It's a bit blurry alright, but the Switcher is here.
It
only took me over 120 hours, but I'm finally done with this
monster of a game. It's good, it's bad, but above all, it's incredibly fun
despite the hit visuals took when coming over to the Switch., and that very well may be exactly because the only thing that
suffered on the transition were the graphics and the framerate.
The Witcher 3 - Wild Hunt is a fantastic addition to the Switch's library.
If you haven't played the previous games, and maybe if you haven't read the books either, you'll probably be feeling a bit lost. There are armies in conflict with each other, and it's hard to figure out who's
supposed to be the lesser evil, because if the Witcher 3 has something it's a very grey and gray morality. Regardless, the game starts with Geralt of Rivia, the main character, searching for his
kind of adopted daughter Ciri and past lover Yennefer, who is also searching for Ciri. It's not all fun and games, because a group of powerful individuals called the Wild Hunt are also searching for Ciri and her blood. The main story is fun enough, you'll get to
interact with a ton of fun and interesting characters, as well as play as Ciri for a very few short flashbacks every now and then. The
optional sidequests are very engaging too thanks to how
bleak the world of the Witcher is, not that that stopped the writers from
sprinkling a few bits of humor every now and then, sometimes it's hard to tell if you're making the right choice or not, because sometimes every outcome has its ups and downs. Sometimes
every possible outcome ends in tragedy. Regardless, it's fun. There are a lot of dialogue choices that can alter how quests and sidequests play out, some quests only showing up depending on previous choices. It's a fun time, and there's a lot of replayability in here. The game also
earns its 100+ hours, being filled with 'points of interest' to visit, for goodies, Witcher quests(In which you have to
track down and
hunt powerful monsters) as well as the copious amounts of side content and and the main storyline. Not to mention that both expansions are included in the cart, and they are
brilliant.
The game is a massive open-world western RPG, which means you are thrown into the world, told about your main story's next objective and then pretty much left to your
own devices. Want to
explore and do every single sidequest available before tackling the main game? Go ahead, why don'tcha. In my case, I'd ignore every main story objective, would visit every town bulletin, in order to get the Points of Interest marked in my map, and then would explore
each and every one of them. Then, and only then, lest a monster too powerful at the time was guarding one of these in which case I'd leave a mark on the map in order to remember to come back later, I would move on with the sidequests, and then,
finally, I'd go ahead with the main quest. I did absolutely every single thing I could, and I loved every minute of it.
To aid in your spelunking you get your 'Witcher senses', by holding down ZL the game will overlay an orange aura over objects you can
interact with, mostly chests, drawers and the like ripe for
looting, as well as a red aura on objects that will advance a quest or sidequest. I found that the Witcher sidequests were the
most fun, as you had to use your Witcher senses to study the place where your mark just attacked or was last seen, and I can perfectly understand why some people would get tired searching for objects to examine, but I found it quite fun and engaging. Usually it ends with Geralt picking up the scent, or find tracks, which you must then
follow, using your Witcher sense, in order to find your objective. These quests can be pretty slow, but hey, I felt they really
pulled me into the Witcher's world.
Looting is the name of the game in Witcher 3, since there's a lot of powerful equipment that can only be obtained by actually
crafting it, and using alchemy to brew potions can be incredibly useful in the early parts of the game, since you can brew oils to coat your sword with in order to deal extra damage to specific types or enemies, or use potions to
bolster Geralt's abilities for a while. Once you brew a potion once, the game will
automatically refill your stock by
spending alcohol from your inventory every time you go to sleep. don't worry it's an
overly-plentiful resource, so no need to find every ingredient again. If there's any point of contention with these mechanics is that once the oil coating runs out, you have to enter the menu again, enter the oil tab again and
reapply it to your sword, which can be a bit of a
drag mid-combat. Combat advantages aside, looting every carcass, chest and drawer you find is even more important in the early game, since money is quite tough to come by,
at first anyways, and you'll have to
repair your equipment and weapons in order to keep it in tip-top shape.
As you slay enemies and complete quests you'll earn experience points, and leveling up lets you invest on skills. Sadly, it's not enough just to use points on the skills, you actually have to equip them, and you only get 8 slots, which gradually unlock as you level up, so you have to really think about
how you want your Geralt to play. I went for a physical build, having my weak attacks apply a bleeding effect every time my attacks connected, as well as a few
enhancements to a few choice signs(spells).
Combat is fairly
simplistic, but it gets the job done. You have weak attacks and strong attacks, although, to be honest, weak attacks are so much more useful that I pretty
much ignored Strong attacks as soon as I unlocked the bleeding weak attacks passive ability. You can also roll or dodge away, as well as block or even parry attacks if you press block at the right time. Geralt has a Stamina meter that lets him use signs, which are
basically spells, and he has five of them: Igni, a fire attack that covers a wide area, Yrden, a magic circle that slows down enemies and makes wraiths tangible, Quen, a shield that blocks a single attack(
massively useful when fighting enemies tougher than yourself), Aard, a telekinetic blast that I pretty much
ignored the entire game unless the environment required me to use it to proceed, and Axii, a spell that dizzies enemies and, if leveled up, can open up new
dialogue choices. There are also skills that unlock an alternate form of every sign in the game, but since I went for a physical Geralt, I didn't try them out, regardless, they are options that exist and can open up the way you play if you opt for a more magical Geralt.
Lastly, as far as gameplay is concerned, we've got Gwent, a turn-based
in-game card game. There are various different rulesets to play under, as well as various cards for you to find.
I hated Gwent. I mean, the developers clearly cared about it, and I know a lot of players enjoy Gwent, but it ain't for me. That said, if you dislike Gwent, like me, a lot of Gwent sidequests will start clogging up your sidequest tab, which isn't very
kosher. A separate, Gwent-related quest tab would've been nice.
Even though the game graphics clearly took a hit, the game is still one of the best looking Switch games out there. It can be a bit a
blurry while on handheld mode, but for the most part it looks quite great, and as far as realistic-looking Switch games go, this one is
easily one of the best. The framerate can be a bit sloppy, but nothing game breaking.... except for the Earth Elementals, which drop the frame rate into the single digit once you kill them. Regardless, it's a perfectly playable and enjoyable port, and the fact that you can play it on the go makes it a very
appealing package.
What is a bit
annoying, however, are the crashes. The game easily crashed over 30 times on me. Novigrad, the game's main area, is particularly bad about it, crashes come
often in those lands. That said, as annoying as having to go through the opening credits over and over again when reloading, unlike another crash-prone game like Tales of Vesperia, at least this game has a very neat auto-save system that can be tweaked to auto save every 3-5 minutes, so you'll never lose much progress, in addition, you can save pretty much at any time and quests have checkpoints, so you'll
never lose too much progress. The Blood and Wine expansion is pretty buggy as well, as long as you are on its lands, the map will
regularly glitch out and not display correctly, even when trying to fast travel, and sometimes a nasty green overlay will take over the menus. Gamebreaking? Not, but it's quite ugly on the eyes, but, thankfully, are
contained to this expansion.
I loved The Witcher 3.
Despite the frequent crashes, its incredibly deep lore, its interesting characters, the bleakness of its world, how most choices aren't reduced to 'good' and 'evil', just how much fun I was having exploring and fighting enemies made it one of the best games I've played on any console. The only thing that keeps this Switch version from a perfect 10 is how glitchy it can get.
9.5 out of 10
