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How I learned to love The Witcher 3
- Thread starter OrbitalBeard
- Start date
By copying the one from the Souls game for example, right ?
Make it much tighter, assign a specific attack to a specific button (instead of having random animations), have excellent hitbox and design some actual bosses.
plasmawave
Banned
Making it tighter and fixing the hitboxes is all it really needs. The cool thing about the combat of The Witcher 3 is that it's also lore appropriate.
There's bosses in the witcher games though. They don't need to be like Souls/MH/SSD. You know why? because it doesn't fit every game. Every souls boss except a few are like Monster of the week bosses straight out of an anime. They have zero rime or reason in relation to the story. Ya, man this fucking pile of undead flesh was sitting in the room for 100 years, better go fight it because the game told me to.
Also, how many bosses in Souls have terrible ai, fuck your camera up, or can be abused by some dumb tactic? Quite a lot actually. Abusing Iframes, and staying by the bosses legs because they can't hit you well is genius design.
Nocturnowl
Member
This thread did prompt me to try once again to get into this game.
I think this is one of those cases where I do feel that the game is a great product on the whole, I can see why people like it a lot and it does a number of things to breathe life into the open world formula I've personally found stagnant for so many years.
Still I can't quite dig into it, I'm also part of the "i've been playing for roughly 3 or 4 hours" club and I'd like to give it more time than that considering the scope of the game but it can be hard when I dive in raring to go only to have to go through a bunch of cutscenes which while well performed and all just tend to take the wind out of my sails.
Of course when Im finally get to the combat I play like shit since I keep dropping in and out, interestingly while the games control is rather janky in a way that irks me the actual combat isn't quite as bad as some make it out to be, the systems are there, I think the way it feels is more of an issue (the same could be said for general movement and horse riding).
Simultaneously I'm somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of systems in play, right now I'm in a flux, I want to see what sights this world they've created has to offer, they've built a pretty immersive world here but the act of actually playing through the game isn't really grabbing me.
Still, seems like a fine game, it's just not for me I'm thinking.
I think this is one of those cases where I do feel that the game is a great product on the whole, I can see why people like it a lot and it does a number of things to breathe life into the open world formula I've personally found stagnant for so many years.
Still I can't quite dig into it, I'm also part of the "i've been playing for roughly 3 or 4 hours" club and I'd like to give it more time than that considering the scope of the game but it can be hard when I dive in raring to go only to have to go through a bunch of cutscenes which while well performed and all just tend to take the wind out of my sails.
Of course when Im finally get to the combat I play like shit since I keep dropping in and out, interestingly while the games control is rather janky in a way that irks me the actual combat isn't quite as bad as some make it out to be, the systems are there, I think the way it feels is more of an issue (the same could be said for general movement and horse riding).
Simultaneously I'm somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of systems in play, right now I'm in a flux, I want to see what sights this world they've created has to offer, they've built a pretty immersive world here but the act of actually playing through the game isn't really grabbing me.
Still, seems like a fine game, it's just not for me I'm thinking.
JudgmentJay
Member
On topic, I loved The Witcher 3. Definitely my second favorite game of the year. As much as I love the Soulsborne games, I thought the combat in TW3 was fine. Nothing super amazing or deep, but definitely better than "serviceable." And of course the quests, dialogue, etc are all amazing.
While the combat might not be up to par coming from Bloodborne and the like, you should try and enjoy the game for the quests and storyline rather than the combat. Like someone else mentioned, maybe try moving the difficulty to easy if you just want to get the meat of the game. If you wanna try and get more into the combat, moving the difficulty up until you start needing to rely on food and potions more wouldn't be a bad idea.
alexbull_uk
Member
I don't think I hate it, but I'm not a fan either. Not sure why exactly, because it seems like the kind of game I should love. Perhaps went in with too high expectations.
FinalStageBoss
Banned
I didn't hate it but I couldn't complete it either. I couldn't get over how bad the combat is.
Brawndo Addict
Banned
I loved the Witcher 1 and 2 but Witcher 3 was extremely disappointing to me. I think it really suffered from the transition to an open-world in terms of story, quests, and decision-making. Yes, combat was improved and it's undeniably immersive to have an open world but that alone doesn't make a good game. The majority of side-quests ended up being super boring and generic, and the story was quite weak. I much preferred the more linear and dense environments of Witcher 1/2, where quests were usually interesting and decisions had meaningful consequences. Witcher 3 felt more like Mass Effect by comparison.
Nope. It's incredible how much better CDPR gets with every game. Took them only three games to ridicule Skyrim and be where they are now when their first game had some weird, imbalanced QTE combat and didn't even let you jump, let alone climb, grab ledges or swim. Would be stupid to stop now.
Besides, even if you don't see how the combat of Witcher 3 is great for the kind of game it is, it's defintely doing a good job form a role-playing point of view, it provides all kind of witcher stuff from the books and translates it almost so well into gameplay that people could assume it was always supposed to be a video game with typical and well balanced witcher signs, (not so well balanced) potions, weapons, moves. For what it is the combat is great and I have no idea how someone could not enjoy it at least a little bit. If you fear the combat could annoy you, just set the difficiulty level to easy and completely destroy everything with your witcher powers and equipment. It feels good. Guess most people are too "proud" for this and rather ruin their experience with the gamer.
If you haven't played the other games or are familar with the books, I'd go with this. Its best moments were the dialogues with characters from the books I actually care about and easter eggs for me.
It surprises me way more that there are actually Playstation fans or people that weren't familar with Witcher before that love Witcher 3 than that there are people that were not familar with the series already and now hate it. CDPR should have ported the older games to PS4 or something.
I couldn't finish the game also, which is a shame because I enjoyed the visuals, but I had to quit after the cave with that woman, I felt the combat was too hard, I got bodied a couple of times on easiest difficulty and got mad and quit.
I guess I could give it another try soon.
I guess I could give it another try soon.
RespectThySole
Member
How did you engage enemies during combat? Strictly hacking away with swords? The best way to approach it is to understand that it's not just about mindlessly hacking away with you sword, you need to mix in signs/bombs/potions/oils into combat as well and get into to the rhythm of dodging at the right moment. I also recommend dodging rather than rolling as its more effective although both have their uses.
Some will say that all you have do is use the quen sign and sword and I guess you can play it that way, but it would be an incredibly boring way to play the game.
Hari Seldon
Member
Just finished Witcher 3 main story last night and it is definitely my GOTY and GOTG (so far). The combat is fine for a game competing against Bethesda and Bioware.
Comparing it to a souls game is ridiculous though. That would be like shitting all over Battlefield because the flight model is dogshit compared to DCS. People don't play Battlefield for the flight model and you don't play a story based RPG for punishing arcade combat. That is why I will buy a Witcher game but not buy a souls game, I don't care about the souls style of games.
Comparing it to a souls game is ridiculous though. That would be like shitting all over Battlefield because the flight model is dogshit compared to DCS. People don't play Battlefield for the flight model and you don't play a story based RPG for punishing arcade combat. That is why I will buy a Witcher game but not buy a souls game, I don't care about the souls style of games.
I didn't really have the patience I guess, to plan my attacks so I just ran in and spammed the slash button, I tried to learn after I got my ass handed to me but then the combat felt too slow for my liking.
NHarmonic.
Member
I died with those examples, omfg.
I guess we should just brace ourselves for the goty shitstorm.
Stahsky
A passionate embrace, a beautiful memory lingers.
This thread is a testament towards GAF's secret hatred towards video games. Give it a month and suddenly Fallout 4 will be the worst thing ever.
Personally? Witcher 3's combat was fine. It may not have been the most hardcore out there, but it did what it needed to do. The story, world, art, music, literally everything else made Witcher 3 one of the best games I've played in many years.
Fallout 4 may have been a huge disappointment for me, but at least one major RPG held it's promise this year.
Personally? Witcher 3's combat was fine. It may not have been the most hardcore out there, but it did what it needed to do. The story, world, art, music, literally everything else made Witcher 3 one of the best games I've played in many years.
Fallout 4 may have been a huge disappointment for me, but at least one major RPG held it's promise this year.
Huevos de Oro
Member
Fortunately, deep in my heart, there is room for only one true GOTY.
Rocket League
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
totally up for a Dandelion adventure
Just imagine a whole game like the wedding in Heart of Stone. GOTY
(I'm also think that CDPR is already outdoing both Telltale and Dontnod even if the games have all the rpg baggage around them)
Well why would a game about a witcher not have combat? Thats silly.
joecanada
Member
I personally wouldn't compare Fo4 with the witcher but since you did I'll just say that combat in Fo4 can go multiple ways you can set traps, sneak, snipe, go melee, go fps, use vats, aim at different body parts, cripple enemies, etc
Witcher you basically only get X number of skills so every challenging encounter ends up mostly the same, and in the same little sphere of aggression which enemies never leave. The spells look underwhelming and boring and the effects are pretty bland. You aren't working your way through an interactive environment you just move from sphere of aggression with X enemies then move to y enemies.
Cyber Caesar
Member
I'm going to quote this in the future just so you know.
You are not the only one who doesn't like Witcher, i have tried to get into the games with all of them but i haven't liked any of them, i do like the books though. Those were the main reason why i have tried and tried to get into the games but no, all of the games have horrible combat in my mind, third one had the best but i still didn't like it at all. It feels too unresponsive, the hit detection just feels weird, and i don't know if it's the animations or what but it just doesn't feel good.
Have you guys seen people who play platinum games?
RespectThySole
Member
It would be great if the main team creates RPGs and the other team does Adventure games.
Thinking about Hearts of Stone just gets me hyped for Blood and Wine. Is it crazy that I'm looking forward to the Blood and Wine expansion more than any game next year? I can't wait for Touissant.
I do look forward to Scalebound, Nier, Uncharted, Persona, Quantum Break, etc. though
This thread made me go back to Witcher 3 tonight. I thought that maybe my mind blocked the bad combat or something with the way people talk about it.
Nope, still a great game with really good combat. The dynamics between quick and hard attacks whilst switching signs and throwing bombs is so good.
Nope, still a great game with really good combat. The dynamics between quick and hard attacks whilst switching signs and throwing bombs is so good.
thesurfshop19
Member
The Witcher 3 showed quite well to me. My bigger issue, honestly, is that I don't have the lifestyle flexibility to be able to sit for long chunks of time and I'd find that I wouldn't make any meaningful progress after several sessions in a row. It's demoralizing because I want to take the world in and make impactful choices, but I need games that wrap up in 20 hours.
I know the same thing I criticize the game for is what makes it a draw for others, so all I can say is that it's not a game for me.
I know the same thing I criticize the game for is what makes it a draw for others, so all I can say is that it's not a game for me.
Lux R7
Member
I am a huge souls and dogma fan, but my main problem with the witcher series is not even the bad combat (i finished dragon age inquisition, so..) but the fact that you HAVE to be Geralt. I mean, that's a real problem for me. I don't want to be him and i don't want to see him. You have build this amazing world full of quests, places and lore. God, give me a good CC and i'll buy your game in day 0. I can get over the combat in that case. Let me roleplay the character that i want with the face that i want. Maybe many of you don't care about this aspect, but i swear it's vital for me in an rpg or arpg.
"but there are the books!"
well, ok, got it, so that's not really the game for me.
"but there are the books!"
well, ok, got it, so that's not really the game for me.
ugh_the_boot
Banned
For me the Witcher games have always had incredible world design and graphics/atmosphere but unfortunately the mechanics and gameplay let these aspects down. I've always become extrememly bored while playing these games and the combat is garbage. The characters and story are well written and acted but they really need to work on a more advanced combat system and just more action in general.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Or you just spam backstep/dodge and watch the AI shit all over itself. Combat becomes trivial no matter what tree you're going for.
Well, I wasn't talking about The Witcher specifically. Just developers who are good at writing and world-building but not so much real time combat in general.
It's like you can't find an RPG developer (or developer period) that excels in every area. The perfect RPG would probably have a story written by either CDProjekt or Obsidian, cut scenes directed by Square Enix, run on EA's Frostbite engine, and have real time combat by either Platinum Games or Capcom (or turn-based combat by Intelligent Systems or Atlus or somebody).
Psychoward
Banned
Ehhh, the combat in witcher is much much more prevalent than flying in Battlefield. Also Battlefield flying is more than serviceable. Battlefield succeeds in creating a simple flying mechanic to compensate for the fact that it isn't the main focus, Witcher 3 doesn't have a combat system that is great for what they're going for. I will agree it's silly to expect for Witcher 3 to have combat on par with Bloodborne though.
But you want to play the exact same style of game over and over again?
Seems wierd to me.
Witcher 3 was definitely the best game of this gen so far. The best quest writing, dialogue, and lore for an RPG ever. Gwent was incredible and on the highest difficulty combat gets incredibly varied using every weapon, rune, bomb, and sign to stay alive.
Not only that, but every sidequest felt meaningful and worth doing. There were several that lastest hours without even touching the main story. They also tie these quests into the plotline sooo well.
Not only that, but every sidequest felt meaningful and worth doing. There were several that lastest hours without even touching the main story. They also tie these quests into the plotline sooo well.
Lux R7
Member
what i said that makes you believe this?
RespectThySole
Member
It surely didn't seem "trivial" for the poster I quoted as well as numerous others in this thread and the OT. Sure you can do it that way, but it's the least effective and enjoyable way to play especially on harder difficulties.
It's like complaining about the difficulty of MGSV because everything can be done with a silenced pistol. You can choose to play it that way, but that's not the fault of the game.
It doesn't it is incredibly varied for a 200 hour RPG. It is incredibly challenging on max difficulty and you have to use everything you loot and acquire to stay alive.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Considering you need to invest into nothing and still have an easy time it's the most effective way, enjoyable I agree with but the list of stuff you have to abstain yourself from making the combat enjoyable is quite large.
As towards the difficulty, it's pretty badly scaled the game starts of fairly difficult only to peter out quickly. No idea how far in these people were.
Actually, was better.
With EE CDPR wanted to prioritize combos against one foe, giving player less control over Geralt animations. Efficient crowd control became a pain in the ass.
Parry became no-sense: was performable without limits, but 'fake'.
Last but not least: alot of collisions were eliminated together with some VERY IMPORTANT visual/physical alerts.
TW2 pre-EE was this:
https://youtu.be/1LJnR6E6sEU?t=48s
Swordplay was tighter, more polished and satisfying than TW3. Againts groups of humans was pure joy.
But nobody cared, because most of people played it rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling, hitting, rolling, rolling, casting a sign, rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling, throwing a bomb, rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling. Like noobs coming from MMO, instead of people with action game culture.
Surprised to see so much hate. I played the first two Witcher games and was so-so on both of them. If the OP had been talking about one of the first two Witcher games, I would totally agree.
But I just started playing The Witcher 3 last week, and I've been blown away (I'm now 30 hours in). Sure, the combat isn't as "dialed in" as a Souls game, but once you adjust for how floaty the action is in The Witcher 3, it comes together very, very well. I'm playing on hardest difficulty and am feeling (fairly) challenged in most combat situations. My only complaint about the combat is that the timing is always delayed for everything (which is why it feels so "floaty"). Parrying, dodging, attacking, motion, all happen about half a second after a button press. But the strategy required in combat makes up for it (at least on hardest difficulty).
And while the combat is fun and challenging and varied, the real reason to play is for the writing, lore, and world-building. Not since Morrowind have I felt such a fully fleshed out world and history was all around me. But YMMV. For me, it's one of the best RPGs I've played in a very long time.
But I just started playing The Witcher 3 last week, and I've been blown away (I'm now 30 hours in). Sure, the combat isn't as "dialed in" as a Souls game, but once you adjust for how floaty the action is in The Witcher 3, it comes together very, very well. I'm playing on hardest difficulty and am feeling (fairly) challenged in most combat situations. My only complaint about the combat is that the timing is always delayed for everything (which is why it feels so "floaty"). Parrying, dodging, attacking, motion, all happen about half a second after a button press. But the strategy required in combat makes up for it (at least on hardest difficulty).
And while the combat is fun and challenging and varied, the real reason to play is for the writing, lore, and world-building. Not since Morrowind have I felt such a fully fleshed out world and history was all around me. But YMMV. For me, it's one of the best RPGs I've played in a very long time.
Exentryk
Member
Everything works instantly for me (PC, 60fps).
fluffydelusions
Member
I still have yet to play this game. Even though I know tons of people and reviews praise it I just can't get myself to purchase and play it.
I'm playing on PC, too. Runs beautifully. It isn't lag or latency. It's the combat animations. But like I said, once I adjusted my brain and hands to the floaty-ness, it hasn't been a problem. Only noticeable if I jump into a game with sharper response.
I didn't hate it but after a short while I decided to just do the main quest line in order to finish playing as soon as possible. By the time I finished the main line I had a ton of other things I could have done but had no further interest. And Qwent interested me not at all.