Lengthening Beards and Shortening blogs: Witcher III
Welcome Beatites to this week's edition of The Geek Beat, your somewhat irregular slice of geek goodness - a bit like that weirdly-shaped gherkin that everyone leaves in the fridge until one day, starved to the point of malnutrition, you gingerly bite into it and attain taste nirvana, this blog brings that kooky tang cerebrally via the taste buds of your mind...
If you're a regular reader you'll be aware that the blog isn't so clockwork anymore because my writing duties have expanded to include some bits and pieces for the stellar Den of Geek, perhaps the only bastion of geekness with greater geek credentials than this here blog; if The Geek Beat is a Castle Grayskull playset then DoG is the actual Helm's Deep. If you haven't already, go check it out along with my articles published in the last couple of weeks. I've got more in the pipeline too... The Geek Beat regular retro feature, The RetrObituary will also be appearing over there soon, albeit in a slightly different form. I'm also continuing to work on the new up and coming site, Indie Gravy with a few regular collaborators. That'll be launching in a month or so along with a YouTube channel so if you fancy an aural assault (that wasn't a come-on, don't worry) then look for that soon.
In the meantime then, that doesn't leave me a lot of room for blogging so today I'm trying something different. Short-form blogging. Having seen it all over the web but never really being inclined to it myself (presumably because I suffer from some serious insecurities and love to waffle on to an audience that can't answer back) - I've never really tried it... but different times call for different approaches and I never seem to have the hours to commit to a longer blog at the mo. So here goes... I've been playing Witcher III for what seems like forever now, but kind of like a good forever, a bit like what Heaven is supposed to be like I imagine. Blogging about games a lot doesn't always leave you that much time to play the freaking things so it's been a long road for Geralt and I (and thanks to my good buddy and RetrObituary co-creator, Mr Gilbert for sending it my way on what seems like loan perpetua) but now we're nearly at the end, after hundreds of hours of play, I'm going to commemorate this masterpiece of a game by listing my favourite five things about it:
1. The Lore:
Not really sure if it's the game that should be taking the credit for this one - after all, the Witcher universe is originally based on a series of novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapowski. What I do commend the game for heartily is its approach to implementing that game lore so effectively. In Witcher III it feels like CD Projekt RED (the game's developers) really found the balance of introducing the game's world state, history, laws and customs in ways that didn't feel onerous or nausea -inducing. Codexes are good and there are a lot of geeks out there that love to comb them endlessly whereas others prefer to read as little as possible, letting cutscenes or in-game dialogue do the bulk of the world-building. Witcher III gets the balance right but goes beyond this... the physicality of the world around you; the atmosphere that permeates every torched village or war-ravaged hillock; the sullen defiance of the outsider-hating villagers or the sheer desperation of those affected by the clash of kings mean that the game drips with more atmosphere and meaning than simple words on a page can ever achieve. The universe feels lived-in and weathered in a way that the original Star Wars movies did before Lucas exploded his Special Edition Sauce all over them... and that's the highest praise I can give the game...
2. The Storytelling:
For me, this is always what makes or breaks a great roleplaying game. A superb narrative that I'm invested in; characters that I care about; a resolution which forces me to make compromises that mean something; these are the elements of a great story. In my humble opinion, this is where Dragon Age: Inquisition fell down badly. The Big Bad was just a paint-by-numbers rehash of a villain compared to The Wild Hunt in Witcher III; sure you could argue that the Wild Hunt were equally undeveloped as characters but the euhemeristic approach taken by the Witcher games means that the building blocks of characterisation are already in place. The Wild Hunt are an actual medieval myth so the fear and discord that they sow is already fully realised before the game begins. Standing on the shoulders of giants (or indeed, lopping their heads off those shoulders if you're Geralt) gives you a great headstart in the story stakes.
3. The Roleplaying:
There's a section of this game when Geralt returns to Kaer Morhen, the ancient fortress that is home to some of his order and where he himself was raised. There are several roleplaying moments during this portion of the game that destroy anything offered by DA; Inquisition. (Sorry to rag on Dragon Age so much but for the purposes of illustration, the contrast is important.) I won't spoiler them in case you're still playing the game... but one sequence when you finally kick back with your Witcher brethren is both hilarious and poignant all at the same time. When you take the combat out of the game then your ability to connect with the character is key - perhaps the decision to use a pre-created, fully-realised character like Geralt simply works better than an anonymous creare-your-own hero like in the DA series. The game developers retain creative control over the character and are therefore able to create more immersive roleplaying opportunities given that the protagonist has a fully fleshed out backstory and predefined relationships.
4. The Monsters:
They're simply awesome. And sometimes scary. But i'm over the twenty minutes I allowed myself for this blog so...
5. Geralt's Beard:
When I was trying to convince a dear friend of mine to play Witcher III I told him that the fact tht Geralt grows a beard in real-time was the coolest thing about the game. He of course greeted this with a degree of scepticism as one would when being faced with such an idiotic-sounding proclamation. This of course was down to my inability to articulate what I really meant: it's the attention to detail in the game; the fact that as you're roaming the badlands atop Roach, your faithful steed, a beard begins to gradually form on your character's chin. Witcher III (as I explained in point 1, already does a wonderful job of creating a sense of place, but this seemingly cosmetic game mechanic adds a sense of time too. And it just looks cool. Time and Place? Get those right and you've hit the motherlode.
Cue one direct hit for Witcher III then. I'm off to go finish that sucker. Don't forget to check out my recent Den of Geek articles here - with millions of readers you don't want to be the only preson round the water-cooler on Monday who... actually, I'm not going to even finish that self-aggrandising, propaganda-laden statement. Just go read them.
Until Next time. Be tight Beatites.
That's all from The Geek Beat this week folks. This has been a Vertigo production.
Head back this way next week (or maybe in a couple!) for something else... maybe even an update on the fabled ANA Project.
Until then be sure to follow me @VertigoDC but remember... life's but a walking shadow.
Later 'Gators.
