The Witcher 3 | Review Thread

Infinite_Daremo said:
WTF is this shit? So to stack on most likely less damage given and more taken I get less XP to drag out a level and less stats when I do level? What a dumb ass idea!
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They want you to put more careful thought into your gear, into your resources and preparation. You can't just rolfstomp into monsters nest with some rusty stick and no potion preparations done and expect to win.

Hard and Dark are meant to be challenging difficulty settings that reward careful gameplay and thinking forward approach.
 
Why are some people already talking about Witcher4? You guys do realize that Witcher 3 isn't even out yet. And also their next project is still Cyberpunk2077.
 
Admiral Woofington said:
Apparently it's really easy to over level in medium though so.....
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Tovarisc said:
They want you to put more careful thought into your gear, into your resources and preparation. You can't just rolfstomp into monsters nest with some rusty stick and no potion preparations done and expect to win.

Hard and Dark are meant to be challenging difficulty settings that reward careful gameplay and thinking forward approach.
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Hmmmm. I respect the idea, but gimped level ups aren't cool. I suppose I was always going to play on Dark from the get go so im technically not missing anything.
 
pakkit said:
I thought there is no canonical map for The Witcher series. Sapkowski kind of made it up as he went along, and CDPR had him as an advisor when they were crafting their own maps.
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There is no official map, but basic geography is noted in the books (i.e. Kaedwen in Northeast)
Northern Kingdoms are more accurate than the Nifgaardian Empire
 
KINGofCRA5H said:
I was watching the IGN stream yesterday when they were playing the PC version. Apparently there are white circles which appear on the mini-map to indicated there is treasure inside that you have to find. He found this cave that had some chests in it, and when he went to loot them it was a bunch of what looked like armor crafting plans, and the CDPR guy tried to take the controller away because he wasn't supposed to show the names of said items or that they were even there in the first place. The IGN guy said during his review time he never found that many armor plans in a single chest before.
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That's... not a secret though.

I'm talking more about things that you'll discover while running around the world, not really meaningful to the main or side quest you are doing. And definitely not marked in the map.
 
His Majesty said:
Geralt's journey in the games:

BwnpKxP.jpg


Haven't included minor locations from W3, also not sure where the game will start.
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Thank you for this. It's awesome thinking back about W1/2 and how the locations are spread out across the world like that.
 
Maedhros said:
That's... not a secret though.

I'm talking more about things that you'll discover while running around the world, not really meaningful to the main or side quest you are doing. And definitely not marked in the map.
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There are such things.

For example Kevin Van Ord mentions that (slight spoilers for a random side quest)
at the end of a quest a criminal got exiled to an island. Later on while exploring the world he found the corpse of that person chained on an island.
There were no markers showing that or anything that told him to go there he simply stumbled upon it through exploration.

By the way the game now has a metacritic average of 93.
 
A bit off-topic, but figured this is the best place to ask.

Has there been any gameplay where Geralt has worn a cloak of some sort yet? I have a thing for cloaks...
 
BaronMonstro said:
A bit off-topic, but figured this is the best place to ask.

Has there been any gameplay where Geralt has worn a cloak of some sort yet? I have a thing for cloaks...
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I swear I've seen it. There are a ton of armors in this game, but I can't quite remember where I saw a cloak specifically.
 
allftw said:
There are such things.

For example Kevin Van Ord mentions that (slight spoilers for a random side quest)
at the end of a quest a criminal got exiled to an island. Later on while exploring the world he found the corpse of that person chained on an island.
There were no markers showing that or anything that told him to go there he simply stumbled upon it through exploration.

By the way the game now has a metacritic average of 93.
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Nice.

Hidden dungeons, items are things that makes me keep playing games like this.
 
Foolishfellow said:
I think it's great that there are more reviews pointing out issues like the polygon review. Calling this a "hot button issue" as if this sort of thing is just a fad that will pass is completely wrong-headed.

I also want to point out that the advertising material itself placed the game in the middle of this discussion on race. That trailer from a couple weeks ago advertised a realistic world that included "... war crimes and even racism." So the marketing materials for this game are pointing out that topics of race relations are a reason to buy this game, but for some reason reviewers should be discouraged from discussing it? Also, the historical accuracy argument is weak and always has been as a defense of fantasy genre tropes and cliches.

Regarding any misogyny that may be present in the game. It's more of the visual stuff, rather than the narrative stuff that seems potentially sexist and outdated in this game. It's the continued trope of big bouncy breasts on female characters that is really starting to annoy people. I already know of one scene in Witcher 3 where a female characters top literally dissolves to expose her breasts. I just think that in general people are getting justifiably sick and tired of model thin supporting female characters in all forms of media. It looks like Witcher 3, does have some strong female roles, and it even features a playable female character later in the game, which is fantastic! But the underlying visual tropes i.e. skinny bodies and big exposed breasts seem to be as prominent as ever.

As an aficionado of French cinema, sex and nudity is not the issue. Rather, it's the quicktime events and/or cutscenes that validate a heteronormative male gaze de-humanizing the female experience and breaking up the female body into series of titillating exaggerated objects.

I'm someone who will probably buy this game, but I think that reviews like this are important. In fact, that Polygon review seems to be largely positive, which seems to be lost in some of the reactionary and regressive backlash that it has received by some here. Perhaps the Polygon review isn't the most articulate review in the world, but it's still far more interesting than reviews that spend 90% of the word count talking about "fun-ness" or whether the game lives up to the marketing hype.
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The Witcher games have heavy focus on race issues. They use the relationships between species to explore these, the second game especially. There doesn't need to be differing skin tones for their commentary to be relevant.

Should the creators have included diversity wih skin tone? Maybe they should have simply because diversity in gaming is an issue and they had an opportunity to help progress past the current lack. However, basing it on source material that itself is based on a specific time period where skin diversity was less prevelant and maybe even lacking entirely In some areas is also ok. I'm not saying that's what they did, I don't know the history, but saying a writer shouldn't be able to create a world that's set (or based) with one foot in a period or place that historically would have had less diversity is conceited and inflexible itself.

We need to be careful in our push for diversity that we don't being to homogenise everything we create. Not every single story needs to include a diverse cast, or have absolute balance when it comes to the genders. And even if these stories are fantasy, fantasy can be based on realistic or historical settings as a valid way to link us to the world they're building. Some stories will be set in dark places with dark themes, and sometimes these places require certain -isms to be present and certain character types to be lacking/present for them to make sense. The trick, as I'll discuss below, is how the writers handle the characters and situations they place /within/ these darker worlds. You can have balance in more ways than ticking boys making sure you've included every character type on the diversity checklist.

Also, people dress sexily in real life. Some use their sexiality to their advantage, some flaunt it, some have extrovert personalities and wear revealing clothing. Men and women both, Just because the gaming industry has catered to the male fantasy for a long time and does indeed require balance, doesn't mean that every time there's a character with skimpy clothing or an overly sexual nature the game in question. is being sexist or imbalanced. Again, we need to be careful we're not pushing for some kind of bland "everyone is equal" creative environment.

The main characters in the Witcher games are mostly physically active people too. So, realistically, they're going to be more on the skinny side of in shape than not. Saskia is a warrior, well trained and in great shape. Triss is a well-travelled and highly physically active mage, so again her physical shape make sense. Sheala is another well travelled adventure mage, her physique suits her character too.

None of these female characters would have benefited from their physical appearances being made more diverse because they wouldn't have made sense.

The fact is this game is designed inside a world where sexism, gender inequality, misogyny, racism, violence, bigotry, oppression, etc... are all rife. The people who populate this environment are written to exist within it. The women here are caught up in the culture, the fashion, the politics, the social expectations. Some of them use their sexuality to their advantage, some are simply following the trends and are wearing what they wear /because/ they exist in a place that has such inequality.

I'm not saying the game handles it perfectly, but from what I can see so far and what I know about the first two games (those awful sex cards aside), the game world is very well balanced /within/ the rule sets it creates. This is a dark, unforgiving, bitter, broken, world full of hatred and fear and inequality. The characters that populate it are a part of that, and many of them are written in a very well balanced way that allows us to view the perspective of the oppressed and the oppressed and understand what it would be like to exist in this place. It also lets us role play to an extent. We can make Geralt a womaniser who abuses his position and his place in the social order, or we can choose not to. Just because that freedom exists doesn't make the game itself sexist. Just because a game is set in a place where mysogyny and inequality permeates everything doesn't make the game or story the game is telling mysogynistic or imbalanced.

Maybe CDRP could have done a little more, maybe they missed an opportunity here and there, but overall it seems they've created a world based on a set of rules and worked within those rules to create a pretty well balanced set of characters and perspectives. I think the Polygon review is too focused on the topic itself to see how well this game handles itself in this regard, and the author is too eager to jump on any moment of perceived sexism or mysogyny without truly considering how the developers have crafted the character and context within the world they have created.

Of course, I have yet to play the game, but TW2 was a step forward in terms of how it handled these issues and from all the footage and feedback I've read so far TW3 seems to be progressing too. I hope this is the case when I get to play this myself.
 
Inferno313 said:
Do we know if, at 50, you have enough skill points to get every skill? Or will you have to choose what kind of spec you're going for?
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You gain skill points by leveling up and finding "Places of Power" that each grant you 1 skill point. If you use potion that resets your skill trees you will permanently lose all skill points gained from Places of Power, afaik.

Devs haven't confirmed if we will be able to max out all skill trees and get all skills, but I personally doubt that.

Edit: Words are hard
 
Tovarisc said:
You gain skill points my leveling up and finding "Places of Power" that each grant you 1 skill point. If you use potion that resets your skill trees you will permanently lose all skill points gained from Places of Power, afaik.

Devs haven't confirmed if we will be able to max out all skill trees and get all skills, but I personally doubt that.
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Can you get those skill points back by revisiting the "Places of Power"? If not, I need to start planning my build. I assume there's no skill trees that have been leaked online yet?

Edit: My bad, I suppose if you permanently lose them then there wouldn't be a way to get them back. Would still like a skill tree though if anyone is aware of one.
 
Inferno313 said:
Do we know if, at 50, you have enough skill points to get every skill? Or will you have to choose what kind of spec you're going for?
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They did a Q/A last week and the CDPR guy said there was some last minute balance adjusts to the amount of points you end up with so he wasn't sure. You stop getting skill points at level 50 but you can still find additional skill points as rewards from some quests and from finding Places of Power.
 
Art Vandilay said:
Can you get those skill points back by revisiting the "Places of Power"? If not, I need to start planning my build. I assume there's no skill trees that have been leaked online yet?

Edit: My bad, I suppose if you permanently lose them then there wouldn't be a way to get them back. Would still like a skill tree though if anyone is aware of one.
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Skill trees haven't been posted anywhere in their full form, just parts from here and there through watching videos. Also yeah, my understanding is that those places are one time thing.
 
Playing through TW2 again now to take the Iorveth path and I'm reminded how dull I find the combat. Harder settings make it feel clunky (menu navigation for preparation, preparation itself being long winded and so etimes trial and error based) and a little imbalanced at times, and lower difficulty reduce it to mindless hack and slashing. Right now, I've decided on the latter so I can bulldoze through the story and prepare a save file for when 3 lands.

I love the world building in these games, I love the characters and lore and setting, but the combat has always been something I put up with as I hacked my way toward the next plot point/character interaction.

I'm really hoping the open world adds meaningful exploration to the adventurous aspects of the game and gives some meaning to the parts inbetween the plot points and character interactions, and I'm really hoping the combat will ba a part of the game I look forward to and actively enjoy engaging with. Going off the beaten track to explore or grind monsters just for the fun of engaging with the combat system would be incredible. I really hope it stands up.
 
It looks sweet, all the reviews seem ace. So i pre-ordered and am waiting. Whilst i wait i am going through W1, then will go through W2.
 
Vinny and Alex from Giantbomb are doing a Witcher 3 "Playdate" tomorrow. they said they were going to wait on the PC version before they did anythign with Witcher, so I wonder if that means PC version was finally distributed.
 
Inferno313 said:
Do we know if, at 50, you have enough skill points to get every skill? Or will you have to choose what kind of spec you're going for?
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Remember, just because you put a skill point in an ability doesn't mean it will be activated, you have to equip it first and you can only have up to 12 abilities equipped along with 4 mutagens.
 
erawsd said:
Vinny and Alex from Giantbomb are doing a Witcher 3 "Playdate" tomorrow. they said they were going to wait on the PC version before they did anythign with Witcher, so I wonder if that means PC version was finally distributed.
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There have been some other PC streams since yesterday (ign and some French site) so that is likely.
 
Tovarisc said:
Skill trees haven't been posted anywhere in their full form, just parts from here and there through watching videos. Also yeah, my understanding is that those places are one time thing.
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For anyone wondering about skill trees, you guys should check out these videos.

IGN with CDPR:
http://www.ign.com/videos/2015/05/13/this-is-how-skills-work-in-the-witcher-3-ign-plays-live

YouTube breakdown I found:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1UPuApM9eQ

Long video from Twitch discussing skills (embedded on page):
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-05-05-new-witcher-3-dev-diary-and-live-gameplay-q-and-a

A great breakdown from Reddit for those who don't feel like watching a video:
https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/31qebj/explanation_of_skill_system_in_witcher_3/

I found these all to be extremely informative. I'm going to need a skill tree calculator...

Some takeaways:
- There's a total of 70 skills
- You can't max out every skill
- A maximum of only 12 skills can be used at a time, and this is at the highest level
- Places of Power will indeed grant skill points (I believe that's what they're referred to as)
- Mutagens can be used to amplify your skills
- Skills are broken into 4 categories: combat, signs (magical abilities), alchemy (e.g., bombs, potions), and general (e.g., stamina regen.)
- These categories are then broken into subcategories, in which skills are tiered
- Skills can be upgraded
- Runestones and glyphs can also be used to upgrade weapons and armor
 
Art Vandilay said:
For anyone wondering about skill trees, you guys should check out these videos.

IGN with CDPR:
http://www.ign.com/videos/2015/05/13/this-is-how-skills-work-in-the-witcher-3-ign-plays-live

YouTube breakdown I found:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1UPuApM9eQ

I found both to be extremely informative. I'm going to need a skill tree calculator...

Some takeaways:
- You can't max out every skill
- A maximum of only 12 skills can be used at a time, and this is at the highest level
- Places of Power will indeed grant skill points (I believe that's what they're referred to as)
- Mutagens can be used to amplify your skills
- Skills are broken into 4 categories: combat, signs (magical abilities), alchemy (e.g., bombs, potions), and general (e.g., stamina regen.)
- These categories are then broken into subcategories, in which skills are tiered
- Skills can be upgraded
- Runestones and glyphs can also be used to upgrade weapons and armor
Click to expand...

That's pretty cool. So I can technically respec my character towards a specific fight or if I get bored of a certain path. Quite strange that you can only equip 12 skills when there are so many. At least it gives a lot of variety.
 
Wow just realized that its up to 93 on Meta now. Highest reviewed new game that isn't a remaster or re-release for the year right? Its just barely edging out Bloodborne's 92
 
Art Vandilay said:
For anyone wondering about skill trees, you guys should check out these videos.

IGN with CDPR:
http://www.ign.com/videos/2015/05/13/this-is-how-skills-work-in-the-witcher-3-ign-plays-live

YouTube breakdown I found:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1UPuApM9eQ

I found both to be extremely informative. I'm going to need a skill tree calculator...

Some takeaways:
- You can't max out every skill
- A maximum of only 12 skills can be used at a time, and this is at the highest level
- Places of Power will indeed grant skill points (I believe that's what they're referred to as)
- Mutagens can be used to amplify your skills
- Skills are broken into 4 categories: combat, signs (magical abilities), alchemy (e.g., bombs, potions), and general (e.g., stamina regen.)
- These categories are then broken into subcategories, in which skills are tiered
- Skills can be upgraded
- Runestones and glyphs can also be used to upgrade weapons and armor
Click to expand...

Here is a twitch video where they actually show off all the builds and talk about some of the advantages. For some reason the actual twitch link doesnt work but you can watch it here.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-05-05-new-witcher-3-dev-diary-and-live-gameplay-q-and-a
 
Jobbs said:
I've got an i7 4790k and an R9 290. Am I going to be ultra 60 fpsing this thing, you think?
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At this point your guess is as good as anyone else. I haven't heard anything how W3 runs on an AMD card, but being that that card is pretty top-end I'd be surprised if you couldn't come closs to maxing most things and still get a respectable frame rate.
 
Infinite_Daremo said:
That's pretty cool. So I can technically respec my character towards a specific fight or if I get bored of a certain path. Quite strange that you can only equip 12 skills when there are so many. At least it gives a lot of variety.
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I'm currently trying to find confirmation one way or the other as to whether skill points acquired by visiting Places of Power are permanently lost once you respec with a potion.

erawsd said:
Here is a twitch video where they actually show off all the builds and talk about some of the advantages. For some reason the actual twitch link doesnt work but you can watch it here.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-05-05-new-witcher-3-dev-diary-and-live-gameplay-q-and-a
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Thanks! I'll check it out.
 
Jobbs said:
I've got an i7 4790k and an R9 290. Am I going to be ultra 60 fpsing this thing, you think?
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I have the same GPU (albeit paired with an i5 2500K @ 4.3ghz), and I don't think ultra at 60fps is going to doable with this card. If I can pull of mostly ultra/30fps I'll be happy.
 
Is there really a point to the whole one day before rule for the official threads? All discussion that would be happening there happens now in review threads. Not only that but we have an inflow of information causing multiple topics related to Witcher 3 to clutter up the gaming discussion board.
 
CrazyDude said:
Is there really a point to the whole one day before rule for the official threads? All discussion that would be happening there happens now in review threads. Not only that but we have an inflow of information causing multiple topics related to Witcher 3 to clutter up the gaming discussion board.
Click to expand...

You may not agree with the rationale and some may argue the efficacy, but the entire point was to diminish the hype cycle just a tad. We have a new thread for new news policy anyway, so if there's significant information dropped pre-release, multiple threads aren't a bad idea anyway. But really, the concern was just that we were increasingly tired of OTs being extremely toxic places for anyone that didn't have their tickets to the hype train already purchased.

OTs going up a week in advance meant that by the time everyone else picked up the game on launch day, a community of people with avatar memes based on the game had often already set up camp in the OT and made it their home. The decision was made to push back the date of posting OTs to try and make them more inviting for everyone looking to play the game, and not just the people that have been hyped for months about it.

Whether or not this policy has been effective is another discussion. But that was the rationale behind it and I don't think we're looking to go back to the old way anytime soon.
 
Steve Youngblood said:
You may not agree with the rationale and some may argue the efficacy, but the entire point was to diminish the hype cycle just a tad. We have a new thread for new news policy anyway, so if there's significant information dropped pre-release, multiple threads aren't a bad idea anyway. But really, the concern was just that we were increasingly tired of OTs being extremely toxic places for anyone that didn't have their tickets to the hype train already purchased.

OTs going up a week in advance meant that by the time everyone else picked up the game on launch day, a community of people with avatar memes based on the game had often already set up camp in the OT and made it their home. The decision was made to push back the date of posting OTs to try and make them more inviting for everyone looking to play the game, and not just the people that have been hyped for months about it.

Whether or not this police has been effective is another discussion. But that was the rationale behind it and I don't think we're looking to go back to the old way anytime soon.
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please keep it the way it is now. your explanation is a perfect reason the new system is better :)
 
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