Witcher 3 Stopped playing TW3

The Witcher 3
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purpleblob

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Not sure exactly why but this game actually didn't grab me as much I'd hoped. I've been watching hubby playing it here and there - I got so involved, I was sighing and laughing with Geralt and co. while I was simply watching. But when I was actually playing the game, I could not really feel the same connection. I guess maybe because I've spoilt the story a bit, but I think there might be something more to it.

Anyone had similar experience, and did someone actually end up finishing the game at the later stage?
 
I had a similar experience with the game but persevered and finished the game. To me the side quest were superb but he rest of the game was lacking. So I could totally understand enjoying watching it more than playing it.

The only way I got through it was to go from quest to quest and focus on that and forget about the mediocre combat, exploration and terrible loot system.
 
Not sure exactly why but this game actually didn't grab me as much I'd hoped. I've been watching hubby playing it here and there - I got so involved, I was sighing and laughing with Geralt and co. while I was simply watching. But when I was actually playing the game, I could not really feel the same connection. I guess maybe because I've spoilt the story a bit, but I think there might be something more to it.

Anyone had similar experience, and did someone actually end up finishing the game at the later stage?

I had this exact experience with Skyrim. If I sat in my chair and played on PC, I couldn't get into it for more than a few minutes.

Strangely, my cure was to sit on the couch and play it on PS3. Somehow that experience of relaxing and releasing myself to the game and world made it that more enjoyable.

Sometimes I think the act of sitting in a computer chair in front of the PC has a Pavlov's Dogs effect of making the experience subconsciously too intense to relax and enjoy the game, because we're always "ready for action".
 
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The only way I got through it was to go from quest to quest and focus on that and forget about the mediocre combat, exploration and terrible loot system.

Yeah, I also found those 3 things underwhelming. I'm struggling with combat, it's really boring and there are a fair bit to slog through. I don't think I really enjoy open world approach exploration, and respawning is making it more unpleasant.
 
I agree with you. I've the game installed but only manage to play 20min before I start playing something else. I want to love the game due to the huge world, the production values and so on. But for me it is more like a TV-show than a game. Geraly already knows all his friends and characters, he is who he is and I don't feel like I can develop him. The combat is boring. In the end the game doesn't engage me.
 
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Yeah, it is more of an interactive story with C&C than an actual game. It is such a pity, since their are so many brilliant things in it. I still don't understand why CDPR can't hire some people who knows how to produce gameplay.
 
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It's a fantastic game if you enjoy quest marathons and dialogue-driven gameplay. It's essentially one big conversation with some travelling and optional bits of middling gameplay in-between.

The combat, exploration, loot, progression and so on - are all underwhelming. Also, every quest-related objective that's not about combat is auto-solved using "Witcher senses" - meaning you won't find a cerebral challenge anywhere in the game.

I know that sounds terrible, but it really is an amazing interactive novel with lots of player agency in terms of what happens in the story.

It's also very, very pretty indeed.
 
I absolutely hated The Witcher 3.

TW1 I found very good, but a slog at times (that damn swamp), TW2 is prob my fave game of all time and I was stunned at how replayable it was.

But TW3? To make sure that I wasn't missing something I forced my way through it twice, as so many had raved about it. My conclusion? Too many casuals who think it's a decent RPG. I mean, where to start.

Loot - Already mentioned above. Awful, disposable, worthless loot littering the world, with only Witcher Gear even being worth a look in.

Main Story - Dull. Flat out boring person-fetch quests which, apart from the Bloody Baron quest, rarely contain anything epic or exciting.

Pointless Open World - Seriously, what is there to find of worth or note? Every quest is given via a noticeboard, character or marker. It was like someone took The Witcher 2 and litterally just decided to add 2-5min worth of boring walking between each part of the quest.

The Wild Hunt Contradiction - I mean, WTF? The previous 2 games build up TWH as something which is very connected to Geralt, yet there's no real connection explored in this game. But worse than that is the fact that the whole game says from the outset "Shit! TWH are after Ciri! Quick, rush to help her as swiftly as you can!" and then the actual game is set up, and encourages you, to plod along at your leisure, collecting paint for trolls and doing your day job. It's a jarringly bad example of setup & excecution, like your missus dressing up in kinky leather for a frisky night of fun and then falling asleep for half hour.

Dialogue "options" - So 90% of the dialogue options are essentially "see another cutscene with some more info". There was very rarely choice & concequence, and each extra option would usually just give me more info, not engage me to influence anything.

Combat - For what it's worth, I actually thought it was OK, however on Death March I did play later fights litterally with my eyes shut, as the dodge-attack rhythm became predictable.

Quest Structure - *Talk - travel to place - hold witcher senses button down - fight - return to quest giver - repeat* I soon switched off at the quests themselves, as most followed this very predictable & boring pattern.

Villages - Did any of them differ from each other? Merchant? Check. Notice Board? Check. Odd random quest? Check.

It's a spectators game, and for people who want to watch a game do the work. It's not for those who want to feel a connection or interactive with their games.

I'd say around 30% of it was good, and I could have lived with around another 10-15% filler on top of that. But just so much of it was bloated, repetitive, dull & unnecessary. Out of all the quests I did I reckon around 5 had me buzzing, which for me is what most quests should do. The other 100 odd I acn barely remember.

The highlight of the game was skellige, and the game should have been broken down into more bitesized portions such as that IMO.

Have passed this opinion many times on many forums & sites, usually to be slated, but I still say it's largely the truth.
 
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I absolutely hated The Witcher 3.

TW1 I found very good, but a slog at times (that damn swamp), TW2 is prob my fave game of all time and I was stunned at how replayable it was.

But TW3? To make sure that I wasn't missing something I forced my way through it twice, as so many had raved about it. My conclusion? Too many casuals who think it's a decent RPG. I mean, where to start.

Loot - Already mentioned above. Awful, disposable, worthless loot littering the world, with only Witcher Gear even being worth a look in.

Main Story - Dull. Flat out boring person-fetch quests which, apart from the Bloody Baron quest, rarely contain anything epic or exciting.

Pointless Open World - Seriously, what is there to find of worth or note? Every quest is given via a noticeboard, character or marker. It was like someone too The Witcher 2 and litterally just decided to add 2-5min worth of boring walking/enemies between each part of the quest.

The Wild Hunt Contradiction - I mean, WTF? The previous 2 games build up TWH as something which is very connected to Geralt, yet there's no real connection explored in this game. But worse than that is the fact that the whole game says from the outset "Shit! TWH are after Ciri! Quick, rush to help her as quick as you can!" and then the actual game encourages you to plod along at your leisure, collecting paint for trolls and doing your day job. It's a jarringly bad example of setup & excecution, like your missus dressing up in kinky leather and then falling asleep for half hour.

Dialogue "options" - So 90% of the dialogie options are essentially "see another cutscene with some more info". There was very rarely choice & concequence, and each extra option would just give me more info, not engage me to influence anything.

Combat - For what it's worth, I actually thought it was OK, BUT on Death March I did play later fights litterally with my eyes shut, as the didge-attack rhythm became predictable very soon.

Quest Structure - *Talk-travel to place-hold witcher senses button down-fight-return to quest giver* I soon switched off at the quests themselves, as most followe this very predictable & boring pattern.

It's a spectators game, and for people who want to watch a game do the work. It's not for those who want to feel a connection or interactive with their games.

I'd say around 30% of it was good, and I could have lived with around another 10-15% filler on top of that. But just so much of it was bloated, repetitive, dull & unessessary. Out of all the quests I did I reckon around 5 had me buzzing, which for me is what most quests should do.

Have passed this opinion many times on many forums & sites, usually to be slated, but I still say it's largely the truth.

While I certainly didn't hate the game, I more or less agree completely with your issues.

I still struggle to comprehend all the 10/10s - but I can see how it could be a big hit with people who love dialogue cutscenes and storytelling above interesting gameplay. I guess the pretty visuals and strong soundtrack mesmerized a lot of people :)

I also think the dialogues themselves are very strong - as is the overall writing. I stopped playing after around 100 hours somewhere in Skellige - so I don't know how the main story turns out. What I did experience of it was touching and well done - even if I hated being forced into playing another character.

I also think several side quests were rather great in terms of writing, and I especially loved everything related to Keira Metz.

But in terms of actual gameplay…. well, it was middling at best. Certainly miles behind PB/Bioware for open world and progression.

That said, there's no "truth" here. It's just opinions and preferences.
 
Anyone had similar experience, and did someone actually end up finishing the game at the later stage?
No, I did not have similar experience, finished it (and did all sidequests too) twice, used different choices in the second playthrough.

Unlike others here criticizing every single bit of it, TW3 was never boring to me. Maybe because I dodged grinding billions of "?" on sea and because I refused to grind respawned trashmobs in openworld.
Anyway, my thoughts on TW3 being a masterpiece is not surprising - when it comes to RT games, I can't care less about combat and gameplay, if I did, I'd sell PC and buy me some mushroomsbased overrated nothingbutsillygameplay garbage.

I suggest you to uninstall the game and never look back. It's not a game you like, okay, no reason to force it more.
The game I've already suggested you to try is Sims 3+WA, but you refused to even think about it, dunno why.
 
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While I certainly didn't hate the game, I more or less agree completely with your issues.

I still struggle to comprehend all the 10/10s - but I can see how it could be a big hit with people who love dialogue cutscenes and storytelling above interesting gameplay. I guess the pretty visuals and strong soundtrack mesmerized a lot of people :)

I also think the dialogues themselves are very strong - as is the overall writing. I stopped playing after around 100 hours somewhere in Skellige - so I don't know how the main story turns out. What I did experience of it was touching and well done - even if I hated being forced into playing another character.

I also think several side quests were rather great in terms of writing, and I especially loved everything related to Keira Metz.

But in terms of actual gameplay…. well, it was middling at best. Certainly miles behind PB/Bioware for open world and progression.

That said, there's no "truth" here. It's just opinions and preferences.

Fair summary chap. There is definitely some quality in there, and I had brief moments of fun with it. But it's just all so drowned out by a bloated, repetitive world & structure that I'm still amazed at the praise it has recieved.

Agreed with Keira Metz too. Her quests, Bloody Baron the Skelliga ones were the ones worth playing. But damn did I have to trudge through some dull gumph to get to them.

It's not the game itself I've an issue with, I hated it but can see a 6 or 7/10 game in there. It's the fact so many say "THIS is how to do an RPG". It isn't. Far from it. If anything the previous 2 entries show how CDPR did RPG's much better IMO.

And just so folk know, I ditched the POI "?'s" in Whiterun. My opinion is based purely on doing the main quest, side quests and around half the monster hunts.
 
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Fair summary chap. There is definitely some quality in there, and I had brief moments of fun with it. But it's just all so drowned out by a bloated, repetitive world & structure that I'm still amazed at the praise it has recieved.

Agreed with Keira Metz too. Her quests, Bloody Baron the Skelliga ones were the ones worth playing. But damn did I have to trudge through some dull gumph to get to them.

It's not the game itself I've an issue with, I hated it but can see a 6 or 7/10 game in there. It's the fact so many say "THIS is how to do an RPG". It isn't. Far from it. If anything the previous 2 entries show how CDPR did RPG's much better IMO.

Look at it this way:

People loved it. Maybe they had good reasons for it - or maybe they didn't.

However, no matter how invested you are - that won't change. You're just wasting your time harboring negative emotions.

Personally, I also think it's unfortunate - mostly because it has already sent a CLEAR signal to everyone about how gameplay in open world CRPGs isn't really important.

Meaning, we can expect to see a lot more story-driven games that might not emphasize great loot, combat, exploration and so on.

But then again, I was never into "me-too" developers. I prefer developers with their own vision - doing their own thing.

So, there's really no great loss here.

I don't believe in the whole "let's fight the people who disagree with me" thing. I don't think it's productive or beneficial to rate a game lower than it deserves for any reason - and hating something because you don't see things the same way is extremely counterproductive.

Overall, I think I would rate Witcher 3 around 8/10. What it does right - it does very, very well indeed.

Unfortunately, I went into it thinking it was going to be a great open world CRPG - and that's what I thought it was marketed as.

I was wrong. Oh well.
 
Look at it this way:

People loved it. Maybe they had good reasons for it - or maybe they didn't.

However, no matter how invested you are - that won't change. You're just wasting your time harboring negative emotions.

Personally, I also think it's unfortunate - mostly because it has already sent a CLEAR signal to everyone about how gameplay in open world CRPGs isn't really important.

Meaning, we can expect to see a lot more story-driven games that might not emphasize great loot, combat, exploration and so on.

But then again, I was never into "me-too" developers. I prefer developers with their own vision - doing their own thing.

So, there's really no great loss here.

I don't believe in the whole "let's fight the people who disagree with me" thing. I don't think it's productive or beneficial to rate a game lower than it deserves for any reason - and hating something because you don't see things the same way is extremely counterproductive.

Overall, I think I would rate Witcher 3 around 8/10. What it does right - it does very, very well indeed.

Unfortunately, I went into it thinking it was going to be a great open world CRPG - and that's what I thought it was marketed as.

I was wrong. Oh well.

:thumbsup: Top post.

I guess I'm just hoping that some people wake up to some of these facts before we get an entire industry aiming to copy them, much like so many did with Skyrim.

It reminds me of Skyrim when everyone went nuts for it, and I sat there thinking "Meh, it's OK, but - combat aside - it's still no Morrowind, and still just an OK game, nowhere near the 10/10's we're seeing".

What will be will be, but at least some home truths about various aspects of the game, and more importantly highlighting how forcing Open World aspects & tropes into all games, may help improve future games :)
 
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:thumbsup: Top post.

I guess I'm just hoping that some people wake up to some of these facts before we get an entire industry aiming to copy them, much like so many did with Skyrim.

It reminds me of Skyrim when everyone went nuts for it, and I sat there thinking "Meh, it's OK, but - combat aside - it's still no Morrowind, and still just an OK game, nowhere near the 10/10's we're seeing".

What will be will be, but at least some home truths about various aspects of the game, and more importantly highlighting how forcing Open World aspects & tropes into all games, may help improve future games :)

Well, I loved Skyrim, so…. Though mods certainly helped ;)

Whatever happens will happen. It's completely beyond our control, anyway.

I've yet to have a discussion about TW3 with a fan that changed anything about their love for it. It's not a rational thing - it's an emotional thing, especially because of how the story is the game. A story that clearly spoke to the heart in many, many cases.

Don't fight the heart. You will lose :)
 
I'm always amazed when I see someone talk about how they hated a game and yet played through it more than once. :)

Time must be a lot less valuable to some people.
 
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Yeah, I also found those 3 things underwhelming. I'm struggling with combat, it's really boring and there are a fair bit to slog through. I don't think I really enjoy open world approach exploration, and respawning is making it more unpleasant.

A lot of it might simply have to do with what kind of mood you're in lately. That can greatly affect how much I enjoy a certain kind of game at any given time. It might just not be the right type of game for you right now.

You've never struck me as the open-world type though, and I don't recall ever seeing you talk about these kinds of games before.

I'd be cautious about other people's opinions on TW3 though, as they often seem to be extreme in one way or another. My advice would be to just play it on your own and not worry about what someone else thought about it.

It's also a very long game, so I don't advise trying to force your way through if you're not feeling it. That'll only make the experience even worse if you're not enjoying it. Instead, just move on to something else and perhaps give TW3 another try at some point in the future. :)
 
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I'm always amazed when I see someone talk about how they hated a game and yet played through it more than once. :)

Time must be a lot less valuable to some people.

It was a very forced thing, trust me.

First time I had especially put some time aside to play it because I'd heard so much about it, so thought "may as well go all the way through" as I'd already made the time to.

Second time I had to cancel a last minute holiday due to unforseen circumstances, so again had time on my hands I needed to fill, and little else to fill it with.

I'd have given up way earlier both times had this not been the case. For what it's worth I did manage to find more fun in the 2nd playthrough because I tailored the experience based on both the previous playthrough, and other people's advice, But it still was far more arduous than enjoyable.

Between TW3 & The Force Awakens, I've just come to accept that I prefer much deeper, engaging, love-crafted entertainment than the more by-the-numbers experiences which saturates modern entertainment now. What irks me is when people tell me things such as TW3 & TFA aren't by the numbers though. Elements may not be, but you can really tell with both that the suits with an eye on the "please audience tick box" spreadsheet at the top are the ones driving them, not the people with a genuine love for games/films etc.

Nothing wrong with that (I don't like it, but that's just me), I just wish there were less people out there telling us these products are the opposite of what they actually are. And with TW3 many were saying "THIS is how you do a modern RPG", when all it really was was TW2 with loads of bloat added, and not as much C&C weight.

If I had my way, I'd cut out around 60% of TW3 content, lose all the modern Open World AAA cut-paste tropes, and I think it would then be a much better overall experience.
 
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I'm always amazed when I see someone talk about how they hated a game and yet played through it more than once. :)

Time must be a lot less valuable to some people.

Which game would that be?
I can't think of anyone who hated or could hate TW3. You can hate certain things in it like smugglers caches but noone is forcing you to collect them. Or Gwent, no reason to play it ever if you hate it. Etc.
But to hate TW3 in general? Nah, I think there is enough of content inside for every taste.
 
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Which game would that be?
I can't think of anyone who hated or could hate TW3. You can hate certain things in it like smugglers caches but noone is forcing you to collect them. Or Gwent, no reason to play it ever if you hate it. Etc.
But to hate TW3 in general? Nah, I think there is enough of content inside for every taste.

I hated it, thoroughly lol.

But I can see why some people like it. It was just the positive content for me which I connected with was very sparse, compared to the filler & stuff I didn't like which I had to wade through to get to the good stuff.

I totally accept it must be good in some ways, else so many wouldn't like it. But I also think in a few years time people will realize there's a lot less substance to it than they think.

My main hopes though are that: 1) the elements which didn't work get recognized & removed for CP2077; 2) this trend of forcing Open World's on story driven games stops, because all it usually does is slow everything down; 3) this trend of having fairly mundane, run of the mill main quests stops too. And that future games thin out the optional/side quests in favour for a better main quest. TW3 is a great example of where I'd have easily traded 30 odd side quests or monster hunts, for some more excitement in the main quest.
 
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