Best. Vidya Game. EVER.

"KirkyV" (KirkyV) 02/27/2016 at 14:24 • Filed to: None

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It’s taken me 153 hours, and about six months, to get here, but HOLY FUCK WAS THAT GOOD.

I’ve played more video games than I’ve seen films, or read books - and, as an English Lit student, I’ve read a lot of bloody books - but this... This is it. I’ve never had a more fulfilling experience with a game before. Nor has any other game’s ending ever managed to catapult me from despondent to outright joyful with such deftness.

Now, if they could just get a bloody move on and translate the rest of the novels, that’d be just peachy. I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it quite so much if I hadn’t already been so attached to the characters, before I even started.

(It’s The Witcher 3 , just to be clear.)

I actually finished Dragon Age: Inquisition pretty recently, too. My take: better than a lot of people give it credit for, particularly in this post- Witcher world, but still not a patch on The Witcher 3 .

djmt1 > KirkyV 02/27/2016 at 14:46

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DA:I. Way too bloody long. I remember at 90 hours in, thinking surely I must be near the end only for it to go on for another 40 hours. Great characters and a good main plot helped me get through it though.

W3: Not a fan of the main plot. Too much “your princess is in another castle” but the side content, particularly the monster hunting is outstanding.

That said I have zero interest to replay either game unlike a Bethesda game which I find unusual since quality wise they are much better.

KirkyV > djmt1 02/27/2016 at 15:02

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My main problem with DA: I was the masses and masses of filler-y, collectable stuff. It kinda felt like they’d built these huge open worlds, and then completely goofed on actually filling them with anything interesting. The characters were great, though, as were all the revelations about elven lore/the Fade and such, particularly since I played an elf in Origins, and would’ve in 2, given the choice.

The Solas reveal in Trespasser was a wonderful intersection of the two—he’s become simultaneously one of my very favourite BioWare companions, and possibly my absolute favourite BioWare villain. Lots of cool little fanservice-y moments for dedicated fans of the series, too. (I’m intrigued to see where Mass Effect: Andromeda’ll be going - beyond the obvious - and actually pretty excited, but I still hope they dial down the filler.)

I enjoyed The Witcher’s main plot, personally. Sure, you spent a good while looking for Ciri, but the stuff you did along the way - the succession crisis in Skellige, the Baron, even all the capering in Novigrad with Dandelion and co - really worked for me, and I loved that the game actually kept going for a good long while after you found Ciri, with plenty of touching father-daughter goofiness, like the snowball fight.

It helped that I was more invested in those characters - Yennefer, Ciri and Geralt himself, mainly, but the rest too - than I have been in pretty much any other set of characters in a video game. I think it helped a lot that I’d already read the first three Witcher books—going in, I already gave a great many shits about Geralt finding Ciri again, and getting back together with Yennefer.

When I realised what was really happening in the epilogue, and that not only was Ciri not dead, but that she’d finally get to fulfil her childhood dream of becoming a Witcher and adventuring about, free, like her actual dad - fuck off, Emperor Tywin - I very nearly actually leapt for joy. That doesn’t happen very often with me.

As for Bethesda, well, I did finish Fallout 4 relatively recently, and I enjoyed it... But I don’t feel the same urge to go back as I did with Skyrim and 3. It all just felt kinda hollow. I’m really hoping they give Obsidian another crack at it for the next game; I fucking LOVED New Vegas. I really need to get around to playing Fallout 2...

gin-san - shitpost specialist > KirkyV 02/27/2016 at 15:06

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I've never played the Witcher games. I'm imagining a Skyrim-esque game; obviously there are going to be some fundamental differences, but is this another fantasy world with swords and magic and stuff like that? Is combat Skyrim-esque or do you have to plan out attacks for your party like in Dragon Age?

KirkyV > gin-san - shitpost specialist 02/27/2016 at 15:14

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Fantasy world with swords and magic, but of a rather different flavour. As for the game itself... It’s a big open world, but there’s much more of a narrative focus than you generally get with Bethesda’s games, and certainly as compared with Skyrim. The previous Witcher games were a great deal more linear, with a similar narrative focus. The first hasn’t aged particularly well, but I’d recommend the second quite happily.

And, beyond either previous game, you’d be well-served by reading the original book series - at least, those that have been translated so far - before playing The Witcher 3. It’s pretty much a direct continuation of those books—the previous games were more side-stories.

The combat’s action-oriented, like Skyrim’s - no party, no issuing commands and such - but it’s third-person, and plays like a cross between an action RPG and a third-person combo/counter-based game, like Batman: AA.

gin-san - shitpost specialist > KirkyV 02/27/2016 at 15:16

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It sounds like something I could get into, but Skyrim has got all my attention now. This'll probably be something I add to the wishlist to pick up on a Steam sale. I do like these open-world style games, and while I'm on Skyrim now I still need to finish Kingdoms of Amalur as well; these games take up so much time that I'm in no rush to get into another open-world game since I also just recently got bored of Fallout 4.

Conan > KirkyV 02/27/2016 at 15:20

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Fallout 2's great. 1's only worth it for completion’s sake.

KirkyV > Conan 02/27/2016 at 15:22

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Yeah, that’s pretty much what I’ve heard, and I did give Fallout 1 a decent go - got bored a while after Shady Sands - so I feel comfortable just moving on to 2. I already know the bones of the plot, anyway.

NJAnon > KirkyV 02/27/2016 at 23:30

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I’d recommend Witcher 2 or 3 as well along with Elder Scrolls Skyrim. They both take on a different approach (especially combat wise).

Before you play Witcher games though, just understand that even though you start off with the tools you need to fight, you can still die easily if you don’t pay attention (especially on higher difficulties)

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > KirkyV 02/28/2016 at 16:32

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Oh cool :) I’ll give it a try. Big fan of this world-building fantasy game, especially if it’s gripping and/or novel.

The bar I’ve set for immersive games so far has been Mass Effect and Morrowind/Skyrim. How does it stack up against them?

KirkyV > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 02/29/2016 at 06:04

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Know that I say this as someone who absolutely adores Mass Effect, and who spent over 200 hours in Skyrim: the Witcher 3 is some next-level shit. The writing is just fantastic - even the kinds of side-quests that are generally afterthoughts in your average big RPG can be thought-provoking, not to mention heartbreaking - the world-building is absolutely first-rate, and I’ve never cared more about a group of characters in a video game before.

All that said, a few caveats:

1. The first Witcher game has aged very poorly, and I’d say you can comfortably skip it.

2. The second Witcher game, while much better than the first - and certainly worth playing - is still kinda janky in places, and hard to get into initially.

3. This is the big one: read the books first. The games are a continuation of an epic fantasy series written in the nineties, and while the first two games were really more side-stories than sequels, the third - and best - game is actually more of a sequel to the books than it is to the first two games. I’d have been absolutely lost if I hadn’t read the book series first. You could probably play The Witcher 2 without having read any of the books, and still have a great experience, but I definitely wouldn’t have enjoyed the third game as much as I did without them.

Now, the books were originally written in Polish, and they haven’t all been translated into English yet - they’ve done three of five novels, with the fourth out in May, and two short story collections - but what has been translated is enough for you to have a good idea of who the two main leads of the Witcher 3 are, and their relationship with one-another—and that relationship is absolutely key to the whole game.

More to the point, they’re actually really good books besides. I’d say they’re worth reading even if you’ve no intention of playing the games—though, once you have read them, you’ll definitely want to.