The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an open-world dark fantasy RPG. The main quest-line follows Geralt (the eponymous gravel-voiced Witcher) as he tracks down Ciri, the woman to whom he is a father figure, of sorts. As Geralt, the player traces the trail of magical disaster left in Ciri’s wake as she flees a group of spectral horse-mounted hunters: the Wild Hunt.
The Witcher 3 excels in so many aspects of its quest design that it’s hard not be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of worthwhile quest lines: side-quests that would be mere fodder in other games of this sort take on crucial rolls. It’s difficult to leave any stone unturned as nearly every quest, no matter how unimportant it may initially seem, subtly reveals a new aspect of the game world: be it a strange monster to fight, a hidden area to explore, or a character to interact with.
There has not been an open-world game that carves as much detail into its minor characters as successfully as The Witcher 3. The rich dialogue that imbues the game’s characters with such life is just as likely to be witty as it is to be devastating. The strength of the writing is complimented by the varied and often surprising voice work which is full of guttural colloquialisms and charm. There is no repetitive quest formula at play, no endless series of caves, and certainly no dead-eyed characters who mechanically spout exposition.
Although being shrouded behind a clunky learning curve, the swordplay has depth, especially at higher difficulties. The combat doesn’t disrupt the experience, but, as you get deeper in, you may find yourself lowering the difficulty to trade the thrill of overcoming a tough fight to more easily reach the stirring moments you’re really after: those of the world and its characters.
As is the open-world curse, the game suffers from janky moments of dipping frame-rates, texture popping, and tiresome load times. These set-backs are easily forgiven though, as the world of The Witcher 3 is so full of personality and depth that you could lose months exploring its dark forests, murky caves, and vibrant villages. It’s hard to imagine you’ll play a game with more character or content this year, so play it. –AW
Sunset
Tale of Tales – Linux, Mac, Windows
Are characters in first-person games really so modest? Even with the relative decline in the computational cost of mapping reflections, there’s nary a mirror to be seen. The best you can usually get is a shimmery silhouette in the surface of a lake.
Of course, developers keep you away from the bathroom cabinet for a reason. Catching a face other than your own staring back can make you feel more puppeteer than protagonist, with all attendant skeeziness. Sunset pushes right into that unease, the game opening on Angela Barnes’ reflection in an elevator door, and filling its one-apartment setting with glass doors and floor-to-ceiling windows.
Angela is an overqualified housekeeper working in the early 1970s for Gabriel Ortega, a businessman in the fictional South American country of Anchuria, with ties to a newly installed military regime. Cleaning and tidying his home each evening before he gets back from the office, Angela (and we) get to know Ortega indirectly, through the books he reads, the records he listens to and the encrypted documents he signs.
Idle curiosity turns inevitably to voyeurism, and the reflections that surround Angela take on a real significance. Just as she snoops around Ortega’s life, we snoop around hers, listening to her thoughts, watching ourselves control her every move. This surreptitious assertion of control plays out on the story’s broader canvas too, which sees foreign powers manipulating Anchuria’s dictatorial government to their own ends. Events unfold distantly, through typewritten notes and newspaper articles, and just as the player is kept at a deliberate remove from Angela, so she is from the outside world. It’s a journey composed with both abstraction and intimacy, and is among Tale of Tales’ finest and most, ahem, reflective work. –LD
Like a Boss
DJ Octavio
Splatoon – Wii U
In a world populated by anthropomorphic, J-pop-loving squid mercenaries, of course civilisation’s greatest threat comes from an EDM-fuelled octopus. From the mixer-sporting perch of his gargantuan robot, he loves to drop the bass – and his projectile fists. Turning the tables on this turntabling troublemaker is tricky, but in such a multiplayer-focused game as Splatoon, he’s far from your most potent adversary. Step into an online lobby, and Octavio will seem like a kitten compared to the oncoming legion of Japanese pre-teens. –LD
Words: Aidan Wall & Leo Devlin
Images: Nexus Mods, Sunset
