Is it just me or did CDPR do a good job on horror without trying in Witcher 3?

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Except that TW3 is a lot gorier than Buffy, and horror in Buffy was always lifted by some humour - except for a few episodes that were downright serious and troubling ("The Body", anyone? Gets me everytime... can't watch it, too sad). But even horror episodes like the one involving the Gentlemen - for me the creepiest monsters on Buffy ever, throughout all 7 seasons - have some humour in them to uplift the tone. Still, I can see why you draw that comparison.

The Oxenfurt Drunk comes to mind as a Buffy-like quest, where Geralt calls the vampire a bitch. It had me laughing so much.

I think even the monsters themselves in TW3 have humour, in the English version nearly everybody including the Crones sound like British farmers from the west country and even the Grave Hags have that accent. Watch Hot Fuzz and you'll see what I mean, it's hard to take that accent seriously. Along with that, monsters interact with the world in a weird way, maybe it's the whole thing to do with the Conjunction of the Spheres but I've never felt like the atmosphere and the monsters have any symbiosis.

A lot of the monsters that only came out during the night in TW1 have a 24/7 appearance in TW3. I remember having to meditate because the drowners would only come out at a night, which made sense. Speaking of which, some of the more humanoid monsters felt like they were wearing prosthetics. The Crones for instance didn't come off as repugnant magical beings but rather disproportionate people wearing cosplay and the botchling quest's horror was shut down completely by the fact that when it turned into a lubberkin (which is a funny sounding word) and becomes a floating ghost fetus which just seems ridiculous.

One things for sure is that in B&W I was looking for Manticore gear and there was a bruxa in human form just wondering around and it made me jump when I tried getting closer, one of the only moments in the game that made me do that.

Maybe I'm just too accustomed to things most people find scary. But TW3 has little in terms of horror devices, a core strength to horror in general is the feeling of not having any control but Geralt is always in control.
 
Except they did. The points you mentioned range from reasonable to ridiculous.

When you have played through the whole game and that on hardest difficulty, played through the expansions, you too will realize, that there are tons of things in this game, they could have been made alot better, that feel kind of rushed, as if the developers haven't spent much time developing these things, while other areas in the game received much more development time in comparison to reach the quality they have. Nothing else did I say.

The points that I mentioned which are in your opinion ridiculous, are by now just only maybe ridiculous, because you know as well as me, that these things are by now just simply impossible to fix and improve, because certain things I listed up I know as well too, that these things are too big of a scale to get changed now years after release.
I know too, that some of these things would basically require a complete remake of the game and can't be done just with a patch or two.
However that doesn't change the fact, that CDPR absolutely didn't have done a good job on "almost" everything.

They did a good job on the core aspects of the game, as these are it, which carry the whole game from begin to its end and are the reason, why the game is so great.
But if you look deeper into the details, you will realize as well as me, that in the deeper details, CDPR has lost themself in their quality, most likely due to running out if time, or budget money or other reasons, why they couldn't give all systems of the game the same quality as like they did to the core aspects of the game, why they couldn't make usage of all the potential the game has, even not through the later added expansions, where Hearts of Stone feels really being TINY compared to Blood & Wine.
The Content of HoS feels more like a little patch, than an expansion compared to B&W.

The game HAD patches, that were seriously alot bigger, than the whole content of HoS together!! You must realize this. They could have used the patches more to improve the areas that lack creativity/content, but instead they focused everything only onto one small area.
HoS woudl have been the perfect chance to improve as well especially Skellige *cough Siren Orgy cough* Islands ;)

HoS also would have been already a great chance to overwork more the Character Development and rebalasnce the game's combat system mechanics, but they just wasted the big chance and made everythign with more or less useless obsolete Glyphwords just worser.

However, I don't want to bash here now the game by showing up only bad things and what all could have been done better.
I'm just saying, I don't wear some fanboy glasses that let me ignore all the things that could have been done better, while there are naturally also alot of things, that CDPR has done a good job with this game, but surely not "almost" everything.
Therefore have they wasted too much potential everywhere in the game, as that we could say that.
 
The Oxenfurt Drunk comes to mind as a Buffy-like quest, where Geralt calls the vampire a bitch. It had me laughing so much.
Awww. I think the German translation didn't have Geralt say that, I would remember if he did... but I always crack up when he's drunk and the screen becomes all blurry and Geralt wobbles around xD
I think even the monsters themselves in TW3 have humour, in the English version nearly everybody including the Crones sound like British farmers from the west country and even the Grave Hags have that accent. Watch Hot Fuzz and you'll see what I mean, it's hard to take that accent seriously. Along with that, monsters interact with the world in a weird way, maybe it's the whole thing to do with the Conjunction of the Spheres but I've never felt like the atmosphere and the monsters have any symbiosis.
Agree on the last sentence - the atmosphere in Velen will always be gloomy and depressing because that land has been destroyed by war. Even if you get rid of all the monsters, it won't get any better. The atmosphere will stay grim, gloomy and depressing because the whole land is that way.
In German, the monsters don't have any noticable accent but in German so it's easier to take them seriously.
A lot of the monsters that only came out during the night in TW1 have a 24/7 appearance in TW3. I remember having to meditate because the drowners would only come out at a night, which made sense.
Wasn't it the same with the Fledders in TW1? I think I only encountered them during the night. In TW3, you have vampires running around in daylight. At least they don't sparkle xD
The Crones for instance didn't come off as repugnant magical beings but rather disproportionate people wearing cosplay and the botchling quest's horror was shut down completely by the fact that when it turned into a lubberkin (which is a funny sounding word) and becomes a floating ghost fetus which just seems ridiculous.
Funny. I always thought the Crones were disgusting - out of proportion, yes, but still disgusting. And the botchling quest was creepy even when it turned into a floating ghost fetus - can't remember the German word for it but it certainly wasn't lubberkin :)
One things for sure is that in B&W I was looking for Manticore gear and there was a bruxa in human form just wondering around and it made me jump when I tried getting closer, one of the only moments in the game that made me do that.
Gah. Bruxae. I don't like them. Last time I was just wandering around Toussaint and came to a protected treasure with a woman in a hood standing nearby. I figured that she was the one protecting the treasure; also, I had read somewhere that hooded women in B&W tend to be vampires. So I made Geralt gulp down Superior Black Blood, oil his sword with Superior Vampire Oil and got out those moondust bombs. When I talked to the woman, she said something along the lines of "Leave me alone" so I started to investigate the place nearby - found a corpse and a letter that seemed to indicate that a woman was slowly turning into a vampire. The second I closed the menu, the hooded woman turned into a Bruxa - and she was awfully fast o_O Also, that screech was awful and really unsettling.
But TW3 has little in terms of horror devices, a core strength to horror in general is the feeling of not having any control but Geralt is always in control.
Good point. I think there are a handful of scenes in which Geralt has no control at all resp. has no clue what is going on - mainly throughout HoS, especially towards the end of the mainquest. It's like nothing he's encountered before. Gaunter was like no opponent he had faced before. And with the Equine Phantoms, he's at a total loss as to what he's dealing with. He simply doesn't know what it is; hence, he doesn't know how to fight it which is very weird for an experienced witcher.
 
When you have played through the whole game and that on hardest difficulty, played through the expansions, you too will realize, that there are tons of things in this game, they could have been made alot better, that feel kind of rushed, as if the developers haven't spent much time developing these things, while other areas in the game received much more development time in comparison to reach the quality they have. Nothing else did I say.

You said you wanted all three games in the world of TW3. That is something entirely different than what you are saying now. You want to increase the quantity and quality of the game at the same time, when CDPR had already issues keep the quality consistent in TW3 alone.


But if you look deeper into the details, you will realize as well as me, that in the deeper details, CDPR has lost themself in their quality, most likely due to running out if time, or budget money or other reasons, why they couldn't give all systems of the game the same quality as like they did to the core aspects of the game, why they couldn't make usage of all the potential the game has, even not through the later added expansions, where Hearts of Stone feels really being TINY compared to Blood & Wine.

You mention lack of resources yourself, but at the same time you suggested that CDPR should've made the trilogy into one big game, further increasing the issues TW3 had?
We'd have even bigger maps with less to do. You'd need Vizima, Aedirn, Loc Muinne, etc., which would increase the mass of TW3 and further spread the content across more space, though the already existing space has not been utilized well. Not to mention the technical problems it would bring. TW1 was created on a completely different engine and the first two games were linear, non-open world games. Plus you'd have to bring them to TW3's standards, meaning Combat, Graphics, Animations and so on. A lot of money wasted on something completely ridiculous and unecessary.

The game HAD patches, that were seriously alot bigger, than the whole content of HoS together!! You must realize this. They could have used the patches more to improve the areas that lack creativity/content, but instead they focused everything only onto one small area.
HoS woudl have been the perfect chance to improve as well especially Skellige *cough Siren Orgy cough* Islands

Except HoS' plot took place on an entierely different continent. Furthermore it would feel really shitty to rework some aspects of the game and charge an extra buck. That's something other companies do and they - rightfully so - get a lot of shit for it. The reason why Sirens stick out like a sore thumb to you, is because they only appear in Skellige.


I'm just saying, I don't wear some fanboy glasses that let me ignore all the things that could have been done better, while there are naturally also alot of things, that CDPR has done a good job with this game, but surely not "almost" everything.
Therefore have they wasted too much potential everywhere in the game, as that we could say that.


Again, they did almost everything well. Compare TW3 to any other Open World game or RPG. In both instances TW3 is above average quality and in terms of Open World RPGs, I'd say it is the current leader. The reason why one feels like TW3 is worse than it's predecessors is because we know that the quality CDPR can achieve is higher. Still, the quality of TW3 is above average objectively speaking.


But to not be entirely off topic:


I think the Horror in TW3 is weaker than in TW1 though. The Crones were very well done, although I hoped for the Sabbath to be...more fucked up. The same goes for the Witch Hunters. Looking at the whole development of the series, I feel like it became a lot lighter with every installment. A shame, considering The Witcher games are supposed to be about the lesser of two evils.
 
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However, I don't want to bash here now the game by showing up only bad things and what all could have been done better.
I'm just saying, I don't wear some fanboy glasses that let me ignore all the things that could have been done better, while there are naturally also alot of things, that CDPR has done a good job with this game, but surely not "almost" everything.
Therefore have they wasted too much potential everywhere in the game, as that we could say that.
I agree on whole post and may add that fanboys don't understand that we talk about TW3 weak sides not because we want to bash game or irritate someone but because it is sad that so many opportunities were wasted and that huge beautifully designed world is half-empty and there is so little variation that I don't know what to do in a second walkthrough, 90% of actions/character development will be the same. Though that is definitely not problem of developers or designers but a mistake of project managers that they spend a lot of resources on useless fistfights/horseraces/excessive POIs and not on gameplay aspects that really matters.
I am playing TW1 now and it is really cool game with many interesting mechanics and I don't see many overlooked places, most is solid and balanced. I am only in second act and I already can list numerous things in which TW1 is better than TW3.
Let's hope that CDPR will combine both scale and design level of TW3 with quality balanced gameplay of previous games.

As for the topic, I don't see any horror in main game (I bought DLCs but kept them for second walkthrough) only may be a leshen when you occasionally meet him while being lvl5 character and mage tower (Keira's quest). All others possibly horrific monsters are simply look humorous because they can do nothing to your quen and even if quen fails you are protected by warriors resurrection. If you are invincible so what horror there might be?
 
You know, we actually tried really hard.
:smiling2:

Well, uh, I didn't mean it in that way. Of course you guys did a fantastic job. I mean it in a way, that horror wasn't the big selling point in TW3 but it was done so good; it better than most video games lately.

The crones and the Wild Hunt are things that nightmares are made of.
 
The Wild Hunt? Some wannabe evil Elves in big armor with Voice changer in their masks?

Come on...

Not necessarily scary, but a bit creepy. The very thought of waking up to a big spooky ship, Naglfar, and being taken away as one of the riders of the hunt. Geralt feared Eredin, this was revealed in Cave of Dreams.

Even the music was eerie.

[video=youtube;nq_IPP-rZtE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq_IPP-rZtE[/video]
 
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