Third Runner Up: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Sharon Coone
Penning the greatness of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an exercise in recollecting and organizing the piles of praise I’ve blabbered onto it over the past few months. A fun task much to the benefit of myself, and the detriment of my friends’ ears.
And yet, pinpointing The Witcher’s success is like trying to point out particularly strong threads in a shiny piece of cloth. The visual direction, the gripping characters, the gratifying combat and customization simultaneously all lean on and lift each other up infinitely like some sort of Escher sketch. It feels most fitting to speak here of the fabric’s greatest embellishment – a commitment to authenticity.
CD Projekt RED’s devotion and attention to detail have created something genuine with The Witcher 3, a fidelity that seeps through its world into its characters, and through the seams of every interaction. Though the world is sprawling, each square meter is handcrafted, and each region given its own landscapes, culture and dialect. From this custom world sprouts its people, diverse and painted with histories of war, prejudice and family. The mannerisms and beliefs of these inhabitants spill into each quest and conversation, bringing the tragedy and folly of their stories to life. On the receiving end of this world is a golden cast of personalities. The headstrong bunch weaves tales by simply reacting to their own world with a spirit that both rivals and plays off of their fully-fleshed surroundings.
Somehow, at the root of it all is you, the player. Choices both in dialogue and play never feel spurious, yet ripple to shape the world from endemic outcomes to the grandest of fates. You play a part in a world so strong it seems to fuel itself, and this interaction is made possible by a foundation so painstakingly built that it can believably sway with your agency, creating a story all your own, yet not yours at all.
The spellbinding interplay between the environment, its characters, and the player makes for deserving tales, glues your heart to the screen, and even makes you grieve for a demon fetus. The world of The Witcher 3, a masterpiece in its own, is easy to invest in, effortless to love, and impossible to ignore.
