Witcher 3 - Best Detective Game Ever Made @ Extra Credits

Extra Credits thinks The Witcher 3 is like Raymond Chandler's pulp fiction transferred into fantasy medieval times:



More information.

Thanks for the video link, jhwisner!

Raymond Chandler on ideal character for a detective novel:

In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption. It may be pure tragedy, if it is high tragedy, and it may be pity and irony, and it may be the raucous laughter of the strong man. But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man.

He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world. I do not care much about his private life; he is neither a eunuch nor a satyr; I think he might seduce a duchess and I am quite sure he would not spoil a virgin; if he is a man of honor in one thing, he is that in all things.

He is a relatively poor man, or he would not be a detective at all. He is a common man or he could not go among common people. He has a sense of character, or he would not know his job. He will take no man’s money dishonestly and no man’s insolence without a due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him. He talks as the man of his age talks, that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness.

The story is his adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. He has a range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right, because it belongs to the world he lives in.

If there were enough like him, I think the world would be a very safe place to live in, and yet not too dull to be worth living in.

Not a perfect fit by any means, but I think Raymond Chandler would have a lot of good things to say about how CD Projekt Red pulled off characterizing Geralt.

I may be projecting my inner Geralt into this, but this really sounds a lot like him. Except for he "would not spoil a virgin" part.

I… er, everybody's seen the video and is clear that Dan is reading entire segments from the Chandler quotation jhwisner is citing, right? I'm getting this bizarre sense y'all are talking about Chandler "in addition to the video" when the video spent time at length discussing that very thing.

Or is it just me?

blasphemy.

The best detective game ever is the Carmen Sandiego series

Yea yea, Nancy Drew fans disagree.

Hmmm. Footprints. I should look at them.

Hmmm. Another opportunity to be a trolling child. I should take it.

Originally Posted by Ovenall
Hmmm. Footprints. I should look at them.

Man, I'm kinda worried about your health lately.
It's been years since you repeated two swords thing. Is footprints perhaps some sort of internal code for those swords or you cracked?

Lighten up guys. These are games after all.

I'm not going to quip about the 'best detective game ever' because I haven't played enough detective games to contend. But what certainly can be said about The Witcher 3 is that it's many things, all of which are done well. The fact it can inspire an article like this highlights a game that is truly multifaceted.

Originally Posted by Ovenall
Lighten up guys. These are games after all.

Don't be angry, these are just games

I like this game.
However in my opinion its a terrible detective game. Glowing footprints. Glowing keys. Glowing blood stains. Glowing giagantic arrow pointing to the only cave in the region.
Where is the detective work? There is minimal thought required.

And before someone gets all "you dont have to use the special senses" thats true… you dont. Even without them its still pretty terrible. "Oh look, a shoe on a dirt path, the ONLY article of human clothing seen in the entire game outside of a house not being worn… i bettttter investigate it."

Originally Posted by Wisdom
I like this game.
However in my opinion its a terrible detective game.

You misunderstood Extra Credits' message Wisdom. He isn't saying that it's a detective story because Geralt follows clues, footsteps or scents. He is saying that the whole of TW3 story follows a pattern of a literary genre called Detective Story (or Pulp Detective Story).
And I agree with him.

Originally Posted by zahratustra
You misunderstood Extra Credits' message Wisdom. He isn't saying that it's a detective story because Geralt follows clues, footsteps or scents. He is saying that the whole of TW3 story follows a pattern of a literary genre called Detective Story (or Pulp Detective Story).
And I agree with him.

You are correct. I misunderstood the message of literary style and reading the comments didnt help.
Thx for clarifying

Originally Posted by Bedwyr
I… er, everybody's seen the video and is clear that Dan is reading entire segments from the Chandler quotation jhwisner is citing, right? I'm getting this bizarre sense y'all are talking about Chandler "in addition to the video" when the video spent time at length discussing that very thing.

Or is it just me?

They truncate it for the sake of time, that's the full text.

Originally Posted by jhwisner
They truncate it for the sake of time, that's the full text.

Ok. Just making sure.