Finished Velen's main quests and explored half of the first map. So far not bad and at least it doesn't feel like simple copypatsa, as the first game, or just a set-up for something big, as the second. But c&c part of the game look like the weakest of the three. The only decision worth consideration was giving up arsonist or not in prologue and it was a very minor one. Other ones or have an obvious right and wrong or being an asshole or not options. And lol how the cutscene after completing Velen's part didn't even make any sense if player mad the "right" choice. Thankfully I decided to look at the "wrong" path first, so it wasn't as confusing as it could be.
Baron's quest iself was decent, altrough I have no idea why CDP felt a need to unite it with the witch quest in the end despite them having nothing in common until that point. Much better would being kept them separate an avoid a half-assed revelations and arbitrary blocks that prevent completing one quest before another without providing any reason. Also it creates some time contradictions, as the Baron's quest make it look like a quite recent events, while Witch's quest wouldn't make much sense if some time hasn't passed between events. So it wouldn't be suprising if they were written as a separate quest lines at first and only in the end cobbled together. Also it was strange to see a poor fisherman's brother living in the wealthy furnished house. Apparently they weren't close with each other for one to help to save the life of his nephew, but still close to provide a shelter to a girl, that fled her home, by request.
Game's issues so far:
1. Thievery mechanic. Why it's ever there, as in it's implementation it doesn't make any sense? Apparently it's okay to go into the random people houses and steal everything from them, as no one even care about it. But just pick one random barrel on the street without an obvious owner, and guards would be at your throat. But not always, as I was abble to clear the whole military camp from loot and the same guards, that killed me in the settlement, were quite apathetic about their own belongings. And there is no (and shouldn't be) thief builds for this mechanic to be justified even in dequate implementation. On the related note, there is way too much loot laying around for a country that supposed to be ravaged by bandits and soldiers. I get more money than I know what to do with them by picking everything on my way and the main problem is finding a trader that still has some money to buy my stuff.
2. The biggest challenges in combat are clunky controls, unresponsiveness and long animation. Fow something that isn't Silent Hill, but an action RPG that's a pretty big issuee and a very annoying one on the hardest difficulty , where you can't allow monsters to hit you.
3. For what supposed to be an open world sandbox there is a no reason to take a non obvious path. There is no guarantee that one could, even if it's look like you should be abble to do it, no reward for getting there, and no guarantee that you could return: one time I get myself stuck in the place, where I wasn't supposed to be by game opinion and was forced to reload. After that incident I stopped even try. So exploration part is painfully straightforward.
4. Fucking intros before loading. Didn't find how to switch them off or skip. They wouldn't be bad if they only played once or after a long break, but not every single time. The only option that I see to deal with them is to bet to the point of main quest, where they are relative short, and only then bother with secondary objectives.
5. Ridiculous damage from falling of even small heights.
6. Candles. Why are they everywhere? Why "everywhere" is often near loot? And why with every one one them Geralt could interact? I have no idea what CDP were thinking when they filled the world with the. "Geralt could ignite or extinguish every single candle met on his way. Players would definitely love this feature" kind of thing?
edit: so far the only quest I've "failed" is the one where you're meant to protect the brother of the chap who's selling you fake papers. Dude always gets killed by the enemy that explodes upon death.
Monsters spawn on pretty far distance from the target and always in the same direction. You could wait them there so they wouldn't even attack anyone but you.