Did The Witcher 3 Live up to the Hype?

[zahratustra]

I'm glad that you have played DS Bobo because I didn't so I can't argue with guys like Sir James and saki.

Seriously, though, I mentioned I played an hour to show how it couldn't possibly be a "definitive" opinion and closer to first impressions. If I wanted to be sly about it I could act like I played it longer by conveniently not mentioning it.

That's why I have called it trolling

 

[sakichop]

I'm glad that you have played DS Bobo because I didn't so I can't argue with guys like Sir James and saki.


That's why I have called it trolling

No need to argue they're just opinions, after all.

I've already said in many other threads what I like about dark souls combat so I'll keep it short.

Different move sets for each weapon make a big difference, stealth, backstabbing, parrying and repost are executed better, I don't agree at all with dark souls Being stiff. It's much more fluid than TW3. Mainly do to the ability to cancel actions in combat. In TW3 you have to wait for animations to end, meaning that in dark souls I can press 3 keys in quick succession and my guy will do 3 things . In TW3 I have to press a key and then wait for the animation to end then press another. As a result I often find myself attacking and then having to hit dodge twice as I'm used to being able to hit it right away. ( that was longer than I wanted but hope it makes sense.) reaction to enemy hits are based on a poise system that once you understand work really well and I miss not having it in other games.

Enemy AI can be exploited in both games, archery is a joke in both games and dark souls magic system while not great offers much more variety than the witches few signs.

 

[SirJames]

witcher is leagues aboves it in quality of animations and transition between them.

I kinda thought W3 animations looked impractical as though they'd make you dizzy.
He looks like a drunk dwarf trying to imitate an elven bladedancers grace.

 

[JDR13]

Dark Souls is basically a game about combat, so yeah that aspect is pretty good. It does have a basic story, exploration, etc., but you can tell that those aspects weren't primary focuses during development.

Whether its combat is better than TW3's is still subjective though. The animations and movement in DS are slower, and I can see fans of fast-paced combat preferring TW3 just for the speed alone. There's no doubt DS combat is more complex, but again, that's what DS is known for.

Overall, it's not really comparable to an open-world RPG like TW3.

 

[BoboTheMighty]

And yet witcher has other systems in place…sword abilities, toxicity, adrenaline, bombs, signs and their alternate forms, different monster weaknesses and powers that can change your tactics on the fly, group agression… that when combined together make a very immersive, dynamic and flexible system with a nice amount of depth. In Dark Souls you have to limit yourself to only one or a hybrid role, and animations are too rigid, in my opinion…

 

[BoboTheMighty]

I kinda thought W3 animations looked impractical as though they'd make you dizzy.
He looks like a drunk dwarf trying to imitate an elven bladedancers grace.

Riiiight...you really need to get better at this trolling act
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9BzxoqMBCE

 

[SirJames]

Riiiight…you really need to get better at this trolling act
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9BzxoqMBCE

Nice example of what I'm talking about.

He blocks, somehow, kicks, leaving himself wide open with his sword out to the right, then, somehow, spins in a circle, making his sword appear totally weightless, for a downward strike that dismembers horizontally.

I would love to see dismemberment in Dark Souls games, though!

 

[sakichop]

And yet witcher has other systems in place…sword abilities, toxicity, adrenaline, bombs, signs and their alternate forms, different monster weaknesses and powers that can change your tactics on the fly, group agression… that when combined together make a very immersive, dynamic and flexible system with a nice amount of depth. In Dark Souls you have to limit yourself to only one or a hybrid role, and animations are too rigid, in my opinion…

Sword abilities don't come close to DS move sets, use a dagger with light armor and you can get 8-9 attacks with bonus backstab and parry, riposte damage and your flying around the battlefield, change to a two handler and heavy armor and your plodding around getting in 1 maybe 2 hits but now your staggering, knocking down enemies and breaking though shield blocks. It really feels like a different experience when you pick up different weapons.


DS has bombs, blade coatings and magic as well. It also has combat changing items like havels and darkwood rings which enable you to really mix up your tactics. The different weights of armor really have an effect as well.

All games use enemies with different weaknesses and abilities and DS excels at it IMO. With rings, elemental coatings and resistances, bombs, different weights of weapons and armor, armor and weapons with additional special abilities, backstab, parry, riposte, I-frames, attributes and character builds that really matter, etc. you have so many choices to consider in combat.

One other thing that makes a huge difference which most here will hate is the save system. The tension created by not being able to save any wear is palpable. When you have a ton of souls and your standing in front of a fog gate the decision to risk it or go back to a bonfire can be agonizing. The witcher can't match that tension when I know I can just save before any decision or tough battle coming up. The higher difficulty of DS just adds to the tension.


I'm sure we could go back and forth like this for a while and it won't change the outcome. I'll prefer DS combat and you'll prefer the witcher combat and that Ok.

I would like to clarify though while I think DS combat is better I don't think the witchers combat is bad.

 

[BoboTheMighty]

Nice example of what I'm talking about.

He blocks, somehow, kicks, leaving himself wide open with his sword out to the right, then, somehow, spins in a circle, making his sword appear totally weightless, for a downward strike that dismembers horizontally.

I would love to see dismemberment in Dark Souls games, though!

So first you complain about his clunky movement and now you state that you don't like his weightless sword strikes either? You do realize that in Dark Souls or Bloodborne, you cannot even come close to this kind of smooth transition, that enemy attacks can either strike you through obstacles or completely phase through their allies, that you invincibly roll through their attacks and your attacks can also send them flying in completely opposite direction...I could go all day here.
This is what the majority of "discussions" on the internet boils down to...you have a person A who claims this is the "best thing ever" and a person B who shits all over it, with neither one capable of seeing the full picture or any kind of intelligent reasoning.

On my part, I love gameplay in both games for different reasons, even if they both have no shortage of flaws...Dark Souls for it's intensity, variety and depth and Witcher for it's sense of rhythm, elegance and immersion.

 

[Thaurin]

I would just like to add that my opinion is better than all of yours and that I just won this discussion. Burn.

 

[txa1265]

I would just like to add that my opinion is better than all of yours and that I just won this discussion. Burn.

Ouch ... why you gotta be like that?

 

[CelticFrost]

Is there any news on making the game harder? When I replay it down the road it would be nice play it on a harder level.

 

[zahratustra]

Have a look at Better Combat Enhanced CF - http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/m...r3/ajax/moddescription/?id=212&preview=&pUp=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3nvElFhVEg

 

[sakichop]

I would just like to add that my opinion is better than all of yours and that I just won this discussion. Burn.

What opinion? I mean I'm sure its right I would just like to know what I'm supposed to be thinking so I'm not wrong.

 

[jeremyalexanderj]

Absolutely not. It is the most overrated RPG I can remember. Proof that all style over substance still fools people. First of all, it is semi-open world, not open world. It has 5 explorable areas separated by load screens. The story is a boring "Where's Waldo/Ciri" scenario where I go somewhere, ask about Ciri, get sent on a monster hunt to get info, get a little info, rinse and repeat. No matter how well represented and acted, the quests are still purely of the fetch/and kill 1-10 of these variety that reminded me far more of a MMORPG than a single player game. The controls are clunky, you can only play Garrett the way they want you to and because of the level requirements for many quests, you can only do them in a certain order. Those two facts combined mean I will never replay the game. Combat is repetitive. The world is static and non-interactive in a way that should embarrass CDPR considering the Elder Scrolls has had better object simulation since Morrowind. People have no reaction to you just walking in and stealing their stuff. The trees sway like they have some sort of neurological disorder. Unless everyday sees hurricane like weather in this world, it is laughable physics. There are large cities and many npc's, but so what? Most of the doors are locked, and most of the npc's are little more than window dressing. They stay in the same place and spit out the same few lines of canned dialogue. The only things I enjoyed about the game overall was Gwent and the quality of the dialogue and presentation of conversation. The character that have more than 3 lines were well done. CDPR has made a good game that will hopefully lead them to greater things with Cyberpunk, but calling this the best rpg, or best open world rpg ever is pure hype. The peasants are grumbling a little louder, but the crowns of the rpg and open world rpg genre are still with their original owners, Ultima, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Deus Ex,etc. This game was about 25-35% of what I thought it would be and what they hyped it to be. I'm looking forward to Cyberpunk, but they really need to make some great strides to be in the same conversation with the greats. I spent 128 hours with Witcher 3 and would give it a 7, or 7.5 out of 10. Good, not great. And still being fixed, I might add as they took many potshots at companies like Bethesda for buggy releases.

 

[CelticFrost]

The above post #195 is way to hard to even start trying to read.

 

[JDR13]

He registered just to post that mess?

 

[jeremyalexanderj]

Yet you felt compelled to post about it? That's pretty sad.

 

[jeremyalexanderj]

He registered just to post that mess?

No, "I" registered again because I first registered years and years ago with an email account I no longer have or even remember. This was just the first thing I felt like posting about since most of the site just relates news stories from other sites. Maybe you could point out the "mess" part since I would love to hear an argument that counters any of my points. Instead I'm getting a feel for the level of discourse on this site since the only 2 posts consist of someone stating how hard it is to read and you making a completely pointless comment about the number of times I have posted. Now I have 3 posts, is that better?

 

[CelticFrost]

Yet you felt compelled to post about it? That's pretty sad.

What is sadder, is you didn't feel compelled to fix it. So thank you for the review and letting me anyways know you aren't very serious about your review.