Phasmal said:
Not a surprise, since he's one of the most bland and Marty Sue characters around. So bland and empty that it's super easy for the player to dump themselves into him as an empty vessel.
Too many people overuse that 'Mary Sue' phrase, I'm really starting to hate it. It seems like any time someone doesn't like a character or finds them boring it's become the default go-to passive insult.
"Oh no, I guess it's an alright character, just kinda a Mary Sue." might as well be the go-to internet catch-phrase for reviewing stories.
Geralt, for all his ridiculousness, is not even close to the most powerful character in his setting nor is he known for winning every fight he's involved in. In a game that's kinda tricky to portray since, well, you're playing as him and no one likes forced lose scenario, but in the books he's killed by a goddamned kid with a pitchfork. Seriously, that's how the book series ends: He's trying and failing to stop a riot and in the middle of a skirmish is stabbed and left for dead by some random no-name peasant.
Spoiler I guess.
He has clearly defined weaknesses and flaws to match his strengths. A well rounded personality as that of a somewhat wry professional who puts on a big tough act an an emotionless badass but ultimately is a bit of a softy inside, especially when interacting with the closest thing to a 'family' he has. And while ultimately you might not like him, Geralt is not a Mary Sue. By definitely a Mary Sue is a sort of idealized author self-insertion designed for wish fulfillment. Unless your wish is to be a somewhat unhappy cynic who ultimately finds some sliver of happiness only to die anti-climatically, that's not Geralt.
What you
can argue with all fairness is the games portrayal of that personality, and I'd even agree with you. Witcher 1 and 2 don't really show much of a character in Geralt and he really is portrayed heavily as a player insert. But as Zhukov mentions I think the devs actually did a far better job of portraying the character from the books in 3, as any sequence in which he talks about or interacts with Ciri demonstrates. There's one scene in the game where you play Geralt recounting his memories with Ciri and it's actually really well done, despite boiling down to just being a scene about a guy talking about someone else and some of the stuff they did together. Great voice acting, excellent portrayal, surprisingly emotional.
And for the record as much as I love Witcher 3, and I really do I think it's a great game, I'd still say Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Hong Kong were my favourite straight up rpg in recent years. Witcher 3 is a damned good game but I find them to be superior rpg.
Incidentally sorry if I came across as a bit of an ass in that post, I realize in retrospect it's unfair to chide someone for something even I freely admit the first two games did a poor job of informing the player of. I guess I'm just really getting tired of seeing the Mary Sue accusation thrown around. My apologies.