Huntin' for Wild

In its first few hours, Witcher 3 felt "good," but not spectacular. Not a revelatory experience that overtook my expectations, like Breath of the Wild; more like a better-written (and better-voiced) iteration on Skyrim.

A meaningful improvement, certainly, over Witcher 2. Combat is a lot more accessible, as it sticks to simple and intuitive attacks from the start, easing very slowly into things like bombs and oils. The menus, particularly for managing character inventory -- so much better than before. And maybe the most important enhancement, given my last moments with the second game, is frequent auto-saves. (I also haven't encountered any crashes yet, fingers crossed.)

But I wasn't blown away. Despite being an open-world design, it didn't feel like I had all that much freedom: the starting area of White Orchard wasn't all that big, and as I trekked around Velen and Novigrad, all the quests I picked up were way, way above my level. It seemed like the only way forward was to continue the main story.

I wanted to do some exploring first, though. So I continued wandering the map, trying to find side-quests and activities that a lowly level 5 could pull off. And as I hopped from town to town, gathering quests, collecting intel, and Gwent-ing quite a bit, the hooks sank in.

What I initially observed as "better-written than Skyrim" turned into much more than that: a comprehensive approach to world-building, steeped in gritty fantasy. Talking to cynical peasants, wandering through dingy towns, stumbling across burned caravans, finding a note about a treasure heist next to a thief's rotting corpse... there is so much detail in Witcher 3's world, and it isn't just for the sake of aesthetic beauty, nor just to put checkboxes on a map. All of this content builds up an intimidating and immersive theme, with craftsmanship that makes Skyrim look, by comparison, bare and mechanical.

I still wonder if scaling enemy strength (like The Elder Scrolls) wouldn't make the map feel more open and free. At least in Witcher 3's first several hours. But having gotten over that hurdle, now, I have no doubt about the quality of this open world, and the joy of exploring it.

And that's all without saying anything about the incredibly engaging and intriguing main storyline.

Nor about Gwent, which may be the sole topic of a future post.

Progress: Level 9, helped a witch track an elf through a cave.