Author: Jin Wan
There are countless numbers of role-playing games (RPGs) in the world. But the epic RPGs immerse you so deeply into their worlds that you get lost in their made-up worlds. Specifically, RPGs like Mass Effect 2, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 3 make you feel the weight of the decisions you make throughout the game by affecting the outcomes in dramatic ways. But nothing beats The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
The Witcher – now made even hotter with Superman superstar Henry Cavill playing the main character in the Witcher TV series – is about Geralt, a monster slayer set in a war-torn world containing everything you would expect from epic RPGs mentioned above. What makes Witcher 3 an uber RPG is that it not only gets the “normal” RPG elements right, but it also gets everything else right!
Having bought The Witcher 3 on both Nintendo Switch and PC, I sunk weeeeeeell over 100 hours on the Witcher 3 before completing the game, and still wanted more. I’ve never played an RPG where every single mission felt unique. In fact, some of the optional side-missions – which are often considered “lesser missions” in epic RPGs – are even more interesting than the main missions! As a result, you upgrade and improve Geralt without even realising it because every single mission is equally engrossing.
The other thing that The Witcher 3 got right was the action element. You battle monsters in real-time, and the action in the battles are so smooth and so good it rivals other pure Action RPGs! You actually feel that you are getting better as you use the different combination of weapons and spells – and you can play the action however you like! If you prefer spells then go ahead and build a powerful wizard in Geralt. If you’d rather skewer monsters then make Geralt a tank. Or you can mix them up if you’re undecided.
As if all the above wasn’t enough, developer CD Projekt Red even made the in-game card game, Gwent, highly addictive. Who really cares about a card game within an RPG game? But to my surprise, I was just as absorbed by the Gwent card game strategy as I was with the rest of the Witcher 3 world. Unbelievable!
The Final Word
In the final analysis, I would be more than willing to upgrade my gaming performance PC just to play The Witcher 3 in its full glory. The Witcher 3 is to the gaming world what The Lord of the Rings is to the movie world. It will be a mammoth task for any developer, even CD Projekt Red themselves, to top this uber RPG. But one can only hope, as I’ll be first to buy the game – and a new gaming performance PC along with it.