At this point, The Witcher games are known for being absolutely massive. Each entry in the franchise easily surpasses the last, and players looking for a hugely immersive RPG have yet to be disappointed by the series.
Even better, this isn't just your standard humans-elves-dwarves fantasy, either: the world of The Witcher is a dark, grimy place, where hookers and thieves are just as common as bloodthirsty beasts.
The game manages to keep everything supernatural about its world grounded, and somehow manages to feel like a realistic fantasy.
From what we've seen, everything about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is aimed at making an already massive series even bigger.
The land itself, the creatures, the story - many games boast a living, breathing world, but few actually manage to come through. With just five minutes of new gameplay footage, The Witcher 3 proves that it already has:
In The Witcher 3, everything comes down to choice: will you work as a traditional Witcher, and hunt monsters for coin? Will you be a ruthless mercenary, and track down bounties with reckless abandon? Or, will you focus on the game's main story, and witness the conclusion to Geralt's three-game story arc? For once, it's actually up to the players to decide - so many games present the illusion of choice and consequence, but it looks like The Witcher 3 will actually give players the power to choose who they are and what they do.
That being said, it's not as if The Witcher 3 is a straight-up action game: the series is known for its stories, and Wild Hunt is taking things even further. Side-quests now have their own, miniaturized stories that feature actual consequence - these clearly aren't the 'Kill 10 Monsters' side-quests from other RPGs. The story missions, in comparison, look bigger than ever: the second game may have introduced huge set-piece moments to the franchise, but The Witcher 3 is looking to blow its predecessor out of the water.
So, has the new-gen already begun? Technically, yes - but The Witcher 3 could easily represent the true beginning of the latest generation of hardware. Thankfully, gamers don't have too much longer to wait - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is set for release on May 19.
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