It’s currently Twinfinite’s Game of the Year week! All week long, our Editors and Writers will be nominating games from this year that stood out in 2015. Today, Senior Editor Ishmael Romero tells us why The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is worthy of being Twinfinite’s 2015 Game of the Year.
A Game of the Year (GOTY) is not a title that is taken lightly. It is a game that delivers a master class demonstration of not only its genre, but of how the medium can be used to deliver rich, rewarding experiences. 2015 happened to have more contenders than usual as every month brought something worth talking about along for the ride. But there was one particular game that released in May of this year with lofty goals that it managed to hit with amazing direction, visuals, and story. That game is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
The Witcher 3 is one of those games that doesn’t come around very often. It is an Action RPG, yes, a fairly common genre. But, not many games are able to pull off the execution that The Witcher 3 has. It is a demonstration of what happens when the player experience is just as important a part of development as the team behind a game’s vision. At first glance, you have nothing more than an open world adventure set in a realm of fantasy. One where magic is as common as sneezing, and where it isn’t too odd to lose a loved one to some roaming monstrosity. Even those walking around in the same skin as you (you may call them humans) are not averse to cutting you down without a moment’s hesitation. Death lurks around every corner, but just beyond it is an adventure ready to be discovered.
Wild Hunt is a game with a very deep story to tell. A story about love, loss, monsters, and humanity. We get to see Geralt, this mutant hunter of monsters, deal with the trials and tribulations that we must all face as he makes his way through the dangerous cities of the Northern Realms and helps to shape the fates of all those he comes across. The narrative, the vision of an adventure that the developers wanted you to experience, is laid out before you waiting to be explored and that’s where things get interesting. The Witcher 3 never forces your hand in going forward. Yes, there is someone you need to save and a kingdom you need to help, but you don’t have to at this very moment. The story that CD Projekt Red wants to tell you is not the only story to be heard.
Pick a direction, any direction, and go. You’ll no doubt stumble upon yet another story. The world is truly alive with people going about their business and monsters doing what they do best (killing said people). You can interfere or remain passive, the choice is up to you, but know that the world goes on and remembers what you do. You can be the world’s hero or focus on your own selfish ambitions, there is nothing stopping you, except maybe the challenge that plagues every single area in the world.
What may seem like a beautifully serene passage through a lustrous forest actually houses witches that are the essence of nightmares, Leshens, Werewolves, Drowners, or even worse. There is an air of mystery that lies everywhere and you can experience it at your leisure. The Witcher 3 isn’t about moving from boss to boss, from plot point to plot point, it’s about living in the world that has been created solely for you to explore your curiosities.
It doesn’t hurt that the world is beautiful to boot. Staring out into the wide open expanse of White Orchard, or navigating the alleyways of Novigrad provide a sense of realism amidst all of the fantasy. Everything you face may be magical or demented, but the grounded nature makes the entire affair more immersive leaving it difficult to pull yourself away. The faces of townspeople, the disdain of guards, the aloof nature of royalty, it all melds to create something worth caring about.
Then there are the characters. Individuals with whom you struggle for love, power, and respect. What may seem like a brutish jerk at one moment is actually a man who has been broken by a string of choices in his life. A mischievous child is instead a powerful being there to protect all in its realm, and that tree you found beneath the ground? It may be the salvation of one group while it completely damns all other parties. The depth brought forth in The Witcher 3 is nothing to scoff at and this was made even clearer in the game’s first expansion, Hearts of Stone.
How do you expand on a GOTY contender? Easy, you make its DLC feel like yet another GOTY. Hearts of Stone gave more of what the base game did so well and that further reminded fans of just how rare of an occurrence the game is. Challenging battles, deep stories, mesmerizing characters, and you, the player, at the center of it all guiding it along and choosing the fate of all you come across.
A game that does its damnedest to make the player a part of it in a way that is both meaningful and fun is definitely one that deserves praise. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt all on its own was a unique offering this year that chose many different avenues to connect to the player and nailed every single one. The fact that they piled on an extra few dozen hours of goodies in the form of what is definitely one of the best expansions of the year only sweetens the deal. It’s a game that speaks for itself with every passing fictional minute in its gorgeous world and look, I didn’t even have to mention Yennefer or Roach to make a case. Now if that doesn’t prove this game deserves the top spot, I don’t know what will.
There are many worthy games vying for that highly coveted spot on top this year, and while all make a grand effort, it’s hard to find one that comes close to the sheer scope The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has to offer. But I’m just one person, what do you, the reader, think? Did The Witcher 3 hit all the right notes in order to blur out anything else this year? Was it’s romance, intrigue, death, and choices enough to make you a believer? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
Keep checking back all this week for more opinions from Twinfinite on which game should be Game of the Year! And finally, next week, we’ll announce our Game of the Year!
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