Posted on: October 21, 2020

lo_pub
Verified ownerGames: 240 Reviews: 7
A profoundly unsatisfying experience
It feels odd writing a negative review for a game into which clearly a huge amount of effort was put, and which has received so much praise. The graphics are beautiful, the voice acting is as good as I’ve ever heard, and the size of the world and the level of detail in it are daunting. But I feel that the game has some very serious issues. I will focus on my main complaints about the story, although the gameplay has problems of its own and often feels like a chore. Your choices in this game have consequences (which is good), except that they are completely arbitrary. Without prior warning, doing the “right” thing will sometimes kill hundreds of innocents. What’s worse, some quests have no purely-positive outcomes. For example (minor spoiler): Would you prefer some children to be killed and eaten, or for an entire village to be massacred? I’m not sure what lesson the writers were trying to teach here, but what I learned, once I realized that every small victory would somehow turn into a defeat, was not to bother caring about how the story develops. This arbitrariness culminates when the ending you get depends on prior choices in a way that I can describe only as “stupid”. If you play this game, I strongly recommend reading up on the story in advance, to find out which dialogue options matter, otherwise you might find yourself wondering: “THAT’s what it all came down to?!” But there’s an even bigger problem with the ending. Ciri’s story consists mainly of running from the Wild Hunt, while everyone else is trying to protect her. Once the main plot is resolved, she does something which, during my tens of hours of playing, was never even mentioned as being a possibility, with huge consequences for the entire world. Hold on -- a trilogy ending with a new, unforeseeable plot element being introduced in the final minutes? Does this remind you of anything? … At least for Mass Effect 3 there was an outcry. I don't understand why this game gets a pass...
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