What I don't like about Witcher 3 so far

I'm only 4 hours in, and really doubting if i want to continue this game. The way W3 handles gameplay is not very appealing at first glance..I have picked up about 15 quests so far and the game tells me which i should take based on the level required. This takes away any adventure for me, as i will just fast travel through the world solely based on what number it is. Gear you pick up is levelcapped as well, and this is even more annoying. This could have redeemed the questcapping if i thought i'd picked up good enough gear to take on a difficult mission. But no, this identical looking axe is too difficult for geralt to handle right now.. Another curious thing i have noticed is when you talk to people about your quest, they give you a very detailed description on where to go in the dialogue. Why is it then dotted on the map afterwards? This again takes away from the sense of adventure.

That leads us to combat..This is the part i didn't like in W2, and it's still frustrating to me. It's not possible to lock-on to enemies until they are just a couple of meters away. Why? In addition the best way to win in combat is to just mash the x-button. An example: the first time you play as Ciri you encounter about 6 wolfs right away. I tried to block, dodge and time my attacks, and died twice. After two 70 sec reloads(!!!) i decided to just hammer the fast attack button. Instant success, as it has been in many fights since..

Up until now, this game has been nothing more than follow the dots to the next cut-scene, and mash a button once in a while. Can anyone give me a good reason to continue playing, or why it's going to be the game fo the year.

I didn't mean to offend you if this is your favourite game. people like different things, thank god!!

I actually like the way the map gives detailed navigation. Last thing i would want is to wander around forever just to do some crappy quest that gives 5 exp.

For me I didn't get into this game for a long time, took me over 10-20 hrs before i actually started to get involved enough to care about finishing it. For me the worst thing is the inventory system, its the most cluttered garbage i seen in any recent game. Trying to find a potion or item to use takes far too long.

Only advice to you is to quit now. You seem to be really against this game from the start more than I was even.

@Yams1980: Yeah, i didn't want to get into that, but i didn't care for the inventory as well. Why do i have to go to a smithy and pay him half my coinsupply to dismantle my junk? The levelling up seem really underwhelming as well...2% critical hit chance ..wow..I guess I'll give this a pass since i'm not that fond of cut-scenes anyway. How this can win GOTY over Fallout is beyond me

Don't feel like you have to like the game just because other people do. I'm a huge RPG fan, but I couldn't play The Witcher 3 for more than an hour. The graphics are ugly, the characters are bland, combat is boring, etc.

When people are hyped or fans of something, they tend to overlook anything wrong with the game.

@KHAndAnime: So which RPG would you recommend for the xbox? I like dark souls and divinity..are there others i should check out?

Yet another example of Stats making problems that didn't even have to exist in the first place..... just like Dragon's Dogma.

How can you judge a whole game based on one hour of gameplay? Just curious :)

A game that takes about 100+ hrs to completely beta and you judge it based on 2-3 hrs of game play?

The game does steer you to specific locations but it is mostly because players regardless of what they want require direction. Does it tell you what lvl you need to be? No! It recommends what level you should be to help guide you. Yes; I'm sure you want to walk into a lvl 80 troll and try and fight hi

@Berserker1_5: actually, i prefer running into the frost-troll in skyrim, and realizing i must get stronger before i'm able to fight him. I'm not judging the entire game based on a few hours either. I just had first impressions of the game, and asked if someone could give me a reason to keep playing. so far no one seem to have one

I felt that way in the beginning too but trust me there's a reason why this game is so beloved. I know people like different things but there's a certain point where something is just that good regardless of how subjective opinions are. And I don't understand how you are winning by mashing X. The Ciri sections are not really meant to be challenging tbh cuz she's op.

And please don't rush the game. And don't expect combat to be on the level of Bloodborne lol. Regardless you will never win by button mashing especially on harder difficulties. Oh and are u using lock on? Don't do that it's terrible. Without lock on is good. You just need to give it some time. Fight some drowners maybe xD

And one last thing, the expansion hearts of stone really improves the game by giving you great and challenging enemies and boss fights.

@jKryptonite: that's fine. In Witcher it's not like that. Unless severely out leveled, you will be able to kill most things even if out leveled. Hell I was doing it on hardest difficulty and still did things past the level recommendation

@BboyStatix: Thats good feedback, maybe i'll try some more main-story missions before i make up my mind..

A better question is: how can't you tell if you think a game is for you or not based on an hour of gameplay?

Yeah the first 10 hours or so are painful to get through. It offers low leveled player very little to do early on. If you can just make it through the early stages, you'll be rewarded later on, and it'll be well worth your investments.

@superflyzero:

I can finish so many games in under 10 hours :(

And you're willing to pay $60 readily for those kinds of experiences? I'd feel absolutely cheated at that price per hours of content.

@superflyzero:

LoL yes I would..... to give you an example..... Bayonetta.

Its a 6 hour game but I've logged in over 100 hours on it.

@KHAndAnime: Well you might know if it's not for you i guess but you could never know if the characters are bland as your saying after only one hour of gameplay. Graphics are good from my point of view when taking into consideration that it is a huge open world game. Story is very good as well and lots of other things so with all these factors being as good as they are, no wonder why this game won the game of the year award.

I like the hand holding. But I also like CoD. Games telling me to go from A to B and what to do leading up to the next big cutscene are my thing I guess...

In my opinion, this can be partly be solved by adopting a different playstyle. I never picked up quests in TW3, I just went looking for them. I headed out into the wilderness and found my adventures. I steered clear of the notice boards and just started wandering. I'm doing the same thing in Fallout 4. I have completed 2 main quests so far, but I've already explored 3/4 of the map in that game.

As someone else said, don't lock on. It's less frustrating and more intuitive if you just pick your targets on the fly. Also, while combat gets less forgiving on higher difficulties, I still think it's rather basic in its execution, so if you really want a lot of variety, I don't think you're going to be satisfied. The amount of variety you want to put in largely depends on you. On higher difficulties you can still largely get away with quen, dodging and slashing, but using the other signs and bombs can make the fights more varied. There are only a couple of enemies that really force you to use different signs. The variety lies in the signs and the bombs, I think, but the incentive to use them kind of has to come from yourself.

Also, if you don't like cutscenes and lots of dialogue, then that's a huge chunck of the game lost on you. As others have said, this is not Bloodborne, which can rely almost solely on its combat to keep you entertained.

But if you like F4, then I don't see why you couldn't like this game. As someone who has played and thoroughly enjoyed both (still in the progress of playing F4), I have to say that both games invite you to explore an interesting world. Both games let me wander off and explore on my own. I think both games have problems with their combat, but there's enough variety to it if you play on higher difficulties (even though both games don't force you to use everything that's available). So maybe it'll help if you explain why you apparently do like F4...

@KHAndAnime: game may not be for you but ugly graphics? umm no.. Now fallout 4 's graphics are bland ..

Well...that's too bad.

I like it.

Maybe you should play other RPG's. It sounds like you want something Souls-y.

What's not ugly about blurry textures, 2-dimensionally flat water, crappy aliasing, missing lighting effects, no impressive effects in general, etc. ?

@jKryptonite: Witcher III has a slow start, so I'd say give it a few more hours to become invested. I'm not a huge RPG person myself, but tend to like action-RPGs instead. So that's my two cents for what it's worth.

I got bored of witcher 2 after about 3 hours, for some of the reasons you described.

I'm tempted by witcher 3 just because of hype.

@thehig1: I could not play Witcher two past the intro which was less than 30 min into the game

Witcher 3 got me into the game till 180ish hrs and I kept looking to do more but I literally did about 99% completion

@Berserker1_5: that's encouraging to hear, I really forced myself to play what I did of witcher 2 as well.

I'll be getting witcher 3 soon enough

it's the worst combat in the franchise, but fortunately there's more to playing W3 than combat. A lot of questing is about being a witcher and involves investigating and exploring, which is great because it finally feels like witchers are an actual profession rather than a piece of lore that has no real bearing on gameplay. In this game, the gameplay shows you why Witchers are valued. Stinks that the combat wasn't more fun, but there's a lot more to the game. It also has an excellent story.

The rubber banding annoyed me as well and curtailed a lot of free form exploration, but actually that wasn't a bad thing in the end. Most of the activities out in the world are kinda bland retreads of the same activities whereas the actual story quests tend to be varied and exciting. I recommend sticking to the storyline, anyway; W3 really isn't a game where setting off in one direction to make your own story (like in Skyrim, say) really works.

@jKryptonite: Its not going to change much if at all so, if you don't enjoy it now its going to be worse or you will eventually tolerate the game.

This is not true you can button mash your way through this game. Button mashing is a very viable strategy.

@KHAndAnime: You can nitpick all you like, but on ultra settings, it's still one of the best looking games ever made.

On a technical level alone, it's probably the best game of the year. That's a very far cry from calling the game 'ugly'.

@Pedro: if ur fighting against one enemy sure, but against a group of drowners no way. One hit is going to chip at least a fourth of your health especially on death march and you can get staggered. And sometimes even 1v1 you can't button mash like when i was fighting this guy witcher duel just skip to 1:11 it's a short fight. It probably depends on the enemies though. For example with ghouls who tend to move around a lot, spamming the attack button in the direction of the farthest ghoul causes you to spin towards him which covers a lot of distance, and it's acts like a mini dodge cuz that animation may put u out of harms way. Its like batman but you have to change up who ur attacking cuz if u keep attacking that ghoul, the other two will attack you from behind.

I'm not trying to say this game's combat is great (though I like the feel of it. animations look so good), just trying to say that it isn't as brainless as people say it is. It's definitely better than assassain's creed haha. And especially in hearts of stone there are great enemies to fight.

I'm kinda going through the same thing, but I'm going to push throuh just as others have said.

I've voiced my opinion of Witcher 3 on this forum a few times already. I don't hate it, just don't think it's as good an RPG as it's made out to be. It has some substance and it's certainly better then Two Worlds! (Ugh) but it's no Fallout or Dragon Age. They feel more like an RPG. Witcher 3 feels more like Red Dead Redemption, except I preferred Red Dead.

I do like all the tits and arse in Witcher mind, and I applaud a game for not shying away while keeping it somewhat tasteful.

@Ish_basic: yeah, I usually do the skyrim thing, where i explore the world on my own first chance i get. This feel a lot more scripted, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The characters and the environment is what makes this game stand out, and are certainly it's strong points. W3 makes me feel like i'm playing a predetermined story, while elder scrolls is an adventure simulator. I don't even know if i would call W3 an rpg, but rather an action-adventure game like zelda. I was really disappointed with DA:I last year, and I thought W3 was similar at first glance. Luckily, it seems to have more depth to it, and better thought out quests

@jKryptonite:

1) Weapons and armor start looking more unique as you progress through the game. The medium and high-ish levels really start looking stunning.

2) You can turn off the stupid dotted line crap(I hate it) on your mini-map. Heck, you can even turn off all the markers such as the "?" and "!" or turn off the mini-map completely. You can do these things via options-gameplay and through options-display-HUD configurations. Try experimenting with options.

3) If you're just wildly hacking, non-stop as Geralt(Ciri is intentionally O.P. and you should be wildly hacking with her) ...... and yo still livin'!!???... you must have been playin' on the low difficulty levels of "Just the story!" or "Story and Sword!". The "Blood and Broken Bones" and "Death March" difficulty levels won't be letting you hack and slash through enemies like butter. You'll be using blade oils and making potions non-stop, frantically in the Harder modes(PALM SWEAT) If you wanna challenge yourself even more...turn on the "Enemy Upscaler" via the options-gameplay(MORE PALM SWEAT).

Sorry this got to you so late. I hope you still played and enjoyed it. Maybe my explanation helps you try it again.

I found it dull. The combat is not that good for me and worse are the investigations.

Wow. Witcher: Wild Hunt's combat's waaay more innovative than the Dark Souls(I love Dark Souls) games to me. It has magic melted in with sword/melee combat. Better stories, voice-acting. The Dark Souls don't provide me enough story-incentives to proceed as much as The Witcher: Wild Hunt does. I love the way Geralt talks to himself during the investigations he does. Witcher definitely wins over Skyrim and the Bioware games to me..well except, maybe W3 is tied with Dragon Age: Origins and Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

I'm sorry you didn't like it, man.

I don't get why people trash the combat in Witcher 3... it feels a lot better than other open world games, like Skyrim.

Don't bump ancient threads. Locking

^also, this ;-)