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THE WITCHER 3 - IT'S 'CSI: NORTHERN KINGDOMS' by Mr Biffo 

8/6/2015

8 Comments

 
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So, the other week we ran a review of The Witcher 3 that was somewhat scathing. 

To recap: we paid lip service to what the game does right (which, to be fair, is much - not least its beautifully-depicted world, and sheer value for money; there's something like 100-odd hours of gameplay on offer), and done given a big ol' kicking to its unoriginality and story. We went overboard, but, frankly, The Witcher 3 was something of a tipping point for us, and the game became a scapegoat for every rote fantasy RPG that we've had dragged through our lungs. 

I'm tired of crafting objects, and scavenging for items in every chest and sack. Levelling up is an endless chore. And I'm sick to the thorax of dungeoning. As successfully as The Witcher 3 does what it does, it still felt too familiar - the same cliched nonsense wrapped in a pair of admittedly impressive glittery leggings.

So. On "paper" then, it would seem that I hated The Witcher 3 and threw it in the bin the second I was done reviewing it.

And yet... and yet... Several weeks on, I'm still playing, and there's nothing in my bin except for scavenged hospital sharps and a rotting hen...

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FULL DISCLOSURE
In the interests of full disclosure, I'm not a fan of fantasy. I've failed to get into Game of Thrones - despite it now being the law that you have to watch the show, or risk being utterly ostracised by your social circle. I've struggled with all of The Lord of the Rings movies, and suffered a terrible brain aneurysm in the first few pages of the books.

But for all that... I want to love fantasy. I want to be able to embrace it the way other people do, and dress up in elven cloaks, and run around in the woods while rubbing myself with a first edition copy of A Wizard of Earthsea. I want it to be a genre - like science-fiction - that I can immerse myself in. Yet in practice, I enjoy the idea of fantasy more than the reality of it (if that makes sense).

In short: you might think I was always probably a bit pre-disposed to have a beef with The Witcher 3. But to date, I've never massively had an issue with most fantasy RPGs. Being in those worlds, as opposed to acting as a passive spectator, is different. I even used to play Dungeons & Dragons as a horrible youth. 

So, the reason The Witcher got a kicking, is because The Witcher 3 was getting praise for its story, when - to me - its story felt derivative, lacking an emotional core, and clumsily depicted. Games seem to be doing an ever better job of engaging us emotionally - The Last of Us, Gone Home, Life is Strange - and I've felt nothing like that while playing The Witcher 3

And yet... and yet... and yet...


AND YET WHAT?
I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of The Witcher 3. There's so much content in there - and so many surprises - that it can be overwhelming, yet there's never a shortage of anything to do.

But something weird happened last week - something switched in me, and I realised what I was enjoying about it. My initial issues with the story had arisen because I'd been judging the story by comparing it with film - specifically the structure of film. You know: the whole three-act thing, with turning points, and emotional spikes, and blah-de-blah-de.

And then I realised: it's not a movie. The Witcher 3 is a police procedural TV show, it's CSI: Northern Kingdoms, an anthology with thinly-drawn lead characters. 

I'm not meant to be engaged with Geralt's meandering search for Ciri - it's just there as a delivery method for a story-of-the-week. Some of the side quests in The Witcher 3 are almost the size of a full story from many other games, and even what seems like a simple Witcher contract can go off in an unexpected direction.

A CASE FOR MULDER AND SCULLY
Remember The X-Files? We all loved that from the off, didn't we? And yet how much did we really know or care about Mulder and Scully in the beginning? They were there to introduce us to new characters, new situations and stories, and be a road in for the audience - one was sceptical, one a believer: each representing a different take on any given scene. 

That's all Geralt is in The Witcher 3: he's not meant to have a character arc, or be emotionally engaging in the way you might connect with, say, Starlord in Guardians of the Galaxy (to use an example from a popular summer blockbuster-type movie). He's literally nothing more than a tool.

Ha ha.

Admittedly, I still think the storytelling in The Witcher 3 is abysmal - there's nothing there that really makes me care about any of the characters Geralt encounters, I still find the cutscenes mostly insufferable, clunky and all over the place tonally, plus there's no point pretending it wouldn't exist if somebody hadn't invented Middle Earth already.

But since thinking about the structure differently, I've come to enjoy the game more. I'm choosing to follow one multi-part quest to its conclusion before jumping around to another, and the game is all the more satisfying for it, my sense of achievement all the greater. 

By doing that I'm awarding myself the luxury of an 'episode' of The Witcher 3: The TV Show, rather than trying to grasp hold of the decaying threads of a three-act story, and wondering about the lack of emotional development from the lead character. 

I probably wouldn't change much of the thrust of that review, given the chance, but might've been tempted to give it another 1.13343% or so. Maybe. Possibly.

The truth is out there.

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
  • REVIEW: THE WITCHER 3 (PS4/Xbox One/PC - PS4 version tested)
  • WHERE DID ALL THE FRESH ONES GO? by Mr Biffo
  • REVIEW: DRAGON AGE INQUISITION (Xbox One/PS4)





8 Comments
Keith
8/6/2015 06:50:40 am

the frustrating thing is that it'd be very easy to subvert these tired aspects that ruin the importance of the main story.

How about a similar game where you have a main narrative and a few (literally a few) sidequests start to open up, but as you embark upon the sidequests, it becomes clear that there are real consequences to delaying the main quest - perhaps even to the point where eventually copleting the story becomes literally impossible if you don't focus your efforts on that - you're then nudged towards completing the story (and you are free to decide whether or not you mind) and then the completion of the story is what actually opens up the world - things don't go right, and theres a long period of uncertainty, at which point the sidequests becoe a way of rebuilding a reputation or something. and its only then, once a suitable period of doing sidequest stuff has elapsed, that the story comes into play again and the game builds towards a real climax?

the main thing I'm sick of is the Skyrim issue where the game is at it's most wide open and inviting to explore at the exact time that you feel, in universe, that you should be getting on with things - and then once you've doe the main quest, everthing else feels a little bit plodding

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Picston Shottle
8/6/2015 09:25:22 am

Does story really matter all that much? I can't remember a game I played where I cared about the story. GTA V? Don't remember much of it. Skyrim? Something about shouting at dragons. Destiny? Fuck knows; no idea at all. Fallout 3? Wasn't that about shooting mutants in the face? Yes! Yes, it was! And that's what matters, no? Shooting mutants/cops/bandits in the face, and then leveling up.

I take your point that the same old tropes are rolled out time and again, Biffo, but does it matter provided that the shooting of the face is up to par? Isn't that why we play? If I want a engaging story I'll read a book or watch a movie. If I want to shoot mutants in the face I'll play a game.

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Mr Biffo
8/6/2015 11:00:09 am

Yeah, I agree. It only matters to me when the story is being rammed down our throats, and everyone's bleating on about how great the game's story is, when really you're just dealing with exposition and reams of cod-historical backstory guff...! In terms of RPGs, The Witcher 3 isn't even the worst offender...

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John Matthews
9/6/2015 02:52:07 am

There are terms of RPGs? I've yet to meet a sentence with 'in terms of' that isn't better with just 'in'.

dirtysteve
8/6/2015 09:57:20 am

I have to say, I still think the game is ace, the treasure hunts are incredibly moreish. I think the problem with a lot of RPGs, is the main story.
You need to flesh it out a bit too much, whereas small, self-contained side-quests seem to be the strongest parts of these games.

Reply
Lorfarius
9/6/2015 01:16:46 am

Story? After the woman and her pan bit? You mad.

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Simon
9/6/2015 02:00:23 am

The story in games usually wash over me and in the majority of games I play I can hardly name a single character outside of the one you play as.

My favourite franchise is the Halo series and I must have played through Halo 3 singleplayer about 20 times and 9 odd years after its release I only just worked out what Cortana's solution to the Flood was by Googling it as it didn't make much sense but I didn't really care(those games are hopeless at storytelling anyway and I always saw Halo 1 like the Matrix 1 and the over games like its sequels with a pathetic extended universe)

A game is only about set pieces and atmosphere to me so they are what I remember. Even The Last of Us doesn't really have much of a story and is memorable to me for its grim setting and shocking moments.

That is what gaming is about as if I want a decent story I will watch a film

Reply
Hamptonoid
9/6/2015 12:56:20 pm

Making a game like a film can work though - Ni No Kuni is a great example of this. Pretty average game really, but having a Ghibli film play out for you makes it worthwhile.

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