Hey there, witchers and witcheresses!
As some of you may know, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt turned four in April, and, last month, Blood and Wine celebrated it's three-year anniversary! Since I know many of us have completed multiple play-throughs with our dear old Geralt, I'm curious to see the main reasons that have kept us coming back to the Witcher's world.
Is it the fine story-telling?
The lovely scenery?
A round of Gwent, perhaps?
Experiments in combat, alchemy, and signs?
The search for undiscovered secrets, and exploration?
Or some combination of all of these?
If you pick the combination, or Other, please, explain your specific inspirations.
1. Normally when I go back to the witcher (or almost any game), it's to experience the story again. You can hit thing X, or go find thingamabob Y, or level up to level Z in almost any RPGish game. It's story telling that really makes games worth repeating.
Nowadays, it's to complete the full trilogy playthrough, so I voted for "other".
The rest are all valid answers for me, and TW3 (like its predecessors) is one of those games with great atmosphere where I don't even have to do anything important storywise to enjoy them.
Although I enjoy the atmosphere for just running about, I've found that, for Wild Hunt in particular, I enjoy it more when following a quest. I think there's something about the open world which causes me to prefer a goal. I never encountered this with the other games, though.
Although I enjoy the atmosphere for just running about, I've found that, for Wild Hunt in particular, I enjoy it more when following a quest. I think there's something about the open world which causes me to prefer a goal. I never encountered this with the other games, though.
I understand you, that's how I feel about open world games in general - I need a story or good characters to keep me invested, otherwise I won't have patience for more than 10h. TW3 is more like exception to the rule. Doesn't mean that I don't like the story, just that I'm equally enjoying the time between quests. The game world is so fleshed out and the ambient music is fantastic on any corner of the map.
Combination of all the things.
As for specifics... well, here are a few:
Story and characters
I'm not at all surprised option 1 is in the lead. Even just the main story would make the game worth at least a couple replays due to the sheer number of combinations when it comes to choices both big and small. I'm the kind of player who is always wondering, "What if I'd done X instead of Y? Would Z have happened?" -- especially when a choice has consequences that I don't like and that seem like they could have been avoided by choosing differently. I think there are still such choices in the game that I haven't fully explored despite how much time I've spent in the game over the years.
Some parts of the main story just never seem to get old or tedious to go through. A good example of this is the
battle of Kaer Morhen. No matter how many times I've played it, or seen it played, it's always exciting to go with Lambert and Letho (who is always present in my game) to close those portals and see the cutscenes of the witchers fighting. No matter how many times I see Eskel vs. Caranthir, I really enjoy it. No matter how many times I see what happens to Vesemir, it always makes me, at the very least, feel really sad. Even though I know Lambert cannot die when Keira is present I always get anxious when his battle scene begins. No matter how many times I watch the funeral scene after the battle -- unless I look away when Ciri runs away crying -- it always makes me cry.
There is not a single other game out there that could compare to that -- and that's just ONE quest in a huge game!
While most of the main characters have the advantage(?) of having existing backgrounds and personalities in literature, they would not be half as good NPCs as they are if they weren't portrayed so well. Naturally, in a video game, voice-acting is a significant part of what makes or breaks characters. I've played the game in English and Polish, both of which have their pros and cons. Some characters, such as Ciri, have a very different feel about them between the two languages, which is one of the small things that add replay value.
Some minor characters are fun to interact with, others are annoying, and still others are just plain boring. In this context, boring isn't necessarily a negative thing; if all NPCs were special in some way, no NPCs would be truly special. Granted, this diversity in NPCs "personalities" is in no way specific to The Witcher 3 -- but it is one of the things that keeps me interested in the game, thus adding replay value.
Scenery
Yes, it's beautiful and varying enough to count as a factor that adds replay value. I can spend long periods of time just wandering around looking at all the pretty, and in some cases not so pretty, sights. There is an insane amount of flora in the game (and fauna as well), which in itself warrants a lot of screenshotting.
The swamps in Velen may get tedious during early-game, but I find it's really enjoyable to return there after adventuring in Skellige, Toussaint, or Kaer Morhen. There is beauty to be found everywhere in the game world.
Gwent
I do have to say the minigame has lost a lot of its charm due to the standalone, but it's still fun to play. The replay value adding thing about gwent is the randomness of the cards you get from 'players of no particular renown'. Maybe it's just me, but I think it's interesting to see how long it takes to win the best cards, such as Villentretenmerth.
Combat and alchemy
The combat system is, quite simply, brilliant. It can be fun regardless of how you play, and the ability to combine strategies is great. Sometimes I will throw Devil's Puffballs and Axii opponents so they stand in the poison cloud, sometimes (well, most of the time) I will go full-on melee with swords, sometimes it's fun to watch things burn, fall off cliffs, or kill their friends. I've even taken the time to deflect arrows back at level ?? enemies, slooooooooowly killing them while giggling madly. Combat is neverending fun in this game, and definitely one of the things that gets me to come back time after time after time.
Discovering stuff
One of the main strengths of massive open-world games is the fact that there always seems to be more to be found in some forest, on some mountain, or in some lone building. I'm 100% certain there are things I have never discovered in the world, especially in Skellige and Toussaint. Things that I want to discover at some point in the future. Even if it's just a sack with some minor loot, finding new things is, in my opinion, never a waste of time or effort because the discovery itself counts more than what was discovered.
(I probably forgot to mention something, because this feels a lot shorter than it ought to be.)
1.) As the story and characters are so well-nuanced and cinematic -- so many scenes that resonate -- on top of the gameplay and world to explore...
It's like playing one of the best, open world games and watching one of the best fantasy films at the same time. That level of polish, with all of the parts working so well together, is so very rare. It's definitely not just "the story", but the execution. It's so cohesive and satisfying.
When I played it for the first time it was mostly a mixture of "I don't want it to end" and I'd also changed my mind about certain choices I'd made. Not because I'd read up on their consequences but just because I formed different opinions on the morality of certain situations as I thought them over. I then wanted to see what'd happen.
After the second playthrough I intended at first to sort of "call it a day". I looked up all sorts of choices and outcomes, just out of curiosity. Buuuuuuuuut it didn't take very long for the Witcher virus to strike yet again... long story short, I'm now on my 4h playthrough lol. And I'm capturing and sharing it all over on my YT channel - so I've a Witcher 3 Death March Gameplay Walkthrough in 4K HDR over there now (work in progress).
This is gonna sound a little weird maybe, but it feels really nice to document it all in full, in high quality, and with a level of gameplay I can live with. It's almost therapeutic . What's bothered me about my previous playthroughs is that I didn't really have any snapshot of it, just memories, and memories fade. It's nice to have actual, tangible videos of the entire experience! All sorted with recognisable titles and pictures for rewatching & safekeeping FOREVER
I've never actually made it through a full replay of TW3. TW1 & TW2 I've played through over and over. TW3? Just too long for me to get through it again. It's hard to justify doing a replay of a game that takes 100+ hours.
I've never actually made it through a full replay of TW3. TW1 & TW2 I've played through over and over. TW3? Just too long for me to get through it again. It's hard to justify doing a replay of a game that takes 100+ hours.
I totally get this, but I got good at my replay system. Done 5 and 1/2 now. I can do the base game in about 50 hours:
1.) I do the main quest unless I need coin for something or I need to level up. As soon as the main quests are in the "yellow" (meaning, green - orange level I know I can beat without breaking 6 swords), it's right back to the main quest.
2.) No random rummaging for treasure. No random fighting unless I'm caught out.
3.) No looting anything unless I need something. I may take very rare items, mutagens, etc. Everything else stays on the ground. (I can't begin to describe how much time this saves in the long-run. No clicking on every single enemy after a fight...no constant running back to town to offload junk...no time spent scrolling through huge pages of inventory...)
4.) Only take contracts in the area that I am at that time. Can't begin to explain how many cool quests I found this way that I had never seen before. I mean, during my last playthrough, I decided, you know, I've never headed to Novigrad via the eastern road. Changed m'life.
PS4 achievements, story, accomplishment by doing it on higher difficulty (I just finished DM NG+, having beaten it on all the other ones except the lowest), etc.
I voted for "other" because everything else I have already enjoyed four times (the story, the locations, the interesting NPCs, all possible quests.)
The superb landscapes are under constant little change while I am modding but still absolute breathtaking and with fantastic up-to-date graphics on the PC version with various mods for no-LOD-pop-ins, no popups, maximum render distance of everything to the horizon, beautyful depth of field and lighting shader mods.)
I enjoy the game for other qualities now, the great dark fantasy atmosphere, the fantasy-horror vibes radiating from these dark ominous woods, going with Geralt on long walks through fantasy woods with emanations ghosts and monsters.
I do some side quests currently with farmers talking about spooks and phantoms in their farms and on the fields, just to enjoy the superb dark fantasy horror atmosphere this game has to offer.
There are no other fantasy horror games available on the market right now, only Bloodborne or Dishonored 2 comes close. And Witcher 3 is truly the best of the best games ever made.
. What's bothered me about my previous playthroughs is that I didn't really have any snapshot of it, just memories, and memories fade. It's nice to have actual, tangible videos of the entire experience! All sorted with recognisable titles and pictures for rewatching & safekeeping FOREVER
