6 Must-Own Xbox One Games

I struggle to put my love for The Witcher 3 into words. No written piece can do justice to the sheer quality of this game since on paper it sounds like any other of its kind; the crafting, the alchemy, the moral choices… these are all hallmarks and standard features of the RPG genre. But where The Witcher 3 shines is in its execution of said features, and it is a game that must be experienced first-hand in order to be fully appreciated. However, I shall try my hardest to explain why it is so damn tremendous. You play mostly as Geralt, who is a “Witcher” which is effectively a monster-hunting mercenary, and you have reason to believe your missing daughter (by adoption), Ciri, is in danger.

Therefore, you shall travel across the humongous lands of “the Continent” to try to find her and get her to safety, taking contracts to defeat monsters to earn some coin on the way of course. In the conflict-filled, war-torn lands you inhabit, everyone is looking for help, and so in order to get the answers you need regarding Ciri’s pursuing enemies and her whereabouts, you must be prepared to do a lot of favours for many people. Although the storyline is mostly simple, it is presented uniquely, with even seemingly unrelated contracts and side quests intertwining with it, and affecting certain outcomes and events. Furthermore, nothing feels like an irrelevance or a mere filler- everything feels like a conscious, calculated decision to flesh out the world- which tells a story itself just from exploring it. You are also presented with many choices throughout the game, many of which are morally ambiguous and can have immediate effects, no effect, or a serious effect later down the line- and they can be unpredictable, as they can have chain reactions. This makes every decision you make important, especially when it ultimately decides the fate of certain characters, many of which you will grow to admire.

Part of the reason for this is quality of the dialogue and voice acting, which are superb, and partnered with excellent life-like animation, this gives it the feel of HBO shows like Game of Thrones, which is an astonishing achievement for a video game! There are some truly heartstring-tugging moments in the storyline, and some extremely grim themes that are handled so maturely that they will recover your faith in the video games industry, which games like Dragon Age: The Inquisition or Mass Effect 3 likely destroyed!

Even the side quests are engaging and have better narratives than most full-length video games. The massive sandbox you inhabit is completely wide open for you to explore, is 3.5 times larger than Skyrim and detailed from the peaks of the tallest mountains, to the tiles on city roofs and the depths of the oceans. In fact the detail of the world is unprecedented in any video game thus far; the meadows are thick with tall grass, all manner of flora and fauna and wild animals, the villages, outposts, towns and cities are jam packed with anything from dozens, to thousands of people varying in class, age, gender, race, profession and appearance, all going about their daily routines.

The architecture and characters’ fashion and behaviour depend entirely on what area of the world you are in- for example, in the mountainous region of Skellige there is more elaborate carpentry on housing and ships, there are more bearded men with Nordic style armour and weaponry, even some shield-maidens and they will greet you with their native expressions, usually with Irish or Scottish accents. And the local weather greatly differs, with snow falling and occasionally a storm with lightning and wind that actually blows and shakes every blade of grass and tree for miles ahead.

It does not take long for the player to forget that this game has been put together by a team of people- it requires no effort to get lost in this incredibly believable world. The combat is also very appealing- being able to cleave a man in half, vertically or horizontally, or dismember and decapitate them is exceedingly satisfying, even after doing it hundreds of times. Although there was some accusations of the game promoting violence against women, you can rest assured that it is men you are killing half the time, and for the other half it is monsters.

Even though I detest magic usually, the spells in The Witcher 3 are actually rather entertaining to pull off in combat and can be cast rather seamlessly in between attacks. You can even fire crossbows, throw bombs and there is mounted combat too! You can enter most buildings and houses throughout the games villages and cities, as well as loot every chest, drawer, shelf and cupboard, then sell any useless junk you find to the nearest merchant.

Also looting the body of a corpse you just killed will provide you with materials and ingredients to craft new weapons and armour or brew new potions. There is simply, just so much to see and do in this world. I have put in about 90 hours so far and am only sitting at little over 30% completion. CD Projekt Red did not exaggerate when they said the game offers over 200 hours-worth of content for you to get stuck into. You will likely want to explore every corner of this vast, strikingly gorgeous world and complete most, if not all of the many hundreds of side quests and monster contracts! It is abundantly clear that CD Projekt Red thought of everything, considered every feature that a gamer could possibly want and implemented them all with maximum effort and care, and thus there is more on offer than any RPG fan could imagine! Even in the physical game box, every buyer gets a copy of the games soundtrack, a thick game manual, a map, some stickers, a compendium and a thank you note, promising 16 free content downloads (including quests, weapon and armour sets and barber options). In a word, The Witcher 3 is majestic… so much so that I doubt any other game this generation will come close to its standard of quality, but I suppose miracles can happen- The Witcher 3 is proof of that.

So, that is my final list…for the time being.

I have enjoyed plenty of other Xbox One games this generation, around 40 in total (a further 100+ if I include PC and Vita games) and I have admittedly missed out on a few titles, such as; Far Cry 4, Dying Light and State of Decay Year One Edition- which I may or may not enjoy when I inevitably pick them up. Still, for the time being, these are the 6 games that you, as an Xbox owner, need to own! 

There is no shortage of games in the pipeline; Metal Gear Solid V, Final Fantasy XV, Gears of War 4, Scalebound, Halo 5, Quantum Break and many others. So be sure to pick up these 6 games before those upcoming games drop!