Female Playable Character Revealed For ‘The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’

Xie Enwei, General Manager Of Management And Operations Of Microsoft In China, Speaks During The Presentation Of The Xbox One — IN PHOTO: Xie Enwei, general manager of management and operations of Microsoft in China, speaks during the presentation of the Xbox One by Microsoft as part of ChinaJoy 2014 China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference in Shanghai July 30, 2014. Reuters/Carlos Barria

A constant complaint about video games is the lack of female characters that aren't just eye candy for the male viewer. While games like the new "Tomb Raider" and "Beyond Good and Evil" have fleshed out female characters that go on interesting journeys, they are more the exception rather than the norm. So it was a nice surprise when CD Projekt Red announced a second playable character for "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt."

The first two "Witcher" games were about the exploits of Geralt as he faced off against various enemies and made love to many a witch. Both games did well in terms of sales and reviews, but like many other games before there were complaints about the game being a wee bit sexist. The site Feministing was troubled, not by the sex itself but by the sex cards given to players after their character slept with a woman, complaining about how it felt like they were treating women like collectable cards. Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw also criticized this in his review of "The Witcher."

CD Projekt Red hinted and delivered a new female playable character for the long delayed game during the Game Awards earlier this month. Whether it was in regards to these complaints or not is unknown, but what we do know from Gamespot is that her name is Ciri; a powerful living weapon who will either save the world or destroy it.

She is an integral part of the game as she finds herself the target for this game's antagonists "The Wild Hunt" and it is up to Geralt to save and team with her. While she is an important part of the story, CD Project Red stressed that Geralt is still the main focus of the narrative. They also revealed to Gaming Bolt that players wouldn't be able to switch between the two and stated that players will gain control of the character for certain important parts of the game's story.

More details on Ciri will be revealed as the game's release draws nearer as CD Projekt Red also cited that she is an exceptional sword fighter who is agile and has abilities that cannot be discussed right now. "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" comes out on May 19, 2015 for the PS4, Xbox One and PC.