The special quests offer a breath of fresh air

May 25, 2015 19:15 GMT  ·  By

The Witcher 3 launched last week and while it has quite a few great and a few less than impressive features, one of the best additions are the witcher contracts, which are specific missions that players can pick up, usually involving finding and killing certain monsters.

Lots of RPG fans eagerly awaited The Witcher 3 last week across the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Now that it's finally available, many of them are enjoying the many different main and secondary quests that allow them and protagonist Geralt of Rivia to go on various adventures throughout the huge open world.

Witcher contracts are certainly worth your time

However, while there are plenty of great missions both in the main plot line and in the secondary sections, the special witcher contracts are very fun and varied.

As you the franchise's name suggests, the main focus is Geralt, a witcher, which are mutants that specialize in killing all sorts of monsters, provided the reward is good. While our anti-hero has certainly lived up to his profession in past titles, in The Witcher 3 he can really flex his skills through these special contracts.

They mainly focus on eliminating certain monsters that are plaguing humans, settlements, or bigger areas. However, many aren't as simple as "go to location, fight monster, walk away."

Instead, they involve investigative work, forcing Geralt to use his witcher senses, similar to Batman's Detective vision, in order to spot clues and showcase his deductive abilities, not to mention the wealth of knowledge about monsters that witchers need to have.

These moments are a breath of fresh air, especially since interactions with humans are mostly filled with intrigues, annoyances, and favors upon favors. Just finding clues, searching for monsters, preparing for their confrontation by consulting the bestiary, and then actually going up against them is an activity cycle that's quite impressive and continues to reward. What's more, every monster you kill drops a trophy, which can offers specific bonuses while equipped on your horse.

Couple this strategy with the pretty great writing around most monsters and their motivations, make the witcher contracts a high point for The Witcher 3.