• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

LTTP: The Witcher 3

Not going to lie, I jumped onto the bandwagon after giving the Netflix show a try.

I originally didn't like it, but the show ended up growing on me. It's not amazing or anything, but by the end of season 1 I was totally invested. After finishing season 2 I decided to give the games a go.

I beat The Witcher 2 last week. Game was great. Story was excellent. Not much to say other than I had a blast playing it. Think I spent about 40 hours to beat it?

Decided to pick up The Witcher 3 GOTY edition after beating it and holy shit. I'll get this part of the way: The Witcher 3 is likely the best video game I've ever played.

I say likely because I'm still in the first chapter. I'm about 40 hours in and only just recently got to Novigrad.

This game has, by far, the best side quests I've ever experienced in a game. The fact that they are optional and so easy to overlook is almost criminal. This actually brings me to one of my first criticisms (actually, only real criticism of the game). The side quests are so, so, so good and so rich in story I went out of my way to do every single side quest I found. I made a habit out of not skipping them because I'll pick up a seemingly random, unimportant contract only to run into fucking
Letho
as part of the quest. The problem is, if you do the side quests you'll quickly over level yourself. If you take a break from the side quests to focus on the main story, you'll quickly over level yourself making the side quests only reward 1 xp. This is a fairly minor criticism as I believe you can remedy this by increasing the difficulty which reduces XP reward. I'll definitely be doing this in NG+.

I hear that some people aren't a fan of the combat system. I don't really get this criticism. It's definitely a noticeable improvement from The Witcher 2 and I find it very enjoyable. There are so many different sorts of monsters each with unique attacks. The combat feels responsive and makes each battle feel engaging. I like that you can choose how much you want to invest in signs/magic and have a viable build either way.

The level of detail in the open world is astounding. I gave up on AC: Valhalla like 40 hours into it. Despite finding the world beautiful, it just left me with no real compelling reason to explore it. After a while it just became a bore. I'm only 40 hours in but am having an amazing time exploring the world. If something looks cool, odds are you will have a highly rewarding experience if you simply go explore it. Whether it be a hidden treasure or trigger some side quest.

Dialogue is amazing, story is amazing although I will say the side quests hugely help here and provide more than a enough filler where the main story may be lacking.

I actually enjoyed Cyberpunk. It was my first CD Projekt Red game and I didn't get why people set their expectations so high. I get it now. While I find Cyberpunk enjoyable. it's not even in the same universe as The Witcher 3.

My only dilemma now is whether to continue to take my time as I've been doing or beat it a little faster than I originally planned so I can replay it on NG+.

If this game does eventually get a significant next gen upgrade, then just wow. The game looks stunning already tbh.

Sorry if I seem to be rambling. The Witcher 2 was like $3 and The Witcher 3 GOTY was like $9 when I bought them a couple weeks ago on the XSX. Definitely the best money I've ever spent on a game ever.

This is likely the best game I've ever played in my entire life. I actually took a break from it and didn't play yesterday because I don't want the experience to ever end. Can't remember last time I felt this way playing a game.
 
Last edited:
Yep, I'm watching season 2 of the witcher tv atm and it's got me aching for the game. Loved it. I 100% completed everything in this game except the question marks in the water of skellige. I can't really say I have many complaints either, I played on the top difficulty and still love the whole thing. The expansions are really great as well, Blood and Wine is actually better than the main game I think.

It's about time for another game to come along and blow me away as this did. I suppose God of War PS4 is close for me. I hope the next game to do this for me is Elden Ring but I'm not sure if it will be the same sense of awe as W3.

Games this good are so few and far between it's a shame.
 
Last edited:
Yep, I'm watching season 2 of the witcher tv atm and it's got me aching for the game. Loved it. I 100% completed everything in this game except the question marks in the water of skellige. I can't really say I have many complaints either, I played on the top difficulty and still love the whole thing. The expansions are really great as well, Blood and Wine is actually better than the main game I think.

It's about time for another game to come along and blow me away as this did. I suppose God of War PS4 is close for me. I hope the next game to do this for me is Elden Ring but I'm not sure if it will be the same sense of awe as W3.

Games this good are so few and far between it's a shame.

The underwater things are basically a chore but I still love the game
 

usp84

Member
Played it on PS4 when it released and liked it so much that i bought all books and played the other games too(with less success sadly).

Replayed it in 2020 during quarantine this time on a pretty strong PC with mods and it was even better.

I really can't wait to see what the next gen versions will bring and replay it once again!
 

Aenima

Member
Yup Witcher 3 is in my top 3 of my favorite games of all time. Not only the side quests are very high quality with great stories and characters, but the expansions alone are better than most full priced games out there.

Witcher 3 is also the reason i was so dissapointed with Cyberpunk 2077. Felt like a huge step back compared to how good Witcher 3 is.

Enjoy the experience.
 
Yup Witcher 3 is in my top 3 of my favorite games of all time. Not only the side quests are very high quality with great stories and characters, but the expansions alone are better than most full priced games out there.

Witcher 3 is also the reason i was so dissapointed with Cyberpunk 2077. Felt like a huge step back compared to how good Witcher 3 is.

Enjoy the experience.
I agree sadly
 
Played it on PS4 when it released and liked it so much that i bought all books and played the other games too(with less success sadly).

Replayed it in 2020 during quarantine this time on a pretty strong PC with mods and it was even better.

I really can't wait to see what the next gen versions will bring and replay it once again!
I ordered the first 3 books, can’t wait to start reading them

The plan is to beat the game, read the books, then hopefully play the next gen version on NG+
 
Last edited:
Yup Witcher 3 is in my top 3 of my favorite games of all time. Not only the side quests are very high quality with great stories and characters, but the expansions alone are better than most full priced games out there.

Witcher 3 is also the reason i was so dissapointed with Cyberpunk 2077. Felt like a huge step back compared to how good Witcher 3 is.

Enjoy the experience.
Yeah I hear the dlc is incredible

it’s hard to not do every single side quest given how satisfying they are but I might leave some so I have something new to experience when I replay it

I’ve already decided to hold off on Gwent until NG+ as I don’t believe your gwent cards transfer over
 

A.Romero

Member
My most played game ever.

Waiting for the PC RT upgrade before playing it again.

Never been a completionist but I did go around getting a lot of stuff on this one like all the witcher armor sets and tried to get all the quests (missed one because of a decision if I remember correctly).
 
Yeah I hear the dlc is incredible

it’s hard to not do every single side quest given how satisfying they are but I might leave some so I have something new to experience when I replay it

I’ve already decided to hold off on Gwent until NG+ as I don’t believe your gwent cards transfer over

I honestly I hate card games, but I completed everything else
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
The thing about Witcher 3 is that its not pick up and play. It takes time and dedication to understand everything and get your bearings more so then any other open world game Ive played, which put me off it and the main story is not that great, i played for about 5 hrs and its like its still rather dreary.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
The thing about Witcher 3 is that its not pick up and play. It takes time and dedication to understand everything and get your bearings more so then any other open world game Ive played, which put me off it and the main story is not that great, i played for about 5 hrs and its like its still rather dreary.
This explains why I find it so boring. It could also be my ADHD.
 

Spaceman292

Banned
The thing about Witcher 3 is that its not pick up and play. It takes time and dedication to understand everything and get your bearings more so then any other open world game Ive played, which put me off it and the main story is not that great, i played for about 5 hrs and its like its still rather dreary.
Yeah you didn't even get past the tutorial you ADHD dingus.
 
The thing about Witcher 3 is that its not pick up and play. It takes time and dedication to understand everything and get your bearings more so then any other open world game Ive played, which put me off it and the main story is not that great, i played for about 5 hrs and its like its still rather dreary.

I was also put off by the start. Then I gave it a real chance
 
The thing about Witcher 3 is that its not pick up and play. It takes time and dedication to understand everything and get your bearings more so then any other open world game Ive played, which put me off it and the main story is not that great, i played for about 5 hrs and its like its still rather dreary.
this might be true, but I went into The Witcher 3 right after beating The Witcher 2. The Witcher 2 was 10x more brutal and unforgiving if you didn't know the mechanics of the game well. I actually made a thread about it when I first started it, couldn't understand why Witcher 2 was so damn hard:


could be that The Witcher 3 just feels easier because I learned a lot of the mechanics from The Witcher 2, but even normal mode on The Witcher 2 felt nearly impossible unless you utilized various mechanics that the game didn't really explain well.

I find that The Witcher 3 does a much, much better job explaining the mechanics to you than The Witcher 2. Not to mention Witcher 2 was just more brutal in general, not being able to use potions during battle, needing to have the ingredients to craft a potion each time you wanted to craft one as opposed to them auto being crafted once you meditate with liquor, etc.

the game feels quite easy compared to Witcher 2 and much, much easier to wrap your head around
 
Last edited:

Mozzarella

Member
You seem to be enjoying it a lot, good for you.
It's an amazing game and one of my favorites, i dont have a single favorite game however, i find that hard as there's so many different genres.
Witcher is an investment, its a series that you have to take slowly and immerse yourself in the shoes of Geralt, you have to feel like you are part of Geralt. I played the games, one after the other, it took me from February to June to finish all of them, was a great journey.
I agree with the overleveling thing, its a thing that happens in all open world rpgs, one of the two solutions is to make the game level scale with you (Oblivion) but many people find that bad design so most will go for the one where you scatter different areas locked behind higher levels, which in turn prevents you from fully exploring in any direction you want. I would say dont worry about overleveling as the challenge part is not important in this game, but if you want you can at boss fights only turn up level scaling from options to make them harder, but that will not give more xp.
I would also advice to not be completionist with this game, which means there is no need to finish all question marks on the map, it will burn you out in certain maps so do it only if you feel like doing some side activities (not quests).
Also play the Expansions after you finish (advice-take 1 week or few days break), they are amazing.
Also fuck you Breath of the Wild
:messenger_tears_of_joy: Why? its an excellent game. lol
 

Fake

Member
Besides the awful combat, Witcher 3 is one the best games I ever played.

And Baron Arch is by far the best quest ever made of gaming.


I don't get why people don't like the combat either.

Locked camera sucks. Is almost impossible to do what the game suggest, playing like dumb while foes do critical damage on you. Reduce your stamina while combat, you can't jump (need to stay of vision to back jump) making huge mistakes while trying to jump between edges.
 
Top 5 game of all time to me. Waiting patiently for that RT patch on PC to start another play through. Sadly I think I have seen all there is to see by now but I’ll still do it again.
they're supposedly adding content from the netflix show to the next gen upgrade. not sure what exactly that entails.
 
Locked camera sucks. Is almost impossible to do what the game suggest, playing like dumb while foes do critical damage on you. Reduce your stamina while combat, you can't jump (need to stay of vision to back jump) making huge mistakes while trying to jump between edges.
I don't use the hard lock on function, especially while fighting more than one enemy.

maybe I'm playing wrong but I find it much easier this way. you can adjust the camera while fighting this way too.

I might do a hard lock on if it's 1vs1, but yeah I've entirely avoided it in larger battles. again, I might be playing wrong but I find it easier this way.

I rarely get hit, then again I'm still very early in the game.
 
Last edited:

Fake

Member
I don't use the hard lock on function, especially while fighting more than one enemy.

maybe I'm playing wrong but I find it much easier this way. you can adjust the camera while fighting this way too.

I might do a hard lock on if it's 1vs1, but yeah I've entirely avoided it in larger battles. again, I might be playing wrong but I find it easier this way.

I rarely get hit, then again I'm still very early in the game.

Depends on what difficult you playing plus this never help when you fight loads of enemies. Again, if you read the tips, you can make critical damage by attacking enemies on their back, but locked camera make this impratical and when fightning vs numbers, they easily get backstab on you.

This should be optional at least.
 

Haggard

Banned
Played the GotY edition a few months ago, fully modded (on pc ofc) with all DLCs.

The world, story and questdesign is still leagues above anything I've played in the last 5 years and at least with mods this game still looks fantastic.
 
Depends on what difficult you playing plus this never help when you fight loads of enemies. Again, if you read the tips, you can make critical damage by attacking enemies on their back, but locked camera make this impratical and when fightning vs numbers, they easily get backstab on you.

This should be optional at least.
I just find a way to kite them and take them out 1 at a time. This was basically a necessity in Witcher 2 so I carried over this mindset to Witcher 3.

this is nothing like Assassin Creed games where you can sit in the middle of a group of enemies and take them all out.

I learned I needed to play Witcher 2 like I was an actual witcher. I would find a way to separate a group of mobs and take them out one at a time. battles can take a while but it's very doable. not as easy as it was in Witcher 2 to separate groups because they removed traps for some reason (other than magic traps), but still able to do it with axii, aard and magic traps. I just find myself dodging like a madman, with occasional rolling and never using block/parry (found that this strategy worked best in Witcher 2 and seems to work well in Witcher 3)

edit: not trying to discredit your criticism. I'm enjoying the combat but I can understand if it doesn't jive for you. I almost quit Witcher 2 because I found it so frustrating at first.
 
Last edited:
I don't get why people don't like the combat either. It just seems to be an opinion that people like to parrot without giving any reasons. I thought it was smooth and fun, nicely animated, skillful.
My only complaint is starts to feel pointless as you get overpowered during the game.

But the actual combat is not bad compared to other open-world games. It is definitely a ton better than BotW's or Skyrim's combat. Not as good as Dragon's Dogma. But, if you took away DD's good combat, there would be very little reason left to play it.
 

luffie

Member
It's your first play through and you are only up to Novigrad?
Man, take your time slowly man, enjoy it while it last, the 1st play through is a dream that will never come back again.

Also, choose Yen for better story in 1st play :)
 
It's your first play through and you are only up to Novigrad?
Man, take your time slowly man, enjoy it while it last, the 1st play through is a dream that will never come back again.

Also, choose Yen for better story in 1st play :)
I usually sleep with as many women as I can. Already banged that blonde sorceress, can’t remember her name. She’s in a hut outside of a small town. Me and Tris got pretty serious in Witcher 2 but I know Yen is Geralt’s main chick

Yen is still super salty about Tris
 

Tschumi

Member
Congratulations.

You have succesfully seen the game behind the wall of online forum kneejerk shitposting.

It's the best game ever made.

----

I played the whole game on walk. Three times.

It's okay to complete every side quest and build a GWENT deck, the xp seems to be tied in to the main storyline to a certain degree, I wanted to level up for the expansions without playing through the whole story and no matter how much I grinded I couldn't get to the minimum level.\

There's always a place, somewhere, where enemies for your level are at. Then the expansions come into it.

GWENT is really fun, diferent to the standalone title, a bit repetitive but building the decks is great. I like Nilfgaard [sic]

Your taste is confirmed, good felluh.

I always pick Yen, Triss was an amnesia side-track, sucks for her that she hitched her wagon to a guy who didn't know what he was about. I'm a bit different on this now, though, because I've learnt through the tv series that Yen is basically a result of magical plastic surgery, and Triss is natural, so yeah maybe I aught a go with Triss. Then again, Geralt is an artificiail being too in many ways so maybe that just adds weight to him and Yen being the perfect match.

I'll be throwing my money at next gen Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk.

The thing about Witcher 3 is that its not pick up and play. It takes time and dedication to understand everything and get your bearings more so then any other open world game Ive played, which put me off it and the main story is not that great, i played for about 5 hrs and its like its still rather dreary.
I don't want to call you out on what should be a really postive thread, but I want to ban people who didn't get into a game and only played a small portion of it from judging the main story, or anything like that.

It appears that you didn't put in enough time, because you'd know that the world and sidequests are probably more influential than the main story when it comes to building the plot of the game, and your character.

Finally, navigating the world is pretty easy, it's got a custom waypoint system that's really easy to use, it's got message boards where you pick up quests, i don't know what was hard for you.
 
Last edited:
I have to say is that I am jealous of you OP. I really wish I could play Witcher 3 for the first time again. There hasn't been a single player game since thats given me the same feeling Witcher 3 did. I'm glad you're enjoying it and honestly the only thing I would recommend is to just play the game at your own pace.

At one point for about 10 hours or so I stopped doing side quests due to being overleveled but I ended up doing one of them by accident that was good enough for me to say fuck it and do other older side quests because they were too damn good.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Congratulations.

You have succesfully seen the game behind the wall of online forum kneejerk shitposting.

It's the best game ever made.

----

I played the whole game on walk. Three times.

It's okay to complete every side quest and build a GWENT deck, the xp seems to be tied in to the main storyline to a certain degree, I wanted to level up for the expansions without playing through the whole story and no matter how much I grinded I couldn't get to the minimum level.\

There's always a place, somewhere, where enemies for your level are at. Then the expansions come into it.

GWENT is really fun, diferent to the standalone title, a bit repetitive but building the decks is great. I like Nilfgaard [sic]

Your taste is confirmed, good felluh.

I always pick Yen, Triss was an amnesia side-track, sucks for her that she hitched her wagon to a guy who didn't know what he was about. I'm a bit different on this now, though, because I've learnt through the tv series that Yen is basically a result of magical plastic surgery, and Triss is natural, so yeah maybe I aught a go with Triss. Then again, Geralt is an artificiail being too in many ways so maybe that just adds weight to him and Yen being the perfect match.

I'll be throwing my money at next gen Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk.


I don't want to call you out on what should be a really postive thread, but I want to ban people who didn't get into a game and only played a small portion of it from judging the main story, or anything like that.

It appears that you didn't put in enough time, because you'd know that the world and sidequests are probably more influential than the main story when it comes to building the plot of the game, and your character.

Finally, navigating the world is pretty easy, it's got a custom waypoint system that's really easy to use, it's got message boards where you pick up quests, i don't know what was hard for you.

Im going to have to try again arent I.
 

Tschumi

Member
Im going to have to try again arent I.
Here We Go Again GIF
 
I don't use the hard lock on function, especially while fighting more than one enemy.

maybe I'm playing wrong but I find it much easier this way. you can adjust the camera while fighting this way too.

I might do a hard lock on if it's 1vs1, but yeah I've entirely avoided it in larger battles. again, I might be playing wrong but I find it easier this way.

I rarely get hit, then again I'm still very early in the game.
Same. 1 on 1 locked. Group unlocked. At least on PC you can mod camera distance, pitch etc and get it exactly how you prefer, but the defaults worked beautifully for me. It's about getting into a rhythm: slash slash dodge big swing, ard the guy on the left, follow up with instant kill, dodge, slash slash heavy swing, finisher. Try not to mash, focus on precision, try not to get hit and don't abuse quen!
 

Mattdaddy

Gold Member
I collect VHS tapes I collect VHS tapes Just wait my dude, not only is Witcher 3 also one of my all time favorite games... but the expansions are absolutely incredible as well. Blood & Wine was probably my game of the year as a goddamn expansion when it came out. So good, I love it when a new person gets to experience these. Cant wait for the next gen versions!
 
Last edited:

luffie

Member
I usually sleep with as many women as I can. Already banged that blonde sorceress, can’t remember her name. She’s in a hut outside of a small town. Me and Tris got pretty serious in Witcher 2 but I know Yen is Geralt’s main chick

Yen is still super salty about Tris
bang everyone else, but..... confess your love to only one of them..... seriously.
 
Top Bottom