1. Superior melee combat
Far more moves, weapon options and it's just smoother and faster.
The combat was entirely mindless and devoid of any tactical thinking. Witcher 3 at least required *some* tactics, especially at higher difficulties. Animations felt floaty and lacked any real feedback. Akin to smacking someone with a wet noodle.
2. Superior ranged combat
The crossbow in The Witcher 3 is damn useless whereas the bows in Odyssey are quick, devasting and accurate.
I can agree here, but both are ultimately awful implementations.
3. More charming protagonist
Kassandra has the charm and grace to match the greatest stars of cinema. Geralt is as miserable and gruff as a fail son at Thanksgiving.
The "Protagonist" of Odyssey was a completely blank, mindless character with zero personality. That is what happens when you try to design a character across two genders in an era with massive gender inequality. They should have stuck with one and molded the story and interactions around that choice instead of what we got.
4. Larger map
The map in Odyssey is almost twice the size of The Witcher 3.
Bloated Map. Nothing was memorable about Odyssey's map. It was poorly designed and lacked almost any real designs or choices that matched the actual era it was trying to imitate. Valhalla was even worse. Unless you like mindless chores on a map that have no actual bearing on its world, there is no reason anyone would prefer Odyssey over Witcher 3 in this regard.
5. Better boats
You have a refugee dinghy in TW3. In Odyssey you have a proud ship of war fit for the high seas which can be customized and upgraded extensively.
Not even really a fair comparison. Both had completely different design choices. W3 is a small vessel used to just get to and from a location. Just like it was in AC Origins.
6. Better story
TW3 you are basically just the backdrop to the story of Ciri and her MacGuffin magic and there is a little political nonsense with characters that barely have any introduction. In Odyssey you roam the greatest era of the greatest civilization while solving the mysteries of your past and influencing the future.
The story is a fucking insult to Assassin's Creed lore and history as a whole. Its full of contrived and nonsensical plot threads, tons of retcons, insults historical records and outright lies about events while claiming to be historically authentic/accurate. It's also beyond fucking tropey. Every character in the story is a cardboard cutout devoid of any depth and blatant mary/gary stu writing of protagonists.
Also greatest era? If it is your preferred historical point, then you would know how much it gets wrong. Any historian would also argue that it was by zero means the "greatest civilization".
7. Better DLC
The Witcher 3 DLC you chase around a genie and a vampire. In Odyssey you get all new gameplay exploring the mystical land of Atlantis.
In Odyssey you get the same exact gameplay, doing the same things you did for 80 hours previous, with the same insulting story with the same insulting characters. In Witcher 3, you visit believable locales within its universe with unique, multi-faceted characters that last 10-20 hours depending on the time you spend for each DLC.
8. Better mounts
In odyssey you can customize your mount and your horse is named after the God Phobos, son of Ares. In The Witcher your horse is named after a roach.
Both are just horses. The only "unique" mounts in Odyssey are the shitty store mounts that make the game feel like a cartoon.
9. Better exploration
There is more to see and do in Odyssey. You can climb every mountain and swim to the bottom of the ocean.
And you get nothing out of it. Its padding and bloat.
10. Better sex
In TW3 you can romance Triss the rat exterminator or Yennifer who takes every opportunity to emasculate poor Geralt while simultaneously being clingy and a shrew. In Odyssey Kassandra bangs whoever she wants with wild abandon.
Both are terrible. Sex scenes are juvenile attempts at titillation. At least with Witcher 3, it had some thematic purpose. In Odyssey, it had zero (and even then, historically, doesn't make sense).
11. Better Scaling
In TW3 enemies and quests were a set level so therefore were often too easy and gave awful rewards. In Odyssey enemies and rewards scale.
The enemies in Odyssey are non-issues from the start and continue to be non-issues 80 hours in. They may "scale", but that means nothing when you can wipe out an entire base in a matter of minutes with zero thought.
Witcher 3 requires some semblance of tactics in fights. Both games have fodder enemies, but only one requires planning and that is TW3.
12. Better Upgrades
Weapons and armor can be fully upgraded with many more options and transmog in Odyssey.
Its completely pointless to do and barely changes much of anything. You also end up looking like a clown, more often than not, with the cartoony designs on much of the armor.
13. Better crafting
Instead of making useless "dedoctions" like Witcher 3 crafting in Odyssey focuses on useful things like weapons and ship upgrades.The supplies are more universal and there are more options for obtaining them.
Both are simplistic, by the numbers crafting. TW3's feels like it has a purpose, thematically speaking. Odyssey's feels like busy work and another thing to add to the map as a collectible.
14. Better graphics and performance
Not really debatable. Everything is just that much more beautiful in Odyssey.
Odyssey looks like a cartoon. The Witcher 3 looks believable with some fantastical elements.
15. Better tracking
Instead of following miles of trails and scent marks like in TW3 in Odyssey you follow clues and geography.
You follow a point on the map that is highlighted. The "clues", if you decide to choose that option, have zero thought behind them. They blatantly tell you where to go. There is no sense of exploration or thematic design behind it.
16. More epic battles
If you want you can conquer and defeat every army in the Aegean in Odyssey. In TW3 you fight at most a few guys at a time.
I would rather feel threatened by a few enemies than feel like I am ragdolling hundreds in a game that is trying to be serious and has been serious in the past. Again, feels like a damn cartoon.
17. More dangerous enemies
Start trouble in Odyssey and an endless wave of mercenaries will be sent to track you down and put an end to you. In TW3 your actions have no consequences outside of story beats and a few worthless guards being sent after you.
Again, no enemies posed a threat in Odyssey. There was no thought to any encounter, nor any tactics required. The opposite is true for TW3.
18. Better stealth
In Odyssey you can become the ultimate assassin slipping silently into a camp and deftly murdering every soul like a whisper on the wind. In TW3 you stomp around clumsily and must fight your way through every situation.
Geralt isn't an assassin. That is like comparing Master Chief to Garret from the Thief series.
Also Odyssey (and Valhalla) don't make you feel like an all powerful assassin, but some overpowered cartoon character. You don't have to plan your route or feel threatened if you are caught. For a series based around "assassination", the games have gotten progressively worse with making you feel like a damn assassin.
19. Better antagonists
Instead of knocking off the Nazgul from Lord of the Rings like TW3 in Odyssey you pursue a dangerous cult that has infiltrated every level of society.
None of the cult had personality. None of it felt threatening. It felt like a checklist to reach the end. There were at least stakes in TW3. The threat felt real.
20. Better setting
The amazing world of ancient Greece is brought to life brilliantly in Odyssey. TW3 has some generic castles, fields and swamps.
The amazing world of Ancient Greece? You insult history with that claim here. Nothing in Odyssey was indicative of the era. the most simplistic of facts were wrong. If that is what the devs wanted? I am all for it, as long as they didn't try to claim historical authenticity/accuracy, which they did on numerous occasions.
TW3 felt like it fit the world. The towns and settlements felt real. In Odyssey, they felt like video game towns. Small, tiny versions of what they should be. For as large and bloated as Odyssey was, it had nothing compared to the memorable and well designed cities in games prior. Rome, Florence, etc. Those felt like living cities. Here? Not so much.