Just Finished Witcher 3

I finally finished the Witcher 3 last night. Very good game, I think I need let my thoughts marinate for a while before I make any decisions on where it fits in my all-time pantheon of great RPG's. My intitial thoughts are that it might be top 10 but probably not top 5.

All told, GOG Galaxy says I have spent 106 hours with it. I purchased both expansions 30 hours in or so, and beat Heart of Stone during this time as well. My Geralt was level 38 heading into the final battles (most points in sword combat), in which I very easily dispatched Eredin and his lackey. I haven't yet checked his level in the epilogue. I would say I received one of the good endings, romanced Triss and let Vernon Roche work his guerilla magic in Redania. I completed all the bounties but still have a lot of question marks for undiscovered locations still on the map. I also didn't complete the horse race quests in Skellige or many Gwent related quests as I wasn't as interested in them. Conclusion: there remains plenty left to do. I plan to take a break for a while now, and then go back to play through Blood and Wine.

Now I am debating what to play next. A couple on the radar is finishing up Grim Dawn (took a break a while back but have nearly 50 hours in) or playing the White March expansions to Pillars of Eternity. Or I could go a completely different direction if anyone has some suggestions.

Anyway, just thought I'd share

I also finished the main story recently.
An incredable game!
I romanced yen, of course. Sitting on top of the Mountain with her was awesome.
The snowballfight also…

No game in my memory managed to touch me this way.

Taking a break and playing xcom2 before doing the dlc's

I was surprised how much Geralt grew up in the Witcher 3. While there was some sleeping around, he wasn't out whoring nearly as bad as he did in the original. Speaking of, I have only completed the original game and the Witcher 3. I never got too deep into the Witcher 2. But wow, Witcher 3 is leaps and bounds above the original.

Originally Posted by rossrjensen
I was surprised how much Geralt grew up in the Witcher 3. While there was some sleeping around, he wasn't out whoring nearly as bad as he did in the original. Speaking of, I have only completed the original game and the Witcher 3. I never got too deep into the Witcher 2. But wow, Witcher 3 is leaps and bounds above the original.

I've completed the first game but only got through half of the second as I didn't enjoy the cinematic direction ( seemingly endless cut scenes) CDPR went in. I wanted to just move on to the third game but since it's such a story heavy series i'm worried it will severely lessen my experience.

Since you didn't complete the second one either, How did the story feel, cohesive?, disjointed?, something else?

Hm, the story was basic, but also nuanced and well done. It felt pretty cohesive to me, but obviously their are moments that disrupt it a bit considering you're in an open world with a huge variety of side content. However, given the setting and the story I didn't feel this was a problem. Based on my limited time with the Witcher 2, I would say the Witcher 3 bridges the gap between the two pretty well, while also opening it up and increasing its scope. I think you should give it a try. You don't necessarily need the second game to get going in this one, although it might help fill some plot points in.

Honestly, if you had enough patience for the first game's mechanics, I can't see how this one would let you down.

I haven't started playing TW3 (need to upgrade graphics card to play TW3 smoothly) but watched hubby playing… I got hooked just watching him play. I don't usually play games with set male protagonist but this one I don't want to pass. It will be my loss! I have a feeling by the time I'm done with it, it will be in my top 5 RPGs.

On DLCs: Contrary to popular opinion, I enjoyed Hearts of Stone story more than Blood and Wine.

Are there fewer cinematic cut scenes in the third one, or are there as many as there were in the Wicher 2?

No cinematics in TW3. Cutscenes are executed in the engine itself and run in realtime. Only a few rare ones are prerendered and look horrible console-blurry compared to the rest of visual spectacle, my guess is that these had to be prerendered on inferior hardware and were kept like that in PC version.

TW3 trailers were all nonigame cinematics. Probably due to some graphics "scandal" later, actual ingame footage was used for expansions trailers.

People seem to forget that TW2 contained too much of QTE - this horrible mechanics doesn't appear in TW3.

Thanks Joxer. That sounds like an improvement on the second one.

Nice work Rossr. I also finished Witcher 3 in mid December last year. In fact it was probably the sole cause of me going utterly silent on the forums over the duration of playing it. Took me 147 hours for main game+expansions. You've reminded me that I really should get to summarising my thoughts on it soon.

On the notion of Geralt "whoring", I do think that's a question of role-playing choice rather than anything inherent in Geralt's character. You can practically play him as a celibate for instance like I did. (no romances either) Thus, I've never really understood the arguments that focus on that aspect of the game. Still, I agree with you that he is much more mature and thoroughly humanised in this game.

Good point Pessimeister, you are absolutely right. I guess I couldn't help but try to score all those cards in the first game. Though I will say, Geralt does reference this perceived maturity growth at some self-referential point in the game. I got a kick out of that.

I've still never played Hearts of Stone or Blood and Wine.

I suppose I could just use an old save to play them, but it's been so long I think it would feel awkward. I'd rather do a full replay of TW3, but I just don't have that kind of time for gaming right now.

Hold on to your saves, Geralt and Yen are gettin married: http://en.cdprojektred.com/news/fare…-of-kings-mod/

I plan another full run through, as I did for the dlc, after a gap to enjoy more.

It's the only game in my 40+ years of gaming I've ever bought merchandise from! (A real splash out, 1 key ring )

I'm at the final stages of the core game, about 100 hours in. Looking for a quiet point in the game so I can explore skellige and finally upgrade my basic feline armor all the way to mastercrafted

A subquest of "final preparations" always fails/disappears when I try to do that

When the worst problem in a game is that there's so much great content that you can't keep from out-levelling the enemies, you've got a seriously great game. The story was better than Planescape: Torment's (I think - it's been so long it's hard to compare).

What to play next? Just Cause 3. The story is trash but you blow up tons of stuff to keep you entertained. That will put a good number of hours between Witcher 3's story and whatever serious game you play next so the poor thing doesn't have to try and live up to W3's expectations.

What is the next game, anyway? Oh. The follow-up to Planescape: Torment. Well, maybe you don't need that buffer after all.

Originally Posted by Ursusdraconis
I romanced yen, of course. Sitting on top of the Mountain with her was awesome.

http://images.akamai.steamuserconten…8DF1B17EA9FF3/
(dang "Space to skip")

I agree with you, so much great content that it is intimidating to even get started on. I think I have been playing semi-regularly for nearly a year. Tons and tons of value in Witcher, probably more than any game I have ever played (though I have spent more time in some Civilization games and Mount and Blade, much of that is from repetition).

Just Cause 3 actually sounds like a great recommendation. Just the type of mindless entertainment that will eventually get me craving another deep RPG. I quite enjoyed Just Cause 2 for what it was.