The Witcher has been a series that has gone mostly unnoticed by the gaming masses, not because it was bad, it was just one of those things, but when Wild Hunt was announced, everyone took notice and for good reason, this game is incredible.

The story starts out with a very dramatic cutscene, but then throws you back into the past, where you can learn the basics of the game, combat wise at least, it's a nice way to introduce players to some of the characters that inhabit the world. From here, the story really opens up as Geralt along with Vesemir as they track down Yennifer, Geralt’s love interest, after a short interlude and some fun with a Griffin, Geralt meets up with Yennifer only to learn that his ward, Ciri has returned and is being pursued by the Wild Hunt.

Tasked by Ciri’s father and ruler of Nilfgaard, Emhyr var Emreis, who Geralt has had dealings with in the past, so while Geralt accepts the contract, he does so for his own reasons, not for the kings. It was in this scene that I noted the characters were not just emoting with their faces, but also their eyes, which made each character feel more lifelike and the words they said even more powerful. Throughout the main storyline, it will spin off into many tangents, some will be small and others will feel like epic quests all on their own, but the game still manages to make things work, for every new character, place or creature the game adds, nothing is lost or forgotten. Even the times when you get to take charge of Ciri and learn parts of her story, the interactions between her and other characters is still strong.

What the game offers in story is only a fraction of things compared to what it offers in terms of its raw gameplay, you can take strolls through the busy city streets, or venture out into the wilds and explore whatever the game has to throw at you. When you do spend time in any city, from the large ones to the quaint country hamlets, there are lots of things to see and do, the people who live in the cities will walk around, performing tasks in their daily lives or even running away from you, should your actions cause them too of course. Even making your way from one location to the next can yield unexpected results and it is in these moments where the game shines.

Each time I entered combat, I had to remind myself to think before I attacked, when fighting humans, simply running in and hacking away can work, but when you have people shooting crossbows at you, spearmen and swordsmen all attacking at once, you need to learn the essence of blocking. But when you fight a monster, blocking may not be the best approach, so you need to be able to modify your tactics on the go, depending on what you are fighting. The combat system is not hard to learn, but learning what you need to do in each situation can take some time to master, add to that, the different monsters and beasts you can hunt down, each time you draw your sword it's as much of a puzzle as it is a fight.

Of course the game is not all about the combat, there are times when Geralt will need to use his Witcher senses to track down people, creatures and such. When activated, items that are important with glow with a red hue, whereas items you can interact with will get an orange one and using your senses is something that you will do, even when there is no need to. Perhaps the coolest part of using the Witchers sense is that the screen blurs around the edges, it zooms in a little towards the middle and the sounds amplify, so doing it amongst trees will have you hearing branches as they crack against one another and in towns, mud squelching under people’s feet.

  

Once you have gotten over the sounds and sights of the world, you can take a seat and rest at a local tavern and play a game of Gwent, a card game that was built for the Witcher but is fully playable outside of the game, sadly my time with Gwent was minimal, outside of collecting the cards, but from what I have played, it was fun. The amount of cards the game seems to have is almost limitless, for each monster the game has, there is a card to match. The monster of the world are slightly more intimidating then those found in the card game and you will get to experience them all first hand at some point.

The first monster you face, that will provide a challenge is the griffin and it's a hefty fight as well, you won’t be able to rush it, you will need to take your time with it, unlike the smaller creatures, the large ones require your attention. None more so then the ones will find in the wild, not on any missions, the first time I located one in the wild, it was so many levels ahead of me that I actually bolted, a second thought had me think I could fight it, but that was not the case. After almost succumbing to its talons I managed to get away, thankfully I located a sign post and fast travelled away, but it was a stark reminder than no matter how ready I thought I was for the world, I always needed to watch out for those monsters.

Thankfully, the world contains a large assortment of quests to take on, some are monster hunter, and others require you to locate plants or people, using the aforementioned Witcher senses. One of the side quests I really liked was simple enough, a man was looking for his wife, who went out into the woods one morning and never returned. After some sleuthing around town, it was time to head out into the woods, where after a time the missing woman’s sister came to find me and told me to stop, lie to the grieving husband and leave it alone, her approaching me made me curious, so I kept looking. I won’t tell you what happens, but it was nothing like I expected.  Which highlights just how good the side quests are, they are not filler, created by a program within the game, they are each hand crafted by a member of the dev team and it shows.

There is an issue that presents itself pretty quickly with how you interact with the world and it was a constant pain throughout my time playing the game, the interact method. In order to interact with anything, you need to be close enough to the item and the text prompt needs to tell you can do it, but if you can’t see that prompt you won’t be able to do anything. There were times when I was too close to something, to the point of standing on it and the camera could not see the interact prompt, which resulted in me either moving back or trying to get the camera into a place where it could see and while not game breaking, it did cause frustrations that I felt were unnecessary.

One area the game did excel at was the presentation and no I am not going to talk about how the game looked nicer before it shipped. The game looks amazing, from the detail on Geralts armor, to the shacks, castles and people of the world. When you are interacting with anyone from the game, you will notice the detail in their faces, the brow will furl when they are confused, the eyes will look elsewhere when they don’t want to admit something, it is truly something to behold. The world itself is just as full of detail as the characters, with the brown muddy plains of Valen to the rain bashed shores of Skillige and beyond, the world is alive with detail.

Sunlight will crash through the trees, covering the ground with dancing shadows as the trees move about in the breeze. Walking through muddy streets towards a battered inn, will leave footprints behind in the mud and then indoors and while inside, light will bounce around from roaring fires and just as important the sounds of that fire will echo around the room. Sound plays just as important a part as what you see, as sometimes you will hear creatures long before you see them and knowing the sound of a group of drowners can help you avoid a nasty surprise. The music is also top notch, each time the music kicked in, I found myself enchanted by the score, it is nothing special of course, the same soundtrack style can be heard in other games of a similar style, but that only show just how nice this is.

The final area of presentation that really elevates things to a whole new level is the voice acting, returning characters maintain their voices and each of the new characters feels alive. Being able to wander around and hear people talk about their day, the events of their lives or even singing a little song helps sell that this is a real world. Travelling between the places the world offers also means you will get to hear a large variety of accents, of which there are quite a number. It is clear which parts of the world the developers took inspiration from, but at no point do things feel forced, which again is helped by the voices of the regions. But while there are amazing moments, there are also issues to deal with, the game loads elements as seamlessly as possible, but on those rare times it can’t everything goes out of focus and then back into focus when it's ready to resume.

Those happened more when talking to people, either shopkeepers or important characters, which broke things, but it also happened when I was moving around the world, exploring and what not. There were other graphical issues that popped up, things not loading in, Geralt mounting an invisible horse and then the horse appearing, but the worst I saw was early on in the game, a large triangle shaped object was sticking out of Geralts head and there it remained until I loaded into a new section of the game world, almost 30 minutes later. With a game as large as this, you can give some small leeway to those smaller or funny issues, but that triangle was quite noticeable, even in cutscenes. There were other issues with sounds stuttering, which again is a load issue, but for all these issues, 98% of the game was issue free.

For anyone wondering if they will be able to enjoy The Witcher 3, if they have not played any of the past games, you can put that to rest, the game does a great job of putting the history of the games in, without making it over complicated, you can even answer some questions to help shape your own version of things. For those thinking the game might be too big, with too many things to do that you might not finish it all, well that is possible, but you need to give it a go to be sure.

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt is a game made by people who are passionate about what they do, each element has been crafted to provide the best possible experience to the player and it shows, sure you might see the occasional issue, but take it with a grain of salt as this is one game you need to play.

Thanks to CD Projekt Red and Bandai Namco Entertainment Australia for supplying the game for review.