Detailed review

delete5230 · June 2015

Hi everyone, It's a review time and I thought I would give my thoughts about The Witcher 3.

Before I start, I would like to say that I would give this game a 9/10. And the reason I say this first is because this review will be fairly detailed and some things will get very low scores. However please don't think any are game breaking, just could have been done better.

Anyway :

I've been playing Witcher 3 consistently for about two weeks now, with work gym and some social life mixed in.

I have a powerful computer and I'll say the game looks and sounds great. The controls at first totally turned me off from day one and I found myself at Best Buy getting an Xbox 360 controller only to find movement not that much different. Add that the Witcher 3 has collision detection to all environments. I love collision detection, but not with the clunky controls.

Here's an example: After the very short hand holding tutorial, You find your self in a small town. What's the first thing you do in any game ?...You go to the Inn right ! Well, you could barely move without bumping into everyone and everything. I must say, My hart sank. My first thought was, this game is bugged as hell. Now I better figure out what is going on and how I can fix it to my liking. First I can't see low enugh to see what I'm kicking on the floor. I found it much better to be running the game at max resolution this helped me to see down much better. Next you have an option to run/walk. Walking being to slow for any person in any game, you find your self running constantly. Well you run too fast and spin on a dime. You would think this is good but it's not, it's just something that you get used to eventually. Controls 4/10

Let's brighten up the review a bit.

What better way than Graphics, this game looks fantastic. Very sharp detail, and Lush environment. You'll find yourself in a deep up to your neck wheat field, then on other occasions you'll be chest deep in a beautiful swamp navigating around trees and rocks. Did I mention collision detection ? yes I did.......One of my most favorite part of the graphics would be the sky. You have morning, noon, and night. Never have I seen a game nail this so well. Evenings you have the sun shining in your eyes. Graphics I would give it a 10/10. With music being a 7/10.

Questing. This sucked at first, but turned out to be fantastic. My first few levels, I'm like what do I do? Where are the quest ? I've read on several forums where people were complaining about the very same thing. The answer: Look in your quest log, look for the posted signs in towns, and look for undiscovered question marks on the map. Well I did all of that, but It wasn't enough. AND Experience ? How come I seem to not be getting anyplace with leveling.....More bugs I thought !...I'm level 4 my friend at work is level 7 so I called him bitching about quest. He's like everyone answering on the forms, whats the problem? Quest everyplace !!.......Well, he was right, around level 6 or so after you really branch out, there are, quest all over the place, you can pic and chose. You have Main Story, Secondary, Contracts and my favorite Treasure Hunt quest. All are deep and have memorable stories to them. Or you can x out the dialog and just read the highlights. 10/10 for questing.

Experience and Leveling. Slow, very Slow and only from doing quest. Bad thing right ?...Wrong, good thing. This game has a LOT OF CONTENT....Been playing hard when I can with many hours invested, I'm only 11 and proud of it ! I'm also playing it on hard level, next one down from the hardest, wouldn't have it any other way. Next level lower is too easy, and not worth playing and using your potions and signs. 9/10

Open World / Sand Box. Witcher 3 reminds me of Far Cry 3 and 4. You have freedom but watch where you go. How do cave men say it ?......Go to far, get killed !.... Also you have very very large zones. White Orchard 1-6, Velen 6-14, and Skellige Island for higher. All huge, skyrum huge ?....People say yes, bigger. I don't see that but who am I, I'm only 11 I give Open World / Sand Box a 7/10, If monsters leveled with you and go any place it would be 10/10 but it's not.

Looting / Harvesting / Money. It's bad, Your always out of money. Looting boxes and picking herbs, you always think your doing good but your not. Good things get sold to the vender very low. You can spend an hours picking herbs only and there worthless, but for me and the early stages, I had to do it. I call it picking up popcorn off the floor, because there everywhere. Last is Looting corpse and boxes, very frustrating trying to mouse over them. It's NOT a game breaker, but 1/10

Crafting. I don't like crafting in any game, but ALL the Forums say don't bother crafting Weapons and Armor because you find better, However the Treasure Hunt Crafting Diagrams and very good, and by far worth it to craft, I find this true. And that's good enough for me, as far as crafting. Also the Hunts are a lot of fun. Alchemy on the other hand is a very big core of the game for Bombs, Potions and other essentials, this is a lot of fun if you like crafting. Weapons and Armor 3/10, Alchemy 8/10

Abilities / Signs / Trait points. You get all your signs from level 1. Fire, Magic Trap, Protective Shield, Charm, and Telekinetic You can equip anyone at any time, and often they all work well, BUT certain monsters are best taken out with what's recommend in your Beast Log. The Beast log tells you how to fight each type of monster, and what to use. From signs to potions to oils on your weapons. Prep work make fighting fun ! The only thing I don't like about this system, is you get everything in the beginning, even Traits as you progress don't add that much flavor. But the game stays fun anyway. Here is a nice example that I enjoyed....I was going through a cave on a Treasure Hunt. I had to use Magic Trap to fight the Sprits, Telekinetic to break down walls, and Fire to destroy the poison on the ground and Fire to kill the boss Wolf. 7/10

Combat. Lots of fun, like above you have to prep for a fight. You have to set up your opening sign, apply your oil on your weapon, make sure your health is maxed out, and proper potions are ready to go. For the most part your using your sward and spamming signs when available and trying to regain your health using several different methods. You'll be dodging parrying and rolling. It's a lot of fun, but often I would die because when my health is low, and try and back way off, I seem to be locked into this defensive slow mode, and die anyway. I never found an answer for this, so it's my only flaw. 7/10

Replayability. I don't think so, you would be doing the same over again, however like Skyrim I believe, there will be constant updates and patches, I don't think the game was designed to play over again. 2/10

Like I say, I know I gave several low scores, but for the most part they can be over looked and nothing is game breaking.

9/10....It's that immersive !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

drakes821 · June 2015

Replay value 2...if your interested in the story this game has a high replay value with all the story options and dialogue paths.

Also you'll find as you progress some of your opinions will change, for instance at around level 20 I have more money then I know what to do with.

Still a good in-depth review, but I'd do a update when you experience more of the game.

parpin · June 2015

9/10 agreed..the game is not perfect at all..but its a lot of fun..although it is very time consuming and some of the side quest are very important if you want the best ending.so it is kinda you better do it all.

crafting:

i found relic and magic items much better than crafting versions of weapons and armor..my armor had 100% bleed resistance which is op and it dropped randomly from one of those boxes..so discovering question marks is best way to gear oddly

combat:

very engaging..feels like witcher..know your stuff or you are dead..very witch hunting combat.

story

average..most of your main quest is boring chase after ciri.. and different ending might make whole thing frustrating if you made wrong choice and got bad ending.

gwent

AWESOME..cd red project must develop this into a online card game

Sovrath · June 2015

I realize people seem to have trouble with movement (in some cases I have no idea why) but I have to disagree with this.

"Walking being to slow for any person in any game, you find your self running constantly. Well you run too fast and spin on a dime. You would think this is good but it's not, it's just something that you get used to eventually. Controls 4/10"

first off, NO I walk a lot. It's not too slow. It's called walking for a reason. Maybe people are having troubles moving because they should be walking in places?

in any case, I don't think the "turning on a dime" is an issue either. What I can see being an issue is that your character stops but then the body does a little animation that makes it look like a body stopping from motion. Thing is, I can imagine some people wanting to stop and IMMEDIATELY move in another direction. But the movement doesn't seem to allow for that. It's as if you have to stop, allow for your "body" to stop (feet skidding etc) and then choose a new direction.

The two possibly larger movement issues I see are that in combat you are forced to face an opponent. Now, unless I've missed something and you can break off, turn your back to your attackers and run to a better vantage point, it seems you have to slowly back away if you want to move to any better vantage point.

and of course the other issues, you want to "igni" a monster and you turn, even though you are facing the monster, and end up lighting a barrel on fire.

In truth I don't find the controls much of an issue now that I'm used to them. I do find what I think are "larger" issues to be problems.

numnum · June 2015

I've been hanging over my roommates shoulder watching him play. And the hanging over someone's shoulder review is.

Clunky movement, as in really bad. This problem stems from the game committing you to your movement. If you move forward the game commits you to covering a certain amount of ground for you which there is no stopping or escaping.

So your constantly bumping into things and getting stuck on things because you don't have precise movement like in say even an MMO, let alone the level of precision you have in a FPS game. Its console autopilot movement, or motor boat movement as I call it.

Want to turn while moving? Be prepared for a massive sweeping turn that would win you awards in a boat parade. And knock everything off the walls and tables in real life.

Performance, there is none. My roommate has a way above average gaming PC, and the performance is absolutely horrible, 40 to 45 frames tops, maybe 50 if the stars align Everything is a choppy mess, even in game videos. If the game visually was ground breaking I would give them a pass, but its okay, nothing special, better than some, but worse than others that look and run better.

Combat, combat looks and sounds decent, but again suffers from console auto movement and the ever popular IM running away from the enemy towards the player attacking instead of just backing up and attacking / parrying. The controls are just clumsy. Why is it console games spin your character around and have them run toward you exposing your back to the enemy. Oh wait I know because it takes less resources to spin a character then to turn the game world. Even though it makes for the most unrealistic combat movement known to man.

Menus look to be improved over Witcher 2 and more PC friendly, that's awesome sauce.

Game world looks pretty big but again they don't have an engine that can render open world environments for shit. Guess their a fixing on that for Witcher 4.

Quests quests and more quests, tons of quests and things to do.

Regardless and though he agrees with me on all these points, my roommates' still having fun, in between the occasional frustration. For me its a total pass. For a game that was originally only made for PC (Witcher 1) its sad to see its even less PC friendly then the original.

cheyane · June 2015

Originally posted by Sovrath
I realize people seem to have trouble with movement (in some cases I have no idea why) but I have to disagree with this.

"Walking being to slow for any person in any game, you find your self running constantly. Well you run too fast and spin on a dime. You would think this is good but it's not, it's just something that you get used to eventually. Controls 4/10"

first off, NO I walk a lot. It's not too slow. It's called walking for a reason. Maybe people are having troubles moving because they should be walking in places?

in any case, I don't think the "turning on a dime" is an issue either. What I can see being an issue is that your character stops but then the body does a little animation that makes it look like a body stopping from motion. Thing is, I can imagine some people wanting to stop and IMMEDIATELY move in another direction. But the movement doesn't seem to allow for that. It's as if you have to stop, allow for your "body" to stop (feet skidding etc) and then choose a new direction.

The two possibly larger movement issues I see are that in combat you are forced to face an opponent. Now, unless I've missed something and you can break off, turn your back to your attackers and run to a better vantage point, it seems you have to slowly back away if you want to move to any better vantage point.

and of course the other issues, you want to "igni" a monster and you turn, even though you are facing the monster, and end up lighting a barrel on fire.

In truth I don't find the controls much of an issue now that I'm used to them. I do find what I think are "larger" issues to be problems.

I think that running around all the time while might be efficient is not something you would do all the time if you were to play in a world. Many games now start you off running but I recall in Everquest you started walking and you also walk when you are weighed down which makes total sense.

If you want to really immerse yourself you would probably not run everywhere.

Wizardry · June 2015

I did say i have only watched and i did mention that often it is tough to see and understand just watching on twitch.

However combat sounds like an idea i would not like reason is....

It sounds preordained,like it's not YOUR combat but their's to perform.You have a preset game plan that you must follow and that is what i don't like.I also do not ever like a questing only game,even if your argument is a good one,how about CHOICE?What if i don't like running around in a MUST fashion clicking on npc's to advance my player?Further more it NEVER made any sense at all why my characters skills would improve just because i do errands for npc's.

Also on combat,i hate immersion breakers and yes most games do something wrong in that area but i really can't stand silly ideas.One of those really silly ideas is that MATRIX roll, i HATE matrix rolls it is NOT realism in any plausible way unless i want to believe my player was a gymnast in a past life,enjoying his time as a somersault expert.This constant matrix rolling is as bad or worse than seeing circle strafing combat or constant bunny hopping,i hate all those ideas.

There are lots of things that Twitch doss show that a thread here does not.Another is SIGN POST warping,does that sound plausible in any possible way?What are they magical signs?At least pujt some plausible realism into it,make warping a form of magic in some way,not by clicking a "sign post".

CrazKanuk · June 2015

Originally posted by DMKano
Originally posted by ikcin
First the game is about the choices. Every choice you make can change everything, your hero, his path in the game, the whole world of TW3.

Second, you can change viewing angles and controlling keys as you want. The combat system is great. The player can use different hits, skills, buffs, even to fight on horse back. He can combine magic and weapon fight at unique ways. The combat system is very dynamic and you need preparations for every fight. The game is challenging with the best RP till now. And if you did not play it, it is obvious you have no idea what you are talking about, because TW3 is different from every game you have ever played. The last RPG similar to this was Gothic 2.

The choices are an illusion - they are cleverly disguised as choices but it's all pre-determined like in the "choose your adventure book", where making a choice simply sends you to another page. Yes you made a choice, but all the outcomes are already written. You are given another choice after a couple of pages - the outcomes are page 8, page 13, page 28 or page 32. You keep making choices until you reach on of the many endings.The book has 40 endings (Witcher 3 has 36 endings)

Real choices would have unpredictability built in, a choice that always results in the same outcome is simply picking an already determined outcome.

Also the choices have major limitations - you are simply picking options given to you, you cant make your own decisions at all if they are not one of the options given.

"Choose your adventure book" is what W3 story really is, heck you can't even make the basic choice of creating your own hero - your stuck with Geralt as the only option - choice eh ?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choose_Your_Own_Adventure

True, but even if W3 was a completely linear story, it would still be well worth the play. IMO, 36 endings is kind of pointless for me anyway. With the amount of content included and the few hours (2 or 3) I get to play each day, I'll be playing this game for a few months just to get one ending!!!! If you're putting in thousands of hours to see alternative endings, all the power to ya. I'll check out the alternatives on YouTube and move onto the next game.

That isn't to say that the story isn't compelling though. It's easily one of the most compelling stories and games I've played in, wow, probably a year or more. I thought Pillars of Eternity was a good story, but I actually prefer this one. I liken it to SWTOR, if we're talking an MMORPG context. You've always got a light side and a dark side answer which is somewhat predictable. There may be some change in how people perceive you, I don't know, but overall it's really just role playing.

As far as the character selection goes, there's a time and a place for everything. If they had added character creation to this it would be like, why? It actually becomes a game-breaking issue since it's a continuation of a game series and a book series. It'd be like playing a Lord of the Rings game, selecting Gandalf as the character you want to play and then making him a young, fat, hobbit fighter. Sorry, but character creation does NOT fit well into the game at all.

Sovrath · June 2015

Originally posted by DMKano

The choices are an illusion - they are cleverly disguised as choices but it's all pre-determined like in the "choose your adventure book", where making a choice simply sends you to another page. Yes you made a choice, but all the outcomes are already written. You are given another choice after a couple of pages - the outcomes are page 8, page 13, page 28 or page 32. You keep making choices until you reach on of the many endings.The book has 40 endings (Witcher 3 has 36 endings)

Real choices would have unpredictability built in, a choice that always results in the same outcome is simply picking an already determined outcome.

Also the choices have major limitations - you are simply picking options given to you, you cant make your own decisions at all if they are not one of the options given.

"Choose your adventure book" is what W3 story really is, heck you can't even make the basic choice of creating your own hero - your stuck with Geralt as the only option - choice eh ?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choose_Your_Own_Adventure

Are there many story based games that allow for unpredictability with regards to the outcome of choices?

Are there any games that have meaningful choices with consistently unpredictable outcomes?

I don't think it makes it less meaningful just more directed.

dlld · June 2015

2/10 replayability, sounds a bit odd perhaps for a multiple choice rpg but honestly I have to agree. I'm not gonna trudge through 90% of the same (veeery long) content to get 10% of new dialouge and cutscenes most of which will probably not have any significance to the real end beyond a footnote in the ending cutscene ala neverwinter nights 2 if that. An issue I have with choice rpgs in general, there is just way to much of identical content one has to go through to get a few bits of new.

If i'm curious about a alternate ending i'll youtube it sometime.

delete5230 · June 2015

I'm now level 18, I've been playing consistently everyday for about one or two hours, questing crafting reading some of the stories. So yes, you level slow and that's a good thing.

Tip :

Keep a good balance between the Main story quest and side quest. Try and not out level either one.

My big question is now being answered as more players are finishing the game....How much game play is there ?

Well, apparently the game can be played to level 70. However from what I've been reading, most are finishing the Main story between levels 22 - 25. Then there are about 8 levels higher in content after that......I'm not there yet but this makes since, because it seems the monster levels go up to around level 30 or so.

I'm expecting many more DLC and Expansions. And last the game is still immersive and fun.

Flyte27 · September 2015

I believe a lot of those comments were just opinions.

For instance you said you would like the content to level with you. I've played games where the content levels with you so you can go anywhere and found it to be very bland. I much prefer to have monsters that can wipe the floor with you and monsters you can wipe the floor with. It makes things more interesting IMO.

Movement isn't really that bad. Being able to move with precision in real life is false. The game mimics reality in terms of being able to stop quickly and turn quickly. People don't just stop on a dime. They take time to slow down and start up.

I found the stories to be very entertaining. I actually get bored sometimes just going to the ? marks. There is often not much story involved with them and what is is a short book that I often don't really want to read. It would be nice if there was an option for audio dialog. The quests are great IMO

I'm not a big fan of Herb picking and looting in this game. There are too many herbs to pick and too many items to loot so I will agree with you there. Most of the items are either food or something to be broken down for crafting. IMO this is the worst part of the Witcher games. There are just to many items and to much breaking them down for crafting components. I like the quests related to finding Wicher gear, but I'd rather they focus on making items for crafting them difficult to find as opposed to having a billion items to loot everywhere you go.

You ratings don't seem to add up to a 9/10. You have a lot of sub 9/10 ratings which would likely have averaged out to a 7/10 or an 8/10.

I would give the game a 9/10 just for the graphics, story, and music. It would be 10/10 for me if not for the mass looting of items and the mostly pointless ? marks that didn't have any real story of interest.

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