A Decade Later, The Witcher 3 Still Does Things No Other Game Has Topped

The Witcher is a special series. I fell in love with it through The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings on the Xbox 360, before picking up every one of Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels. I loved Henry Cavill’s time bringing Geralt of Rivia to life in live-action, and the care he had for presenting a faithful adaptation. But on top of all that, I came home from college when I was 17 and opened up my newly-delivered copy of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – a game I had been excited about for a while.

Ten years have passed since. I’m 27. I still return to play The Witcher 3 every so often, only now I’m a few grey strands of hair closer to not needing a wig for a Geralt cosplay.

The Witcher 4 Is On The Distant Horizon, But Wild Hunt Is Special

Geralt riding Roach near mountains and a castle in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

With The Witcher 4’s announcement trailer barely half a year old, the wait has been a long one, and will continue for a while longer yet. However, The Witcher 3 remains a pillar of my love for this series and the fantasy genre altogether, as it does for many others.

A little under four years after the triumph of Skyrim and the impact that it had on RPGs, The Witcher 3 came along and took things a step further. It was less about sandbox elements and freedom of building a character you wanted, but instead a strong, narrative-focused game that provided an incredible story.

If that wasn’t enough, the DLC expansions Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine took that storytelling even further.

The game allowed us to make significant decisions as part of the story, paired with a beautiful world, brilliant gameplay (both action- and detective-oriented), and an excellent score to top it all off. And honestly, it’s remained mostly untouched in the decade since its launch.

Only One Fantasy Game Has Carried The Same Weight

To remain quite so significant in the strides that were made ten years ago is no easy feat, but The Witcher 3 does exactly that. We have other incredible fantasy games, from Dragon’s Dogma 2 to the recent return of Oblivion Remastered, but it’s only been Baldur’s Gate 3 that has reached quite the revolutionary height in the last decade.

To be honest, I could see Baldur’s Gate remaining the only one to achieve a similar thing until we actually get our hands on The Witcher 4, and the cycle begins anew. Even with the slim chance we see The Elder Scrolls 6 before the next Witcher entry, Starfield’s reception doesn’t give me confidence that Bethesda’s next big title will make the significant strides these games have been able to. Similarly, I’m excited for the next Fable, but I don’t expect it will be anything close.

Perhaps I’ll be proven wrong and we’ll only see more incredible games that can push the boundaries for each other title in the genre, and I’d love nothing more than for that to be the case. But from what we’ve seen of games since, and the fact that The Witcher 3 shines just as bright all these years later, I can’t wait to see if The Witcher 4 will carry the torch afterwards.