• Tech
  • Video Games

Everything We Love (and Hate) About The Witcher 3 After 160 Hours

11 minute read

This is a lightly edited dialogue between TIME’s games critic Matt Peckham and assistant managing editor Matt Vella about playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The conversation took place over email over the period of several days.

It’s big.

MV: Good lord this game is large. This is the kind of thing that’s often said about a new game, especially of the open-world variety. Developers love to tell journalists “how much bigger the map is this time around,” as if map inflation correlated to fun. (In my experience, it doesn’t.) But the sense of scale in The Witcher is pretty consistently confounding. I don’t know if you’ve had a similar experience but, several dozen hours in or so, I find myself having these mildly disconcerting dissociative feelings when I realize just how much ground I have left to cover. The game is being compared to Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. But this feels (pardon me) next level because those worlds are large, but largely empty. The Witcher 3‘s world, by contrast, crammed with stuff to do, stuff to see, stuff to get lost in.

The game’s mechanic for letting players know about what’s available around them is pretty simple: reading the message boards in the various towns and hamlets puts points of interests on the map nearby. These are question marks that only reveal themselves—as hidden treasures or bandit camps, for example—once you jog over to check them out. What’s boggling about this is that quests aren’t only displayed with little yellow exclamation points hovering over NPC’s heads. They’re littered throughout the world, many in hidden documents found serendipitously at said points of interests.

MORE: This Is the Insane Number of Copies The Witcher 3 Sold

This all has a rippling effect which, once you start to understand how big the world is, is fairly mesmerizing. The only analogue I can think of is the first run through World of Warcraft way back in 2004. Then, the idea of being able to run from one end of the world to the other in basically a straight line was revelatory. I feel much the same way in the world of The Witcher.

Is your mind as boggled?

MP: “The future of video games is a gaming singularity so unfathomably ginormous and ingenious you can’t play anything else.” We’re either blessed, or doomed.

But yeah, I couldn’t agree more about the scale being off the charts. You stop and gaze at the game’s bosky expanse and think back to all the comparably teensy games that use to seem big. The developers boasted about how much grander The Witcher 3 was going to be than anything else. That’s usually a bad idea, but boy did they deliver here, or at least that’s my impression at the 1,345 hour mark.

Okay, maybe not that many, but it kind of feels like that many, and at the same time, as you say, it’s filled out. You know, “What are those Creatures from the Black Lagoon guarding over there in the lee of a cliff?” Or: “Is that a giant black rock by a glowing stone pylon?” (Oh hey there killer bear!) Or, all the contracts that kick off like fetch or kill quests, then morph into these elaborate Sherlockian conundrums with a dozen twists and outcomes that resonate forward, nudging all these under-the-hood variables that then alter how you interface with some unforeseen thing or person down the road.

See The 15 Best Video Game Graphics of 2014

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Activision's futuristic first-person shooter in which players take on a rogue private military company uses a brand new engine built specifically for PCs and new-gen consoles to handle its cutting-edge lighting, animation and physics. Sledgehammer Games/Activision
Far Cry 4
Far Cry 4. This pulled back shot of fictional Himalayan region Kyrat is in-game, believe it or not, rendered with an overhauled version of the engine Ubisoft used to design Far Cry 3. Ubisoft
The Last of Us Remastered
The Last of Us: Remastered. Naughty Dog's meditation on the worst (and best) of humanity is built on technology that reaches back through the studio's pulp-adventure Uncharted series. The graphics are so impressive, TIME recently assigned a conflict photographer to photograph inside the game.Ashley Gilbertson for TIME
Alien: Isolation
Alien: Isolation Built from scratch, the Alien: Isolation engine's outstanding deep space visuals all but replicate the set design of Alien film concept artists H.R. Giger and Ron Cobb's work. The Creative Assembly
Assassin's Creed Unity
Assassin's Creed Unity. Ubisoft says it "basically remade the whole rendering engine" in its AnvilNext design tool to handle the studio's meticulous recreation of Paris during the French Revolution. Ubisoft
Child of Light
Child of Light Inspired by filmmakers like Hayao Miyazaki and artist Yoshitaka Amano, Child of Light's hand-drawn artwork puts the lie to presumptions that graphical richness depends on shader support or polygon counts. Ubisoft
Destiny
Destiny Built from scratch by ex-Halo studio Bungie, Destiny's game engine was designed to scale across the next decade, says the studio. Bungie
Mario Kart 8
Mario Kart 8 Nintendo's kart-racer for Wii U reminds us that raw horsepower is just a facet of crafting a beautiful game world. Nintendo
Infamous Second Son
Infamous Second Son Sucker Punch's freeform Seattle-based superhero adventure models all sorts of minutia, from the intricate wrinkling of an aged character's face to the way eyelids stick, slightly, before separating when characters blink. Sucker Punch Productions
Monument Valley
Monument Valley Escher-like at first glance, Ustwo's mind-bending puzzler was also inspired by posters, bonsai plants, arabic calligraphy and filmmaker Tarsem Singh's The Fall. Ustwo
Grand Theft Auto V
Grand Theft Auto V Rockstar's remastered crime spree opus was crafted from an in-house engine first employed in a game that simulated table tennis. Rockstar
Titanfall
TitanfallRespawn Entertainment
Forza Horizon 2
Forza Horizon 2 Turn 10's Euro-racer actually models light refracted through drops of moisture, the render tech plausibly simulating something as intangible but essential as the earth’s atmosphere. Microsoft Studios/Turn 10 Studios
80 Days
80 Days Inkle's anti-colonialist vamp on Jules Verne's famous novel uses crisp art deco imagery inspired by travel posters to unfurl 80 Days' tale of intrepid globetrotters Monsieur Fogg and his valet Passepartout. Inkle
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
Tomb Raider Crystal Dynamics' radical reboot of its popular series about an athletic archaeologist uses a modified version of the engine that powered Tomb Raider: Legend in 2006. Square Enix

Speaking of running from one side of the world to the other, you can’t do that in The Witcher 3, because it’s actually two giant detached maps you’re eventually warping between. I think someone, somewhere, griped that that disqualifies the game as an “open world.” When you take the time to jog from Bald Mountain (southeast Velen) to Novigrad (the metropolis on the northwest side), you realize how silly that stance is.

So the open world thing is new to the series, but the “mature narrative” thing’s been a staple from the start. How do you feel they’ve handled that so far here?

It’s well written, like, really well-written.

MV: I have to confess I have the completist gene and, more often than not, I find myself racing through dialogue, nuance, context, et cetera to get to the end of many games. Even the ones I really like. I rarely find myself enjoying the writing of most games, aside from the very occasional exception like Telltale’s fine The Walking Dead series.

The Witcher is another exception. Early on, jokes like the one about teacher tenure signal a different tone, one that rises above the typical pablum of high-fantasy that, to my ears, bleeds together meaninglessly. (High elves? Dark elves? Whatever.) But the texture of the quests is also great. I’m thinking in particular of the Red Baron quest chain which ended, in my play through, with a pretty poignant and grim denouement.

MORE: How The Witcher 3 Just Got Significantly Better

I’m nowhere near the end, of course, but I wonder if the game can possibly keep up the momentum and depth of its writing.

The sex stuff is weird.

MP: The way the game handles its sexually-themed scenarios seems more refined, too. I haven’t played enough to make profound generalizations about it passing the “male gaze” test (in fact I’d wager it won’t, because so little does). But contrast with that scene in the original 2007 computer game where you have to talk to a dryad in a swamp. The dryad’s wearing nothing, which in itself doesn’t feel out of step with the character or context. But then you notice, for lack of a better way to put this, that the character’s breasts are bouncing around as if possessed. It was absurd (plus: anatomically freakish).

Consider the opening shot in The Witcher 3, by contrast: the protagonist, naked and bathing, the camera hovering between his legs over the lip of the tub. Over the course of the scene you witness various sensual directorial shots of the protagonist, unclothed and clothed. Sure, the camera also lingers over the protagonist’s lover (also nude) from behind, but there’s at least an attempt being made, as someone at Salon recently put it, writing about a male undressing scene in HBO’s Game of Thrones, to “regard a naked man in an explicitly erotic context.”

MV: I find the sex in the game to be the most idiotic and juvenile thing I’ve seen in a long time. Some initial reviews knocked the game for its treatment of women. The more I play, the more I think these reviewers were onto the game’s most profound weakness. Female characters are often poorly rendered in video games (thematically, not just graphically), but I find the scantily clad characters, the not-so-clever sexual innuendo, and yeah the breast issue a needless distraction. As you say, there is an early quest line in which you accompany a sorceress through a series of trials. Her low-cut shirt is a constant companion too. It’s just not that it’s bad, it’s that it is wholly unnecessary. And kind of gross.

This aside, the world building is pretty incredible isn’t it?

World-building unlike any other.

MP: Then again, thinking about the nudity bits, you have movements like this, and so I worry criticisms like “Oh no, an areola!” raise less obvious cultural questions. But I’m also probably being more forgiving, because so many other games treat sex like we’re a bunch of towel-snapping knuckle-draggers. I’d still submit The Witcher 3 has moments where it’s at least on par with what HBO’s up to in a series like Game of Thrones.

But to your point about the world building, it’s definitely better focused. Richard Garriott of Ultima fame is the guy credited with singlehandedly launching this idea of game worlds where everything you can see has heft or can be picked up or wielded in unplanned (and potentially game-breaking) ways. That was heady conceptual grist back in the 1990s, but now that we’ve seen Bethesda riff-slash-flog the concept endlessly, it’s almost at the level of fetish: there to check a questionable immersion box, not an essential gameplay one.

I’d rather futz around in a world like The Witcher 3‘s any day, with half as many incidental gewgaws, but twice as many visceral moments. I’m frankly more impressed when someone gets a sunset or sunrise right, than whether I can chop some tree up into cordwood and plug that into an easily exploited economic equation. Confession: I’ve spent way more time dawdling and gobsmacked in The Witcher 3 than, you know, getting game stuff done. I’ve restarted three times, just to revisit certain areas and moments, if that tells you anything.

MV: Totally agree. Ok so we both love this game. We both (probably?) think it’s a strong contender (favorite?) for game of the year. What’s wrong with it?

I’d submit that it has some technical problems. I started on the Playstation 4 version before switching to PC about 10 hours in. This is my preferred platform because you can get a consistently higher frame rate which, while not only prettier, makes the game easier to play.

What else would you change if you could?

It has some problems.

MP: So this may sound weird, but I prefer games that run locked at 30 frames a second because they feel more cinematic. I blame 1926!

The game definitely has a few things working against it. The superficial “talk” button where you pass by people who literally grunt acknowledgement and nothing more (better to have no “talk” option in those cases). The way you “psychically” alert enemies to your presence by proximity, regardless of whether you’re in their line of sight (the whole collision detection scheme’s totally wonky — archers can fire arrows through giant trees!). And the way the game repeatedly interrupts the main quest by sending you down all alluring rabbit holes — or maybe that’s actually a strength, because open world games are only linear events that unfurl on objective timescales if our imaginations say they are.

How about you?

MV: They seem to be trying to address some of the wonkiness, which is wise. The latest patch did away with the constant “hit-A-to-light-candle” prompts that were fairly persistent and annoying. But you’re right there are way too many prompts. Other nits: it’s amazing that Roach, your horse, ever found its way out of a stable considering how bad it is at navigating the world, let alone tight spaces in cities. I’ve gotten stuck in water areas that should give way naturally to a shore and found myself awkwardly “climbing” out eventually. I’ve also seen a lot of drowners hovering 100 feet above the air while I’ve been traversing water in a boat.

So, yeah, bugs.

And yet, I can’t recall a game I’ve had more fun with. We’ve been going on and on here, but I guess there’s really only one question left to answer. Is this the best RPG of all time? You have to answer first!

MP: Oh sure, put my street cred on the line! It’s tough, because we’re still honeymooning. It certainly feels momentous. But up against pioneers like Ultima Underworld, Ultima VII: The Black Gate and Planescape: Torment? Or more recents ones like Fallout 3, Guild Wars 2 and Xenoblade Chronicles? (Note the wooly mammoth in the room isn’t on this particular list for me.) I’m going to cheat *ducks* and say “check back in a half-decade or two.”

MV: Ok, ok, ok. Unfair question. I’ll dodge the question too. It’s definitely in contention for game of the year at this point. And RPG of the decade. But those a conversations we can have later in the year. Now where’s my horse?

The 10 Best Classic PC Games You Can Play Right Now

The Oregon Trail (1990) Nostalgia for this elementary school library favorite has never faded — probably because they’ve relaunched the game so many times. Originally released in 1971, the Internet Archive’s edition is from 1990, but don’t worry, you can still die of dysentery in it. MECC
Lemmings 2 - The Tribes (1993) A cute puzzler, the object of this game is to lead the little rodents to safety, using lemmings’ specialized digging, blasting, and building skills to navigate the landscape of each level. DMA Design Limited/Psygnosis Limited
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - The Action Game (1989) This 1989 title was a Holy Grail for gamers, because it gave them control of Indiana Jones, one of the 80's coolest characters.Tiertex Ltd./LucasArts, U.S. Gold Ltd.
Wolfenstein 3D (1992) The precursor to Doom, Quake, and many of the gore-fests roaring across consoles today, this 1992 first-person shooter has you, as allied spy B.J. Blazkowicz, racing to escape the Nazi's clutches.id Software, Inc./Apogee Software, Ltd.
4D Prince of Persia (1994) Children of the 1990s will fondly recall this run-and-jump platformer as a top-notch adventure game, with great graphics and gameplay — and it has infinite lives. Score! Brøderbund/Terebilov KA
Leisure Suit Larry 1 - Land of the Lounge Lizards (1987) Tame by today’s standards, this 8-bit, adult-oriented title was the Grand Theft Auto of its time, following the exploits of Larry Laffer as he strolls the city of Lost Wages, looking for love. Sierra On-Line, Inc.
Dungeons & Dragons - Eye of The Beholder (1991) Roll the dice in this 1991 Dungeons & Dragons role playing game — there’s nothing like the nostalgia of being a chaotic good paladin roaming the dark passages beneath the city of Waterdeep.Westwood Associates/Strategic Simulations, Inc.
The Hobbit (1983) Open door. Go East. Enjoy game. If you want to go really old school, you can turn the graphics off in this text-based game, guiding Bilbo through Middle Earth using only your imagination as your eyes. Milbus Software
BurgerTime (1982) Guide Peter Pepper in this hamburger-assembling action game, as he tries to build the biggest mouthfuls while being chased by enemy eggs and pickles and hot dogs.Data East Corporation/Mattel Electronics
Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego (1985) This educational title rocked elementary school kids’ worlds back in the 1980s, putting their geography and history smarts to the test. (How would you do with it, today?) Perhaps the best part of this browser version is its throwback sound effects.Bro/derbund Software, Inc.

More Must-Reads from TIME

Write to Matt Peckham at matt.peckham@time.com