Witchervania: He Who Fights Monsters
By MarkWahlberg 16 Comments
Is it weird that I like making these videos? Because holy balls did this take forreeever.
Games and Stuff
The one nice thing about being 2 years behind on games is that by the time you do get around to playing anything, it’s a lot cheaper. This summer’s Reasonably Priced Games? The prodigiously subtitled Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings.
To begin with, these are possibly the most gorgeous looking games on the 360. Castlevania in particular has some of the most stunning environments I’ve seen in quite some time, and while the Witcher is a little blander in that department it more than makes up for it with the character designs – I found myself geeking out over just the clothing more than once. But these games have much more going on than just great style.
I don’t have a history with either series, which I think actually benefited me to some extent, in that I had no real expectations. In the case of the Witcher Part Deux, I did have more trouble than usual in following the story, but that has more to do with the game simply not explaining what’s going on until well after something actually happens. This might be more realistic – and in retrospect I admire the attempt – but it can be a bit frustrating (going into the journal entries doesn’t help because they often address things that haven’t even occurred yet).
A big fuss is made over the Witcher being the more ‘mature’, morally grey fantasy series in gaming, but the reality is that its idea of maturity hews more closely to Game of Thrones than anything else: the occasional nudity (admittedly tasteful, as far as sex in games go) frequent vulgar asides and everyone being kind of a dick, rather than any emotional complexity. It makes a show of political machinations, and succeeds in some respects, but much of the Moral Greyness of the setting seems to be taken for granted. The end of Act 1 has you deciding between partnering up with Roche or Iorveth. There’s this whole thing about ‘is Iorveth a terrorist or a freedom fighter? Who’s to say?’ but the problem is that they offer nothing for you to base that decision on yourself, only the opinions of others. It ultimately becomes an aesthetic choice rather than an ethical one.
I chose Iorveth because it seemed to throw a bit of a twist in the narrative, although I will go back and do Roche’s path at some point. Vergen is a fun town – if only the fucking harpies would stop screeching every 3 seconds – but there was a weird moment that threw the rest of the story into a weird light. There’s an elf lady you can talk to who says something along the lines of ‘all this nonhuman rights talk has made me realize women get fucked over a lot too’, to which Geralt’s response is basically “UGH Feminists”. Now, I’m not saying you can’t put real-life politics in games, but… really? And it makes the whole Saskia thing kind of weird in retrospect, because the supposed poster girl for woman empowerment is – well, she is at least a female, anyway. Add in Dandelion’s editorializing about how Saskia only has followers because she’s hot (which would otherwise just be fleshing out his character) and it becomes this weird sexual politics argument that really doesn’t vibe with the rest of game at all.
As far as the actual gameplay goes, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Much of the game revolves around using the appropriate buffs and items during combat, and those just happen to be the two things I avoid like the plague whenever I play an RPG. So the fact that the game actually made that aspect fun says a lot. I actually was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more monster hunting to do – a bit similar to how people felt about the scarcity of tombs in the newest Tomb Raider, I think. The pre-hunt investigation/preparation is possibly the nerdiest thing I’ve seen in a while, but it’s also really cool. It also helped that Geralt’s relationship with the monsters was one of the more interesting parts of his character, and one that I wish had been explored more. If you spare the dragon at the end but don’t have Philippa’s dagger, Geralt can explain that he refuses to slay dragons on a purely moral basis – which is the most revealing thing we’ve heard about him in the entire game. If nothing else, I’m interested in seeing how they choose to fill out the open world in the Witcher 3.
As I said earlier, I have no history with the Castlevania franchise. What’s more, I’ve never played a God of War game, and since the two biggest complaints about Lords of Shadow were that it was A) not like the other Castlevanias, and B) too much like God of War, those supposed drawbacks were irrelevant to me. What I didn’t realize is how much Lords of Shadow would directly address why I hate God of War so much.
From watching footage and talking to people, I think I have a pretty good understanding of GoW, in which you play a constantly-yelling dude seeking revenge for the death of his wife (who he murdered) and who systematically kills every single character in Greek Mythology. Ryan once made the argument that Kratos is actually the villain in the story, an argument I was willing to accept but one that did not justify the fact that those games are just a bunch of misguided immature bullshit.
So what surprised me about LoS is that you play as an angry dude seeking revenge for the death of his wife (who he murdered) and who kills every character he meets. Gabriel doesn’t even want to kill these people, but they just keep thowing themselves on his sword, and the game charts his descent into this constantly angry, kind of evil person. Or at least, that’s how Zobek describes him. Gabriel himself says very little (which makes Zobek’s journey from weirdly unreliable narrator to Unreliable Narrator a bit odd to see unfold). Instead of just being a GoW clone, the whole thing becomes a very strange rebuttal of the entire premise of the God of War franchise. It seems to hit all the same notes, but does so without ever becoming grating or juvenile.
So, how does it feel to finally play a GoW-style game in 2013? Fucking awesome. This game is so much goddam fun. Especially coming off the Witcher, having a game where leveling up means being able to do more, instead of more of the same, feel very refreshing. It’s easy to see why people would give up on it, as the combat really doesn’t take off until you’ve been able to unlock more moves, but holy shit does it take off. Especially after the second Titan this game becomes a pure blast to play, even when it’s frustratingly difficult, because you know it’s a matter of ‘I need to play this better’, and not ‘I need to grind my character/buy more bullshit items’. That being said, The boss fights could be a bit frustrating in all the combo's you've unlocked aren't useful because they make you too exposed, and you end up just rolling around a lot and sneaking in a hit or two, then rolling a lot, etc. Even that still ended up being kind of fun, though, so good on them.
It’s not surprising that the strongest section of the game is the Vampire Castle. I can understand why they chose not to set the whole game there, but that area certainly played to the core strengths of the game in every aspect. It’s actually similar to the better parts of the Witcher, which pulled from Polish fairy tales and such, in that it takes a more classical approach to the fantasy material over the Magic-Crystals-Dark-Lords-Save-the-World bullshit. Granted, it becomes more or less Van Helsing: The Game, but still. It works really well here, and I hope they learn the right lessons for the sequel.
Misc.
In other media news: I still need to see Pacific Rim, Drinking Buddies is a really good movie and everyone should go watch it (although maybe wait so you don’t have to rent it for 10 bucks on iTunes, because what?) and whoever canceled Bunheads should be slowly roasted over an open fire.
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