Witcher - Press Start
CDPR, the developer behind the Witcher series is in hot water these days. Most of it has been there own doing. The botched launch of the most anticipated game of this year is only one of their problems. All of the gaming community has not united in hating a company this much since the last time EA shuttered a beloved studio (which probably wasn’t really all that long ago). Before Cyberpunk wasted away all the good will CD Project Red had worked to build, there was Witcher. In fact, Witcher 3 has been so beloved a game, people were willing to give a pass to the company for some less than savory practices.
Cyberpunk has been a mess. A game that was announced eight years ago, the hype built up to a fever pitch this year. It was delayed until the end of the year to fix some of the issues. Now that it is out, it is unplayable for most of the players. The launch has been such a mess, Sony has decided to refund unconditionally and pull the game from the store. With all the stories of bugs coming out, I have decided to hold off on playing it for a while. I think I will wait to pick it up some time next year if the developers iron out all the issues and bring the game in a state where it is stable enough to play. As for now I am more interested in the other series by CD Project Red.
As evident by the three in the title, there were two more Witcher games before the last one took the world by storm. Even though they did not get the same kind of fame as Wild Hunt, first two games in the series are still well regarded in their own right. The first Witcher came out in 2007. At the time, I did not have access to a pc that could handle it. The only exposure I had to this game was in the form of Penny Arcade comic making fun of the name. It would be much later in 2014 when I did have a pc, that I decided to get it after hearing its praises from multiple sources.
I bounced off the game very quickly. What was once considered top of the line game with amazing graphics had grown old. The battle mechanics were just brutal. There were too many other games for me to play so I did not stick around long enough to get used to the gameplay. My foray into the Witcher world was definitely not long enough to experience the amazing story in any meaningful way. The next year, Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released. Once again, my pc was not powerful enough to handle it. It was not for another four years before I would get to play it. Still without a decent pc, I decided to just bite the bullet and get it for Playstation 4.
Witcher 3 is an amazing game. It will definitely be in contention for any greatest of all time list. At the beginning the 70 hours seemed daunting, but the game is so tightly paced, I did not even notice them go by. With COVID in full effect, I got a chance to make a decent pc. Witcher 3 was one of the first game I ended up buying once my build was complete. The first two games were still sitting in my Steam library, still unplayed. There was never going to be a better time than now to start Geralt’s story from the beginning. The Netflix show gave me the final push to take a shot at playing through the whole series.
So here I am today getting started on the trilogy. My aim is to play through all three games. I haven’t even checked if the progress carries over to the next game in the series (I think it does but not really sure). I want to write about it as I play through it. If the series is any thing like the third game, it will give me a lot to think about. I had found myself wanting to talk to someone about the events in the game. Some choices still weigh heavy on my conscience. There are other choices I will not change however many times I am faced with them.
Even though my wife is seldom interested in video games, she found the Witcher Netflix series to be interesting. With her already interested in the series, she may like to see the story of the games unfold even if she won’t play the game itself. The narrative is something I am looking forward to the most. I am willing to overlook any mechanical problems as long as the story is even half as good as Wild Hunt. Since my main aim is to enjoy the story, I am not going to be playing on harder difficulties. I don’t want to miss any thing here, and I definitely don’t want the battle mechanics to be the hurdle that stops me again.
I don’t know if Enhanced Edition has improved the look of the game significantly or I have become more lenient about graphics after playing on the consoles for a while, but Witcher holds up remarkably well. The graphics still look pretty great. The opening cinematic shows one of the famous adventures of Geralt, his fight with the Striga. This was also one of the episodes in the Netflix tv show. As the legend goes, the Witcher was hired by the King of Temeria to put an end to the creature murdering his people in the dead of night.
Geralt quickly figured out the killer was a Striga. In a fit of jealously, one of the nobles in the King’s court decided to cast a curse on the Queen. Something went wrong and the Queen died in childbirth. Even though the Princess survived her birth, she could not escape the curse. She became a horrific monster that come out at night and fed on whomever was unlucky to wander into her path. Instead of outright killing her, the Witcher chose to keep the Striga occupied for the whole of the night in a bid to break the curse. Even though Geralt had become stoic as a side effect of his transformation, deep down he was still a compassionate person. He could look at the monster that was Striga and still see the Princess who was the victim. To him it was not just important to stop the killing, but also save the woman who had been suffering all this time. The morning came and Princess changed back into her human form. The Witcher had succeeded, but not without suffering some grave injuries.
The tales of Geralt of Rivia were famous for a long time, not the least because of the songs of his talented bard friend. But once Geralt disappeared during one of his wanderings, he tales also faded into obscurity. Soon there weren’t many left who remembered the white haired Witcher who saved the King’s daughter from a dangerous curse. That is until Geralt showed up close to his adopted home of Khair Morhen. Injured and unable to remember anything, he was rescued by his companions and brought back to the keep, to be nursed back to health.
12/20/2020
