Thoughts about the old (or not quite), but not forgotten. How is the “Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” feels in 2022.

Is it worth it to warn that there will be spoilers here? Well, just in case, yes. And a little swear quotes, so 18+.

In terrible time we live, the time of change. Where the smaller, where greater evil is very difficult to understand. And it is very difficult to gather thoughts at the moment because of everything that is happening, but still I want to share with you the opinion of the “Witcher 3” and the final opinion throughout the series. Links to thoughts about the first and second part I will leave here.

“Witcher 3: Wild Hunt”, the game of 2015 according to The Game Awards, and, according to many players, the game of a decade (for me, too, what to hide). She influenced the game industry quite strongly by her, at that time, interesting ideas, which, it seems, is so easy to think of, but for some reason no one wanted to realize. The same “mythical” subaceria Assassin’s Creed was inspired by “wild hunting” in terms of game design and design of the world, Ubisoft themselves do not hide this. But it’s not enough just to take a cool idea from someone and fasten it to their formula. I need passion, desire, motivation to create a game so that it pops deep down by the players. Alas, the balance between the desire to simply earn and the desire to create a really iconic product has been distorted in recent years yourself know where. And hold this balance to units of large companies. Even that hope of players around the world, Cyberpunk 2077, fell victim to great ambitions. The absurd guide, processing and burnout of employees and a lot of factors, which we will not find out soon, led to huge problems in the company.

Trilogy “In Search of Tsiri”, “Protection of Ciri”, “Wendetta Tsiri”.

“Wild hunting” is, for many players, the first part with which they began acquaintance with the Witcher universe. And I can’t imagine how they passed it, because nothing is clear. Who is Ciri? Why should it be found? Who is she for Geralt? What a black -haired girl meets you after the prologue? Nothing is clear, but very interesting. Yes, you can object to me “the main characters are gradually revealed in the side quests and the main storyline” and “the first and second parts were slightly torn off from the book series” and so on. And yes, I agree. “Wild Hunt” does everything possible to please the new players, revealing the characters appearing in books and previous games, and also makes references to events that took place before the third part. In general, my advice to everyone who has not played (and I think there are few people left) – play in the first two parts, they are not so outdated so that the blood is completely from the eyes. In the first you, together with Geralt, study this world, and in the second you will see all the intrigues and conspiracies, a prelude to a large war in the final part. But the series “Witcher” from Netflix I also advise you to watch. It is very controversial, subject to modern trends and so on, but in order to understand the structure of this universe, get acquainted with the characters at the beginning of their great story (even if this story leaves the book canon) is still worth. Believe me, thanks to such a large and rich background – you will like the “wild hunt” much more than without it.

Well, in principle, you can discuss the main plot. He is simple and excellent. The scriptwriters were able to write a very long, but not boring and not boring plot. If you describe it briefly – “Roll up in three places in the footsteps of Ciri, find Ciri, and then kill the wild hunt” – it will turn out, of course, dry and trivial. But why I fell in love with the game – this is a huge number of sewn storylines in one main one, with a large number of endings. While you are traveling around the world with Geralt – you meet many characters, help them, then side tasks appear with them, you remember them and attach them. Three quests “Look for Ciri in Velena/Novigrad/Skelig” are three wood, and a huge, intertwined crown grows from each. It does not bother, including because each of these regions is unique and is not like each other. Velen and the surroundings are almost scorched Temer land, with a couple of villages and one large wooden fort. Novihrad is a city that war does not affect at all, where people live and do not worry about tomorrow, but which has their underground, mafia games. And Skelliga. What about the islands of Skellig can be said? The developers were clearly inspired by the Danish islands. These are classic Vikings, live robberies and drinking, honor the traditions of their ancestors, fight among themselves, they spit deeply about what is happening on the continent (before the Nilfhaard attack). Well, culture, manner of communication also corresponds to our usual ideas about the Vikings.

Pulled by the ears, yes, but it seems to me that it looks like.

Pulled by the ears, yes, but it seems to me that it looks like.

And so we found Ciri. But troubles begin at this moment. Not in the plot, it will be very chic. Troubles taking place with characters, but first they open us a new location. It turns out to be the Witcher Fortress Kaer Morhen, and, oh my god, what I was talking about above – if you played in the first part – you will feel a powerful attack of nostalgia. The fortress migrated from it almost 1 in 1, many details were taken into account.

The moment of climax has come. The first big fight against wild hunting. Depending on your passage (and on your bloodthirstiness), Geralt collects allies from all over the world, friends and former enemies. I tried to maintain the maximum number of lives, so I had the battle in the fortress in full force. And it’s just amazing. These are the most beautifully set battles on the swords in the game, I like it more than in the final battle. I remember my first passage – this is constant tension. You understand that you are not in a linear game, where you will restart the task when failing. When the task is fail, it will remain failing and you can only come to terms with it (yes, there is the possibility of rebooting, but so uninteresting). And it is unfortunate that this remains only in the first impression. The battle itself is very grinded enough, and the only thing that can happen is the death of Lambert, in the absence of Keira Metz in the team. But this is difficult to allow, since he has a lot of health, not to run to him for long, and to kill all opponents – just spit. But what cannot be avoided is the death of Vesemir. Mentor and consider that Geralt’s father dies in battle, protecting Ciri. “Not a single witcher dies in bed”. A very strong, emotional scene, directed and set just perfectly. I have nothing to add.

I do not see the point of retelling the further plot, since many have done this before me, but you need to play the game, and not read a summary. But I want to say about endings – they are very worthy. There is a classic “Hollywood” happy ending, which in this universe is rare, there is also the most uncertain, which is why the most terrible ending. Each time after passing and reproducing the game, I have a question – what the book, “canonical” would do, Cyry? Alas, we do not know what she went through while traveling around the worlds, but it seems to me that she would return to her native world, one way or another.

I have questions.

Of course, I understand that the plot of the third part exceeds both the first and second parts, serves as the culmination of all previous events, the war of people and elves has gone to the second or third plan after the Nilfhaard invasion of the Kingdom of the North, but still why it was necessary to cut out (or simply not to do, or even forget) so many plot lines that did not receive their logical conclusion? I would be very happy to hear at least some information about Jorve. Is he alive, if alive, then where? and so on. The same applies to Saskia (if you did not kill her at the end of the second part). She is still, whatever one may say, a dragon! But no, they, apparently, were simply cut out of the game.

I also had a question about the Temer throne. In my passage of the second part, Vernon Roche took the little Anais La Valett, the daughter of the late king of the foil, in a safe place, and already in the third Topieria received a vassal status, thanks to all the same Vernon, who signed a truce with Nilfgaard. “Temer lilies will bloom in the rays of the Great Sun”.

But where is the girl? Even the mother of royal offspring does not mention them. Or Adda, the wife of the late Radovid (if Geralt did not kill her in the first part)? They are both legal (plus or minus) heiress of the throne. But there is not a word about any of these ladies in the game. Rocher says that the theme will not fall apart, but who will edit is unknown.

Missing. If you find, please write in a comment.

Missing. If you find, please write in a comment.

Missing. If you find, please write in a comment.

And these are far from all the questions that I still have after passing. A funny situation happened with a beautiful, good -natured and intelligent man named Thaler. In the first part of the game, he can die, and in the third – he is alive and well, regardless of your decision. Loss or admission of scriptwriters? I want to give him a quote: “Sorry, brother, but dick I will tell you”. We will not find out the answer.

Having at your disposal a huge world, as well as two parts behind your back – I understand that it is very difficult to organically enter all the completion of secondary plot lines so necessary for fans. This requires even more time and resources than the developers had. In fairness, I want to note that in the additions of “Stone Hearts” and “Blood and Wine”, the developers made many references to the previous parts of the trilogy (professor’s glasses at the auction, the return of Shani, the fate of the Order of the Burning Rose, the School of the Manticores, and so on), thereby paid tribute to both players and themselves. But the sediment remained.

The price of neutrality.

There is no more neutrality. And he was only in the first part, in my opinion. Someone shouts that this is “Necanon, the book Geralt would not have done so!”, But I do not see a problem in this. Now I’ll try to explain.

Geralt really did not go into politics, or at least tried not to climb. He just lived in the way, trying to calmly engage in his craft and never had a clear goal or meaning in life. Hunting for monsters to somehow make ends meet. Until a certain point. After already book events and the events of the first two games, we understand that, firstly, he got close friends, to whom he became very attached, despite all his excuses about “lack of emotions due to mutations”. Secondly, Ciri, who became his daughter for him. And all his loved ones, one way or another, of his own free will or not, are drawn into dirty political games, into the war, whether it be Nilfgard against the North or people against “protein”. And Geralt has to choose, he cannot but choose. And the player must choose. An indicative example of “Neutrality Prices” was shown in the fourth chapter of the first part of the game, when it was necessary to decide at the same time for whom Geralt protrudes for – for “protein” or for the Order. There was a third option – neutrality. And neutrality was the destruction of both the detachment of the order and the squad of the “protein”. Maximum massacre. Unjust? Absolutely. Hard? Very. But these are realities. When you are in the center of events, when you are a key factor for solving the problem – you can no longer not take the side, otherwise it will lead to an even greater disaster. Geralt understands this perfectly and, already depending on the player, chooses “more” or “less evil”.

Therefore, for example, I consider it stupidity even the very https://chillireelscasino.uk/ opportunity to throw my friends, Roche, Bianca and Thaler, to leave them to be torn to a dice, after the murder of Radovid. Honestly, I don’t understand how such a turn of events came up with the scriptwriters. That is, during the attempt on Radovida, Geralt can forget about his “neutrality”, and after – “I don’t know anything, sort it out yourself, I don’t care, you can kill my friends”. And Rocher saved his life to Geralt, risking his own neck.

Well, about this, I had a reaction when I saw what would happen if you take the side of the diikstra and leave.

But the path of neutrality in the storyline of Radovid is still. Either break the leg of the diikster again, then such a task will not appear at all, or just by the end of the game to ignore the invitations of diikstra to the “Circle of General Interests”. In my passage, I could not ignore it, since the reign of Radovida threatened all the nonhumans, sorceresses, dopplers, and so on, among which Geralt has so many friends.

Again, this is my opinion. If you think differently – let’s discuss in the comments.

Game in the game.

Guint. My God, what resonance and love of players did this mini-game receive after the release of “wild hunting”. Honestly, I can not recall a single case when the mini-games grow into independent projects with prolonged support. I am not a big fan of an independent “gvint” and in general card games, but in the “Witcher 3” itself I went through all the quests with it, tried to collect all the decks. Yes, after I have already dealt with the rules and collected good cards – I saw a lot of balanced problems (the same espionage cards seemed too imbias to me, there was never a problem to win if at least two were in your hand from the very beginning), but, damn it how they tried it. I don’t know if they had the original plan after the release of the third part to release Gwint, but they clearly managed to create an interesting precedent in the gaming industry. A separate mention is an infinite number of memes associated with giant.

Vsevolod Kuznetsov, Special Human thank you very much.

In the first and second part of the series, there was a bone game, but it was unremarkable, except for a couple of funny dialogs, but in the third developers surpassed themselves and many of their other colleagues in the workshop.

“You yourself, bitch, Peter Dinklage!”,” Lambert, Lambert Her Morj “and other charms.

It is no secret that the ENT “Witcher” is very strongly based on the East European, including Slavic, so close to many of us, culture and mythology. The same runes to improve weapons are named after the Slavic pagan gods.

Many villages in the game very much resemble really existing villages that we can see in the paintings.

Many villages in the game very much resemble really existing villages that we can see in the paintings.

What can I say even nature in the game seems to be native. For this I love the “Witcher”, and “Stalker”, and “Kingdom Come Deliverance”.

But there is little visual high. It was necessary to voice the game so that it was alive, so that I wanted to believe in it. And if with an audio design more than in order, in cities, villages, on the open sea, then I would like to stay on Russian voice acting. And she’s just magnificent.

Yes, there are technical jambs in it. Each time the phrases of the characters stretch or, conversely, accelerate – blood from the ears comes. But you get used to it over time. Could this be fixed at the localization stage? The devil knows him.

Sergey Igorevich Chikhachev commented on the situation with voice acting (1:49 on the video): “Someone forgot to warn the localizers that we are working in timing”. And there were no more human and finance on the rewriting of crooked replicas, so they got what they received.

Many, of course, are spitting from such technical performance, and it is clear why. The immersion breaks very much, it affects the overall picture of the game very much. But, frankly, after 5 hours, I already reconciled and, even to some extent, got used to it. And those who do not accept this fact at all are always available at your disposal of voice acting in other languages. I know that many went through the game in Polish or English. And this is their right, I completely understand them and support them. I would like to say only one thing in defense of Russian voice acting – there are not so many such technical problems, some are barely noticeable, and the additions of “stone hearts” and “blood and wine” do not at all suffer. But enough about it.

Russian voice acting is really great. Yes, many jokes were registered, there were few improvisations, but! with what soul, with what color and what professionalism the work was done. Yes, the players were divided into two camps because of the voice of Geralt-Vsevolod Kuznetsov, someone does not like him from the word in general, and someone considers him the best voice of Geralt from all who voiced him in different languages. I’ll just say: I liked it.

But I want to talk not about the main “caste”, but about secondary characters, characters on the street, in cities, in villages that throw a replica and leave. Residents of the village talk and behave as natural as possible in a creative work – in their words you can feel confidence that they say. Do they need to cut the sheep for the happiness of the newlyweds or, only when you see the witcher, shout in a panic, “hide the kids, the witcher is coming!”. Aristocrats, in turn, are also voiced authentically, and talk according to their estate. They are brought up, they speak correctly and with neglect of the witcher, but sometimes they can break into emotions and swift him. Such a detailed work on the voice acting of characters is expensive. I can’t say that this is the first such powerful project, but definitely one of those that was remembered for a long time. And, including thanks to Matu.

Mat in games was rarely met. Everything is licked, the “faki” is changed to “hell”, “damn”, which periodically also introduces into a stupor. Why is this done? Don’t know. Perhaps depends on the voice acting studio, on the leadership. Showing example – The Last of US 2. The game has already received a rating of 18+, all the characters in the original are strongly, to put it mildly, faded. But from the characters you will not hear anything coarser than the word “bitch”. In the world post-apocalypse and complete pi … And they somehow manage to follow the bazaar.

In the “wild hunting” the mat is not so small, but it is almost always to the place. And in fact, this is not only the merit of the actors of voice actors, but also very rich in strong words of the Russian language. Periodically you can hear such remarks from which you want to yell into a voice, and in combination with an acting game is just a masterpiece.

On Stopgame came out the release of “Difficulties of translation” about “Witcher 3”, an hourly detailed analysis. I do not agree with the author with everything, but the video turned out to be excellent and informative.

Purely for familiarization or nostalgia

And yes, in Cyberpanka, it seems to me, they still went over with obscenities.

Oh, these interrogative signs.

Yes, I am a fan of this series, I can endlessly tell and prove to people that the game is masterpiece, 12 out of 10, goosebumps on the tips and so on. The same applies to the game design and the construction of the world. But there is one Maaalenny detail that causes me a flame at the fifth point. I like to go through games if not 100%, then at least 90-95%to feel as fully as possible every detail on which the developers worked, but honestly and frankly-signs “?»On Skelliga – this is hell. What “infection” came up with the idea: “And let’s make the player slowly swim on a small boat on the entire huge card, collecting all garbage for analysis/sale?”. What a mockery. And yes, I have never closed all the signs of questions on Skelig, because for this you need a strong perseverance and a bunch of free time. The first, unfortunately or happiness, disappeared after I got down from the needle of large Korean MMOs, and the second – just with age. Of course, I exaggerate, but still one or two in the evening you will study the seas, but if you have not played “wild hunting” earlier, my advice is to you-throw off. Do not do this, for the sake of the whole saint.

Since I mentioned the sea – it is nasty. Not from what is large, but from what looks like grandmother Kisel. There are no interesting points when traveling, or complete calm, or small waves from the wind.

Almost all designations on the map are former “?”. And most of them are just lutus (as I do not like this word, but you can’t call it differently) for sale.

This brief bombing concerns only Skelliga. The continent, unlike the islands, on the contrary, is full of interesting third -story tasks, short stories in the notes, while the process of studying the map does not tire. CD Projekt Red were able to find a balance in the narrative, research and gameplay part. As I said at the beginning, the same Ubisoft created a similar system in the AC series, but, in addition to secondaryness, interesting quests were very rare there. But this is a completely different story.

The richest person on the continent:

Geralt. And who else? Of course, a lot of money that Geralt somehow earns as the game passes is a game convention. I see no reason to be angry with this. Yes, when in the books of Geralt is described as an eternally poor witcher who spends all the money earned on, let’s say, servicing equipment and the most basic needs-there is a dissonance in his head-as you can give 40 thousand kroons to some wanderer so that he bought himself equipment to create runes? It is even more fun to observe when Emgyr pays Geralt 2000 kroons for led Ciri to him. Inflation does not spare anyone, apparently. Or Emgyr – greedy.

I cannot say that the economy is broken, that it is “non -canonical”. It is quite adequate, corresponds to the RPG genre. If you want to feel like a poor witcher, you can run into the guards after each order completed.

Natural development.

I went through the game at the maximum level of complexity for the second time, and I advise it to be on it and pass it. As in the case of previous parts, only then some kind of variability is revealed, and you have to use all combat mechanics, from bombs to oils and potions. Preparations for battle for the first time can really take time while you open the bestiary, read about the enemy and understand how to fight against him. Then, of course, you are already remembering, who is ogr, who is a magical creature, against whom the oil should be used and so on, but at first it is very fascinating. I remember my very first passage – the first order in the White Garden, for 20 minutes I fought with a noon, she constantly restored HP and I could not understand how to kill her at all. And only then I decided to see how to fight such ghosts in general. I felt, of course, a complete idiot, but it was worth it.

The fighting is closely connected with the progression system and equipment, and in the “wild hunt” and the development of the character, and the developers almost brought to perfection. In February, with some unknown miracle, Utuub’s algorithms decided that it would be interesting for me to look at the builds that people gathered in the game, and yes, I was interested, and I was surprised that in ordinary RPG, where you even had a particular choice of weapons, only swords and magic, it turns out so many beautiful, spectacular and effective assemblies of the character. Do you want to dilute enemies only with magic? Or maybe only one sign at all? Yes, please. If you want to chop opponents into cabbage by holding one key? No problems. If you want to hang around with decoctions and potions and without pumping the skills of an active battle to kill crowds? Here you have a way.

The only thing that disappointed me a little is the witcher sets of equipment. Or rather – the futility of the rest of the equipment compared to them. After receiving at least the first set of any school you can forget about the rest of the armor and swords, sell and disassemble. And how glad I was when the “KS” and “nod” added equipment, which has interesting properties and is suitable as a full replacement of the witcher’s equipment. And then the unpaired (already plowed along and across 7 years after the exit) is already opening up.

One example of how you can annoy the opponents in the game.

In fairness, it is worth saying that the most powerful builds can be collected only after passing NG+ and with established additions that open more powerful signs, incredible combinations of runes, and so on.

Return our 2015 or “before it was better”.

Passing once again the adds “Stone Hearts” and “Blood and Wine” constantly arises a feeling of nostalgia for those glorious times when the studios were controlled by “Effective Managers”, but creative people, or at least interested in a high -quality product. You yourself know what the entire game industry has turned into. Buy a game for a full-right, from where we cut out half of the content, and then bought the seasonal for half of the cost (and sometimes more expensive), where we shoved all the cut out. And of course you can spend more money in the in -game store on skinchiks or booster of experience in a single game.

In principle, I started this series of reviews, because now good AAA projects come out one or two in a year and there is no trite to play (and then they generally turned off the digital entertainment industry in Russia). Most of the once great episodes rolled into an already frank slag. The competition between Call of Duty and Battlefield is now who will release a more technically working game with a stable FPS. But microtransactions, of course, work, bitch, impeccable. Disgrace.

My senile grumbling just leads to the fact that additions to “wild hunting” are the DLC distribution standard. These are large stories with new regions, new quests, a progression system. Tussent in “nod” is a real pleasure. Inspired by the culture of Western Europe, in particular, Italy, you see these vineyards, architecture, fields, bright blinding sun and there is a feeling that you are playing another game. The graphics were noticeably pulled, the number of animations of the characters in the dialogs was increased, new opportunities were added to strengthen the herall. Yes, even another deck for Gwint did, damn it. I can forever talk about the plot and additional quests, but I want to highlight the main thing. First – they gave honor to the original source – books. There are characters who appeared only in the book saga. Dialogs between Regis and Heralt – as a separate type of art. The second – the players remaining after the first part closed the questions. In the “Stone Hearts” we see what has become with the Order of the Burning Rose. Also, “Blood and Wine” also respects the first game. Geralt fights against the same bargest and scolopendorphs, we can collect the armor of the Manticore school, which is a armor in the first part, and much more.

The story of Geralt from Rivia in addition is coming to an end. “Blood and wine” is not just an addition to the game, but its logical completion. After a huge number of adventures that in books, in games, the character is ready to rest, and only it depends on you how happy his final of history will be.

Something ends, something begins.

And here, like a thunder among a clear sky, in the process of writing an artist, CD Project Red announced a new big game in the Witcher universe

After the catastrophe with Cyberpunk 2077, the CDPR, no matter how cynically it sounds, there was no choice but to make a new large game on a huge and beloved fans of the franchise, at least to straighten its financial situation, so the announcement of the new “witcher” was expected. But this does not cancel the fact that this is one of the coolest, most pleasant news in recent years.

I’m not from lovers of conspiracyology, therefore, unfortunately, there is nothing to discuss so far, and I do not really understand the guys who build 20-minute videos on rumors and their fantasies. There is almost no official information. The game will work on UE5, which pleases. As far as I understand, this engine will be very flexible and easy to work (regarding others), so we hope for a good technical performance of the game. The medallion of the Witcher School of Lynx, completely new in the universe, in the snow, is shown. Well, the “New Saga” means ”that we are waiting for more than one big game, but, possibly, a new trilogy. In general, that’s all. It is not known what kind of genre, the main characters, the place of action will be.

We hope and believe in the best, including in the game industry.

On this my first cycle of “Thoughts of the Old” is finished. I will be immensely grateful to Fidbek. Thank you!