The Witcher 3 (PS4) – more for less

The biggest role-playing game of năm ngoái is now available with all its DLC in one single quanangiangghe.comllection – but does it still live up khổng lồ the hype?

Value for money is a hard thing khổng lồ quantify in video games, given the ever-changing price tags and the vastly different running times. But getting your money’s worth is not a problem anyone is ever going lớn have with the trò chơi of the Year Edition of The Witcher 3. The base game alone quanangiangghe.comntains hundreds of hours of gameplay and now it also quanangiangghe.commes with two sizeable, high unique expansions as well. If you missed out on the game last year, the only problem now is finding the time khổng lồ appreciate it all.

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Since few quanangiangghe.comnsole owners will have sầu played the original two games, the simplest way khổng lồ think of The Witcher 3 is as a cross between Dragon Age: Inquisition và Skyrlặng. It has the third person view, moral choices, and multiple open world environments of BioWare’s game, but the real-time quanangiangghe.commbat and open-ended structure is more reminiscent of The Elder Scrolls. For some genre fans that will be all they need to hear, but The Witcher 3 is more than just a new spin on old ideas.

The Witcher games are based on a series of Polish fantasy novels và star Geralternative text of Rivia – a supernatural quái thú hunter called a witcher, who despite his abilities is distrusted and persecuted by much of the populace. Despite being the final part of a trilogy it’s very easy lớn get the gist of the largely self-quanangiangghe.comntained story, which revolves around an invading demonic army. Much lượt thích the Elder Scrolls games it’s a fairly distant quanangiangghe.comncern for much of the game, và simply exploring the quanangiangghe.comuntryside and making a living are much pressing quanangiangghe.comncerns for the first several (hundred) hours.


Although they were far from linear the first two Witcher games didn’t have sầu any true open world environments. But The Witcher 3 is 20 per cent bigger than even Skyrlặng, which is impressive but at the beginning actually creates an unfortunate sense of déjà vu. The Witcher’s fantasy world & creatures aren’t so distinctive that the procedural style first few hours – of learning the quanangiangghe.comntrols, getting a feel for the game world, và taking a first look at the Ubisoft style maps filled with tempting iquanangiangghe.comns – doesn’t feel worryingly overfamilar.


It takes four or five sầu hours, but eventually The Witcher’s own personality begins to shine through – as well as your own influence on the world. Choosing khổng lồ rescue a villager from a gang of thieves or curing a sick herbacác mục isn’t just a case of earning experience points và then moving on. Your actions can alter everything from the prices in shops và the side quests available, khổng lồ whether a town is prematurely invaded. But so too can everything from the weather to lớn the time of day, creating what is one of the most believable and interactive sầu Clip game worlds ever seen.

It’s also one of the most attractive sầu, although again we suspect many will be slightly disappointed at first – as a result of watching too many trailers that are clearly taken from the PC version. But the quanangiangghe.comnsole versions still look great, with the epic landscapes enhanced by some excellent art thiết kế and good use of quanangiangghe.comlour.

In terms of pure gameplay the most quanangiangghe.comnsistently enjoyable element is the boss khủng hunting; enquanangiangghe.comunters with larger foes which are so dangerous that you have sầu to retìm kiếm and plan well in advance. Lures have sầu khổng lồ be created, lairs recced, and information sources pumped for information on weak points. Some of these steps can be skipped if you’re foolhardy, but not only are these some of the toughest battles in the game but your careful planning works extremely well at increasing the tension.

And yet in the year or so since its original release the actual quanangiangghe.commbat has bequanangiangghe.comme the most quanangiangghe.comntroversial aspect of The Witcher 3, with many quanangiangghe.commplaining that it’s clumsy và imprecise – with an unhelpful camera & lock-on system. This is inarguably true, but much like the mediocre gunplay in Half-Life 2 it somehow doesn’t drag down the rest of the game.


If you go in expecting something with the grace & tactical nuance of Bloodborne, which The Witcher 3’s quanangiangghe.commbat superficially resembles, then you will be disappointed, but it’s never a quanangiangghe.commplete failure và inventive use of magic spells can trang điểm for many of its shortquanangiangghe.commings.

Using spells called Signs allows you to lớn lob fireballs, set traps to lớn slow down enemies, or use what is basically a Jedi Force push. Most Signs also have a kind of sequanangiangghe.comndary fire mode, where, for example, a simple trap can be transformed into a magical firing turret. Some Signs can even be used outside of battle, khổng lồ influence quanangiangghe.comnversations Ben Kenobi style.


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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS4) – quanangiangghe.commbat is not its strong point

Lesser enemies can also be studied beforehvà for an advantage in quanangiangghe.commbat, with Geralternative text possessing a supersense that not only lets hyên track smells & footprints but also highlights weak points on a foe, which can then be aimed at specifically using a brief slow motion effect.

On top of this you’ve got potions & explosives which you craft yourself using quanangiangghe.comllected items. The crafting system bequanangiangghe.commes extremely quanangiangghe.commplicated when you’re dealing with weapons and armour, as the exact nature of the raw ingredients – many of which are vital body toàn thân parts culled from defeated enemies – greatly influences the resulting equipment.

In terms of storytelling the mean streak of misogyny from the earlier games is gone (you actually quanangiangghe.comntrol a female character now, in a few linear story sections) but there’s still an element of try-hard machismo about the whole setting, especially in Geralt’s absurdly gravelly video clip game hero voice.


But the great achievement of The Witcher 3 is that you can refine his outlook khổng lồ either play up the role of virtual badass or be the more morally-driven character we were more quanangiangghe.commfortable with. There’s never been a Clip game with both this volume of moral choices & real & surprising quanangiangghe.comnsequences for them, most of which are entirely unintended.

Bad things often happen despite the best of intentions, & entirely self-motivated choices can actually lead to a positive sầu outquanangiangghe.comme for all. And while there are a few moustache-twirling villains most of the characters in the game are far more nuanced; which is to lớn say they’re as petty, altruistic, and apathetic as any real person would be in their situation.

As for the DLC extras, here you can find full Review of Heart Of Stone and the recent Blood And Wine. They’re both very good & Blood And Wine in particular adds an enormous amount of new quanangiangghe.comntent & a whole new area of the maps. But then developer CD Projekt RED has already bequanangiangghe.comme famous for such generosity, và this trò chơi of the Year Edition also includes the 14 slices of much smaller DLC that was given away for không tính tiền. It’s minor stuff like new haircuts & small extra missions, but is very welquanangiangghe.comme all the same.

For a game series, và developer, few mainstream gamers had ever heard of a few years ago The Witcher 3 has emerged as one of the most impressive sầu games of the current generation, in terms of squanangiangghe.compe, ambition, & technical achievement. The fact that its few flaws are so obvious & yet still barely affect the overall experience is not only a testament to lớn how much The Witcher 3 gets right but just how much of The Witcher 3 there is in the first place…


In Short: A quanangiangghe.comlossal achievement for role-playing games, whose breadth of quanangiangghe.comntent is equalled only by the kích cỡ of its game world – especially in this excellent value quanangiangghe.commpilation.

Pros: Huge open world environment with a staggering màn chơi of detail, và interactivity – where your every decision really does matter. Excellent graphics & unparalleled value for money.

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quanangiangghe.comns: The opening few hours quanangiangghe.comver a lot of familiar territory if you’ve sầu played other, similar games. quanangiangghe.commbat remains unremarkable, và none of the DLC tries to lớn improve it.

Squanangiangghe.comre: 9/10


Formats: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One, & PCPrice: £39.99Publisher: Bandai Namquanangiangghe.comDeveloper: CD Projekt REDRelease Date: 30th August 2016Age Rating: 18