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The Witcher 3 - Wild Hunt review

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    Plodded on with this for an hour. Really loving walking between quest markers. I’ve just entered a decent sized city looking for this Anna woman.

    Had to do a runner earlier because I stumbled across a deserter camp with a hostage. I went storming in before I’d clocked their level. 16. Bollocks. One swipe and I was down to a sliver of health. I couldn’t run away quick enough. Hardly behaviour befitting a Witcher.

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      50 hours clocked now, and I’m still loving it as much as ever.

      So much to like, so little to dislike. The weather and day/night cycle continues to astonish with its beauty and world-building. The quests are uniformly engaging and excellent. On numerous occasions, I’ve had soldiers and townsfolk recognise me from different quests, and reference my decision making. Unlike Skyrim, I’m managing to strike a lovely balance between the main quest, secondary quests, Witcher contracts, treasure hunts, noticeboard fannying, exploring, playing Gwent, and heading to question and exclamation marks. It’s very rarely felt overwhelming.

      The only time I’ve felt briefly overwhelmed and panicked by the sheer scale of things, is when I first went to Novigrad. What an incredible creation. A truly astonishing piece of game design. I love the winding streets, nooks and crannies, the feel of different areas, the way the quests so often unfold into one another, the totally different atmospheres of night and day, and the characters you encounter. It’s the best city I’ve explored in any game, ever.

      I really love the grey-toned quests and characters in this. I love the subtle design decisions - like books and texts being bite sized and relevant to the people in a place, rather than long epics like in Skyrim. I applaud the depth in Skyrim, but after reading a couple of books fully, how many of us bothered again? I like the way you have to choose when to tactfully lie, refuse to accept rewards, take on investigations and engage with higher levelled enemies. There’s so much choice, but, as I say, not overwhelming. I love the areas to visit. Mountains, forests, fields, pastures, meadows, swamps, farmland, vinyards, shacks, windmills, villages, hills, docks - each area is rich in atmosphere and takes on different personalities at different times of day or in different weather.

      50 hours and I haven’t even got the boat to Skellige. I’m Level 16 and just enjoying it, rather than considering it a chore. Superb.
      Last edited by prinnysquad; 10-04-2018, 23:26.

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        After pissfarting around in Velen and Novigrad for ages, I exhausted a lot of reachable quests (not the vastly difficult treasure hunts, contracts and Gwent grinding) and nipped to Skellige. A whole new archipelago of wintery island, grizzled inhabitants and stuff to do. It’s like opening up a new game.

        Thing I love about this game is that the decisions I make still rile me for ages afterwards, even if I wouldn’t change a thing. One mission involving ridding a village of its nearby leshen resulted in chaos. Yet I wouldn’t change what I did, at all. It was instinctively the right thing to do, as Plough Boy later commented to me, having done the same mission in the same manner. I wasn’t happy at all with the outcome, but I stand by my moral decisions. That’s great writing, showcasing a deep and superbly branching narrative, where things matter and impact on you. Just like real life, the best of intentions can be disastrous.

        This is a top 5 game for me.

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          Originally posted by prinnysquad View Post
          After pissfarting around in Velen and Novigrad for ages, I exhausted a lot of reachable quests (not the vastly difficult treasure hunts, contracts and Gwent grinding) and nipped to Skellige. A whole new archipelago of wintery island, grizzled inhabitants and stuff to do. It’s like opening up a new game.

          Thing I love about this game is that the decisions I make still rile me for ages afterwards, even if I wouldn’t change a thing. One mission involving ridding a village of its nearby leshen resulted in chaos. Yet I wouldn’t change what I did, at all. It was instinctively the right thing to do, as Plough Boy later commented to me, having done the same mission in the same manner. I wasn’t happy at all with the outcome, but I stand by my moral decisions. That’s great writing, showcasing a deep and superbly branching narrative, where things matter and impact on you. Just like real life, the best of intentions can be disastrous.

          This is a top 5 game for me.
          As much as I didn’t get on with the gameplay and my constant forgetting to save, thus causing me to give up due to huge stretches of game I’ve nackered myself in, I can only applaud the devs for some amazing, amazing writing and true to life filthy, dark, morality.

          As with real life the right thing to do is often murky and hidden from you in Witcher3, not to mention (as you say) has horrendous consequences, doing the right thing has to be lived with and shouldered as a burden.

          It’s an amazing achievement.

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            Indeed! I can appreciate any control gripes. I struggled with Witcher 2 due to its controls and difficulty at the start. I gave up on the acclaimed Divinty Original Sin due to the same. For some reason, though, the controls on this suit me just fine. Maybe I’m inclined to be more forgiving than I usually am due to the quality of the writing, structure and depth. Similarly, Nier held me spellbound with its depth of narrative and ambiguous decisions. Witcher is a game that it’s fans adore and many of its detractors (if that’s the right and fair term?) can respect.

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              The frame rate I found horrendous on a standard PS4 as well. I still have my save data, now I have a pro I think I need to re instal this and give it a proper chance again with the improved performance.

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                I think I’ve only encountered slowdown twice on a standard One. Don’t know if it’s undergone optimisation through patches?

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                  79 hours on this now. Still got some stuff to do in Novigrad and I’ve barely touched Skellige. Level 23 and coasting through some Witcher contracts and secondary quests. I managed to take down a level 30 cyclops by tactically using Quen, which was fun. Then I found nests with 2 smaller wyverns, followed by a royal wyvern. Really enjoyed that mission!

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                    Enjoying your updates Prin. Brings back pleasant memories of playing this wonderful game.

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                      It’s an amazing game. I’m thinking about it when I’m not on it. It’s years since a game made me do that. Are the expansions similarly excellent?

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                        I've had this since Christmas and still not gotten around to it because I keep buying other games and I know this would eat my time and make me obsess over it like you have, Prin!

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                          Troll BitchMod thinks I’m ‘obsessive’ now! I cry foul of this victimisation!

                          After your shambolic opinion of Logan, you’re not allowed to diss any other great things.

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                            Originally posted by prinnysquad View Post
                            It’s an amazing game. I’m thinking about it when I’m not on it. It’s years since a game made me do that. Are the expansions similarly excellent?
                            Yeah, they are. The first, set in the same world as the main game, is one of the best parts of the entire saga for me. The second larger chunk is absolutely terrific too and benefits from a whole new island to explore, but the first is really something special in terms of storytelling.

                            Honestly, this game is so good that I feel Cyberpunk 2077 might just end up being my favourite game ever.

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                              So, turns out that sweet jesus it's been three years and this is finally installed again and waiting for me to wrap up Tekken 7 to resume.

                              In Witcher III terms I didn't do much, somewhere around 5-7 hours worth. Now, I remember what I played was mostly a functional experience. The gameplay wasn't that great and the open world was pretty but bland in design. However, I'm determined to at least get my money's worth of a fair shot from it. What's the best way of delving back in? Focus on central missions or better to wander and level up?

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                                50/50. Balance main quest, secondary quests, Witcher contracts, treasure hunts and wandering. Read noticeboards to reveal question marks and do some of them. Play Gwent. Explore. Try to do higher quests to level up quicker, and plough ability points into Quen and Axii.

                                I don’t want a load of your whinging in here, mind.

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