The Witcher 3 - Wild Hunt review

[wakka]

Yeah, I'd agree with that. There's no point wandering with the aim of becoming more powerful, as you only really level up from doing story quests (from memory).

If you spend all your time wandering around doing secondary quests, Witcher contracts and treasure hunts, I reckon you'll get a bit bored. They're great, but they truly are a side dish to the main storyline.

On the other hand, they are worth doing. I'd put them in an order of priority though:

1)Secondary quests are well worth it. Nice, compact, interesting stories for the most part.

2) Witcher contracts are good too, and also have some decent mini stories and feature interesting monsters.

3) Treasure hunts are...okay. I found some of these a bit boring if I'm honest. You find some quite cool stuff but there isn't the same narrative hook here.

4) Question marks - don't bother with them. I know some people like them and swept the whole map clean of them (and more power to them) but frankly I found these a bit pointless. They're just filler really. I don't think there was any need to mark them on the map at all, they can be quite interesting if you stumble across them, but there's really no reason to seek them out.

[prinnysquad]

That’s a fair assessment there. The thing I will add to it is that question marks can be good for picking up crap to sell. It’s a bit of a grind but you can soon build up cash for repairs and buying cards. Plus, monster nests cough up 20 xp when you bomb them, and a few decent items. Runes you don’t use are worth a fortune, and question marks can sometimes provide them.

[wakka]

Oh, other thing - Gwent. Ignore it at your peril. It's a terrific side game. I know a lot of people skip it but it really is a ton of fun, do persevere with it and get into it.

[Neon Ignition]

Cheers, when I start it up again I'll try and focus on story and secondary missions initially to feel like there's some forward momentum whilst settling into it again as I imagine I'll be initially on the back foot from picking it up again part way in.

[Golgo]

I have also lapsed in this game, due to getting side-tracked into the questions marks ('Ubification', to quote the mighty Jim Sterling). I got so fed up chasing nonsense that I actually deleted a 90 hour save in a state of profoundly advanced irritation when I got to Skellige. That said, the Bloody Baron quest was easily the best and most well told story I've ever played in a game, so maybe I feel I should try again. One of my main peevs were the menus, which are really poor even after the massive overhauls via patches. Having to dip into laggy menus to slather poison on your blade relative to the enemy at hand (if you can spot the right poison in amongst all the other identical bottles), then to go out and fight, then to dip back in to slather different poisons on your blade depending on enemy. This wasn't fun. The combat is basic anyway but this just exposed it even further. I played on blood/broken bones difficulty as I was advised this would make the RPG elements more important rather than just mashing through on lower difficulty. Unfortunately this required spending far too much time in those awful menus. All in all it reminded me of the cumbersomeness of Vagrant Story back on ps1. All that said I think it's a wonderful game-world with a really mature and clever storyline.

[prinnysquad]

Bloody Baron sequence is great. Discussing this with Plough Boy, his played out massively different to mine, but I did what I thought was right. A really grim ending to an event I’d invested so much in.

Ive tried to pick up a few question marks every session, so that I chip away at them in addition to more interesting stuff.

The menus aren’t great. The lag is crap, and the two button presses to access the map is a fart on. It’s not a very effective or streamlined system. I started in the default difficulty and haven’t regretted it. I want a bit of a challenge without it being an arduous slog. I certainly don’t want to spend hours figuring out ways to do things. I want to get through the game at a leisurely pace and enjoy the writing and quests. Looking forward to a few hours tomorrow while that wedding is on!

[prinnysquad]

Mostly Gwent and treasure hunts today. Managed a beautiful victory over a higher levelled elemental - that was very satisfying. Lots of side stepping, rolling and tactical Quenning. It’s nice to do these mop up quests and reacquaint myself with areas I haven’t seen for a while. I’ve left myself in Skellige ready to get kitted out for Yennifer, since that lazy blacksmith I just marked boxes of ammonia for hasn’t finished my new sword in Novigrad yet.

Third anniversary of this game today, and yet I’m living it for the first time.

[wakka]

Bloody Baron sequence is great. Discussing this with Plough Boy, his played out massively different to mine, but I did what I thought was right. A really grim ending to an event I’d invested so much in.

Ive tried to pick up a few question marks every session, so that I chip away at them in addition to more interesting stuff.

The menus aren’t great. The lag is crap, and the two button presses to access the map is a fart on. It’s not a very effective or streamlined system. I started in the default difficulty and haven’t regretted it. I want a bit of a challenge without it being an arduous slog. I certainly don’t want to spend hours figuring out ways to do things. I want to get through the game at a leisurely pace and enjoy the writing and quests. Looking forward to a few hours tomorrow while that wedding is on!

Two button presses to get to the map is stupid, yeah. But something the game doesn't tell you is that if you are playing on PS4, you can swipe up on the trackpad to get straight to the map. A button would've been better, but it helps.

[Neon Ignition]

So...

It's been a few days of play and I've done what I originally said and stuck quite close to the core missions with some diversions off onto side quests. From what I can gather, in terms of main story missions I'm somewhere knocking around a third of the way into the game and getting a growing sense I need to focus more on side missions for a bit as it's been fairly low key for a while so I imagine I'm going to get annihilated by a large beasty soon. I originally approached the series as an RPG which was really the wrong thing to do. With the sequel and this I approached it more as an action RPG and that was closer but still wrong, it's roots are in that area but the game is effectively too shallow in many ways. It's not a criticism as I think it's put the game more in a bracket that another well regarded game sits in - this is a third person Skyrim. From that perspective I've actually, finally, enjoyed it much more. I still don't feel several aspects are that great such as the combat, the story as yet, the voice acting etc but by comparison they're admittedly stronger than Skyrim in third person. I'm pushing myself to put the eyerolling elements out mind like how almost every key female has her nipples hanging out as though it was developed by 14yr olds but really the key is that it's starting to finally click with a lot of the game still ahead to drive that feeling of a turnaround home if momentum is maintained.

The key draw is the game world. In many ways it's not that impressively built, focusing more on scale than memorable areas, but the small touches such as the wind, lighting etc often click and even though I'm playing this through three years late it can make you stop in your tracks for a moment. Coming off the back of so many open world games it's certainly easier now to appreciate more of what the devs have done rather than what they haven't with the game. So yes, better...

[fishbowlhead]

I’ve re-installed this and will be starting a new game I think rather than carry on my previous save from 2 years back.

[QualityChimp]

[MENTION=345]Superman Falls[/MENTION], are you going to complete the game and leave your character looking out to sea in just his pants?

[prinnysquad]

So...

It's been a few days of play and I've done what I originally said and stuck quite close to the core missions with some diversions off onto side quests. From what I can gather, in terms of main story missions I'm somewhere knocking around a third of the way into the game and getting a growing sense I need to focus more on side missions for a bit as it's been fairly low key for a while so I imagine I'm going to get annihilated by a large beasty soon. I originally approached the series as an RPG which was really the wrong thing to do. With the sequel and this I approached it more as an action RPG and that was closer but still wrong, it's roots are in that area but the game is effectively too shallow in many ways. It's not a criticism as I think it's put the game more in a bracket that another well regarded game sits in - this is a third person Skyrim. From that perspective I've actually, finally, enjoyed it much more. I still don't feel several aspects are that great such as the combat, the story as yet, the voice acting etc but by comparison they're admittedly stronger than Skyrim in third person. I'm pushing myself to put the eyerolling elements out mind like how almost every key female has her nipples hanging out as though it was developed by 14yr olds but really the key is that it's starting to finally click with a lot of the game still ahead to drive that feeling of a turnaround home if momentum is maintained.

The key draw is the game world. In many ways it's not that impressively built, focusing more on scale than memorable areas, but the small touches such as the wind, lighting etc often click and even though I'm playing this through three years late it can make you stop in your tracks for a moment. Coming off the back of so many open world games it's certainly easier now to appreciate more of what the devs have done rather than what they haven't with the game. So yes, better...

It’s not really an RPG in the number crunching sense. It’s not really an action RPG.

It’s a Witcher. Like you’ve surmised, I needs to be judged for what it is, not what it isn’t.

Which part of the story are you up to? The Bloody Baron sequence is extremely long and branches away from the main quest line after a while, but is definitely worth doing. I find the voice acting good tbh. It’s one of the few RPGs where I read/listen to all the dialogue rather than skip chunks of it.

An article of Eurogamer hit the nail with this game. The storyline is the tale of a man searching for a woman in a large world. There’s no team to balance buffs and strategy. There’s no uber narrative based around a hero saving the world. It is a character in a living, independent, war torn region. One person’s troubles in a world where everyone has troubles. It’s a middle chapter in an existing story, a narrative in one part of a world, a trivia that most of the game’s inhabitants don’t give a toss about. That’s what I like. The world and the people in it - they exist irrelevant of your actions and presence. You’re dropped in a wider context than yourself, and you try your best to complete your quest inside it.

[wakka]

So...

It's been a few days of play and I've done what I originally said and stuck quite close to the core missions with some diversions off onto side quests. From what I can gather, in terms of main story missions I'm somewhere knocking around a third of the way into the game and getting a growing sense I need to focus more on side missions for a bit as it's been fairly low key for a while so I imagine I'm going to get annihilated by a large beasty soon. I originally approached the series as an RPG which was really the wrong thing to do. With the sequel and this I approached it more as an action RPG and that was closer but still wrong, it's roots are in that area but the game is effectively too shallow in many ways. It's not a criticism as I think it's put the game more in a bracket that another well regarded game sits in - this is a third person Skyrim. From that perspective I've actually, finally, enjoyed it much more. I still don't feel several aspects are that great such as the combat, the story as yet, the voice acting etc but by comparison they're admittedly stronger than Skyrim in third person. I'm pushing myself to put the eyerolling elements out mind like how almost every key female has her nipples hanging out as though it was developed by 14yr olds but really the key is that it's starting to finally click with a lot of the game still ahead to drive that feeling of a turnaround home if momentum is maintained.

The key draw is the game world. In many ways it's not that impressively built, focusing more on scale than memorable areas, but the small touches such as the wind, lighting etc often click and even though I'm playing this through three years late it can make you stop in your tracks for a moment. Coming off the back of so many open world games it's certainly easier now to appreciate more of what the devs have done rather than what they haven't with the game. So yes, better...

So apart from the story, voice acting, combat, gameplay and world, you're enjoying it?

Seriously, I'm surprised to hear you're not enjoying the story or voice acting. It's one of very few games for me where they are actually well done.

[Neon Ignition]

@Superman Falls, are you going to complete the game and leave your character looking out to sea in just his pants?

If I can close my final post on the game with that screen, I will

[Neon Ignition]

So apart from the story, voice acting, combat, gameplay and world, you're enjoying it?

Seriously, I'm surprised to hear you're not enjoying the story or voice acting. It's one of very few games for me where they are actually well done.

Yeah, if it wins me over more fully in the end I think it'll be through being one of those 'greater than the sum of its parts' games. Storywise it's been very generic fantasy fare or 'I'm looking for an ashen haired girl' so it's not given me much to hook on to but I figure if I need to start levelling up more through side missions for a few hours I'm more likely to get more variety in those areas. A few more days play and I'll report in again.