RPGWatch - The Witcher 3 Review

Myrthos · June 8, 2015

After finishing The Witcher 3, Maylander was conviced to write up a review about the game for us. So here are his thoughts.

All in all, I would actually have preferred if they had cut down the scope a little in order to enhance the main quest or side quests even further, or to increase the amount of major C&C (choices and consequences). There is quite a bit of C&C in the game, and CDP proves yet again that they’re very good at such implementations, as the C&C are excellent. There’s just not enough of it, especially related to the save game import feature: The C&C in The Witcher 2 was among the best I’ve ever seen, with loads of political implications, yet hardly any the decisions have an impact in The Witcher 3. In fact, that’s probably my biggest disappointment with the game: I really enjoyed that aspect of The Witcher 2 and was hoping to see what they’d do with it. Ah well. If anyone’s going to get it right at some point, it is probably CDP, as their C&C implementation in The Witcher 2 really is second to none. Alpha Protocol, Arcanum and a few others are on a similar level, but I can’t think of any game that’s actually better.

He scores the game with, the not often reached, 5 stars, which for the record in our reviewing system means:

An outstanding game that will be remembered as a classic. A score of 5 indicates a game that is equal to the best gameplay available in the genre at the time of writing. It is, however, important to understand this does not represent an absolutely flawless game.

More information.

Myrthos · June 8, 2015

Thanks Maylander for writing this up, for us all to enjoy.

Giovanni1983 · June 8, 2015

That's a very well written review. Hits the nail on the head on both the positives and negatives of the game.

Truly one of the best -if not the best- RPG to come out in many years (Personal opinion). With the patches coming out regularly fixing many of the negative points and the content it will get during the next year it will become a milestone.

CelticFrost · June 8, 2015

- I would disagree on C&C, I played out a few of them to see what the different out comes would be.

As for the rest it very well written, I did use a controller for the game. I also toldl that character you didn't like to hit the road as soon as I could. Just loved the side quest that let me be free of them.

My wife was laughing so hard at me one night when I went to jump and slipped and fell to his death as I shouted "He is a #@$@ witcher and he died Jumping".

CelticFrost · June 8, 2015

Import of The Witcher 2 saves has not much impact

I am not sure how they could have done this better. I thought about it a lot in the beginning to use mine or not. I didn't as I played TW2 a 3 times and couldn't remember the choices I made in the last play.

But back to how they could have done this better? Going after a new and larger group of players that most likely hadn't played the second game I am not sure what we could have imported in?

Ripper · June 8, 2015

That's a very good quality review. More from Maylander, please.

GothicGothicness · June 8, 2015

Excellent review, I second what Ripper said, hope he'd write more reviews for us!

Toff · June 8, 2015

Thanks for the review. I need to start playing this. Have it installed but thats all I've done so far.

Maylander · June 8, 2015

Myrthos said:
Thanks Maylander for writing this up, for us all to enjoy.

You're more than welcome!

CelticFrost said:
My wife was laughing so hard at me one night when I went to jump and slipped and fell to his death as I shouted "He is a #@$@ witcher and he died Jumping".

Haha, yes, I had that reaction as well a few times.

Giovanni1983 said:
That's a very well written review. Hits the nail on the head on both the positives and negatives of the game.

Truly one of the best -if not the best- RPG to come out in many years (Personal opinion). With the patches coming out regularly fixing many of the negative points and the content it will get during the next year it will become a milestone.

Yes, it really is. All in all an exceptional game.

CelticFrost said:
But back to how they could have done this better? Going after a new and larger group of players that most likely hadn't played the second game I am not sure what we could have imported in?

Essentially, I feel they should have just dropped the feature instead of giving people the impression that their decisions in TW2 mattered. The only game of a similar scope with a functional save game import (that I know of) is Dragon Age: Inquisition, where the choices had a much bigger impact. It probably required a lot of resources though..

Ripper said:
That's a very good quality review. More from Maylander, please.

GothicGothicness said:
Excellent review, I second what Ripper said, hope he'd write more reviews for us!

Toff said:
Thanks for the review. I need to start playing this. Have it installed but thats all I've done so far.

Thank you.

Edit: I also noticed a few typos in the review. Crap.

you · June 8, 2015

Well the volume bug makes this unplayable on my system (or unenjoyable if played) so right now it is a big fat 0 for myself. I emailed cdprojek support and they told me to contact wb games (talk about not taking responsibility for your own code; what a load of bullshit).

rune_74 · June 8, 2015

I'm surprised that GTA or Read dead Redemption don't get mentioned in the review, as the game is closer to those in my opinion then Skyrim.

I have also seen some weird bugs...like characters who float through the air instead of walking, my textures consistently knocked back to low on every start so I have to reset them....but nothing game breaking so far.

Good review and an excellent game.

LongMuckDong · June 8, 2015

Brilliant review! Man you really hit the nail on the head in terms of my time with W3 too...especially:

* The minimap lacks a zoom function, so I felt I had to use the main map too often.

...this has annoyed me since day one!!

I give the game 5 stars too, and that review 10/10.

azarhal · June 8, 2015

rune_74 said:
I'm surprised that GTA or Read dead Redemption don't get mentioned in the review, as the game is closer to those in my opinion then Skyrim.

Maybe Maylander haven't played those games.

I haven't played RDR, but I played GTA and I personally don't see any closeness with TW3 gameplay or design.

lackblogger · June 8, 2015

2015 is proving to be a superb year for RPGs and this makes me very happy that everyone else is happy. There's still very few popular games that take my personal interest but I wouldn't begrudge future posters in 2025 bemoaning that the industry isn't a patch on ye good ol' days of 2015

DArtagnan · June 8, 2015

azarhal said:
Maybe Maylander haven't played those games.

I haven't played RDR, but I played GTA and I personally don't see any closeness with TW3 gameplay or design.

I think it's a "subtle" criticism of Witcher 3. A few vocal nuts around here have been doing what they can to recognise these established mainstream features from other popular games - and pretending those features represent entire games.

Things like the scope, world, writing, visuals, C&C, RPG systems, meaningful exploration, combat system, and so on are all dismissed as if they're not part of the package.

It's pretty amusing, if you think about it

jpnole · June 8, 2015

you said:
Well the volume bug makes this unplayable on my system (or unenjoyable if played) so right now it is a big fat 0 for myself. I emailed cdprojek support and they told me to contact wb games (talk about not taking responsibility for your own code; what a load of bullshit).

What bug? Perfectly audible on my system with my rusty trusy Logitech Zs from 2008. Nice and LOUD.

Paul · June 8, 2015

Good review. For me this is the best game ever made, because it combines everything I love in games (interactive branching stories + open world exploration) and does it at higher quality than anything else made before it. The writing rivals even the best of movies/TV and is incredibly complimentary to the book saga that Sapkowski wrote (and that I love to death).

There are some small niggles, but hey, no game is or ever will be "perfect", whatever that means.

you · June 8, 2015

Well you all must be playing on console; on the pc it is a big fat 0/10 and cdprojek is worse than EA.

DArtagnan · June 8, 2015

you said:
Well you all must be playing on console; on the pc it is a big fat 0/10 and cdprojek is worse than EA.

That sounds like a really fair position

you · June 8, 2015

It is because when I email cdprojek they said - oh you got it on gog from usa - email wb games. How the freak is wb going to fix cdprojek code. did they outsouce the game ?

RPGWatch - The Witcher 3 Review

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