Oppressive. Ben instantly felt the heavy atmosphere when he arrived at Velen.
The people here were already struggling, and now the war had turned it into a lawless area with no official control.
The entire map was covered in swamps and teeming with monsters. Ghouls were everywhere.
Especially the first stop in Velen, 'Hangman's Tree,' which filled Ben with emotion.
As the name suggests, many people had been hanged on this large tree.
But what really caught Ben's attention was that he found a familiar face here.
When he controlled Geralt in the game to approach Hangman's Tree, he noticed a lootable item beneath a body hanging there with bare feet.
Picking it up revealed an item called "[Unfinished Book]", and the author was named Adalbert Keyn, the scholar who wanted to record the war in the White Orchard inn.
"That's so sad," Ben couldn't help but say.
Not only these details, but the tasks in the game also made Ben feel conflicted.
On the way to meet the Imperial spy in the main story, Ben also took on a side quest.
He encountered a priest of the Eternal Fire. Though the priest's tone was very unpleasant and he discriminated against Geralt as a monster hunter, Ben didn't care, as he wasn't the first to do so.
He used to get angry at first, but now he was used to it.
The priest told Geralt that to prevent the corpses in the mass grave from being desecrated by ghouls, he needed to burn some of the bones.
The priest seemed like a good person, a kind priest who was even willing to pay out of his own pocket to let the dead rest in peace.
But after Ben, controlling Geralt, burned the bodies at two locations, he arrived at the third location and found someone who wasn't dead, but was being attacked by ghouls.
After saving him, the man told Geralt that he was actually a bandit, a seller of narcotics, and that the priest of the Eternal Fire was not a good person.
He bought goods from them but then wanted to betray them and have the ghouls kill them to fake their deaths.
As for Geralt, the priest just wanted him to clean up the evidence even more thoroughly.
So, should he believe the priest or the bandit in front of him?
Ben didn't spend too much time debating. He chose to believe the bandit and returned to the priest to finish the task. The priest's reaction later proved that the bandit was right. Clearly, both groups were not good people.
'Hmm... interesting. I'm willing to pay you for this story, to keep you quiet.'
Looking at Geralt, the priest of the Eternal Fire took out a bag of money from his pocket.
At the same time, two different options appeared in front of Ben, accept the bribe or refuse the bribe.
"I'm such an upright monster hunter, you want to bribe me, Geralt? I don't want your money! It's dirty!" Ben snorted and chose not to accept.
At the same time, the priest of the Eternal Fire immediately turned hostile.
Three against one, but at this difficulty, it was not much of a challenge for Ben. He quickly took them down.
"Isn't this still my money?" Looking at the three corpses on the ground, Ben chuckled and took 200 coins from their bodies.
He took on several different side quests along the way, but even though they were side quests, the stories were quite interesting, giving Ben the feeling of reading a collection of short stories.
It was completely different from some other games, where you might help an old lady cross the street or pick up a package for an old man.
Moreover, he could also feel some of the political landscape and the current state of people's lives in the game, which was quite rich.
Of course, Ben also noticed that in Velen, there were many more people who could play Gwent.
The perfumer and the blacksmith in the village could all play cards.
And besides playing cards, Ben found another mini-game, which was that there were boxing matches in Velen.
In small villages by the road, people set up arenas to box, and you could bet on the matches, just like with Gwent.
"Sure enough, this makes sense! I knew that not everyone likes playing Gwent, or can afford to play Gwent, so boxing is a very fitting entertainment activity for the game's setting!" Ben looked at the new side quest in front of him with great interest.
More ways to make money!
Ben found that making money in "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" was really difficult, because the people involved in the side quests were all poor folks.
These people basically had no money, and the monster hunting contracts in the village were more often funded by the villagers, but there wasn't much money either.
Although Ben didn't understand why these seemingly poor people always had good cards when playing cards, there were relatively few ways to earn money in the game.
The exploits like farming cowhides in White Orchard from his previous life had basically all been patched out by Lucas.
So, in the early game, there really weren't many places for players to make money, which led players to search every house they could enter.
But this was also a common trait of RPG players. If you don't search the NPCs' houses in an RPG game, wouldn't you miss a lot of the fun?
After playing cards and then boxing in Velen for three rounds, Ben noticed that it was already dinnertime.
"Time flies so fast? The content in the game is so rich!" Ben exclaimed in surprise.
He had played many rounds of Gwent and boxing, explored the question marks on the map, and done a lot of side quests.
For example, he had basically cleared all the side quests in White Orchard.
But the afternoon had just passed?
He had only pushed the main storyline of the game a little bit!
Just as Ben was marveling, a special notification popped up, a message from Zack.
Zack: "Ben, how is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt? Is it fun?"
Sitting on the subway home during rush hour, Zack finally couldn't help but ask Ben for his opinion on "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt".
Although he had faith in Nebula Games, and there was certainly no shortage of related content online, he still chose to ask Ben.
The reason was that it had been several hours since he got off work, and since this was an ARPG game, he was worried that he would see something he shouldn't while checking the game reviews online, causing himself to be spoiled.
If it was a game that had been out for a few months or a year or two, then it wouldn't matter.
But this was a newly released game, and he still wanted to explore it himself.
And Ben, he believed that the two of them should have this understanding.
Zack didn't have to wait long. Ben quickly replied, but the content made him a little confused.
Ben: "The game is fun, playing cards and boxing are especially interesting. You must play Gwent in the tavern later, it's very fun."
What's going on? What does that mean?
He asked for a game review, what does playing cards and boxing mean?
Isn't this White Wolf Geralt, the legendary monster hunter?
How did he become a card player and boxer?
Are you playing "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt"?
Zack was confused, but Ben, who was replying, was also quite conflicted.
After all, he had been playing for an afternoon, but the story hadn't progressed much, and he only had a rough idea of the game's world.
And what impressed him most after playing for an afternoon, besides a few interconnected quests, was the mini-game, Gwent.
It was okay when he didn't quite understand it yet, but after really understanding the rules of the game, this little card game was really addictive.
(End of chapter)
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