The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a 2015 role-playing (rpg) video game made by CD Projekt RED and WB Games.
Nobody in this world likes a witcher; they simply need one. Geralt of Rivia was mutated and trained to kill monsters for money, and CD Projekt Red's third game sends him across a continent at war looking for Ciri, the adopted daughter he raised, while a spectral cavalry hunts her from the other direction.
What separates it from other open worlds is the writing at ground level. A side quest here is rarely a fetch task with a marker on it: a haunted well or a missing husband turns into a twenty-minute story with a lie somewhere in the middle, and the choice you are handed at the end usually has no clean side. Combat rewards preparation over reflexes. Read the bestiary, oil the right blade, brew the potion, then dodge.
The world is thick with peasants who resent Geralt, nobles who use him, and monsters that are frequently the least dishonest thing in the room. Politics run under everything, and the game keeps quietly pointing out that armies do more damage than any of the creatures on the contract board. It is long, and it is one of the few games at this size where wandering off the main road is simply the correct decision.
Quick answers
What is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt about?
Nobody in this world likes a witcher; they simply need one. Geralt of Rivia was mutated and trained to kill monsters for money, and CD Projekt Red's third game sends him across a continent at war looking for Ciri, the adopted daughter he raised, while a spectral cavalry hunts her from the other direction. What separates it from other open worlds is the writing at ground level. A side quest here is rarely a fetch task with a marker on it: a haunted well or a missing husband turns into a twenty-minute story with a lie somewhere in the middle, and the choice you are handed at the end usually has no clean side. Combat rewards preparation over reflexes. Read the bestiary, oil the right blade, brew the potion, then dodge. The world is thick with peasants who resent Geralt, nobles who use him, and monsters that are frequently the least dishonest thing in the room. Politics run under everything, and the game keeps quietly pointing out that armies do more damage than any of the creatures on the contract board. It is long, and it is one of the few games at this size where wandering off the main road is simply the correct decision.
When was The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt released?
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released on 19 May 2015.
Who made The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was made by CD Projekt RED, WB Games and cdp.pl.
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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in our writing
- Companion guide: CD Projekt Red: The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 and the Dense Open World
- Companion guide: The CRPG: The Complete Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games
- Companion guide: Dark Fantasy
- Companion guide: Dragons
A few thoughts on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The game is a sequel to the books rather than an adaptation of them, so Andrzej Sapkowski is the direct route: the stories in Sword of Destiny set up Geralt's voice and the fairy-tale logic, and Blood of Elves starts the Ciri arc the games pick up from. The Witcher covers the early material on screen with a different Geralt and a looser hand. For the same Grimdark weather elsewhere, A Game of Thrones runs the politics with the same refusal to let anyone stay clean, and Berserk pushes monster hunting to its bleakest possible end, one swordsman against a supernatural order that holds all the power and none of the mercy.
Read the Witcher books the games grew out of
The Witcher 3 adapts and continues Andrzej Sapkowski's saga, and these are the novels Geralt and Ciri come from. Read them for the sardonic monster contracts, the politics Geralt keeps getting dragged into, and Ciri's long flight from the people hunting her. The 2019 show is here too if you would rather watch first.
Open worlds worth getting lost in for the side quests
Wild Hunt rewards wandering off the main road more than rushing down it, and these open worlds work the same way. Skyrim, Breath of the Wild, Red Dead Redemption 2 and the rest fill their maps with side stories good enough to headline other games, so getting lost is the point rather than a detour.
Role-playing games where no choice has a clean answer
Geralt's decisions rarely come with a clearly right option, and these role-playing games sit you in the same seat. Mass Effect and BioShock hand you calls that ripple outward and moral lines that blur the longer you look, the kind of writing that made Wild Hunt's quests stick with players long after.
Cinematic story games about the people, not just the fights
Under its systems, Wild Hunt is a character piece about a father chasing his adopted daughter, and these play like that too. The Last of Us, God of War and Uncharted 4 build tight, acted, cinematic journeys where the relationships carry as much weight as the combat.