Heh. I can just imagine those familiar with my opinion on the previous Witcher games cringing at the sight of this topic.
Well good folk, you may uncringe yourselves because I'm actually rather enjoying The Witcher 3.
It feels strange and unnerving to be saying this, but the switch to an open world seems to have been a massive improvement. It allows the setting to breath and establish a bit more of its own feel beyond Premade Fantasy Setting #004c.
Granted, the story pacing suffers somewhat as a result and there's a case to be made for sidequest exhaustion, but that's partly my playstyle to blame. ("Must. Finish. All. The. Sidequests!") And hey, at least in this case there's some justification for the sidequests, since most of them essentially consist of Geralt doing his improbably dramatic day job.
The developers seem to have resisted the urge to shovel bucketloads of "maturity" into every available orifice. The war and genocide and racism and rape and sexism and pogroms and whatnot are all still in there, as they should be given the setting and tone, but it's been toned down to non-ridiculous levels.
Also, there are actually some pretty cool characters along the way. Standouts so far being the Bloody Baron and that one sorceress with history's widest neckline.
Lastly, God help me, I think I'm actually starting to like Geralt, the impassive Mary Sue ************. If nothing else, he comes across as an all round goodhearted fellow, or at least can be played as such.
...
Of course, enjoying a game has never been enough to stop me from whining about every little thing that I didn't like. So let the complaints commence:
- Is it just me or are the movement controls a bit shit? Not total shit, I adapted, but a long way from good. This is one of those games where just running through a doorway might take a few attempts.
- The crafting system is kind of a bloated mess. A relatively unobtrusive bloated mess, thank God, but a bloated mess nonetheless.
- The level scaling. Or lack thereof. I understand why people dislike level scaling, it undermines the feeling of progression. But I don't really see a situation where your success or failure is dictated largely by a number as exactly being an improvement. Granted, you can kill things above your level (I took out some level 20 enemies at level 13) but doing so is a test of patience and your willingness to abuse the shield spell rather than a matter of skill.
- Repeating background chatter. "Is it true northern women bathe but once every three months?" I really wish developers would stop doing this.
- The tracking/investigation sections are a bit... iffy. I mean, I get that they're trying to make what Geralt does seem a bit more involved that just hitting shit with a sword. Sadly, these sections just boil down to holding down the make-everything-of-relevance-glow button, then following the glowing things until you find something to hit with a sword.
- Maybe I'm missing something here, but the Witchers being considered freakish pariahs makes no damn sense. The world is up to it's goddamned ears in monsters. Every single village you go to has got something or other eating their kids the moment they step into the treeline. You'd think in a world like that people who kill the monsters for a living would be incredibly popular. There's something about Witcher mutations and/or training "stripping them of humanity and emotion" or whatnot, but that doesn't jive either since Geralt, inexpressive though he may be, pretty clearly feels emotions and shit. Hell, if nothing else you'd think the haters would keep it to themselves. "Hey, so, see that heavily armed, spell-slinging, sword-swinging, cat-eyed guy over there who represents a guild known entirely for being remorseless killing machines? Yeah, well, imma go spit in his beer. There is no way this could possibly end poorly."
EDIT: Oh. There's already a W3 thread. I swear on my life that wasn't there when I started typing this.
Well good folk, you may uncringe yourselves because I'm actually rather enjoying The Witcher 3.
It feels strange and unnerving to be saying this, but the switch to an open world seems to have been a massive improvement. It allows the setting to breath and establish a bit more of its own feel beyond Premade Fantasy Setting #004c.
Granted, the story pacing suffers somewhat as a result and there's a case to be made for sidequest exhaustion, but that's partly my playstyle to blame. ("Must. Finish. All. The. Sidequests!") And hey, at least in this case there's some justification for the sidequests, since most of them essentially consist of Geralt doing his improbably dramatic day job.
The developers seem to have resisted the urge to shovel bucketloads of "maturity" into every available orifice. The war and genocide and racism and rape and sexism and pogroms and whatnot are all still in there, as they should be given the setting and tone, but it's been toned down to non-ridiculous levels.
Also, there are actually some pretty cool characters along the way. Standouts so far being the Bloody Baron and that one sorceress with history's widest neckline.
Lastly, God help me, I think I'm actually starting to like Geralt, the impassive Mary Sue ************. If nothing else, he comes across as an all round goodhearted fellow, or at least can be played as such.
...
Of course, enjoying a game has never been enough to stop me from whining about every little thing that I didn't like. So let the complaints commence:
- Is it just me or are the movement controls a bit shit? Not total shit, I adapted, but a long way from good. This is one of those games where just running through a doorway might take a few attempts.
- The crafting system is kind of a bloated mess. A relatively unobtrusive bloated mess, thank God, but a bloated mess nonetheless.
- The level scaling. Or lack thereof. I understand why people dislike level scaling, it undermines the feeling of progression. But I don't really see a situation where your success or failure is dictated largely by a number as exactly being an improvement. Granted, you can kill things above your level (I took out some level 20 enemies at level 13) but doing so is a test of patience and your willingness to abuse the shield spell rather than a matter of skill.
- Repeating background chatter. "Is it true northern women bathe but once every three months?" I really wish developers would stop doing this.
- The tracking/investigation sections are a bit... iffy. I mean, I get that they're trying to make what Geralt does seem a bit more involved that just hitting shit with a sword. Sadly, these sections just boil down to holding down the make-everything-of-relevance-glow button, then following the glowing things until you find something to hit with a sword.
- Maybe I'm missing something here, but the Witchers being considered freakish pariahs makes no damn sense. The world is up to it's goddamned ears in monsters. Every single village you go to has got something or other eating their kids the moment they step into the treeline. You'd think in a world like that people who kill the monsters for a living would be incredibly popular. There's something about Witcher mutations and/or training "stripping them of humanity and emotion" or whatnot, but that doesn't jive either since Geralt, inexpressive though he may be, pretty clearly feels emotions and shit. Hell, if nothing else you'd think the haters would keep it to themselves. "Hey, so, see that heavily armed, spell-slinging, sword-swinging, cat-eyed guy over there who represents a guild known entirely for being remorseless killing machines? Yeah, well, imma go spit in his beer. There is no way this could possibly end poorly."
EDIT: Oh. There's already a W3 thread. I swear on my life that wasn't there when I started typing this.