The Witcher 3 | Review Thread

8.5 from the italian webiste spaziogames

pro

- Immense and completely explorable
- A technical marvel,both on Pc and consoles
- Curated narrative, both for the main and the secondary quests
- mature and dark

cons

- basic combat system and bad enemy AI
- Many frame rate problems and bugs
- repetitive quests
 
The Verge Review:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/12/8586515/witcher-3-wild-hunt-review-ps4-xbox-one-game

This is obviously a huge game, but unlike a lot of open worlds, it's also one that feels lively. The developers at CD Projekt Red have spent a lot of time ensuring that it's not just a collection of towns connected by empty space. Even outside of the quests I stumbled across, there was a lot to do out in the world, whether hunting monsters or exploring ancient ruins. The game is so beautiful and so full of surprises, that I rode my horse most places instead of using the fast travel option that lets you zip around the map.

That should alleviate some worries regarding the game being 'empty and boring' like so many seemed to fear.
 
Ok guys, forgive me if someone has already asked this in the thread, but we're already at 11 pages and ain't nobody got time for that.

I've never played a Witcher game. I wanted to play at least Witcher 2 after getting hyped for this, but then my 360 broke and obviously they're not on PS3.

Is it worth reading some wikis or a summary and jumping in to this entry? I rarely (if ever) play a new entry in a series without playing the previous games (hence why I've yet to play DA: Inquisition).

Anyone think I can jump in and still enjoy the experience? Granted most of you haven't played this one yet, but based on the story of 1 and 2 what do you think?
 
I rather have an incredible main story. That's what I'm going to remember years down the line, not random side quests, no matter how good they are. We should have both. I doubt the main story is bad, it's probably just average. It should be fine.

You might be surprised. In some of my favorite RPGs, the side quests are more memorable than the main quest, in a good way. Even in some non-RPGs, like Majora's Mask.

Maybe redbox it if you can with next-gen? I haven't kept up with things to know if that's possible or not.
 
JK-Money nailed it in the PS4 gameplay thread. It literally looks like an oil painting that came to life.

PrQERHN.gif

man look at those colors.
 
I've read a handful of reviews, here's my 5c on some of the hotter topics.

RE Main Quest: Few of the reviews downplay it, some outright praise Geralt's personal journey. That's something to remember, maybe for new Witcher fans. An overwhelming majority of RPGs place the protagonist in the middle as the chosen one/god/hero/lord of everything. The series isn't like that. Sweeping changes happen, but often as a backdrop or around your character rather than to or purely because of your character. Keep that in mind you'll always, in a way, play second fiddle to the world itself.

RE Endings: Reviews are divisive but remember there are multiple endings with variations OF those endings based on progress of the plot. It seems you just kinda get a summary of how it all ended, for better or worse. You're never guaranteed a happy ending. Or a cathartic abundance of closure. Maybe your ending will be exactly as you wanted. Or maybe it will be unexpectedly tragic and a bit of a downer. That's how these games roll. The Witcher 2 fucking ended on sorcerer/sorceress genocide and a mass invasion, neither of which you could prevent.

RE Fetch Quests: Seems the main quests are the culprit, and I could see how: you're probably tasks with far reaching "get X of Y" to progress. But most reviews don't paint fetch quests in the same way people are familiar with from the likes of Inquisition and Skyrim. Most reviews praise context and development of quests. Most quests in games can be distilled down to basics of fetch, but context is key. And that context, along with ramifications, sound like the game's biggest strength.

This pretty much.
 
Don't really think it means that it was BS? Didn't he get verified?

The game was delayed after all.

The game being delayed was a fact not in dispute and games are routinely delayed to improve quality. What that user insisted was that the game was actually a mess and likely could not be corrected.
 
Is it worth reading some wikis or a summary and jumping in to this entry? I rarely (if ever) play a new entry in a series without playing the previous games (hence why I've yet to play DA: Inquisition).

Anyone think I can jump in and still enjoy the experience? Granted most of you haven't played this one yet, but based on the story of 1 and 2 what do you think?

I made a basic recap to understand the setting and story so far: http://abload.de/img/witcher0iuw1.png

CDPR have said Wild Hunt will be a fine entry point for new fans.
 
Ok guys, forgive me if someone has already asked this in the thread, but we're already at 11 pages and ain't nobody got time for that.

I've never played a Witcher game. I wanted to play at least Witcher 2 after getting hyped for this, but then my 360 broke and obviously they're not on PS3.

Is it worth reading some wikis or a summary and jumping in to this entry? I rarely (if ever) play a new entry in a series without playing the previous games (hence why I've yet to play DA: Inquisition).

Anyone think I can jump in and still enjoy the experience? Granted most of you haven't played this one yet, but based on the story of 1 and 2 what do you think?

Just check out a wiki. Sounds like The Witcher 3 is designed for new players to jump in.
 
I havent bought dying light , far cry 4 because i dont want to pay 60$ since time is limited......

I feel I HAVE to pre order this.....I think I will.

Mind you im all digital. Waiting for games to go on sale is hell
 
I was hoping Witcher 3 would be the one that finally gets me into the series, but it doesn't sound like that's going to be case.
 
Does this game have a difficulty slider for combat? Everything else about the game looks great, but with the topic of playing games on easy coming up recently I'm thinking that it may be the best way to approach this one.

RE: Gerstmann's tweet, I honestly don't get why anyone cares about that dude's opinion. He's negative about (almost) everything and doesn't really seem to even enjoy gaming in general.
 
BTW, Daniel Bloodworth in the review comments (he played over 100 hours):

percentage - I dunno - I really didn't get to explore Skellige outside of quests at all or some major pockets of other regions

This game...
 
Hey, anyone else remember that supposed insider from CDPR who said that the game was in trouble and was the reason for all these delays and that CDPR would lost a lot of the good cred they built up once the game was released? Yup, seems it all was complete BS as we all knew it was.

I was exactly waiting for the release so we could shout bullshit to this guy. Funny i was not the only person to remember that statement.
 
One thing I've been curious abut is redundant enemy types. Is the game full of monsters with palette swaps and damage/defense modifiers? Has that been addressed in any of the reviews thus far?
 
I don't mind people disliking the game if they honestly dislike it. That's fair enough.

However it's the people decide entirely upon themselves that a game is "bad" when it's critical reception would go in the face of this and say the contrary.

There is a difference between calling a game bad and simply disliking it. One is making an objective statement on it's quality, the other is subjective view. Of course this is simply stating the obvious.

So you're arguing that someone's opinion is "dishonest?" You're implying they actually like the game, but are compelled for some reason to say otherwise. If you have some insight we don't, please share.

There is no difference between calling a game bad and disliking it, actually. Opinion about a game is just that - opinion. There is no such thing an objective review of a game. What would an "objective" game review even look like? A meaningless collection of facts about a game, aggregated by some kind of "objective" rubric that spits out a score? "Well, The Witcher 3 took me over 40 hours to complete, which translates into a 10/10 for that category on our review rubric."

My enjoyment (or lack thereof) of a video game is based on my own personal experiences and tastes. The same goes for any critic, of any medium. Find a games critic whose writing you enjoy and whose tastes are similar to your own, and place your trust in them. That's what I do. I also enjoy reading "dissenting" opinions, even if I may not agree with them. What I don't do is stand on the top of a mountain (or a GAF thread as it were) and shout them down, telling them how "objectively" wrong they are.

I only do that to fellow GAF members who argue for objectivity in games criticism.
 
Is it worth reading some wikis or a summary and jumping in to this entry? I rarely (if ever) play a new entry in a series without playing the previous games (hence why I've yet to play DA: Inquisition).

Anyone think I can jump in and still enjoy the experience? Granted most of you haven't played this one yet, but based on the story of 1 and 2 what do you think?

The overwhelming consensus is that you can, in fact, jump right in, cause when it comes right down to it, what story doesn't begin in media res? That said, if you've the inclination, you should strongly consider reading brief summaries of the books as well as the games, as they'll give you an excellent feel for the people and events that have shaped Geralt's journey.
 
[/B]

Yeah, I think I need to pass for now until I can at least rent this. Those are deal breakers for me.

was about to say the same. surprised reviews are beyond forgiving for what i wouldve thought are core issues. im not much of a story guy, unless its something miraculous like Last of Us so hearing the frame rate, combat and core gameplay loops are bad is really unfortunate.
 
One thing I've been curious abut is redundant enemy types. Is the game full of monsters with palette swaps and damage/defense modifiers? Has that been addressed in any of the reviews thus far?

I think the number was 60 or 90 kinds of monster in the game.


Plus human enemies.

Should be a ton.


Hoping the DLC add's even more types of monsters to the mix, for picking up contracts and what not, adding to the ecosystem.
 
8.5 from the italian webiste spaziogames

pro

- Immense and completely explorable
- A technical marvel,both on Pc and consoles
- Curated narrative, both for the main and the secondary quests
- mature and dark

cons

- basic combat system and bad enemy AI
- Many frame rate problems and bugs
- repetitive quests

This is the dealbreaker I'm talking about. Guess I'll watch some more gameplay vids when they come out.
 
The overwhelming consensus is that you can, in fact, jump right in, cause when it comes right down to it, what story doesn't begin in media res? That said, if you've the inclination, you should strongly consider reading brief summaries of the books as well as the games, as they'll give you an excellent feel for the people and events that have shaped Geralt's journey.

Just check out a wiki. Sounds like The Witcher 3 is designed for new players to jump in.

Thanks, I'll check out the wiki/summaries and get caught up.

I made a basic recap to understand the setting and story so far: http://abload.de/img/witcher0iuw1.png

CDPR have said Wild Hunt will be a fine entry point for new fans.

This is awesome! Good work, I'll check it out.
 
was about to say the same. surprised reviews are beyond forgiving for what i wouldve thought are core issues. im not much of a story guy, unless its something miraculous like Last of Us so hearing the frame rate, combat and core gameplay loops are bad is really unfortunate.

You have to acknowledge that people looking at this genre aren'1 like you though. People goes to RPGs to play a story, mainly.
 
Any of these reviews impressions from an Xbox one playthrough?

No XBO copies were sent out for review.

I see mostly PS4 reviews...

Has the PC version been officially reviewed yet?

Any issues/limitations with the PC version?

Just curious. Thanks.

They didn't send any PC copies out, reasons unknown. They did mention that they have been hammering on performance for past two weeks, but I doubt that as reason for holding PC copies back as this hammering should also affect PS4 version.
 
Wow the pages flew up. What am I missing? Framerate causing a big stir?

-Anxiety about "fetch quests"
-Anxiety about combat system
-Anxiety about framerate / tech issues / level of dirt detail
-Anxiety about Jeff Gerstmann's tweet that upset everyone (he's not that into the game)
-Anxiety about whether or not this will be GOTY

AKA the usual

And also: "any reviews of the PC version?"
 
what happened to their promise of no fetch quests?

Define "fetch quest"

If it's "Go kill X of this enemy and bring me back their hides", I doubt there is any of that in the game.

if it's "go into this deep cave and bring me the magical item you find", I wouldn't call that a "fetch quest" in the sense of the above example.

I expect Witcher has none of the prior, and more of the latter.
 
8.5 from the italian webiste spaziogames

pro

- Immense and completely explorable
- A technical marvel,both on Pc and consoles
- Curated narrative, both for the main and the secondary quests
- mature and dark

cons

- basic combat system and bad enemy AI
- Many frame rate problems and bugs
- repetitive quests

I hope that con is not true, if it is then an early patch is welcome.
 
Top Bottom