Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Review

On May 19^th, a wonderful and very exciting game was released. Donning two swords, one of Silver and the other made of Steel your quest as a Witcher begins once again but this time you’re at first hunting down your first lover and technically canon lover, Yennefer of Vengerberg. Now one thing I do wish to start off with is a shout out thank you to CD Projekt Red for the lovely DLCs they are bringing out for free. I personally loved the Alternate Outfit for Yen, very detailed and elegant.

One thing I certainly enjoyed about the Witcher was that once I was set to my own devices I was running around doing small contracts, jobs and just killing monsters to get look; some good, some bad. The graphics are actually very good, though still not as splendid as on the PC version I’m sure but the game plays very well and luckily I did not run into a bug that some others were dealing with on the Xbox and PC versions where they couldn’t save.

Speaking of graphics, the fact that the creators took the time to even put environmental changes, wind blowing physics and other aspects makes me appreciate the time and effort they put into it. I for one enjoyed the Qwent Card game, literally I was addicted and began running all over trying to win every card or just buy them. In Qwent the first card you get is Yennefer, she’s the first hero card you get and then you have others like Triss, Geralt, Ciri, and more coming into the mix. Being I’m a strategy type player, I found this game to be a perfect way to relax after killing a contract monster. Sure perhaps some thought it was a waste of time but it was merely an escape put in to get away from hacking off limbs or slicing bandits in two.

I felt it was nice to have returning characters though some I wished didn’t because my previous thoughts on them lingered heavily from Witcher 2. Speaking of previous games one thing I realized was the outstanding graphic scale that made it from bland and a bit boxy in from the first game to being detailed to a point the brows moved, expressions weighted heavily as a factor in this game and despite them saying Witchers don’t have emotions it’s clear to see Geralt still has some humanity in his bones.

Now for a long time I heard people saying the game felt padded and focused too much on ‘Find Ciri’, well perhaps that is true but that’s why you have all the side activities so not to get bored. You wanna branch from the story? Go ahead because some if not all side missions will somehow tie in, like when you’re playing the mission the main one to find Ciri’s trail you have no direct place to go to or follow you pretty much are set to just go explore and find what you want to not immediately be told you must go here, you have no choice. No that mission gives you a choice by letting you see the expansive world before being locked into a mission. 

The Massive map shows how much there is to do in the Witcher.

There is a lot to do here but one thing I couldn’t get off the top of my head was why was leveling up so difficult? The side quests gave me little to near no experience points so it took me forever to get to level 21 which I’m on when I was currently writing this, but I’m getting level 30 missions and armors shoved into my lap unable to use them until I get to a certain level. Oh what a lovely crossbow! Oops that’s level 35 weapon and you’re only level 16, guess you better save that coin and run around like mad to get to that level chap. The leveling system felt entirely more of a burden than anything hindering me from using the better weapons and armor, took forever to get ability points (or were they skill points).

Which the creators had tried to be solved with those ‘Places of Power’; yes let me kneel before a rock for one skill point. And another thing: Why was it so difficult to find certain herbs among the wild that forced me to have to buy it from an expensive herbalist? I wanted to make a potion that required some rarely found herb then had to go pay like 200 coin for it. I felt like I was being cheated there because I wanted coins for a few other things and yes one was the Qwent Cards but the other was to ensure I could always repair my weapons or get new ones, craft armor and swords yet when I’m forced to spend money on an herb which should be found in the wild it makes me scratch my head a bit.

Just saying: Sorceresses Cat fight over Geralt...

But in the end I felt the story was very well done, also another thing I didn’t get. Geralt falls two feet from the ground and loses like a chuck of health, a monster hit him? Tiny dent of health gone; what has Monster hunting made Geralt intolerable to tripping? I feel much safer with a Witcher looking like Peter Griffin with a scuffed knee. I also certainly wanted more Ciri time and felt her parts were a bit short for my liking but they were a nice cut away from Geralt and we got to experience her travels from being chased by the Wild Hunt, and how her bloodline is really not a blessing but a big curse because everyone except Geralt and his friends treat her like nothing more than a weapon or piece of treasure. Perhaps if she had more parts in the game we’d really get the understanding of how her travels made her feel.

From playing this game I certainly say it outshines other RPGs I’ve played recently to a point I’ll probably be playing this over and over until either my Xbox One dies or the CD itself bursts into flames. Though I did appreciate that CD Projekt Red gave us the sound track, map and stickers though the stickers were cheaply made and the wolf image came off in the first hour of me having it. Yikes. I thought the map they gave was very colorful and a delight to put on my wall but what topped it off was the letter each player who bought the game got from them thanking us for buying it and they have every right to thank the people who buy their games because without us they wouldn’t have jobs.

There’s no micro transaction bullcrap, which in my opinion was an outstanding bonus because it’s become some trend with other companies. Yet every game has its issues, and with all honesty being the game was that massive in scale I was expecting a lot of glitches and bugs but really I got none and it played smoothly for me. If I were to rate it I’d say a 9/10 only because the story needed more Ciri to make me understand her side better. I felt a little blocked from her. We see her as a kid then poof, young woman on the run. I didn’t feel very much connected to her until she found Geralt. But I won’t spoil anything for you, go out and get the Witcher 3 Wild Hunt then enjoy killing monsters, romancing hot Sorceresses, and exploring a big open world.

Mortal Kombat X Review

Well on April 14th the users of Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC were graced with the new installment of Mortal Kombat. Most of the story and bits of content was kept truly hush hush but still Netherrealm leaked information by accident by displaying information about the kombat packs showing that some characters were in fact going to be playable. Now keep in mind everyone was apparently supposed to read the comic books before the game. In my opinion though, I feel that was lazy and an excuse to not give us a worthy Storyline that felt rushed, giving the good guys an excuse to be over-powered while the bad guys were weak at best.

I felt in the game there should have been more content to a 3-4hr long storyline. Not everyone has time or money to read the comics and were left feeling empty and like their $60 went to some waste. (I feel worse for people who paid 160+) Now keep in mind the online modes and towers are very fun to play but the factions feel a bit half baked. Something I would have liked was even more playable characters. Sindel, Kabal, Striker and the others who make only a cameo appearance could have been a delight to MK fans to have and play as.

I mean yes each character has a delightful 3 variation variety to pick from; my personal favorite being hard to pick between Ravenous or Piercing variations on Mileena, but I would have loved to seeing the cameo characters making an appearance being playable. What I want to address though is the fact the storyline felt like it was more about the Spec Ops than anything with Outworld or Netherrealm. The Rebellion could have gone on longer and honestly Kotal Kahn was beaten by Kung Jin that shows right there he's a horrible leader to be beaten by a partly egotistical hard head.

Notice also for me I felt the story was predictable. They showed Shinnok in the first chapter, that just says 'Oh and yeah he'll be your final boss'. During Kung Jin's chapter it was painfully easy to see D'Vorah not like Kotal trusting the Earthrealmers (DingDingDing that made her predictable) and tried to make him not trust them. Another thing I noted was how no matter what setting you put the kombat difficulty on it always seemed too hard for newbies playing even on 'Very Easy' I was watching as my friend, who never played MK in his life struggle because in the story mode the opponent was fighting no where near 'Very Easy' but on Medium to Hard.

Leaving a difficult story mode fighting like that for new comers might in turn; turn them off to the series.

But fear not, though the story line was lacking in many aspects the rest of the game makes up for it. I enjoyed the Krypt, even with the minor FNAF attempt jumpscares that you kill the attacker and get koin. The fact I could run around in first person unlocking things, finding items and more was so much more fun than buying the microtransaction of 'Unlock all Krypt Chests' for $16. I loved the graphics on my Xbox one where things felt more realistic as they can get in a weird world like the Mortal Kombat verse.

What I didn't understand though was... why did Netherrealm Studios include the 'Kutie' icons? I felt like each time I opened a chest or something with one my koins were wasted but when I got new Fatalities, and Brutalities I was jumping to cloud nine. I loved how when you first come to the krypt as well that if you aren't used to the jump scares that were rarer in MK9's krypt you'd be sitting there jumping and screaming like a 1940's woman when she saw a mouse. (Eeek!)

Now the towers are fun too, I loved the Living towers, that were daily, premium, and hourly. I spent more hours playing through towers than anything else on the game. By the end of the story mode I wanted to borrow Mileena's sais and perform her Hara Kiri. The hardest tower unless you are one of the top MK players in the universe is the survival tower. You have to fight and remember to block dodge and beat the crap out of your opponent while retaining most of your health because what you're left with is what you take with you.

What else was a great aspect? The new Character models. I loved Mileena's new lips. She looked more like half Tarkatan and Edenian. Male character models didn't look like walking ken dolls with wide chests, and shoulders, while the females didn't look like pixel blow up dolls with too much jiggle effect. And yes I bet most of the fanboys are sobbing that 'I can't see no booty' or 'they scaled down on the female sexiness'. Please children leave the room the adults are talking.

Anyway my over all score for this game is a 8.5/10 only because the story was lacking but what kept it a float was the towers, online and krypt. It's not an 'OMG must have' but I certainly say pick it up if you're a big fan.

Next: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Review