Well, after hitting Level 20, a few pointers about my experience so far (Feel free to pick'n'choose one if you want to know more or comment):
- The game has a nasty habit of showing me places that _look_ accessible, but actually arent. I got irreversibly stuck twice now, and sometimes I waste close to 5 minutes trying to reach a place that's supposed to be blocked off. It doesnt help that the game is picky about where it'll actually let you climb and where it wont. Sometimes Geralt jumps ledges almost his height above him, and sometimes a stone wall that barely reaches his chin becomes an undefeatable obstacle. It's nothing major, but it' gets annoying from time to time.
- The quests are probably the best of any RPG in any years (imho), even fetch- scavengerquests are made interesting by litle lorebits, NPC-Chatter or Geralt's Commentary. The Bloody Baron Quest hit me hard after I was done, especially since the outcome changes depending on what you do along the road:
The Baron hung himself in my questline. And for all his faults, I couldnt help but sympathize with him towards the end, and mourn his death. He made mistakes, payed for them and ultimately couldnt live with the way things turned out. That really left me with this kind of heartache that I usually only get from good books.
- I like how the game let's you choose Geralt's general attitude in a lot of cases. You can be somewhat of a vigilante and try to stand up for the downtrodden, or you can play a completely indeffernt Witcher who's just in it for the coin and his personal goal. Also, no stupid "moraleometer", that tells you that you're an evil git or "Velen-Messiah" after every little decision. It's not compeltely customizeable, of course. Geralt's still Geralt. But the game gives me enough freedom that it really feels like I'm in the story.
- It handles relationsships a lot better than Witcher 1 did. Witcher 2 was allready cool, in that it tried to show that there was some actual chemistry between characters and it didnt feel like some weird sidething shoved in. Geralt's relationsships play a role in the story, and you get a lot of surprisingly deep moments of development for him. I was afraid that the main quest would turn out as a "chase the Mary Sue"-thing, but it's not like that at all.
- Combat is fun, altough the difficulty is all over the place. I can tear apart a lot of big game, even 3 or 4 level above me, due to the fact that dodgeing a lot of the big monsters is really easy. But put me against large groups of Gouls or Wolves, and I get my ass kicked on a regular basis. There is no real invincibility frame to the dodges (at least it feels that way), so any animal, or animal-like monster that runs around you in circles is a HUGE pain. I stopped counting how many times I died because I was kneedeep in like 7 Ghouls and they would just chainhit me without a chance of retaliation. I eventually started liberally using Quen and getting the explosion upgrade for it. It makes it easier, but it's sort of weird that I laugh at Wyverns, while I run screaming at the sight of like 5 wolves.
- Crafting is nice. Alchemy from W2 was greatly improved, in that you dont have to sit down and find inner peace before brewing and drinking potions. Crafting gear is cool, altough I'm dissapointed in the "Witcher Gear Sets" the game offers. It's supposed to be better than regular gear, which is the reason that getting Diagrams for it can be really hard. But there arent any set bonuses for wearing all of them, and you're pretty likely to find something better within like 30 minutes of playing. I went trough the trouble of collecting the Griffin School gear, and literally the very next questline afterwards gave me equipment that was better than the set I was wearing. What's the point, other than style?
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Topic: Witcher III - It's a thing. (Read 26301 times)