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The Witcher 3 GOTY Edition
- Thread starter Infinitron
- Start date
get well soon potato monster slayer
Falksi
Arcane
Poor bugger. Hope he makes a quick recovery
Zer0wing
Cipher
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2017
- Messages
- 2,607
Well I'm not CDPR but do have some certain lore-friendly ideas for lewd central plot.
CrunchyHemorrhoids
Prophet
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2010
- Messages
- 1,622
Prosper Edition.
sullynathan
Arcane
So I went back to play this game after a few years. I've put in ~9 hours now on normal mode and I've completed the prologue and started Act 1. My major impressions will be comparing this to Red Dead Redemption 2 and Dragon's Dogma since they're the two most recent games I've played that are similar to Wiedźmin 3.
First off, Geralt controls like a vehicle similar to a modern R* game. He doesn't stop moving immediately you stop pushing your joystick, has long wind up animations and throws punches when you're trying to loot.
Combat is too easy and leveled enemies isn't really the way to go. What's the difference between a level 1 & level 5 wolf, level 9 & 14 downer? Same attacks more health and damage. It got really bad when I went to Novigrad and I want to help a humble Blacksmith get his life in check, but I can't because it's a level 24 quest and I'm level 5 and I do 0 damage and get one shotted to a dwarf with worse weapons than Geralt and no armor all due to said dwarf being much higher level than I. It's balanced in a way that you're fine fighting enemies 5 levels higher than you, anything more is impossible.
Animations are done in a way that every attack will move geralt towards the enemy and hit them, same for his enemies. In essence, spacing doesn't matter because just attacking will get you close to the enemy. Oddly enough, there are times where you take damage even when you the attack didn't fully connect or if you interrupt an enemy's animation which has caught me off guard.
I'm not even touching on the horse combat because it just seems there to be there and isn't very useful in hitting your enemy or even coordinating your horse while attacking. Matter of fact, your horse isn't very good either. You call it and it doesn't always come to you, the game likes to choose where
Nintendo, Kojima and R* already figured this out.
I couldn't help but be less than impressed by the fact that a game 3 years younger than Witcher 3 had a far better Griffin boss fight.
The game has now gated progression in story and gear without constantly scaling enemies to your level or running into the problem of having high level gear be in a location and players running there to get it and then use it, but it doesn't make much sense and impedes the progress of doing the quest and ends up rewarding you with items that you can't use until 1 - 10 hours later.
On to the Quests, The prologue had pure standard fare rpg quests mixed in with a lot of R* & Ubisoft missions. Nearly every single quest in the prologue uses the Witcher vision which is necessary because you can't tell the foot prints without it nor can you examine many clues or evidence without it. It's not inherently bad, but it has already been used a lot so far and pulls you in to just playing the quest in a very linear and camera zoomed in manner.
You have many missions where you simply follow a guy to an area as he talks to you and you guys kill enemies on the way. Exactly as you do in GTA.
Speaking of linearity, every side quest has been quite linear style missions usually with a twist at some point and having a few of them connect with each other. You go and are asked to kill something/find someone, get there and find that the person isn't dead/the quest giver wasn't telling you the truth so you now have two ways to finish the quest: Go on with what you accepted from the quest giver or turn against them with the knowledge you've gained. It's great to come back to a game that does acknowledge your actions though. If you finished a quest, or found items before a character told you, the dialogue changes and characters will react accordingly.
It's a big step above the very generic dragon's dogma "go and kill 30 of these enemies/ collect an item or flower" that spawns items in the world only if the quest is active but it is odd that this is what is given so much praise because it isn't all that great and I could've sworn that other rpgs have done quests in a more explorative or inventive manner. It's simple, not very rewarding, not very interactive but is well acted. I hope it improves as the game goes on because I'm sure this is where the bulk of the content is.
The open world and exploration on the other hand is not quite as great as I was lead to believe. It's very ubisoft-like minus the towers. You have a map and every interesting thing is already on the map, but the optional ones are marked with a question mark until you find it. While you can't fast travel directly from the map nor can you fast travel directly to every location, instead you have to walk to waypoints in the map and then fast travel to other waypoints. The game is generous with the waypoints, and they're near every town and major settlement. You get the same thing you have in Skyrim & Ass Creed for just fast traveling everywhere after you've gone once.
My big gripe is the very lack of interaction with many parts of the world which is what separates this game from the Bethesda/Piranha Bytes/R* style open world. Witcher 3 is in between those types of games and a Ubisoft type of open world.
I can't help but feel like this game has far more in common with a R* & Ubisoft Open world game than it does with an rpg.
Finally, Gwent is good, really good. I spent an hour playing it, and it's a full fledged game on its own.
First off, Geralt controls like a vehicle similar to a modern R* game. He doesn't stop moving immediately you stop pushing your joystick, has long wind up animations and throws punches when you're trying to loot.
Combat is too easy and leveled enemies isn't really the way to go. What's the difference between a level 1 & level 5 wolf, level 9 & 14 downer? Same attacks more health and damage. It got really bad when I went to Novigrad and I want to help a humble Blacksmith get his life in check, but I can't because it's a level 24 quest and I'm level 5 and I do 0 damage and get one shotted to a dwarf with worse weapons than Geralt and no armor all due to said dwarf being much higher level than I. It's balanced in a way that you're fine fighting enemies 5 levels higher than you, anything more is impossible.
Animations are done in a way that every attack will move geralt towards the enemy and hit them, same for his enemies. In essence, spacing doesn't matter because just attacking will get you close to the enemy. Oddly enough, there are times where you take damage even when you the attack didn't fully connect or if you interrupt an enemy's animation which has caught me off guard.
I'm not even touching on the horse combat because it just seems there to be there and isn't very useful in hitting your enemy or even coordinating your horse while attacking. Matter of fact, your horse isn't very good either. You call it and it doesn't always come to you, the game likes to choose where
Nintendo, Kojima and R* already figured this out.
I couldn't help but be less than impressed by the fact that a game 3 years younger than Witcher 3 had a far better Griffin boss fight.
The game has now gated progression in story and gear without constantly scaling enemies to your level or running into the problem of having high level gear be in a location and players running there to get it and then use it, but it doesn't make much sense and impedes the progress of doing the quest and ends up rewarding you with items that you can't use until 1 - 10 hours later.
On to the Quests, The prologue had pure standard fare rpg quests mixed in with a lot of R* & Ubisoft missions. Nearly every single quest in the prologue uses the Witcher vision which is necessary because you can't tell the foot prints without it nor can you examine many clues or evidence without it. It's not inherently bad, but it has already been used a lot so far and pulls you in to just playing the quest in a very linear and camera zoomed in manner.
You have many missions where you simply follow a guy to an area as he talks to you and you guys kill enemies on the way. Exactly as you do in GTA.
Speaking of linearity, every side quest has been quite linear style missions usually with a twist at some point and having a few of them connect with each other. You go and are asked to kill something/find someone, get there and find that the person isn't dead/the quest giver wasn't telling you the truth so you now have two ways to finish the quest: Go on with what you accepted from the quest giver or turn against them with the knowledge you've gained. It's great to come back to a game that does acknowledge your actions though. If you finished a quest, or found items before a character told you, the dialogue changes and characters will react accordingly.
It's a big step above the very generic dragon's dogma "go and kill 30 of these enemies/ collect an item or flower" that spawns items in the world only if the quest is active but it is odd that this is what is given so much praise because it isn't all that great and I could've sworn that other rpgs have done quests in a more explorative or inventive manner. It's simple, not very rewarding, not very interactive but is well acted. I hope it improves as the game goes on because I'm sure this is where the bulk of the content is.
The open world and exploration on the other hand is not quite as great as I was lead to believe. It's very ubisoft-like minus the towers. You have a map and every interesting thing is already on the map, but the optional ones are marked with a question mark until you find it. While you can't fast travel directly from the map nor can you fast travel directly to every location, instead you have to walk to waypoints in the map and then fast travel to other waypoints. The game is generous with the waypoints, and they're near every town and major settlement. You get the same thing you have in Skyrim & Ass Creed for just fast traveling everywhere after you've gone once.
My big gripe is the very lack of interaction with many parts of the world which is what separates this game from the Bethesda/Piranha Bytes/R* style open world. Witcher 3 is in between those types of games and a Ubisoft type of open world.
- You can't kill people in the game or really harm them unless they're enemies that attack on sight. There is no interesting npc reaction at all in the game. All your npcs just exist and while they have their own schedules, nothing changes for them exactly like assassins creed.
- There is no real crime system in the game, you just get attacked by guards if you steal from them, pull weapons out in cities or attack them. Unfortunately, running away from guards will make them completely forget everything you did.
- You can enter anyones house and steal from them with no response from the person from breaking and entering or stealing. Nights aren't very dark so you don't need the torch unless you're in a cave.
- Climbing on things only occurs on certain surfaces and not everything that Geralt can get his hand on. You just keep jumping on walls and can't properly climb up or down the terrain or upper elevation. Fall damage sucks.
- There are so many inns, but Geralt can't sleep in any of them which is quite odd. He has to go outside and meditate. This is odd because I could've sworn you could sleep and had a bonus for doing so in Witcher 1.
I can't help but feel like this game has far more in common with a R* & Ubisoft Open world game than it does with an rpg.
Finally, Gwent is good, really good. I spent an hour playing it, and it's a full fledged game on its own.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2016
- Messages
- 6,605
Seems to me like you need to install the Enchanced Edition mod.
Open Wold might be mostly window dressing... but very beautiful, meticulously planned and crafted, insanely atmospheric window dressing.
Oh, and make sure to disable map markers in unexplored locations. The game is MUCH more fun then.
Open Wold might be mostly window dressing... but very beautiful, meticulously planned and crafted, insanely atmospheric window dressing.
Oh, and make sure to disable map markers in unexplored locations. The game is MUCH more fun then.
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2016
- Messages
- 6,605
Correction: Open World doesn't suck. At least not more then in any other game, except maybe some select smaller scale ones, like Gothics 1 & 2.
The itemization and balance can be fixed with Enhanced Edition mod.
You can turn off the map markers. I highly recommend that for keeping sanity.
Yep, you can get paid for contract by a peasant and then grab just everything you find in his hut.
But what really got me mad was the automated dialogue/monologue some characters just would play out like from a tape every time you got near them. Fun the first time. Annoying second and third time. After that I just wished they would STFU.
Theme Park Syndrome.
P. much this.
Also playing on Normal and complaining combat is too easy.
Also horse combat is p. much a cheat mode against human mobs. Just circle-gallop around them and keep swinging.
Hehe, try EE Normal difficulty
Sure but Sully plays the vanilla normal. I mean, even the hardest diff on vanilla is kindda easy, let alone Normal.
sullynathan
Arcane
I know exactly what you're talking about. That kid in white orchard sings about the emperor everyday in the same place and gets berated by his dad. I was getting Déjà vu every time it happened.
An easy solution that R* found since GTA 4 and continued in RDR, GTA V & RDR2 was to make a large amount of scripted events but make them play in random order in random times of the day and place with different looking NPCs. You don't start noticing how scripted it is until many dozen hours later instead of early on in the game.
Well that's problem isn't it? You can have a well crafted open world that still has a decent - good level of interactivity. Piranha bytes did it, R* did it too.
I will turn off map markers, but I'm not using any mods unless it's a second playthrough.
You're supposed to play on normal the first timeHehe, try EE Normal difficulty
Sure but Sully plays the vanilla normal. I mean, even the hardest diff on vanilla is kindda easy, let alone Normal.
You're supposed to pay taxes, to die and to feel guilty for being white, that's it.
sullynathan
Arcane
Atrocious combat will be the bane of this game.
You retards recommended death march, you didn't give me a hint that the game would be worse too.
Fighting this werewolf whose health regenerates far quicker than you can damage it is retarded enemy design.
The game registers damage on geralt before the attack has finished.
There is far too much magnetism between geralt and his enemies. This skating on the ground fights and being damaged for interrupting an animation is really annoying.
Why are there level 14 enemies that can't be damaged at all at my level in the midst of level 9 enemies that can be damaged?
You retards recommended death march, you didn't give me a hint that the game would be worse too.
Fighting this werewolf whose health regenerates far quicker than you can damage it is retarded enemy design.
The game registers damage on geralt before the attack has finished.
There is far too much magnetism between geralt and his enemies. This skating on the ground fights and being damaged for interrupting an animation is really annoying.
Why are there level 14 enemies that can't be damaged at all at my level in the midst of level 9 enemies that can be damaged?
Imagine struggling with this game on any difficulty. (Without mods). I understand why so many people ask for turn based now.
sullynathan
Arcane
More like annoyed by hitting the werewolf, it runs away and gains a significant portion of health back, so we have to do the same dance again
AW8
Arcane
sullynathan
I remember fighting a werewolf underneath some abandoned house and yeah, the regenerating health is just ridiculous. Then you return a few hours later and you're so strong you don't even notice its health regenerates, you just swing at it a few times and it falls over dead.
I really hate the MMO design of enemy stats, instead of being slightly underpowered when taking on a quest above your level you're so incredibly underpowered that there's usually no point in even trying. There's nothing interesting about it. Some enemies are just arbitrarily beefed up and you have to play the game in the order the developers wanted, otherwise you're just bashing your head against the wall. If you follow the intended road you can just mash attack and kill everything in the entire game. One wonders why the game was even open world.
In Skellige I was supposed to face this epic giant whose roars you could hear across the entire island (who had been evacuated because of said giant). Right outside the giant's lair I decided to fight a side quest troll that was above my level. I only killed it by avoiding its one-shot attacks and slowly chipping away at its health with guerilla attacks. Then I went on to face the giant and was greeted with an epic cutscene. The fight started, and I just ran at him and clicked LMB a few times and he died, because I happened to be overleveled for this quest. Sigh.
I haven't tried the FCR3 mod but I'm planning to if I ever pick up the game again. It seems to make higher level enemies at least somewhat more bearable to fight, by removing the nonsensical stat boost they get from merely being above your level that some joker decided was a good idea to implement.
I remember fighting a werewolf underneath some abandoned house and yeah, the regenerating health is just ridiculous. Then you return a few hours later and you're so strong you don't even notice its health regenerates, you just swing at it a few times and it falls over dead.
I really hate the MMO design of enemy stats, instead of being slightly underpowered when taking on a quest above your level you're so incredibly underpowered that there's usually no point in even trying. There's nothing interesting about it. Some enemies are just arbitrarily beefed up and you have to play the game in the order the developers wanted, otherwise you're just bashing your head against the wall. If you follow the intended road you can just mash attack and kill everything in the entire game. One wonders why the game was even open world.
In Skellige I was supposed to face this epic giant whose roars you could hear across the entire island (who had been evacuated because of said giant). Right outside the giant's lair I decided to fight a side quest troll that was above my level. I only killed it by avoiding its one-shot attacks and slowly chipping away at its health with guerilla attacks. Then I went on to face the giant and was greeted with an epic cutscene. The fight started, and I just ran at him and clicked LMB a few times and he died, because I happened to be overleveled for this quest. Sigh.
I haven't tried the FCR3 mod but I'm planning to if I ever pick up the game again. It seems to make higher level enemies at least somewhat more bearable to fight, by removing the nonsensical stat boost they get from merely being above your level that some joker decided was a good idea to implement.
sullynathan
Arcane
That's the exact one I'm talking about. The game has a broken perk in which food lasts for 20 real life minutes unless you rest, so it was helpful but the fucking werewolf regenerated more health than that. Just comparing it to the damage numbers that popped up from my attacks, I'd assume he regenerated 150 hp per second, which is about half ofthe 321 damage I do with my heavy attack. It's dumb as fuck because I'm the correct level for the quest.
Danikas
Arcane
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2017
- Messages
- 1,606
Moondust bomb stops all regeneration.
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