10 Subtle Ways The Witcher 3's Story Is One Of The Very Best

3. We All Want To Be Geralt

The Northern Kingdoms aren’t a lovely place to live.

The Elves are outcast. The Dwarves ostracised. Women are abused and unwanted children turn into botchlings. Peasants get conscripted and murdered by soldiers, or left to toil back-breaking work in the fields…and then get murdered by soldiers. Monsters prowl the land night and day, ready to eat, crush, slice, possess or cook you. Even the lords and ladies in their castles are prone to frequent nastiness… killer bird curses, banquet bear slaughters, or trapped in your own dilapidated home with only a talking dog and cat, and a terrifying, undead Caretaker for company.

The only people with any real power in this world are the Kings - who get assassinated… or the sorceresses - who get their eyes gouged out.

Geralt was taken away from his parents as a child, subjected to terrifying trials, gruelling training, and life-threatening mutations. His emotions were all but drained from him and he was forced into the unrelenting trade of hunting monsters for low-pay from ungrateful and prejudiced species that are often more odious than the monsters themselves.

And despite all this, Geralt is who we’d all choose to be if we had to live in Temeria, too.

Geralt is independent, strong, resolute, capable, and can defend himself against almost any danger (especially if you can reload a save after dying for the hundredth time). Okay, so my idea of fun isn’t clearing out spider-infested caves so some merchant can store his wine…but I wouldn’t be me. I’d be Geralt. And Geralt can handle those giant eight-legged freaks with ease, collect his pay, and be back at the brothel before sundown. If some troll tries to boil my bones, or a gang of thugs tries to steal my loot, I’ll calmly turn around, wield my swords more elegantly than a conductor commands his orchestra, and be on my merry way (after picking their pockets clean).

In a world where everything is constantly trying to betray, murder or eat us, he’s everything we’d wish we could be.