Dubbed the last part of the adventure, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt looks set to go on to tare open the realms of fantasy gaming when it gets its slightly delayed release date in early 2015. It’s obviously a good long wait for gamers before they get to play the game, so here’s our full preview of the storyline, gameplay and graphics, to give you more of an insight of what to expect,as well as The Witcher 3 gameplay trailer so that you can see it for yourself below.
As the previous games in the series had limited release platforms, with the first game being exclusive to Microsoft Windows and the second installment only available on Xbox 360, PC and OS X, we’re guessing that a lot of gamers won’t have played them despite their success. However, the latest game in the series will be a significant development over its predecessors, so if you’re wondering what to expect you should probably think Assassin’s Creed III meets Ryse: Son Of Rome with a good helping of Elder Scrolls, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Monster Hunter fantasy thrown into the mix.
Release
Developed exclusively for the next-gen platforms and high-spec PC release, it’s a clear indication from its creators, CD Projekt RED, that they’ve got their eyes firmly placed on the future of gaming. The release date will be in February 2015 by all accounts, which feels like a mentally long time to wait, but with everything else that’s earmarked for release on the Xbox ONE, PlayStation 4 and PC throughout the rest of 2014, the time will probably fly by.
Storyline
The storyline of each of the games in the series are based on the fantasy fiction short stories and novels of the same name by Polish author, Andrzej Sapkowski. In the third, and apparently final installment of the game trilogy, you once again take on the role of the central character, Geralt of Rivia. As one of just a handfull of witchers left in the world, he has been genetically modified and trained from a young age to be able to fight and defeat powerful monsters that roam the land.
The story has been developed to stand on its own, whether you’ve played the previous titles or not, according to gameplay producer, Marek Ziemek, so even if you missed the first two game in the series, or haven’t read any of the books, you should be able to pick The Witcher 3 up with ease.
The plot starts out with kingdoms falling and Nilfgaard’s legions sweeping north, taking realm by realm thanks to weakened, battle weary armies. In the midst of this, Geralt roams the land on a personal quest to rid the world of monsters, no matter what form they take and no matter where they originate.
The story’s antagonist is the Wild Hunt, an ancient evil that’s made up of a host of spectral riders that are led by four wraith commanders fixed on spreading terror, abducting the young and destroying humanity. It makes for a vicious body of predators for Geralt to face in what looks like his toughest quest yet.
However, as with all Witcher games in the series, 3 will not be a linear story that you simply strap yourself in for the ride. It will be a changing evolution as you progress through the game, with different choices you make in the adventure resulting in shifts in the storyline. What this means is that your decisions dictate your experience in the game making each gamer’s storyline unique to them and the paths that tey’ve chosen.
Gameplay
The Witcher 3 will continue the game’s 3rd person perspective RPG gameplay, but taking it to the next level of sophistication with what looks like an epic fight engine and a massive open world setting to roam around in. Like Assassin’s Creed 3, you’ll have some pretty mean fight skills to back up your quest, and while you don’t have parkour you’ll still have some pretty good climbing boots, along with horse riding and naval travel to keep you moving.
Where the comparison ends is in the fantasy aspect of the game, as Geralt has also got a whole lot of magic and potions up his sleeves, so he can deal out mystical damage, but also replenish life if things get all too fraught. This also means that instead of just having monstrous men to face up against, he also has a vast array of frightening beasts to defeat before the adventure is through with everything from giant ogre-like monsters to antler skulled destroyers and winged angels of death.
There’s definitely going to be a lot of action packed into the confines of the game as it will feature a lot of gameplay hours under the hood, as well as more monsters than you’ll be able to shake a magical stick at. Like Dying Light, the time of day has an impact on the way the world works, in particular the way in which monsters attack you, and more often than not they’re most ferocious when the skies have darkened past sun down.
You’ll still have item making, alchemy and potion work to undertake to complete the game as you try to pull together everything you need in your arsenal to take down the wild hunt. Without the right equipment you might find it difficult to beat the horned beasts that terrorise the land, making craftingit just as integral is it was in The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings.
Graphics
As you’d expect from a game that has been developed solely for the next gen consoles and high spec PCs, the graphics are impressive, paralleling the polished gleam of Ryse: Son Of Rome. However, the big difference is that Ryse had quite a short defined storyline with linear gameplay through levels, whereas The Witcher 3 is set in a huge open world with a sprawling, non-linear storyline and the freedom to roam around in the stunning settings to your hearts content. With this in mind, it’s even more impressive that the graphics look the way they do considering how much game there’s going to be to play.
The vast open world environment includes artic terrain, densely populated settlements and cities, the bitterly cold open seas of the Northern Kingdoms, dense and shadowy woodland, desolate wastelands and mountainous countryside, and every single aspect of it is rendered to near perfection with long draw distances and crisp animation.
Not only do you have a huge open world to gaze in awe at in terms of the visuals, it’s also got more than a few aspects of life woven within its fabric. Seasonality, night and day, weather, plants and animals all change around you as though you really were in the real life embodiment of the Northern Kingdom. If you’re out in the woods, for example, not only will the plants move as you progress, but wolves might appear out of nowhere to launch a desperate pack hunt.
It not just the flora, fauna, weather and time that seem to be alive either, as the game has also got a very rich and detailed human population that rivals that of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Farmsteads, towns and cities are teaming with human existence as the people of the realms go about their everyday lives amidst all of the mayhem that crashes around them.
In terms of graphics for any modern day game, one of our bug bears is the way in which facial design and animation can often look a little too wooden. The good news is that Wild Hunt doesn’t appear to suffer from the same flaw, delivering very realistic facial construction, features and movement to give the game an added boost of realism that can only improve in the run-up to to the game’s release in early 2015.
