2015 was a great year for games, but
this spring and summer I mostly sat out as I wrapped up graduate school work
(while working full-time). The only 2015 game I played in the spring and summer
was The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D. It is a solid
remake, but a remake still. This fall I had to play catch up.
I gave the vast majority of my
gaming time to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It is my kind of
game: open-world, CRPG, and high fantasy. I also had played and loved, both
gameplay and lore, the first two Witcher titles.
So I was bound to love this one (and I did).
Before I fly full-sail into Witcher 3 praise, I’ll note the other
2015 titles I have played.
Wolfenstein:
The Old Blood is a mostly solid stealth and shooter
mix. I loved the humor (such as B.J.’s cheesy one-liners) and the throwbacks to
Return to Castle Wolfenstein (see my “Thoughts
On” post on Old Blood below). Majora’s Mask 3D is a highly enjoyable
remake of a great Nintendo title, more so for me as I have always particularly
loved Majora’s Mask as a unique Zelda title. Super Mario Maker is a fun, accessible level editor, and a gateway
into hundreds of Super Mario levels. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is
an excellent open-world game, finally allowing me to enjoy the gameplay that Metal Gear Solid has teased while crazy
stories and lengthy cutscenes took the mainstage (playing MGS3, I always wanted more of that gameplay. MGSV gives it to me in spades). Next to Witcher 3, I’ve put the most time into MGSV, and would rank it second if I were to do a list.
But Witcher
3 is number one. There’s so much in this game, gameplay and story wise,
that I feel overwhelmed by the prospect of writing about it as much as I did at
times while playing it. (And this is ‘feeling overwhelmed’ in a good way; a
very good way.) Witcher 3 has topped Skyrim as my favorite open-world RPG,
and for me, those are fighting words. You just can’t have a more delicious
entertainment package than what CD Projekt Red has put together here.
The gameplay can be accessible hack-and-slash
or daunting CRPG. It depends on what difficulty level you choose and how much
you invest in exploring the games’ alchemy, crafting, inventory and bestiary
components. Tackling witcher-contract quests can be a game unto itself, if
you’re playing on hard (“Blood and Broken Bones”). Killing monsters, or
non-friendly humans and non-humans, requires the use of oils, potions, bombs, and
signs.
An oil for each class of enemy exists. If
you’re fighting a cyclops, you would use an Ogroid oil, for example; if
fighting a wraith, a necrophage oil; and so on. These give your weapons a
slight buff over the enemy the oil is made for. Potions can be used during the
middle of a battle, though you could also use one just before. These can aid
health or stamina regeneration, reduce your toxicity level, or do many other
things that help in combat.
Signs are secondary magical powers that
can be cast in battle. There are just five signs to use in Witcher 3. One, “Aard”, is a forceful kinetic push (think Force
Push from the Jedi Knight series).
Another, Axii, slows and stops an enemy, briefly. “Igni” shoots forth fire. And
so on.
The short is that in combat, in addition
to donning the appropriate armor and wielding the correct sword, you must make
and use the appropriate oils, potions, and bombs, and cast signs to effect.
Knowing which of these to use against a certain enemy can be gleaned from the
game’s bestiary. Found in the game’s menu, this is an easy to navigate
encyclopedia of the monsters you’ll encounter, listing their weaknesses and
giving an interesting description of each. The monsters you will encounter
range from standard-looking fare (“Drowners”; think amphibious humanoid
monsters) to scary, mythical nightmares (“Leshens”; think ancient tree beasts
with deer skulls). In all, Witcher 3’s
monsters are the most memorable for me in a game to date. Griffin, cockatrice,
and basilisk encounters are my most recent “wow” moments from a video game.
Aside from encountering monsters in the
primary and secondary quests, you can also take them on with witcher contracts.
These are notices posted for any witcher, such as Geralt, to take on a specific
monster that has been terrorizing a certain person, town, or trade route. These
make for some exciting monster hunting moments, and even if the game were
comprised only of these I may give it game of the year. I did many a fist-pump
as I brought down monsters for witcher-contracts.
The enjoyment you get out of the
combat—or, whether or not you find yourself fist-pumping like me—depends, as I
noted earlier, on the difficulty level you choose and on how much you invest in
the game’s combat systems. If you play on “Just the Story” difficulty, combat
is easy hack-and-slash fare. I recommend you at least play on “Sword and Story”
(normal). Though you may neglect oils and bombs on that difficulty, you’d still
need to use potions and signs.
So I love the gameplay. I did play
it using a keyboard and mouse, too, and though it is not tailored for that
setup, most of the time I was fine with it.
I also love the story. First off, I
love me some Witcher lore. If I could
choose to hang out with any game characters, I’d pick slugging some mead and
sharing tales with Geralt, Zoltan, Dandelion, Triss, and all the other characters
you’ll become familiar with in the Witcher
games. But you don’t have to be a nerd for Witcher lore like me to love the narrative in this game. The
primary and secondary quests have some of the finest characters and story bits
in any game yet. You’ll fall in love with a lot of the characters, and enjoy
much adventure, romance, and horror all the while. I won’t spoil anything here,
but suffice it to say, do not just follow the main quest. Dive into secondary
quests as well; there is high quality stuff there.
The visuals are phenomenal. I played
on a PC with, on average, medium settings, and even still, Witcher 3 is the prettiest game I’ve seen. If you love high fantasy
visuals, Witcher 3 has you covered.
The game’s world is huge and has distinct environments throughout, such as a
swampland and rocky, cold islands. There’s plenty of sight-seeing to do. I took
screenshots galore.
The soundtrack is beautiful, too. It’s among
the best in any role-playing game.
A large world, great characters, great
visuals, beautiful soundtrack, and solid gameplay make for my game of the year in
2015. Congrats CD Projekt and Witcher 3!
You definitely earned it.
~My
impressions of Metal Gear Solid V
I noted above that, were I to make a
list of my top games from 2015, MGSV would
rank second. It’s open-world, a trait that always draws me in, and it’s
stealth-based, another characteristic I will always be interested in. I’m not a
Metal Gear fanatic, but I do like the
series. So, like Witcher 3, I was
bound to love this game from the outset.
I have not completed MGSV, nor have I gotten deep into it. I didn’t get around to it
until this past December. I have played a chunk of it, and love running around,
coming upon bases, scoping them out with my binoculars, sneaking in and nabbing
loot, popping off head shots with the tranquilizer gun in reflex mode when I
get caught, tying hot air balloons to things, riding around on my horse,
upgrading items as needed, and, recently, having my dog with me to help mark
enemies, plants, and animals.
I also really loved encountering a bear,
tranquilizing it and tying a hot air balloon to it, and finally hearing its
bear howl as it shot up into the air. Not that I would do this in real life—I
mean, I would never tie a hot air balloon to anything in real life, much less a bear—but suddenly, first of all,
seeing a bear in this game, and, then,
being able to do to it what I had been doing to dudes, was satisfying. This
conveys, in microcosm, what makes open-ended games like MGSV great—chance discovery. I know I can stun and hot-air-balloon
soldiers, but then I find a bear—and lo, I can do this to the bear as well.
Bears aside, freedom of movement coupled
with MGS’ stealth-action gameplay is
just shy of a dream come true. This coupling isn’t an endless well of joy. I’m
a sneak-only guy (unless the mission calls for other items, I will only use the
tranquilizer gun, and that sparingly). Sometimes the base-after-base gameplay
can tire me. (I never tired of Witcher 3,
for comparison. I wish there had been more
witcher contracts and secondary quests.) And, being a rabid consumer of fan
creations from the Thief community at
TTLG.com, I’m used to great
open-ended stealth experiences, so I’m a bit more blasé with MGSV than the
non-Thief fan-mission connoisseur
would be. Still, I haven’t dug deep into MGSV,
so maybe I’ll uncover plenty of new things that will change my mind on it. My
final verdict, then, will be in my review of it, when I’ve played much more of
it.
But it’s good enough that it’s my second
favorite game of 2015.
