With launch day just a week away, reviews of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt are beginning to surface.
Being the colossal adventure that it is, some outlets are still ploughing through CD Projekt RED’s latest RPG and as such are yet to commit a score.
VideoGamer and Eurogamer both fall into this camp, although they have chalked up some rather exhaustive first impressions.
Eurogamer also reports that the Xbox One version does achieve 1080p, but not constantly – dynamic scaling boosts the resolution between 900p and 1080p “depending on what’s happening in-gameâ€. You can bet Microsoft pushed CD Projekt hard for this.
Enough of technical prowess – review scores so far been a heady mixture of 8s, 9s and 10s. This has resulted in a Metacritic of 92% (currently formed of 23 critical reviews), with the lowest score(s) being the 4/5s handed out by OPM and GamesRadar.
Most of the faults highlighted seem to be combat related or down to the fact that the main storyline is heavily fetch-quest orientated. Almost every reviewer seems to agree that the open-world is one of the finest ever created though, with Eurogamer in particular claiming it’s on par with Red Dead Redemption. “ […] like Red Dead, Wild Hunt offers an open world with a real sense of place. This is a game packed full of life and character that manages to remain focused and cohesive, despite its imposing scaleâ€
Here’s a review round-up: [Updated]
5/5 – The Telegraph: “There is no saving the world, here, no great evil force pervading the landscape, or a doomsday clock ticking down to inevitable destruction, with only you to stand in its way. The story of Wild Hunt is a personal one, set in a huge and unrelentingly beautiful world”
5/5 – The Guardian: “This vast fantasy adventure combines sophisticated storytelling with an expansive and richly conceived world”
10/10 – GameSpot: “[And] make no mistake: this is one of the best role-playing games ever crafted, a titan among giants and the standard-setter for all such games going forward”
10/10 – AusGamers: “This is open-world gaming at its finest. It’s largely free and unbound by your own adventurous noseying, and you’re really only fenced in by the progression at which you’re on at any given time. The game-world doesn’t wholly scale, and you’re rewarded much more for questing than grinding”
Essential – Eurogamer: “A majestic, earthy open-world adventure with great integrity and personality, this is the best role-playing game in years”
9.75 – GameInformer: “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt encompasses what I hope is the future of RPGs. It stands out for its wonderful writing, variety of quests and things to do in the world, and how your choices have impact in interesting ways. Usually something is sacrificed when creating a world this ambitious, but everything felt right on cue”
9.3 – IGN: “Though the straightforward and fetch-quest-heavy main story overstays its welcome, the option of joyfully adventuring through a rich, expansive open world was always there for me when I’d start to burn out. Even if the plot isn’t terribly interesting, the many characters who play a part in it are, and along with the excellent combat and RPG gameplay, they elevate The Witcher 3 to a plane few other RPGs inhabit”
9/10 – The Metro: “A colossal achievement in technical terms, with a level of interaction with the game world and its inhabitants that is unsurpassed in modern video games”
9/10 – VideoGamer: “The Witcher 3 is vast, intriguing, and enthralling”
88/100 – GamesBeat: “Playing The Witcher 3 with an eye for grand strategy can be both a densely engrossing and mechanically frustrating, overlong adventure. When played one move at a time, however, Wild Hunt is the supreme alchemical distillation of the role-playing experience. It’s a bleakly human play at the heart of a dark fantasy”
8/10 – Destructoid: “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a huge step up from its predecessor, mostly because it manages to tell a more compelling and personal tale. At the same time, that intimate feel is juxtaposed against a gigantic, sprawling open-world adventure that may hit some snags along the way but still comes out on top”
4/5 – GamesRadar: “Sloppy combat and ongoing optimisation can’t quite spoil this dark fantasy adventure, set in a stunning world of blood and black magic”
4/5 – Official PlayStation Magazine (UK): “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a surprising failure as an open-world video game, but within its beautifully lit world of monsters lies a much more traditional story-driven RPG of immense quality”
Yesterday it was announced that pre-orders have exceeded 1 million. We imagine that number will have significantly grown by the end of the week.