If you asked me between 2015-2020 why I loved The Witcher 3, I would go probably made a very long list of things. In 2021, however, after the launch of both Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, this list is much shorter. Now it’s basically just “the wind” and “the sun”.
In earlier, more carefree times, I thought The Witcher 3 it was exceptional for a number of reasons, most of them probably the same as you would list. Things like his clever writing, memorable missions, consequent choices and adorable main character. So when the same team is responsible for doing The Witcher 3 I got ready last year to launch a new game, that’s the kind of thing that I got excited about. More sad barons, more babies in the oven.
Cyberpunk 2077, as you undoubtedly know, did not fulfill these fronts, or many others, to the point that playing seemed to play something from a totally different studio. I opened the game hoping to feel the same fearful magic, and uninstalled it without having found a single drop of it.
Staying upset about Cyberpunk, then, literally, the next game I played was Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and what do you know. I happen to feel that Witcher 3 after all, only in someone else’s game. And that my Witcher 3 adoration (or at least the heart of it) was not so much about consequences and plots; I was just in love with a beautiful forest and a quick sunrise.
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I’m not going to sit here and pretend I’m an open world game designer. This shit must be tough. But I am an experienced connoisseur of them, and if a lifetime of playing them has taught me anything, it is that my appreciation of their worlds – not the games themselves, but the places in which they take place – often has little to do with ” busy ”they are.
If big singleplayer games are something, they are a form of escapism, so my favorites are usually the ones that really let me out. Using Cyberpunk for example, just because it is so recent, it takes place in a huge and busy city, full of cars and pedestrians and advertisements and shops. This is not an escape! This is, uh, the life that most of us already lead every day!
No, if most of us live an urban life, then it is a natural setting that is a real escape. AND The Witcher 3’s it was such a beautiful world, where you could almost smell the wet grass and the wind on your face, and it’s one of the few open world games where I’ve always wanted to reach every corner of your map, not to satisfy goals, but just to see what it was like and absorb everything.
A vibrant and alive world like this is much more attractive than a concrete jungle. Maybe it’s just me, maybe it’s something more primitive in all of us, a call to nature that only gets more pronounced the more many of us get away from it. I’ve written about virtual tourism at Yakuza before, but this is a specific place. This is more of a state of mind, a love for nature wherever it is, be it a fantasy world or a historical caricature.
Other games I love for that reason are Forgetfulness and the Distant scream series while Assassin’s Creed Odyssey came very close a few years ago, even though its Mediterranean coastlines and crystal blue waters have approached my love for Wind Waker than The magician.
Valhalla, however, my God. it is exactly what I’m after. His idyllic caricature of 9th century England is like a weekend getaway in a nature reserve, albeit with many murders and escalations between them. They are not my ideal vacation, but they are part of the package.
While Valhalla’s The opening sequence of Norway is breathtaking in its alpine way, when I arrived in England it took about three seconds for the sensation to start tingling. That old man Witcher 3 murmur. O Forgetfulness fever. Long grass. Big trees. Falling leaves. Birds chirping. Running water. A gentle breeze. Sunlight streaming through the branches, bathing a camp in an amber morning glow.
Ah, that’s the shit. This is escapism. Not in actions, but in scenery.
Valhalla shows that some of the most memorable open worlds are not defined by their density and that occupation does not mean credibility. Your England has some points on the map where things happen, for sure, but over vast expanses there is nothing to do, so like all the best road trips, there is nothing to do but absorb the breathtaking landscape, which is a pleasure that resonates with me, much more than tedious work in the open world.
While it may be tempting to pack a video game world with as much sound and fury as possible, Cyberpunk he seemed so focused, sometimes it is better to just let an open world open up and enjoy the view. In these cases, as with Valhalla, nothing is not a problem. It’s the best thing in the game.
