The Witcher Witcher 3 was too big and had bad pacing

[Prime Junta]

Witcher 3 was already too big. Cyberpunk will be also. More is not always better. If a RPG is longer than 35 hours and remains engaging it is truly exceptional.

 

[thesheeep]

Witcher 3 was already too big. Cyberpunk will be also. More is not always better. If a RPG is longer than 35 hours and remains engaging it is truly exceptional.

Those are only too big if you have some kind of autism and need to go to every single pixel, doing every single mini-quest and beat every single enemy.
If you don't, if you just do the major quests and a few others, depending on what you feel like doing, they are just fine.

 

[Zer0wing]

Witcher 3 was already too big. Cyberpunk will be also. More is not always better. If a RPG is longer than 35 hours and remains engaging it is truly exceptional.

Games should be wide and replayable, not "big". If Cyberpunk 2077 is similar to Witcher 3 in its pacing and how it distributes content then it's decline confirmed.

 

[Mazisky]

what was wrong with Witcher 3 pacing?

 

[Perkel]

what was wrong with Witcher 3 pacing?

People having OCD and saying it is CDPR job to force them into doing main quest while they behave like kid in candyshop.
Main quest itself is pretty quick if you actually follow it straight up without going off.

 

[Zer0wing]

what was wrong with Witcher 3 pacing?

It's fine for Witcher 3 but not for a roleplaying game.

 

[Mazisky]

what was wrong with Witcher 3 pacing?

People having OCD and saying it is CDPR job to force them into doing main quest while they behave like kid in candyshop.
Main quest itself is pretty quick if you actually follow it straight up without going off.

Side quest were too good that i had to follow them, let's blame cdpr

 

[Jenkem]

Witcher 3 was already too big. Cyberpunk will be also. More is not always better. If a RPG is longer than 35 hours and remains engaging it is truly exceptional.

Those are only too big if you have some kind of autism and need to go to every single pixel, doing every single mini-quest and beat every single enemy.
If you don't, if you just do the major quests and a few others, depending on what you feel like doing, they are just fine.

There is like 1/3 of the map on Witcher 3 that isn't even fucking used except for random trash mobs. Like what is the purpose of the southeastern (iirc) part of the map?

 

[Latelistener]

Witcher 3 was already too big. Cyberpunk will be also. More is not always better. If a RPG is longer than 35 hours and remains engaging it is truly exceptional.

Unfortunately, Skyrim happened and everyone want to make their own, i.e. 300 hours of filler side content (remember to use the witcher senses) and 0 hours of replayability.

I would prefer a game that lasts 30 hours, but which I can complete 10 times and see unique content every time. Apparently, the modern gamer "doesn't have time for replaying your stupid RPGs".

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

People having OCD and saying it is CDPR job to force them into doing main quest while they behave like kid in candyshop.
Main quest itself is pretty quick if you actually follow it straight up without going off.

I wouldn't go that easy on CDPR. It is the tutorial's job to teach the new player how the game works. White Orchard's seemingly inconsequential side quests do fail/vanish if you proceed too far with the main quest (a big fat red FAILED message in the middle of a cutscene). Even later on there is no clear way for a new player to know which side quests depend on the main story and which will still be available as witcher's work after the main story is done even though many of the side quests that depend on the main story and thus are expected to be played during the main story betray its pacing.

The only time the game even acknowledges the conflict between main story urgency vs smell the roses side content thing is when G rides a boat to meet Y on werewolf island and she mockingly asks if he took so long because he had to take a nekker contract along the way or something.

 

[Yosharian]

Witcher 3 having boring, endless filler content is... the player's fault?

Olympic-level mental gymnastics on display here

 

[Perkel]

What filler content ?

 

[thesheeep]

Witcher 3 having boring, endless filler content is... the player's fault?

Not one person claimed this, so well-done on that strawman.

You cannot blame CDPR for players walking to every pixel there is just to get some gold and XP, both of which you simply don't need to do it for, and then getting burnt out by sweeping the vast landscape.
CDPR put the content there, but that doesn't mean you have to use every drop of it.
I didn't, I just did what I felt like doing, which is most of the side quests, but skipping every meaningless location on the map otherwise, and I didn't get burned out at all.
It's the players' fault for letting their inner OCD loose, not CDPR's for offering a large world to do that in.

As to why the world is that big, if it clearly wouldn't be needed story-wise, that is rather simple:
Some people like the grind, love their world filled with "boring, endless filler content", don't ask me why. It's there for those people, they won't get burned out by it, cause it's their jam.
Those who don't like the grind don't have to do it. You certainly don't NEED to do it, as the game isn't that hard so grinding levels just isn't required. Problem solved, you're welcome. Now you can stop blaming own mistakes on other people.

People having OCD and saying it is CDPR job to force them into doing main quest while they behave like kid in candyshop.
Main quest itself is pretty quick if you actually follow it straight up without going off.

I wouldn't go that easy on CDPR. It is the tutorial's job to teach the new player how the game works. White Orchard's seemingly inconsequential side quests do fail/vanish if you proceed too far with the main quest (a big fat red FAILED message in the middle of a cutscene). Even later on there is no clear way for a new player to know which side quests depend on the main story and which will still be available as witcher's work after the main story is done even though many of the side quests that depend on the main story and thus expected to be played during the main story betray its pacing.

The only time the game even acknowledges the conflict between main story urgency vs smell the roses side content thing is when G rides a boat to meet Y on werewolf island and she mockingly asks if he took so long because he had to take a nekker contract along the way or something.

Welcome to almost every RPG, ever.
I'm not saying this isn't a problem, but it is a problem that has existed in every RPG, hell, every game that has side quests that aren't on a timer.
Most people expect to have unlimited time for exploration & non-main-quest related questing. It's usually where setting coherence takes a step back behind meeting expectations.

Though it is true that at least the player should get some kind of warning before proceeding too far (many games do that), I'd hope they improve that in Cyberpunk.

 

[Prime Junta]

I didn’t do all that much grind either. I got burned out on the sidequests.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Witcher 3 is a fucking masterpiece in terms of content when compared to every other modern rpg, and probably still comes out on top compared to classic rpgs like fallout, baldurs gate or pst.

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

Witcher 3 is a fucking masterpiece in terms of content when compared to every other modern rpg, and probably still comes out on top compared to classic rpgs like fallout, baldurs gate or pst.

A huge pile of shit, yeah.

 

[RepHope]

How the fuck is W3 full of filler when sticking to the main quests alone will end up with you hilariously over leveled? That was a serious fucking problem when I played it, so many main quests were greyed out because of how OP I was. None of the side content is necessary at all to advance. Some of you guys are just utter retards in your complaints of the game. Christ are you that desperate to fit in?

 

[jf8350143]

Witcher 3 has two kind of side quest, the ones that involves a major character(Triss or Yen etc) has lots of content, more stories and more cut scenes, but overall there are only a handful of them. The others are generally just filler quests with shitty reward.

 

[CyberModuled]

It would be cool to see 2077 have bounty hunting side quests of sorts in the vein of Witcher contracts (albeit I hope they don't devolve into "use Bamhan vision and follow the red path" like quite a few did). If they really are going for a Deus Ex "do things the way you want to approach", I'd love to see a multitude of opportunities for assassinations. Also hopefully they handle XP balancing better since greyed out missions just demotivated me from doing some of those side quests at times for others.

 

[jf8350143]

I just hope they have better reward for the side quest. In Witcher 3 the equipment you get from doing those quest are useless, and it only grants a small amount of experience comparing to the major quest, so you pretty much get nothing for doing them.

 

[Sykar]

What filler content ?

What content?

 

[moon knight]

I just hope they have better reward for the side quest. In Witcher 3 the equipment you get from doing those quest are useless, and it only grants a small amount of experience comparing to the major quest, so you pretty much get nothing for doing them.

That's a more a problem of the itemization in general.

 

[Old Hans]

what was wrong with Witcher 3 pacing?

they give you this big area to explore, but at the same time it has this narrative that's all "holly shit we gotta find Ciri!!1"

even when you do stick the main story it still feels like clunky. The Blood Baron quest line feels like Geralt is just wasting his time & everyone knows it except him.

 

[Old Hans]

I just hope they have better reward for the side quest. In Witcher 3 the equipment you get from doing those quest are useless, and it only grants a small amount of experience comparing to the major quest, so you pretty much get nothing for doing them.

That's a more a problem of the itemization in general.

witcher 3 itemizing & crafting feels like it was added in the last weekend of development. it was total trash. Witcher 1 had a really good balance & then they decided they needed color coded diablo loot bullshit

 

[Mazisky]

The Witcher 3 has many filler quest but they are made interesting anyway because they have some backstory.

what was wrong with Witcher 3 pacing?

they give you this big area to explore, but at the same time it has this narrative that's all "holly shit we gotta find Ciri!!1"

even when you do stick the main story it still feels like clunky. The Blood Baron quest line feels like Geralt is just wasting his time & everyone knows it except him.

Isn't that how every single open world rpg works?