I'm gonna do another one, why not:
Yes, The Witcher 3 is that great. GOAT. Deserving of all the accolades.
I am considering this a "hot take" because there's been a backlash from people sick of all the hype and praise and I get it, it's annoying. But lately I'm seeing, like, oh it's shit combat and oh we always AHCHCHOOLLY knew that CDProjRed was shit because lol Cyberpunk and all that.
And, like... no, no, we were right, it's great.
In fact, I haven't seen an action adventure open world fantasy RPG that even comes close, even by reputation or consensus opinion. I would go so far to say that I don't even know how it can be improved upon from a world-setting and narrative perspective. It's a huge game but not TOO huge that it's overwhelming (yes, I agree that the main plot ending is paced really weird though). But this game's specific quest structure, world design and just general "flow" of cut scenes, gameplay and mechanics come together better than anything I've ever experience in a Big Open World.
And this is with all the criticism even I have of it (shit loot and XP/leveling system). As a "pure RPG" it's crap but as an action/adventure/open-word it is incomparable, and that kind of game hits a broader audience that's why we love it so much.