The open world of the Witcher 3 is incredibly beautiful, interesting for research and simply correctly made in terms of game design. However, reflecting on the problems of the game, I all the time came to the conclusion that almost all of them are rooted there – in this very open world.
For 2.5 years, we learned a lot about the fact that the witcher is an open world Gives, but never thought that he had him Removing:
1. The development of the plot.
Well, let’s start with my beloved – with the plot! Yes, I am convinced that if it were not for the open world, the plot of the witcher 3 could be much, a new one better! You can say that different people are responsible for the script and for the open world, and you will be right. Only here, firstly, their budget is general! And secondly, the plot is always written for the format of the narrative. And when the plot is written to the format of the open world, in 9 cases out of 10 it turns out ..
You have never thought why there are so few games in an open world with a good plot? Yes, because the format of the open world itself has a bunch of narrative restrictions: at least, it should lead the player around the open world, make the player so that the player NECESSARILY I saw as many locations as possible, hooked as much of third -party activity as possible (otherwise, what for, we drained budgets for this?) and the most disgusting – he wanted to distract this activity!
You see, yes? The plot implies that from it Can And need to Constantly distracted! You understand how difficult it is to write normal The plot in such conditions? Here are the majority and does not try, but someone is trying, but only sometimes, and then it turns out with varying success.
1.1. The general simplicity of the narrative
The witcher in this regard was much more lucky than the rest.
The 3rd Witcher has its own narrative value even in isolation from everything else. And even Wow what! And now I want to make attention on this! By itself The plot of the 3rd witcher is good! But the idea of what could be much better (at least at the level of the first two parts) personally does not let me go.
The fact is that the plot of the 3rd part is simple and linear as a stick: “Geralt is looking for his own adoptive daughter, which a certain evil wild hunt is chasing, but he finds her first, and they give them all Lule." – All! One a complicated sentence is literally All, What is needed for a complete description of the plot! And the problem is that if you have at least some experience in works with such a plot construction, you know how it will end before the start. Neither the 1st nor the 2nd part of the witcher suffered from this, they knew how to surprise. I already see how someone is outraged, they say in the 2nd parts, for example, everything is just the same, “Geralt is substituted, and he is looking for a killer”. Only now! The plot of the second witcher never once Not about the search for the killer! Even moreover, you can refuse this search in the plot at one point! If you cut out from the second witcher T.n. "Search for the killer", by and large, nothing will change for the rest of the plot! All this twisted ball of the plot lines feels great and without tie! Only Geralt without proper motivation in all this policy looks unnatural. Well, there have been a couple of plot-vanned details would have to be dragged from the prologue, but you understand the essence. Now think about what will happen if you remove the “search for Ciri” from the 3rd Witcher? (i.e., something equivalent) Yes, you will not have 2/3 of the plot! And on this note we smoothly approach the next subparagraph.
1.2. Fillership of content
Answer me the following question: what we lose if we cut out of the plot of the bloody baron?
Obviously, very cool dialogs, several atmospheric scenes … and all! For the main plot all Baron branch does not mean anything! And this is the next problem of any open world – fillery of the lion’s share of content!
The percentage of filler content in the 3rd Witcher giant:
About the baron, of course, we can say that he forced Ciri to use abilities, which in turn attracted the attention of wild hunting, and this has some value for the main plot. But given the absolute logical hole of everything related to wild hunting, I will probably send such a bondage to the swamp to the drunks!
In the same way, we can say about the magicians in Novigrad, and about the criminal world of the same city, and about the Shabash with the new king Skelliga – All These events take place somewhere against the background, and they are united only by the fact that Ciri ran somewhere here. And when we have to say so about entire giant pieces of the main plot, why stutter about 99, if not 100% of all t.n. "Side-quest"?
And the problem is that the pieces are good! Directly juicy, tasty, but 70 percent, at least for me, deprived of their value precisely due. And they will be the same for you if you try to get used to the main character. “I’m Geralt, I’m looking for my daughter! She is threatened with danger, and I do not give a damn how much the complex character of the bloody baron is, and what a drama he has there, I need information from him! ALL!".
1.3. Characters
By the way, you know https://luckypantsbingocasino.uk/mobile-app/ why they are so actively enjoying the baron? Yes, because it is almost the only truly spelled out and complex character in the entire 3rd Witcher! The problem is that in any open world you are in contact with dozens, if not hundreds of characters. And, of course, this greatly affects their quality.
My favorite example is Radovid. When we first meet him in 2 parts, he makes the impression of a completely stupid and adequate person. Yes, in the future we find out that he is capable of cruelty, but given his background, even this someone can justify. A fairly ambiguous, complex and prescribed character … Well, to the best of his participation in the plot, of course. In 3 parts … well, it’s just some kind of Disney villain. You know, from the category of the most stupid. From the first lines of the dialogue, it simply floods the screen with its absolutely clicked madness. At the same time, we are told about him as a brilliant policy and commander, and in the game itself they show a complete degenerate, which deliberately constantly cuts under their bitches! No, I can believe that Radovid from 2 parts became a brilliant politician and commander, but that Radovid from the 3rd still remains, I can never believe!
99% of the characters of the 3rd Witcher have Rivne one The key character trait. And I can understand when they do such, for example, all sorts of peasants from sidest-quest. Yes, even second -plan characters, like Radovid, there are also a lot of them here. But even cast The first plan Exactly the same:
Lucky, only Jennifer was, and then, exclusively if you play in the original. There, other character traits are added to her bitchiness, which are characteristic of her, such as caring for the family. Otherwise, everything is sad … Ciri is a aching teenager at a transitional age! This is a dominant feature of her character in 99% of the situations where she flickers. But if she has at least a couple of scenes designed to force us to empathize with her, then Triss has everything very bad. We will be honest when cutting a character from the main plot requires the correspondence of two lines of dialogue, it is either ballast or fan service.
The same is Lambert, Eskel and Vesemir, the same anyone, whom we meet in the plot from Velen and ending with Skelliga, the same literally All In this game.
And do not understand me wrong, this approach is quite suitable for a certain type of stories … the type that the Witcher never was! I am not saying that the previous units, or even more so books, were perfect in this regard, but for me the witcher has always been a series focused on quality than the quantity, and although the first is the forefront, but has always been spelled out well. The Witcher took this-people here have always looked like people, had more than one character trait, and often, also the 2nd or even 3rd bottom. (just like real people)
Here it all went to hell, you know why? Because of the open world! Here, between pieces of the main plot, the player can be distracted by two -digit The number of hours of real playing time. What second day can we talk about when at the next meeting the player can simply not remember this character?! So such an approach here is a forced measure. Most characters are not very similar to real people, but they are remembered.
1.4. The uneven structure of the narrative
By the way about movements. In the same list of problems, you can throw in principle a very uneven structure of the narrative. Because between the plot-vague pieces you travel not in the cats, but on your two … four … well, you understand. And these trips are not only discouraged, they also focus on them! I think I do not need to explain that any conversations at least about some structure of the story are going to hell here.
1.5. Nonlinearity
And like a cherry on the cake, the nonlinearity suffers, which in the 3rd witness does not have any virtually left.
I can only supplement Odim with a funny fact: they wrote to me more than once, they say, “how is it that there is a lot of nonlinearity in 3 witches, on YouTube there is a whole genre of video, which is called“ what will happen if .. ?", Where different options for the development of events in the witcher 3".
Yes, there is … Any RPG has such videos. And the 2nd Witcher, for example, had. Only in 3 witches in such videos I hear, for example … 2 new lines of dialogue, small changes in the scenery, (though in places where you will never return) if you are lucky, a full -fledged small scene. When in turn, in the 2nd Witcher, I saw whole giant pieces A few hours new plot content! And now I’m not joking and I don’t get along!
And such a general simplification of everything that is possible is caused primarily by the open world! Fleets, Vergen, Lok Muin – all this could be points on a global map, only to make such a plot as in 2 witches, but in the open world, no one will ever be! And it won’t be right! It is complex, twisted and requires constant involvement. And in the open world you can get a hundred hours from one plot location to another, interact with dozens of other characters who are in no way connected with the main plot. What involvement can we talk about when there can be a two -digit number of hours between two plot quests? It’s how to watch a series with the plot of the level of twisting of the Game of Thrones, when the series comes out once a year, and no you “what happened in the previous series” in the beginning before watching. And the plot itself is more than a suitable level, but the standards of the whole witcher are probably the weak.
But you can take at any time and how to get to any village ..! Class!
The remaining 2 large points are not so monumental, and we will be honest, not so significant, but it is worth driving about it.
2. Conventions that are knocked out of immersion
To begin with, this is a bunch of game conventions, which are lit up with any open world that kill any attempts at the root. (and which the witcher did not have up to 3 parts by and large, or they were not felt so much)
The greatest such convention is the absolute static of the world in which everything happens:
You wondered what Velen is? This is the border of the front! "Neva land" if you want! Along the edges of which there are military detachments! Moreover, we are actively told that there is a fierce war ..
For the whole game, at least someone fought with someone? We were shown at least one small skirmish? Why in the 2nd Witcher, for all the chamber and the scale of the clashes, the war was shown to us much more epic? More precisely, not so, why we were generally shown? Yes, because the open world! Because no budgets will be enough for this! For the same reason, only the White Garden changes after the ending, and everything else remains unchanged: the boundaries do not move anywhere, and everyone talks about Emgyra with Radovid, as living.
Although the latter is felt even before the end, because as the developers did not try, but to follow the whole variety of quests in such a big world. If you want, you don’t want, but a couple of inconsistencies will remain, and the quest with the murder of Radovid is a wonderful example! Because you kill him, and everyone does not give a damn, as if you had done nothing at all. The campaign posters will not go anywhere, and the soldiers as shouted “Glory to Radovid”, they continue.
Well, complement this by the fact that at one point in the plot we hide Ciri in Kaer Morhen, collect the forces of defense, prepare for an epic battle … But no, stand, wait, the witcher needs to find a frying pan from a neighboring village. And the whole wild hunt, which inexorably looking for Ciri, dutifully becomes and is waiting for the Witcher to finish his affairs.
All these conventions, which, I am sure, you can remember more than me in the comments, are due to the fact that just the game designer has not yet been disgraced, which would come up with how to avoid all this, or no budgets
It doesn’t have enough for this.
3. Balance with the economy
Well, we will complete all this with balance and economics, because neither one nor the other in the witcher is simply there.
Everyone already knows about the imbalance of pumping through the Quow and the combat dance, so I’ll dwell on the economy in more detail:
Not a single open world has yet overcome this disease, when at first you have too little money, and then at some point it rarely becomes too many. Neither! ONE! So the 3rd Witcher did not work.
You can clean the card from all witcher orders, all sidelines, and ultimately raise less on this than from the sale of several chests with treasures. And now, for example, a whole subspecies of the sid-quests (witcher orders) is becoming useless, because money becomes useless, and these missions themselves very rarely possess at least some narrative value.
And all of the above is also indirectly confirmed in additions:
I do not claim that they have no problems, or even more so do not have the above problems, but we will be honest, both of them are much less! And the only reason is the scale.
Blood and concrete gives us the game zone in volume much less than the same Velen or Skellig,
but as a result, to make at least some nonlinearity there quite happened. Yes, and the concentration of something interesting per square kilometer there is much higher than in the rest of the game.
And in stone hearts, we were almost not given a new zone at all, only slightly supplemented the old. As a result, the narrative of the recognition of most fans, there is the best in the entire 3rd witcher.
Now imagine that instead of enormous scale, you could have somewhere around 4 gaming zones in size as a white garden or maybe a little more, but then All The narrative could be the level of stone hearts with nonlinearity as in the finale blood and wine!
You begin to penetrate my degree of indignation, yes?
In general, to be honest, I’m insanely offended. The Witcher is not an empty phrase for me, but when I try to voice all of the above, they say to me “what are you, go a witcher. »Imagine that you are watching, for example, an incredibly suitable channel on YouTube. (just the first thing that came to mind) something truly suitable, so that immediately in the Golden Fund, but at one point it disappears for half a year, and then begins to remove the top 5 and the flyers and letters. And these are the best top 5 and the flyers that you have seen in your life. For some the only vicious top 5 and flyers. But this is still top 5 and flying!
Here is the witcher 3 – one of the best open worlds that I remember. One of those few units from which I personally did not feel sick … but still an open world with a ton of sores typical for him.
No, this is not evil in the flesh, ohm gives its advantages, but whether it is worth it … everyone will answer for himself! And, I hope, in the comments! Here it will be really interesting to read!