Witched

Back in, wow, January?, I had already resolved to skip over a lot of Witcher 2's gameplay - the combat, basically - in order to enjoy the story. So, after my last post, I strolled around the town of Flotsam looking for sidequests and colorful NPC chatter.

Then the game crashed. And when I brought it back up, almost an hour of my progress was lost. There were no autosaves from when I'd crafted and equipped items, entered and left buildings, or acquired and made progress in quests. Ugh.

Over the following few months, I told myself that I'd muster up the patience to try again. But I never did. I recalled that Skyrim also screwed me out of progress a handful of times, such that its quick-save became a reflex -- but Skyrim was actually fun to play. Witcher 2 just wasn't. The fun was in seeing larger world events unfold, and in hearing Geralt give some NPC a dressing-down; all the rest of the game just felt like a chore between story beats.

So I watched a movie of the game's cinematics, instead. (And, props to this movie maker for some impressive direction and editing, particularly in the mid-game sidequest montage.)

As for watching Geralt's story play out, well... "enthralling" isn't exactly the right word, as the movie's cinematic chops suffered a bit from clipping bugs, and from wandering NPCs pulling accidental photobombs. And I never got completely comfortable with the fantasy slang that Iorveth kept spewing out.

But the game's narrative strengths were still plainly evident, especially how it blended swords and sorcery with, not just political intrigue (Game of Thrones has that cornered) -- but the more mundane, day-to-day evils of human behavior. No one in this story was purely heroic, and few were purely villainous; their shades of gray were demonstrated quite well, and their characters often made quite relatable.

I'm glad I got to watch that story unfold, not just as preparation for Witcher 3, but also for its own sake. CD Projekt deserves to be proud of the narrative world-building that they've pulled off. And I hope that the next game keeps me from relying on recorded playthroughs to experience that.

Better than: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, basically better than Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (which was way more functional but just not interesting at all).
Not as good as: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
From the minutes I've played so far: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is at least not as bad as its predecessor in terms of bugginess and incomprehensible controls.