The Witcher (2007) as a specific cultural phenomenon in the series
TW1 stands out in The Witcher series and, in my opinion, has every right to be called a cult game, which was obviously underestimated by gamers and devs themselves.
The amazing thing about this game is its deep spiritual connection with another cult game which was also released in 2007. I'm talking about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I'm sure that these games took a special part in the hearts of the gamers because of the special elements that they had in common. And, while S.T.A.L.K.E.R. saved its own unique style, The Witcher has undergone a lot of changes, which, unfortunately, didn't help the franchise.
The overall atmosphere and style:
Brutal and grim.
In TW1 the witcher was universally hated; everyone treated him rudely, calling him a freak and a mutant. All he did in light of this was wander under the grey skies along the ruined roads between decaying villages, drink with local peasants, and have sex with women in the old watermills.
In S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the protagonist is a lone wolf who can only trust in himself. He should take into consideration the interests of the various fractions, while attempting to keep neutrality. The entire game has him travelling under the heavy grey sky along dirty untended tracks between desolate factories, farms, and villages. He drinks vodka to protect himself from radiation and eats kolbasa and canned meat.
I don't remember a game (except The Witcher and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) with such a a great contrast between safe zones and wild, hostile territories.
On one hand, there are comfy, busy, nice stalker camps, and on the other, there is the dangerous Zone outside, full of mutants and anomalies at each step and every corner.
First chapter of The Witcher: quiet and calm Outskirts at day/fearful and deserted nightly Outskirts, haunted by barghests, ghouls and drowners.
Second and Third chapters: crowded and noisy Vizima/gloomy and eerie swamps literally swarmed by various monsters.
Fourth chapter: the peaceful and cozy village/abandoned sun-drenched fields in the neighboring location which emit the feeling of a deathly danger even at the height of day.
Every time I crossed the border between these two zones, I could feel the immediate sense of danger, the change of surroundings, in my gut. I have never found anything like that in other games.
Here we have a point to remember a very important leitmotif from Slavic folklore, which has no counterparts in Western mythology: the division of the world into "clean" and "unclean" territories. For example, a home and churches are clean places. You are protected by guardian spirits there. The forest, the field, and banya (Russian sauna or a public bath) are not clean places. There you are left alone against the world, and the wild nature, and evil spirits that inhabit it. There were even certain rituals and directions aimed at protecting people who are in the "unclean" territory.
TW1 demonstrates this division with amazing accuracy, and itʹs an additional advantage of the game, although initially the devs definitely didn't think about this motive.
Realism
In S.T.A.L.K.E.R. you can't carry dozens of weapons since even if you could fit them in your inventory, their weight won't let you move.
In TW1 you only have three slots for weapons and one for armor. For this reason, if you find a fourth sword, you will have to throw it away, because you only have space for small items such as ingredients, potions, food, drinks and quest items. The variety of armors and swords is tiny - you can finish the game with the same gear that you started with.
Orientation for an adult audience
It should be noted that TW1 had a revolutionary approach in terms of presenting sexual content. This is the first game where female nudity was displayed and you could have sex simply because you liked it.
A campfire is like a place of power
In TW1 it has a practical meaning - Geralt can meditate and make his potions only when near the campfire.
In S.T.A.L.K.E.R. a campfires cannot be used by your character. However they hold an important symbolic value as that of being a place that people can gather around, and as a sign of civilization that is opposed to the forces of Chaos represented by the Zone, its mutants and its anomalies.
-
Now let's have a look at The Witcher 2/3.
I think it would only be reasonable to view them as a single game because they have more things in common than it might seem at first glance. One Russian game journalist even called the The Witcher 3 a "Witcher 2 with an open world". And that's not surprising. If you think about it, aside from gameplay commonalities, The Witcher 3 continues the conflicts that were established in the second game and almost never references the first game.
The Atmosphere, the World, and Geralt's Place in it
Bright palette, which the series has featured since TW2, dealt a crushing blow to the atmosphere. Witcher 2 and 3 can be compared to a colorful cartoon. Witcher 1 had primitive graphics and models, but the visuals had much more seriousness to them in comparison.
The division of the world into safe and dangerous zones is now a thing of the past - the atmosphere in different locations no longer amazes with its contrasts. The last time I felt this division was in The Witcher 2, in Flotsam, where the contrast between a small town and a huge ancient forest outside its high walls, from which Flotsam was guarded day and night by dozens of soldiers, was very strong. But in The Witcher 3, there are no such contrasts - even the endregas turned from the relic forest inhabitants they were into yet another kind of wolves that can be found under every bush.
People's attitude towards Geralt has also changed: now
they name children in his honor and constantly ask questions about his past, as if he were a pop star. It's not surprising, because in The Witcher 3 Geralt looks more like a sleek and ripped stud.
Realism
Starting with the last two Witcher games, the devs have decided to move on from their own style, adopting the global RPG standards.
- Dozens of weapons and armor in the inventory, silver swords (which you could only obtain by order in The Witcher 1) lying at every turn.
- Potions that you can brew without meditation, and even without ingredients in Witcher 3.
- A plethora of hints, markers, tips that significantly narrow the explorable world. The player tells himself, "Why would I explore something if it isn't marked or tagged by any other means?" And this obsessive care for the player reaches absurd levels. I remember a quest in which we find a soldier's corpse with a letter. In the letter, that soldier tells about how he hid a treasure nearby, and even explains that you can find it... following a blood trail, which stretches from his corpse to the hidden stash. What idiocy. I.e., devs were so afraid that the player would forget to switch on witcher senses and follow the highlighted trail that they explained what needs to be done via a letter.
The same goes for treasure hunting. Why is it that smuggled goods and hidden treasure spots are shown on the map? It eliminates any motivation whatsoever to explore the world of the game. Wouldn't it be much more thrilling if areas where smuggled goods might be discovered were not on the map and you could only find them by, say, floating wreckage debris, whereas hidden treasure could be found wherever by pure accident?
Teen-oriented
There is no fully naked women in TW3. NOT EVEN A SINGLE ONE. Even the bruxa from Blood & Wine modestly covers her private parts with a convenient guardrail.
But the main problem with TW3 is that the game is not enough of a challenge.
The Witcher 1 did not only force us to improve the character's combat skills, but also made it necessary to drink specific potions in order to fight certain types of monsters, to look out for fireplaces to cook food or meditate, to gather ingredients for potions.
However, in The Witcher 3, there is no need for the Golden oriole, and many of the interesting elixirs from the first game, such as Bindweed (protection from acid), Kiss (protection from bleeding) and Willow (grants immunity to the stun and knockdown), are removed entirely. In the first Witcher, the venom of wyverns and bloedzuiger would take away a half of your hit points. But in The Witcher 3, those enemies who can poison Geralt (basilisks, wyverns, endriages, arachnomorphs) seldom use this ability. In the first game, you could not safely descend into a dungeon without using the Cat potion, but in the third game, Geralt easily does without it, so the player doesn't even need the potion. It can't be justified with just exceptional witcher eyesight: he always had better vision in the night than ordinary people, but even Geralt couldn't see in absolute darkness.
Qualitatively, I accept, that "The Witcher 3" is a good and quite interesting game. But it will never take the place in gamers' hearts like "The Witcher 1" did. So, if the devs plan to continue the series, I hope, they will return to its foundations rather than oversimplifying the game mechanics to please unassuming gamers.
TW1 stands out in The Witcher series and, in my opinion, has every right to be called a cult game, which was obviously underestimated by gamers and devs themselves.
The amazing thing about this game is its deep spiritual connection with another cult game which was also released in 2007. I'm talking about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I'm sure that these games took a special part in the hearts of the gamers because of the special elements that they had in common. And, while S.T.A.L.K.E.R. saved its own unique style, The Witcher has undergone a lot of changes, which, unfortunately, didn't help the franchise.
The overall atmosphere and style:
Brutal and grim.
In TW1 the witcher was universally hated; everyone treated him rudely, calling him a freak and a mutant. All he did in light of this was wander under the grey skies along the ruined roads between decaying villages, drink with local peasants, and have sex with women in the old watermills.
In S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the protagonist is a lone wolf who can only trust in himself. He should take into consideration the interests of the various fractions, while attempting to keep neutrality. The entire game has him travelling under the heavy grey sky along dirty untended tracks between desolate factories, farms, and villages. He drinks vodka to protect himself from radiation and eats kolbasa and canned meat.
I don't remember a game (except The Witcher and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) with such a a great contrast between safe zones and wild, hostile territories.
On one hand, there are comfy, busy, nice stalker camps, and on the other, there is the dangerous Zone outside, full of mutants and anomalies at each step and every corner.
First chapter of The Witcher: quiet and calm Outskirts at day/fearful and deserted nightly Outskirts, haunted by barghests, ghouls and drowners.
Second and Third chapters: crowded and noisy Vizima/gloomy and eerie swamps literally swarmed by various monsters.
Fourth chapter: the peaceful and cozy village/abandoned sun-drenched fields in the neighboring location which emit the feeling of a deathly danger even at the height of day.
Every time I crossed the border between these two zones, I could feel the immediate sense of danger, the change of surroundings, in my gut. I have never found anything like that in other games.
Here we have a point to remember a very important leitmotif from Slavic folklore, which has no counterparts in Western mythology: the division of the world into "clean" and "unclean" territories. For example, a home and churches are clean places. You are protected by guardian spirits there. The forest, the field, and banya (Russian sauna or a public bath) are not clean places. There you are left alone against the world, and the wild nature, and evil spirits that inhabit it. There were even certain rituals and directions aimed at protecting people who are in the "unclean" territory.
TW1 demonstrates this division with amazing accuracy, and itʹs an additional advantage of the game, although initially the devs definitely didn't think about this motive.
Realism
In S.T.A.L.K.E.R. you can't carry dozens of weapons since even if you could fit them in your inventory, their weight won't let you move.
In TW1 you only have three slots for weapons and one for armor. For this reason, if you find a fourth sword, you will have to throw it away, because you only have space for small items such as ingredients, potions, food, drinks and quest items. The variety of armors and swords is tiny - you can finish the game with the same gear that you started with.
Orientation for an adult audience
It should be noted that TW1 had a revolutionary approach in terms of presenting sexual content. This is the first game where female nudity was displayed and you could have sex simply because you liked it.
A campfire is like a place of power
In TW1 it has a practical meaning - Geralt can meditate and make his potions only when near the campfire.
In S.T.A.L.K.E.R. a campfires cannot be used by your character. However they hold an important symbolic value as that of being a place that people can gather around, and as a sign of civilization that is opposed to the forces of Chaos represented by the Zone, its mutants and its anomalies.
-
Now let's have a look at The Witcher 2/3.
I think it would only be reasonable to view them as a single game because they have more things in common than it might seem at first glance. One Russian game journalist even called the The Witcher 3 a "Witcher 2 with an open world". And that's not surprising. If you think about it, aside from gameplay commonalities, The Witcher 3 continues the conflicts that were established in the second game and almost never references the first game.
The Atmosphere, the World, and Geralt's Place in it
Bright palette, which the series has featured since TW2, dealt a crushing blow to the atmosphere. Witcher 2 and 3 can be compared to a colorful cartoon. Witcher 1 had primitive graphics and models, but the visuals had much more seriousness to them in comparison.
The division of the world into safe and dangerous zones is now a thing of the past - the atmosphere in different locations no longer amazes with its contrasts. The last time I felt this division was in The Witcher 2, in Flotsam, where the contrast between a small town and a huge ancient forest outside its high walls, from which Flotsam was guarded day and night by dozens of soldiers, was very strong. But in The Witcher 3, there are no such contrasts - even the endregas turned from the relic forest inhabitants they were into yet another kind of wolves that can be found under every bush.
People's attitude towards Geralt has also changed: now
they name children in his honor and constantly ask questions about his past, as if he were a pop star. It's not surprising, because in The Witcher 3 Geralt looks more like a sleek and ripped stud.
Realism
Starting with the last two Witcher games, the devs have decided to move on from their own style, adopting the global RPG standards.
- Dozens of weapons and armor in the inventory, silver swords (which you could only obtain by order in The Witcher 1) lying at every turn.
- Potions that you can brew without meditation, and even without ingredients in Witcher 3.
- A plethora of hints, markers, tips that significantly narrow the explorable world. The player tells himself, "Why would I explore something if it isn't marked or tagged by any other means?" And this obsessive care for the player reaches absurd levels. I remember a quest in which we find a soldier's corpse with a letter. In the letter, that soldier tells about how he hid a treasure nearby, and even explains that you can find it... following a blood trail, which stretches from his corpse to the hidden stash. What idiocy. I.e., devs were so afraid that the player would forget to switch on witcher senses and follow the highlighted trail that they explained what needs to be done via a letter.
The same goes for treasure hunting. Why is it that smuggled goods and hidden treasure spots are shown on the map? It eliminates any motivation whatsoever to explore the world of the game. Wouldn't it be much more thrilling if areas where smuggled goods might be discovered were not on the map and you could only find them by, say, floating wreckage debris, whereas hidden treasure could be found wherever by pure accident?
Teen-oriented
There is no fully naked women in TW3. NOT EVEN A SINGLE ONE. Even the bruxa from Blood & Wine modestly covers her private parts with a convenient guardrail.
But the main problem with TW3 is that the game is not enough of a challenge.
The Witcher 1 did not only force us to improve the character's combat skills, but also made it necessary to drink specific potions in order to fight certain types of monsters, to look out for fireplaces to cook food or meditate, to gather ingredients for potions.
However, in The Witcher 3, there is no need for the Golden oriole, and many of the interesting elixirs from the first game, such as Bindweed (protection from acid), Kiss (protection from bleeding) and Willow (grants immunity to the stun and knockdown), are removed entirely. In the first Witcher, the venom of wyverns and bloedzuiger would take away a half of your hit points. But in The Witcher 3, those enemies who can poison Geralt (basilisks, wyverns, endriages, arachnomorphs) seldom use this ability. In the first game, you could not safely descend into a dungeon without using the Cat potion, but in the third game, Geralt easily does without it, so the player doesn't even need the potion. It can't be justified with just exceptional witcher eyesight: he always had better vision in the night than ordinary people, but even Geralt couldn't see in absolute darkness.
Qualitatively, I accept, that "The Witcher 3" is a good and quite interesting game. But it will never take the place in gamers' hearts like "The Witcher 1" did. So, if the devs plan to continue the series, I hope, they will return to its foundations rather than oversimplifying the game mechanics to please unassuming gamers.