The Trilogy Ends on a High Note

"Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling…makes no difference. The degree is arbitrary. The definition's blurred. If I'm to choose between one evil and another, I'd rather not choose at all"

Developed by CD Projekt Red, The Witcher 3 : Wild hunt is not a game. It's a threat. A threat to all the AAA titles that are going to get released this year. Drinking deep draughts from Central European folklore and the narrative traditions of Western role-playing, TW3 is everything an RPG gamer could hope for.

Geralt of Rivia is a Witcher—a freelance monster slayer who uses his prowess in swordsmanship, alchemy, a little light magic and some finely-honed tracking skills to get to his prey. The first game focused on Geralt's profession as a Witcher, the second one focused on political affairs of the Northern kingdoms. The last and final installment of the series has the best of both worlds and even more. 

After finishing The Witcher 2, there was this blank feeling I am pretty sure everyone who had played the game had felt; "Where does he go from here?" Well this time, Geralt isn't running after politicians, doing the deeds of dubious monarchs or chasing after memories he never knew existed. Geralt has changed his priorities, he has regained his memories and he wishes to find his long lost love Yennefer. He doesn't care about politics anymore, he is a Witcher and a Witcher hunts monsters for coin. But this particular Witcher has a vendetta of his own, and now with his regained memory he won't be the confused little white haired fluff he was in the previous games. War is breaking out and the Child of the Prophecy is on the loose, there is little room for errors but then again, Witchers always get the job done.

Being an open world game, exploration is one of the many wow factors of this game. For instance, you are randomly galloping through the woods on horseback, you are bound to stumble upon something or some quest every 2 minutes to your destination. The world is vast and has plenty of side quests that give more insight to the lore. Unlike Skyrim, TW3 doesn't make travelling distances seem like a chore.

The gameplay is a mixture of hack-and-slash and tactical combat. Players have the freedom to choose how they wish to fight through alchemy, magic, swordplay. The skill tree is finely crafted hence leveling up actually adds more sense to the game. Players have the choice to use potions before going into battle, each potion is unique and requires its own combo of ingredients to be crafted. Potions can enhance your eyesight, increase your stamina or even make you regenerate like the mutant that you are. The game also allows meditation, which is a fancy way of saying "sleep". Meditation can be used to fast forward the time, since the time of the day is an important game mechanic. Geralt is also an excellent tracker, he can use "Witcher Senses" which is basically a detective mode that can be used to track monsters or follow clues. The dialogues are unprecedented. Geralt's voice acting adds a lot of immersion to an already immersive game.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt features the new REDengine 3, developed by CD Projekt RED and designed specifically for nonlinear role-playing video games set in vast open world environments. Visuals in the game are second to none. For an open-world title, the attention to detail that was put into it is nothing short of remarkable. The game is taxing, yes. But it is by no means unoptimised. To further shed light into the matter, we tested the game on the following specs.

On a mixed settings, of high and medium, we got around an average of 50 frames per second. GPU usage never spikes, CPU usage stays stable most of the times and there are no traces of memory leaks. The game uses approximately 2.5GB of system RAM and 2GB of VRAM. All these are signs of a healthy piece of software.

The Witcher 3 : Wild Hunt is the epitome of a perfection. Impressive Narrative – Check. Outstanding Visuals – Check. Immersive Soundtrack – Check. The Witcher 3 is a game where every decision you make counts, where every dialogue option has an unique outcome, where every fight has a consequence. It redefines the RPG genre with its 100 hours of gameplay. Play it, or bereft yourself from one of the best games of this decade. The choice is yours.