The Daily Life: The Hunt for Monsters
The largest part of the game is, of course, hunting monsters or fulfilling mission objectives. While every quest certainly has unique elements, the basic schema is always the same.
He’s back, Inspector Geralt…
Witchers earn their living mainly by saving people, freeing villages from monsters. Most contracts can be found at the local notice board. Once a suitable contract is found, we seek out the client and gather all necessary information. When and where did the monster strike last? Who saw the creature? Did anything special stand out?
… he has a hot lead!
As soon as Geralt ventures into the wilderness, he must make use of his Witcher senses. This allows him, for example, to see footprints that would be invisible to the normal eye or to sniff out scents and track them to their source. Every clue elicits some comments from the Witcher, and often you feel like you’re in an exciting detective game where you have to solve a murder. Though the basic mechanics of “following tracks” are repeated relatively often, they never become boring – depending on the chosen decisions, Geralt can also draw false conclusions and prematurely end the quest.
In the Lion’s Den…
At the end of the investigation, the beast doesn’t always wait – sometimes the problem has resolved itself if the creature has died in battle. However, some monsters also offer Geralt a more tempting proposal. A succubus in Novigrad, for example, says that she acted only in self-defense and has never broken the law. The player can now decide: Do I still kill the demon? Or do I trust the lady? Or do I demand some proof of her demise (like a lock of hair or a horn) and deceive my client? The choice is not always easy, and seldom can a decision be classified as purely “good” or “evil”, which gives most tasks a high replay value.
