Finding the Storytelling Tools at Work in a Game: Environment in The Witcher 2
October 17, 2024
This analysis stems from a valuable assignment in The Narrative Department's Game Writing Masterclass II which challenged us to explore how different facets of a game intersect to support the storytelling. I've developed and expanded on my original thoughts to explore how the physical environment, musical elements, and gameplay mechanics help to support the core story and flesh out its characters.
The Witcher 2 may not be the longest or largest RPG around - certainly not as gargantuan in scope as its 2015 successor The Witcher 3 - but its rich storytelling packs a hell of a punch. I've teased out three of the game's different layers that underpin the story and worldbuilding in powerful ways, starting with the Act I town of Flotsam to explore environment as a storytelling tool.
Environment: Flotsam (Act I)
Flotsam is a harbour town that sits on the Pontar River - a vital trade port near the Temerian-Aedirnian border through which the goods and wealth of several nearby countries must flow. Surrounded by ancient forests brimming with Scoia'tael (elven and dwarven freedom fighters), bandits, and monsters, Flotsam town acts as the main 'hub' of Act I - and, through its environmental design, it reflects some of the game's more important narrative themes.
One of these themes is the persistent, simmering conflict between humans and nonhumans in its world. Many of the humans we encounter exhibit intense dislike for their elven and dwarven neighbours to at least some degree, ranging from mistrustful mutterings to overt bigotry, and - as you can witness in a main questline if you choose one of two major story branches in Act I - even extreme violence. Some rebel nonhumans decide to fight back by taking to the forests and joining the Scoia'tael, who then carry out attacks on the dh'oine (humans) in retaliation, which further stokes the cycle of hostility and mistrust between them. Flotsam's environment is saturated in evidence of this conflict.
Aside from the harbour, the town itself is divided into several different 'zones', which are clearly delineated, not only in their physical design, but through on-screen pop-ups that inform the player which district they've entered whenever they cross a boundary. These fit into two main groups:
The 'main' districts - the town square, craftsmen's district, and the nonhuman district - which are all housed inside the town's high defence walls and guarded by human soldiers 24/7.
Lobinden is little more than a smattering of huts outside the town walls, on the outskirts of the dangerous forest beyond. It's predominantly home to humans who appear to belong to a lower socio-economic bracket than those in the main, human-dominated parts of town, though a few elves seem to dwell there, too. There are some rickety wooden decks from which a mixture of self-appointed 'guards' (both elven and human) try to protect Lobinden from the dangers lurking in the forest.
So, we quickly begin to get a sense of division and the intentional, physical separation of humans and nonhumans, which only becomes clearer as you spend time in each part of town.
First up, there's the town square, Flotsam’s most affluent district, and home to its political and administrative leaders and their families, who live in spacious and more luxuriously decorated homes. It also has the town’s human merchants, tavern, garrison, and other important buildings. It doesn't take long to realise that the town square is home almost exclusively to humans. They not only occupy all the official roles and the grandest dwellings, but also fill the brothel and rowdy downstairs bar of the pub. The only exceptions are one elven servant, who works in a rich human family’s home, and an elven sex worker, who resides above the tavern (and who is later murdered by humans in an anti-nonhuman riot, depending on a key player choice). The occasional elven patron can be seen slurping ale and chowing on some dinner in the pub but their names and appearances aren't persistent across in-game days; they change, which suggests they're travellers. It's clear they do not permanently reside in this part of town.
The harbour is likewise dominated by humans: guards, sailors, ferrymen, dockers, and other workers. Their exclusive presence there seems to signal humans' greater proximity to and control over the wealth flowing through the town's port. The human merchants flogging often-overpriced weapons and gear in the harbour are the same quest NPCs who haggle aggressively with Geralt over his fee for felling a massive squid-beast that's blocking the river - and, crucially, trade.
While the The craftsmen's district is, again, dominated by humans - butchers, craftsmen, and mercenaries - who make no bones about their disdain for their nonhuman neighbours through barks and ambient dialogue. Though distinct from it, the area's streets bleed into the nonhuman district, which is home to elves and dwarves, most of whom are dressed in ragged, mismatched clothing. Some stagger in alleyways, drunk and visibly down on their luck. They’re separated from the rest of Flotsam, relegated to the back of the town’s far walls. Their homes are spartan and none have the luxuries of Flotsam’s more affluent human NPCs.
The nonhuman district is also home to a few dwarves who are famed for their skilled trade, primarily as blacksmiths. These NPCs are tolerated by the human community of Flotsam for the services they offer, but several are lynched - and some killed - by their human neighbours in a riot at the end of Act I (choice-dependent). One dwarf in particular who dwells here has only gained his (relative) security by acting as a kind of arbiter between the town's human and nonhuman communities, though this has drawn the notice - and ire - of the local elven Scoia'tael commander, Iorveth.
Lobinden seems to reflect a greater sense of ease between humans and nonhumans. They intermingle freely, and gather around the village fire at night to hear a local elder tell stories together, which serves to throw the state of things in town into sharper relief. That said, Lobinden's not totally free of the unease that characterises the in-town districts: children frequently shout "Get Iorveth! Death to the Squirrels!" (Scoia'tael) excitedly as they play, clearly parroting the attitudes of their parents and elders.
As well as the town's physical divisions, the areas inside and closest to Flotsam also reflect the simmering sense of conflict by being plastered with 'wanted' posters for Iorveth, with what starts to feel like every spare wall and door crying out for his capture and execution. This tension is likewise reflected in the reactivity of Flotsam to Geralt who, as a 'mutant' witcher, falls more easily into the nonhuman category than the human in many people's eyes. NPCs will often whisper about and make snide comments to the player-character as he navigates the town, reinforcing the 'othering' of Geralt in the world - an important narrative theme throughout the Witcher games.
And, if the player decides to side with Iorveth rather than Vernon Roche (a human Special Forces commander and ally of Geralt's), Flotsam's environmental design transforms to exhibit this conflict even more explicitly. A riot will break out across town; elven and dwarven bodies will litter the streets and time-sensitive lynchings will pop up, in which the player can intervene to try and save the (otherwise doomed) nonhumans from their violent neighbours.
In the forest outside Flotsam there are relics of the area’s ancient elven past, which play an important environmental storytelling role. For example, Cáelmewedd is a beautiful complex of old elven ruins with a rose garden, and a core story location in which the player has to make a timed decision about which ally and cause to support: Iorveth (an elf; fighting for nonhumans' future) or Roche (a human; chasing his deceased human king's assassin). At one point, three human bandits appear and propose breaking a statue of two elven lovers into bits in order to steal it. They reveal that they’re being paid by some rich humans back in Flotsam who want it as decoration for their own home - an intent that contrasts sharply with companion NPC Triss' comments only moments before about the sense of beauty and sadness that the statue evokes.
Elsewhere in the forest, we see signs of the Scoia'tael's humble existence. Rather than the plusher dwellings of a human army leader, Iorveth's secret base is a damp, dingy cave, with only a meagre few resources stowed away: a few weapons, tables, and chests, and a couple of stools to sit on by a lone campfire. You can stumble across other similarly humble nooks and crannies in the forest bundled with sleeping rags and sacks, too, which presumably shelter the Scoia'tael.
The emotional impact this location plays in the game and the support it gives to a central pillar of its storytelling are really profound. Throughout its environmental design, the town and its surrounding areas do a brilliant job of communicating the central theme of ‘humans versus nonhumans’. It's delivered with a thoughtful and restrained hand, but if we open our eyes to this conflict we see it everywhere. The layout of its districts, thoughtful design of who and what occupy them, and what the town's people do and say in each of them all combine to create an impressive sense of a world that feels fleshed out, and influenced the by wider world in which we know it sits.