsters.
The real reason why I picked
this game out of an infinite amount of others is that I,
in a very masc headspace, was like 'I really just want to
be a cool old man right now'. And looking at Geralt on the
cover, I decided this was the game for my ultimate
gender-of-the-moment wish fulfillment. It turned out to be
a great choice!
There's nothing quite like
putting yourself in the shoes of a self-assured, hot, old
man who's really good at his job, but also extremely
tired. Hell, I'm already half of those things! (I'll
let you guess which half.)
Geralt isn't a blank slate
protagonist. In fact, this is the third installment of
a series that I haven't played until now, drawing from
an already established book series that I haven't read
(though I've actually
started reading because I've liked the character and
the world so much).
 Geralt, by this
installment, has been through a lot and is
bringing it all of his previous experience to the table.
He has thoughts and opinions that are always going to be
palpable, even shining through the player's ability to
guide his choices. Any dissonance doesn't disrupt the
roleplaying fantasy for me because I'm playing as my
take of Geralt, not me.
Another place where the
Witcher universe shines is it's take on monsters.
There's a vast amount of monsters who impact the world
and people in various ways, but with every encounter you
get a very clear look of the separation between how
common people and Witchers experience monster
encounters. Common folk will fear monsters, make up
names for them, misinterpret their nature and goals, and
Geralt has to kind of just roll with it until he has
enough facts put together an idea of what he's dealing
with.
It's really worth glancing
at some of the monster designs and aspects, they're
really wonderful and unique.
A Handful of My Favorite
Witcher Monsters
Hags:... These are just
nasty, tiddy-out, witchy women. With Geralt's Witcher
senses, he can hear a lot of things in the distance and
I hate the noise they make.
 Godlings: Weird,
supernatural kids who live in random places. That's it.
Love them.
 Trolls: intellegent, but
childlike goons that can be reasoned with... sometime
you'll come across one who just wants to fuck you up,
and sometimes you'll come across one that just wants to
chat. Pretty great.
 Keep in mind I'm not finished
with this game. With the extensive time I've put into
it, I'm now getting the itch to jump around to some
other experiences and maybe take a bit of a break. One
thing that makes me less worried about doing this is the
neat recap loading screens that remind you of what your
current main story quest is. So, I might (or
might not, who knows?) have more things to add
about this game later, but in the meantime, I highly
suggest giving The Witcher a look if you're looking to
get lost in a fantasy world starring a guy with more
game than you'll ever have! (I'm
serious, Geralt is such a slut...no shaming tho', good
for him)
If
you want to buy it, it's on most platforms! Even the
Nintendo Switch, as you might have heard! I personally
have it on the PS4 and can vouch for it being good on
that platform.
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