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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt |OT| Gwent Player, Monster Slayer, EVEN RACISM
- Thread starter ColonialRaptor
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Moff
Member
Imo the combat is great. It's deep, it's rewarding, it's difficult, and it makes you feel like a badass when you get it right. This is not an action game, so it's not super responsive like Bloodborne, which is what some people seem to be expecting. TW3 rewards strategic play, planning ahead and being ready for an encounter. Positioning is also key – against lots of mobs you need to be constantly dodging in careful ways and controlling the crowd
For comparison I'd say it's the best bits of Ass Creed (crowd management), Bloodborne (quick dodging and position, plus great bosses), and Batman (combos and gadgets often against multiple targets).
The combat mechanic more generally:
- light strikes let you cover distance and get your sword swinging
- heavy strikes are slower but do real damage
- you can do quick, short dodges, or long, slow rolls. Both halt stamina regen
- you must prepare 'oils' and apply them to your blade before battle. These can make the difference between an enemy taking 7 strikes to kill, or taking 4
- you must prepare potions for your general abilities during/after battle (lots of discoverable types, eg letting you regenerate health quickly, stamina quickly, increase resistances, etc. etc.) these are also often key to winning/losing a fight
- your magic is 'Signs' which give you instant protective or aggressive effects, and they use up your stamina bar which regenerates.
I love it. Some fights are a little unbalanced or have poor checkpointing, but once you get to know Geralt's animations and strong/light attack combos, it feels responsive and considered.
If you get the game and the combat bothers you, I'm sure you can put it to the 'Just the story!' difficulty setting, which may still have challenges but won't be borderline frustrating sometimes like the higher difficulties are. This lower difficulty setting is a totally valid way to play and the combat is probably really fun on it (haven't tried it myself).
Akiyama_AE
Member
Follow her to the tower and you end up killing her if don't agree with she had to say.
Edit: beaten!
Its fundamentally broken though. Your inputs don't register fast enough and you can tell that the dev realized how flawed the system is because the window to block or counterattack is huge for a game like this because they have to account for how long it takes something to register. Locking on is a joke and if your trying to maneuver an enemy to a trap or pin him is basically impossible because if your fighting a guy that overshoots you it just locks on to the next one which means your best bet at fighting multiples is to stay unlocked and deal with the horrendous camera. Its all just poorly executed.
Also don't get me started on combat from the horse. There is a reason they made it so you only have to kill 5 guys on horseback to get the trophy because its a bloody nightmare to get each one.
Thanks for the answer. Just to clarify, are you able to come back to White Orchidafter you leave?
Don't fast travel. Then you almost never have to see a load screen while you are in Velen
Learn to enjoy the journey between places rather than being so focused on jumping between quest objectives, the game is a lot more fun and engaging that way.Thatonemoor
Member
Little late on the reply here but I've found that if you explore the question marks on the map and loot what you find there it gives you the best armour in the game so far. I also heard once in a interview that crafting gives you the best armour but I haven't found any scamatic for good armour yet.
Got a Smash Bros / Bros beer night, tonight and I can tell how much I love this game already. I fucking adore my Smash Bros nights, but I want to blow it off so bad to go home and play this game all night.
I adore the world, everything is incredibly believable and each NPC - Character seems fully realised, way more than any game I have played recently. They don't feel like just "Quest Givers", they feel like real, fell on hard times people living hard lives. I just can't see myself playing anything else for a while, I feel bad for Splatoon.
I adore the world, everything is incredibly believable and each NPC - Character seems fully realised, way more than any game I have played recently. They don't feel like just "Quest Givers", they feel like real, fell on hard times people living hard lives. I just can't see myself playing anything else for a while, I feel bad for Splatoon.
I haven't tried. But guessing you can.
statham
Member
Cpt.Underpants
Member
Skellige is also freaking huge. A massive island with a series of smaller islands ranging from small to big. In another open world game this alone could be an open world. Plenty of stuff to do as well in terms of contracts and side missions. Probably my favourite part of the game due to the landscapes being very vertical in places.
Sephiroth_GR_
Member
This for me as well. I wonder what was the trigger point that has these 2 different outcomes.
Moff
Member
huh, was it a cutscene or a real fight? tough fight?
I don't feel I had that option, the conversation was very benevolent from start, she even gave me the wizard notes willingly
I don't feel I had that option, the conversation was very benevolent from start, she even gave me the wizard notes willingly
Summer Haze
Banned
Don't fast travel. Then you almost never have to see a load screen while you are in Velen
So much this. And that goes for any open-world game. And I believe having markers above everything/magically knowing the location for every objective is the reason some people don't do this any more. Devs need to go back to designing their worlds and quests in a way that promotes exploration, instead of players only caring about getting from place to place and getting something done.
Sephiroth_GR_
Member
Real fight. Like fighting a boss.
Don't fast travel. Then you almost never have to see a load screen while you are in Velen
No, I don't want to lose 20 minutes in an area I already explored because there is a stupid mechanic that forces me to do fix my weapons too often. Beside I still go to the first region, which needs a loading, and when I reload a save or die it stills needs a long loading. The loadings are an issue, you can't say "Don't load anything!".
Akiyama_AE
Member
Thanks! Sounds like the lead up to a big fight is just as important as the combat itself, I like that as it seems like planning and bahaving like a monster hunter would had a direct influence on combat. I think I'll bite and pick this up after work...
Am I the only who finds exploring a bit unrewarding? I don't mean sidequesting but random exploration. All the blueprints for weapons are level locked for me for another 10 levels at least and when I come to an enemy that is clearly stronger than me but I still take the time to kill it, there isn't really any worthwhile reward waiting. I'm thinking I will start just doing actual sidequests more than going from POI to POI.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
I know this is the case with White Orchard, but is it also true for No Man's Land? I don't want to miss stuff, but I also obviously don't want to clear out every single side quest before doing the main story (doubt that's even possible). Guess you just have to accept that 100% completion is basically impossible?
Akiyama_AE
Member
Shes alive and I got the research papers
well I
Insulted her so that got her riled up lol
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
okay cool thanks it's not like I wanted a life or anything
Moff
Member
wow, I am really wondering what choice that was,
I guess you all had sex with her and still killed her? that's tough
Akiyama_AE
Member
OT2 It's not like i wanted a life or anything
I use them all the time. I have plenty of alcholest so have no worry about running out.
I think you're exaggerating a bit here.
Blocking is immediately responsive. I can wait until the last frame of an enemy attack, hit L2, and parry him perfectly, Geralt doing it right in the moment I press the button. Light and heavy attacks do feel a bit laggy, but I think this is due to Rockstar-syndrome, where CDPR have focused on making the movements/strikes fit with animations.
By this I mean, when you press square, G has to shift his weight, spin, and leap before the blow actually lands. This means that, yes, there is sometimes half a second between button press and strike, but that's due to how his move set is designed and animated, not a lag direct from the input. He just moves quite heavily to get the strength in, as one would IRL. It's clear this isn't a broader input issue because countering and quick-step dodging is immediate and responsive.
Once I got used to G's moves better, and knew when he'd use certain ones, I've had no issues with combat. It's almost like Bloodborne in terms of how you have to get used to each attack's movement patterns.
Also you basically shouldn't be locking on when you're against more than one or two enemies. I think the game makes it clear locking on is optional in combat – but the game does not make it clear that locking on when against 3+ enemies will probably get you killed. Nowadays I never lock on unless against a boss/ 1 enemy, and I haven't had a single camera issue since.
Fighting from horseback is pretty stupid, though.
Edit: is your TV set to Game Mode etc?
No problem – you're definitely going to have a blast
imo it's a real masterpiece. Every play session I'm just flabbergasted by how great it isVeritigo_X
Member
You can buy repair kits so you don't have to visit a blacksmith. I haven't found repairing weapons as tedious as others I guess. Even before I started buying repair kits I would just hit the blacksmith when I was in town and pay the 30 gold or whatever.
His Majesty
Banned
Don't fast travel. Then you almost never have to see a load screen while you are in Velen
Yesterday I had to go to Oxenfurt for a certain quest. It was a long trek through the swamps at night, stormy weather and when I finally arrived (such a glorious sight by the way, seeing the lights of Oxenfurt at night on the other side of the Pontar) an asshole guard refused me entrance. These are the kind of things you miss when you rely on fast travel.
By the way I just completed the "sidequest" A Towerful of Mice. Holy shit.
Rocksteady, not Rockstar
You can skip the summary when the game has finished loading, at least on PC.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
It's broken just because the attack doesn't connect 1ms after you press the button? Guessing you don't like Souls either, where an attack can take like a full second to perform depending on the weapon? This isn't a super fast twitch action game where you just spam the attack button for awesome auto-combos. If you're trying to play it like that you're doing it wrong.
Regarding horseback combat, are you aware that holding the attack button slows time WAY down, allowing you to easily line your attack up?
The summary is like 40% the time of the loading on PS4, you can't skip it. The loading screens are unacceptable, it's way worse than Blooborne and I hoped the next patch will fix this up.
His Majesty
Banned
I think I found it somewhere in
the dungeon with Keira Metz
Rocksteady, not Rockstar
Sorry, should have made my comparison more clear – I'm referring to how Rockstar designed movement in GTA 4, 5 and RDR. It feels laggy even though the delay actually comes from how the movement animations are designed, not the input response itself! I suppose this is similar in Batman, though, just not as pronounced. Some of the Bman's movements are just insane superhuman fast shit.
Exactly – and holy shit I didn't know that re horse combat
MrPressStart
Member
I know it has been said.. .but the text in this game (esp. when looting items) is sooooo small. Anybody know if they plan to fix it on the PS4?
I have no problem with it but yeah I heard they were.
Ahh i see. On PC the loading time is so short, it's often finished before the summary ends (Then you can skip it by pressing space).
Yes that and the entirety of white orchard.
Yeah I completely agree with that but just like with Rockstar that makes the combat bad. I don’t want a game to simulate IRL I want it to play well. The reason you can get a counterattack so easily is because like I said earlier the window to get one is wide to account for how long it takes for you to switch animation cycles from a hit to a parry. There is no real free form to the combat though no real satisfaction blocking this guy, then parrying this guy and hitting him then blocking and parrying this guy because the attacks are so stilted. I just never feel like I am in a groove or rhythm with it. Because of that I just block, parry, block, block, and wait till one opening to hit a creature. Hit him dive out of the way of all incoming attacks and start over again. Going from any other game with a similar system in principle including Assassins Creed makes it feel like your playing a character in molasses. It actually kind of reminds me of the wonky combat in Uncharted 3.
Bloodborne should never be mentioned in any breath along with this game. Its not even close to being a similar methodology because in Bloodborne I am not adapting the the limits of the combat system but instead understanding enemy weakness attack patterns and timing. There is no sluggishness to BB.
Everything in this game is wonky though when it comes to actually doing anything.
When was the last time you had a hard time picking an item up in a game.
Again its nothing like the Soul games. You can't even begin to compare them.
Its a system built like Assassins Creed, Batman, and Mordor except its not done right.
Dries
Member
I can't believe how this didn't get noticed by CDPR.
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