@xantufrog said:
4) gear is something you have restrictions on in several ways - you need to be certain levels to use certain levels of gear. On top of that, one of the main ways of upgrading gear is through crafting. But crafting requires schematics and components that you acquire through playing. Moreover, it costs money. And money isn't thrown at you left and right in the way it is in some RPGs - so, again, you have to work for it. Being able to do more dangerous quests and contracts requires higher level, and so it all loops back to needing to progress as a witcher.
If you hoard, money doesn't seem to be a problem. I pick up everything that I can and sell it. Money has not been an issue at all for me.
@xantufrog said:
5) alchemy is very important to the game, and requires exploration, recipe acquisition, and advancement to improve as well.
It depends. I have totally ignored alchemy so far. I make the potions if I can (and I can, because I hoard), but I never use them. That said, I first do a lot of question mark hunting before I do quests, which means so far I've always had witcher gear that's very close to my current level. That even makes enemies that are several levels above me relatively easy to beat. Combine that with a quen sign that regenerates health when I get hit and battles are generally pretty easy. I'm playing on 'blood and broken bones' now and sticking to it, so I'm not sure what it's like on 'death march'.
@xantufrog said:
It all matters a lot. To expand on how these things tie into combat mechanics: your gear and points allocation help with resistances to various types of attack. They help with stamina and health recovery. They affect stamina loss. Meanwhile you need potions and oils/poisons to be an effective combatant - giving you better dark vision, choosing the right poison for the right type of foe (is it a spirit or a living creature or a vampire or...), affecting health recovery and resistances... you need to craft bombs to blind or damage foes and destroy their nests. Again, different bombs for different purposes, just as with the potions and oils and poisons. You need to set traps, dodge, roll, parry, block, cast spells, throw bombs, use light attacks when appropriate, heavy attacks when appropriate... all of this depends on the foe type and how many, and it all uses stamina and other depletable resources. It's not simple button mashing on a hard difficulty... it can't be or you will die. And hopefully you can see how the leveling aspects above tie into the ability to do all this effectively.
I guess the problem some people might be having is that, while the options are all there, you don't really seem forced to actually use them. The game encourages you to use a variety of sword fighting, signs and potions, but it doesn't seem to make those things absolutely mandatory, especially on lower difficulties. And the levelling system kind of suggests you should pick your branch, the problem being that one branch isn't particularly interesting or deep on its own. It's the combination of things that makes the combat fun. Also, on the higher difficulties it seems pretty much impossible to do everything with just your sword and button mashing, because Geralt's movement is rather heavy and he staggers easily when hit. That kind of contradicts the levelling system's suggestion that you should focus on one branch (especially with levelling going rather slow).
What I'm trying to say it's that it doesn't seem entirely clear what the game wants you to do in terms of combat. It offers three seperated branches, but investing in all branches seems necessary to make the combat easier and more diverse. I can see why people might initially think you can mash your way through this game and then get frustrated when you can't. I can also see why the combat might get very repetitive on lower difficulties, in which case button mashing becomes a viable option, with the frustrating addition that button mashing isn't really the way to go, even if you can. Geralt staggers easily and his movement is rather clunky, which makes the combat very unsatisfactory when you like mashing buttons and look cool doing it. In that case it works, but it's not fun. There's also little variety in his sword attacks, so people who like button combos have nothing to work with, which can again make the gameplay repetitive if you somehow expect that pure melee is a viable option. The variety lies in combining swordplay and careful movement with signs, but I suspect it's not something that's absolutely necessary on the lower difficulties. And it seems that generally, people will stick to their routines if they're not forced to play a certain way. And people also like their routines, so if something is slightly different they're quick to dislike it.
I find the combat very satisfying. Geralt's movement needs some time getting used to for sure. But controlling crowds with a variety of signs and making sure you don't focus on one opponent at a time, but use dodge to pick away at enemies' health bars is extremely satisfying, in my opinion. All the complaints about the lock on, clunky movement, etc. are totally justified, but I'm completely used to it now and what's left is smooth and fun combat.
But as I suggested above, I'm focusing on two branches, dumping most of my points in the signs branch (for variety), while spending the rest on melee. Haven't put any points in the alchemy branch (just like I did in the witcher 2), simply because I don't feel it's necessary at all and because I don't want to spread my points out too much and have all these mediocre skills. But maybe on my second playthrough I'll force myself to work with bombs, potions and oils more.
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