"What we do in life echoes in eternity"-- Marcus Aurelius
Here's a bit of History. Marcus Aurelius was a Roman Emperor in 161 to 180 AD. He came to be known as the last of the Five Good Emperors, and is considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers in history of humanity. However, while witcher Geralt of Rivia hasn't really achieved any such feats, his heroics still haunt us from Witcher 2. And we are sure it's somewhere on the same page, if you ask a gamer.
First things first, we have a release date, ladies and gentlemen! May 19 is when we get treated to one of the highlight games of 2015. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (for that matter, all the others in the series), based once more on a series of books by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, is coming in hot from CD Projekt RED.
Back during the series' initial release in 2007, the first game was critically acclaimed for its immersion and a gifted story progression that's decision based. Not to mention, the kind of notorious status the game got with Geralt's numerous sexual skirmishes, and that performing with a different partner earned you a 'Romance Card'.
Whatever that may be, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is easily poised to become one of the highlight gaming titles of 2015. In fact, we might even take this opportunity to declare that the next Witcher will be the best game of 2015, although that needs to be seen. However, here are the reasons to back our claims.
You Need Not Play the Previous Games
Yes, it's that user-friendly. How many games do you see arriving these days that require you to follow up on the preceding titles in the same series to get hold of what's happening? There aren't such hard and fast rules if you are planning on the new Witcher. Sure there are chances that you might not have played Witcher 2, but it's still okay to pick up Witcher 3. But in truth, it doesn't really matter. Since the Witcher world deals with ample number of subjects in the game, from monsters to politicians, even the most die-hard fans of Witcher 3 would find it difficult to cope with the details. What's more, the devs have even promised that Wild Hunt can be played as just a 'standalone' game. This will be supported by slow character and plot development that will allow newbies to understand what's going on. Take a bow, CD Projekt RED!
Only For Next Gen Consoles/PCs
This might not necessarily be a bad thing, although most of us with last gen consoles will object. But you cannot blame CD Projekt RED if they are looking to make a game of ages, and find that the graphical support for the same might not be there from the likes of PlayStation 3 and Xbox One. Sure, The Witcher 2 looked insanely good when it releases on Xbox 360, but these are new and exciting times. And next gen is probably what everyone swears by these days. And if you see it clearly, stuff such as high resolution output, big open spaces and multiple character opponents aren't possible of last gen consoles. Good thing we still shift to our PCs from time to time.
Improved Combat
Compared to what we saw back in the day for Witcher 2, expect a number of changes to be made to the newest Witcher. And one of those changes involve the way we see the combat mechanics in the game. The Witcher 2 introduced us to a kind of combat that went ahead to separate itself from the narrative of the game with a different gameplay mode. Not to mention, the combos involved with spells, swordplay and abilities. But the devs believe they can do better, and hence you see the improved fluency in Geralt's movement in the newest game. The final product? We are expecting "when Witcher met Skyrim" in the best possible way.
35 Times Bigger Than Witcher 2
And about 20 pct bigger than Skyrim too. That's what you get from the folks over at CD Projekt Red this time around. But it's not just a big open world for the sake of it. In fact, there will be things to do once you decided to traverse into the great unknown. Well, it doesn't matter to have a big area to travel if you don't get anything to do. That's simply boring. However, the Witcher 3 guys probably haven't heard of the word 'boring' and continues offering quality content via a great number of quests and uglies to fight. Social life? What social life?
Plethora of Playable Characters
The usual magic armored, sword swinging Geralt is more than okay. But what's better than that? The option to control more than one character in a RPG game. And it's good to know that the new Witcher game is walking the same route. It was only recently revealed that one of the new controllable characters will be Ciri, who comes with extraordinary swordfighting skills backed with unlockable and unique abilities. While you cannot go in expecting same kind of character handling that we saw in Dragon Age, it's still something fresh on offer. This might also be of use if the devs decide to add the ability to alter the endings of certain events depending on the character you are controlling.
