The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, The Best Game Award of the Year

It was weird to hear that The Witcher 3 game was about to come on the switch. I wasn’t sure how it could be possible we’ve seen impossible ports on the switch before like doom and Wolfenstein but the witcher still seemed out of reach, unlike doom this is a huge open-world game.

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt

How Good games survive on the switch this is the full Witcher 3 experience, however, with everything intact including both DLC expansions every inch of the northern realms is present and accounted for each NPC is in its place every cutscene is present in its full glory that alone is an impressive feat. What’s even more surprising is the fact that the panic button the Wizards responsible for the aforementioned doom and Wolfenstein ports have nothing to do with it.

Witcher 3 was ported to switch by saber interactive the developers behind the ill-fated NBA playground series and Shaq foo initially finding out. They were handling the porting duties had me worried but they’ve done some impressive work. The Witcher 3 video game on the switch doesn’t really look as good as it does on competing platforms that isn’t to say it’s unimpressive. Though it’s actually very very pretty especially in cutscenes hair still flows and more powerful consoles little details and Geralt armor are visible despite the lower resolution and the lighting looks absolutely incredible outside of cutscenes.

The downgrades made to get which are running on the switch become more noticeable especially if you’re playing in docked mode the first and most noticeable compromise for me was the resolution which seems to hover around to the 540 p mark when running around the world. At times Geralt would appear fuzzy or blurry which is typical of games that push the switch hard at like Xenoblade chronicles. The framerate seems to hover around 20 to 25 frames per second as well even in densely populated areas like Novigrad which is a significant difference from the locked 60.

Witcher 3 Wild Graphics

You’ll find it elsewhere but this is what I really expected from such an ambitious port and the more I played the game the less I noticed these compromises and when playing in handheld mode. These changes became difficult to spot handheld mode is the way to play witcher 3 the framerate suffers a bit less and the game looks breathtaking on the switch’s smaller screen. The UI and text are easy to read too which is great considering the game was known for having issues with readability when it released back in 2015. Unfortunately, there are no switch-specific features added to this version of The Witcher 3 no gyro aiming no NFC functionality nothing and given.

What is here I’m okay with that I’ve invested a ton of energy discussing the technical aspects of this version but if you’re a Nintendo only fan you probably aren’t too familiar with The Witcher 3 as this is its first outing on a Nintendo platform as I mentioned before, it’s an open-world game this is a game that offers hundreds of hours of playtime between the main story and both DLCs.

The Witcher 3 gameplay

You can expect over 100 hours of gameplay and that isn’t counting the numerous side quests everywhere you turn in The Witcher 3. There’s something to do a werewolf that needs killing a Griffon hunting civilians or a potion that needs mixing to save someone just walking across the world map can take up to two hours by some estimates. It’s an insane amount of content for a game on any platform let alone a portable one. Thankfully there are signposts scattered throughout the world that will allow you to fast travel I was very thankful for these especially midway.

Through the game when I would find myself having to take on objectives that would have me crossing continents the main quest of the game at least early on is to locate Siri who serves as a daughter figure in Geralt’s life to find her. Though you need help from characters all over the world at certain points in the quest you also take control of Siri who is now a grown woman and has some unique combat skills all her own combat, however, is probably the witcher threes weak point while it’s fun in its own way.

Wild hunt battles

It feels ever so slightly of this isn’t a switch specific issue either combat has always been a bit wonky in every version of witcher 3 to date I feel a slight delay between button presses and on-screen action and hits lack a sense of the impact that said neither of these issues got in. They still don’t today the Witcher 3s battles are at their best when you’re up against a huge creature fights against humans are easy but monsters are another story entirely. If you want to survive an encounter with a werewolf for instance you’ll need to research it.

You’ll need to find an herb called Wolfsbane and create an oil with it to add to your silver sword if you want to do any meaningful damage fights aren’t the only part of the game that requires careful consideration. Either conversation is a huge mechanic in this game depending on the path you choose in a conversation. You can get help from someone or end up having to kill them and depending on that choice the people around.

You may react favorably to you or be terrified of you in an early spot in the game I chose to kill someone working for a baron when I arrived at the Baron’s castle. He was aware that I had slaughtered his henchmen and decided to lock me out forcing me to find another way in choices like this are presented to you regularly throughout the story. Though few make a difference until you near the end of the game in the third act.

The Witcher 3 walkthrough

These choices carry much more gravity to them and can make a difference in which of the game’s three endings. You’ll get getting to those endings, however, can be quite difficult if you’re like me and you’re easily distracted by side quests my original Witcher 3 playthrough took me months to complete because I would pick up every quest I could find do a couple then get overwhelmed by how many I had to complete and put the game down for days or even weeks.

On end this time on the switch I’m taking things much more casually and playing on easy mode which dramatically reduces enemy HP and damage meaning I don’t need to grind out levels as much to get ahead in the story. I really love the inclusion of multiple difficulty settings especially on a portable version of the game because it makes it easier for me to play a little and just work my way, through the main storyline without feeling like I need to invest dozens of hours to get anywhere with just a handful of hours under my belt on the switch version.

I feel I’ve played enough to know what I’m getting into here this is everything I love about The Witcher 3. Its storyline the massive open-world the tons of quests and side activities and memorable characters crammed into the world’s tiniest package but to do that some compromises were made along the way that means I can’t really call this the definitive version of The Witcher 3. It certainly won’t hold up when compared to other consoles or your TV but it is the only way to play this game portably.

How good that feels can’t be understated overall I like the switch version of The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt a lot it’s yet another technical marvel on a system that’s slowly becoming known for impossible ports and one of the best games of this decade. If you’ve never played The Witcher 3 and want to have it, anywhere you go I highly recommend this version if you’re only going to play doctor ever I’d point you to the Ps4 Xbox or Pc versions instead for the best possible visual presentation that about wraps it up for our review of witcher 3 on the Nintendo.