Island in the Mist quest just opened up for me. I'm currently sitting at level 21, so I was just wondering if I should level up a bit or should I just go ahead do the final battle.
Those early Gwent cards looked so nice. Still, the final style they decided upon allowed them to use additional effects like weather, realistic burning and the like which was also cool. That earlier version seemed better based in the game's world though, with it's more Tarot/folklore-like appearance and lack of realistic illustrations of famous characters (one of the logical holes people sometimes point out about the final card designs).
I played withcer 3 main story last last christmas and now played through HoS and later will play BoW. Anyways i thought will write some thoughts on the game so far since
i am not expecting game to be that much different coming in the final DLC.
-Combat. Well this has been discussed to death, often with dumbing it down to just bad or mediocre. My thoughts on the matter are as follows:
-Unresponsive. This especially true to signs, often i just find myself pulling right trigger and nothing happens. Switching between signs is "slow". I would have preferred to pull
right trigger and then press face buttons for total of 4 quick access signs. The gameplay possibilities as in why should i use signs when i can just hack enemies to pieces,
which is faster and easier never opened for me.
-Unrewarding. I never got satisfaction in killing enemies since they were never hard only spongy or annoying. I never got satisfaction of well timed dodge like in dark souls
-Potions, eating and just trivialiases most encounters and just make them last for longer.
-Lever restrictions. I don't find it fun when higher leveled enemies are just beyond killing for arbitary reasons.
-Too many mechanics. Toxicity, aggression and even stamina. I never paid any attention these, they hardly make any difference gameplay wise they are just there as a cognitive load. Stamina in
souls games is carefully balanced, here i hardly ever noticed it, usually just annoyed by it. I also never used bombs, crossbows, let alone potions and decotions, there is just too many
of them. There is also runestones and mutations stones or whatever stones. They actually make kind of big difference in terms stats but are they really fun "mechanics".
I switched swords regulary so i never committed to any runestones.
-Open world
-Well it is big which make travelling in kinda tedius. Having horse makes enviroments typically kind of flat since it cannot scale major elevations in terrain.
Not that having geralt climb anything with current controls would be pleasant.
-No memorable locations or architechture in cities or wilderness. It just some rundown medieval locations.
-Too much shit to loot which ultimately doesn't matter in first place. Best gear requires a guide from youtube which futher marginalizes point of loot.
-Story
-Well it is the best part since previous to discussed points hardly impress. There were definently some stand-out moments especially near the end of the game
like
Battle of Kaer morhen, Winter worlds, Geralt taking on White frost .
Overall i would have liked some set-piece like moments like these instead of just going through
the dialog but i suppose making set-pieces is expensive. Overall story is bit weak but there are some funny character moments which make it worhtwile.
-Side quests are often praised in witcher 3 but i didn't find them intresting or worthwile as in terms of loot aside from side-quests linked to main-quest
Overall i since like others have said game feels like interactive movie, which definently could feature some more agency from the player in terms of available choices.
Since listening through dialog is kinda monotone after a while i could never really play more than an hour at a time. Overall i enjoyed the game especially it's length
(35 hours for main campaign) even though i ususally don't like long games, it felt like a journey through Geralts life.
I did the same on my first (and current) playthrough. Not sure about any repercussions, but she obviously doesn't participate in the battle. Triss and Yennefer mentioned seeking her aid after the battle and I thought Geralt would say something, but he just looked a bit tired and started talking about something else... Lol
I love that it's not obvious that you can get different outcomes. Hate it when a game goes "DECISION - GOOD... OR EVIL? YOU CHOOSE, BUT BEWARE, THERE MAY BE REPERCUSSIONS AND YOU CAN'T UNDO YOUR CHOICE. ARE YOU SURE? REALLY SURE? OK THEN"
I recommend playing it. If you want to make sure not to miss out on anything major, keep an eye on the guide (which is included if you bought on GoG, if not just ask ;D). Once you get a feel for the combat, which is kind of a rhythm game in a weird way, you'll find a really good story. And a swamp area that most people don't like, but that's beside the point.
. One small prompt that makes it sound like Geralt isn't going to take
Dijkstra's
shit, suddenly I'm breaking his leg, meaning I can no longer proceed down a questline and
Radovid will engage in genocide against all nonhumans regardless of any other outcome in the game
. All that from ONE FUCKING PROMPT. I was salty as fuck after that one. Like what the fuck ending is this? Hooray, everything worked out for Geralt and Ciri... shame about them dwarves though. Millions of innocents fucking died from my hubris!
I recommend playing it. If you want to make sure not to miss out on anything major, keep an eye on the guide (which is included if you bought on GoG, if not just ask ;D). Once you get a feel for the combat, which is kind of a rhythm game in a weird way, you'll find a really good story. And a swamp area that most people don't like, but that's beside the point.
I played withcer 3 main story last last christmas and now played through HoS and later will play BoW. Anyways i thought will write some thoughts on the game so far since
i am not expecting game to be that much different coming in the final DLC.
-Combat. Well this has been discussed to death, often with dumbing it down to just bad or mediocre. My thoughts on the matter are as follows:
-Unresponsive. This especially true to signs, often i just find myself pulling right trigger and nothing happens. Switching between signs is "slow". I would have preferred to pull
right trigger and then press face buttons for total of 4 quick access signs. The gameplay possibilities as in why should i use signs when i can just hack enemies to pieces,
which is faster and easier never opened for me.
-Unrewarding. I never got satisfaction in killing enemies since they were never hard only spongy or annoying. I never got satisfaction of well timed dodge like in dark souls
-Potions, eating and just trivialiases most encounters and just make them last for longer.
-Lever restrictions. I don't find it fun when higher leveled enemies are just beyond killing for arbitary reasons.
-Too many mechanics. Toxicity, aggression and even stamina. I never paid any attention these, they hardly make any difference gameplay wise they are just there as a cognitive load. Stamina in
souls games is carefully balanced, here i hardly ever noticed it, usually just annoyed by it. I also never used bombs, crossbows, let alone potions and decotions, there is just too many
of them. There is also runestones and mutations stones or whatever stones. They actually make kind of big difference in terms stats but are they really fun "mechanics".
I switched swords regulary so i never committed to any runestones.
-Open world
-Well it is big which make travelling in kinda tedius. Having horse makes enviroments typically kind of flat since it cannot scale major elevations in terrain.
Not that having geralt climb anything with current controls would be pleasant.
-No memorable locations or architechture in cities or wilderness. It just some rundown medieval locations.
-Too much shit to loot which ultimately doesn't matter in first place. Best gear requires a guide from youtube which futher marginalizes point of loot.
-Story
-Well it is the best part since previous to discussed points hardly impress. There were definently some stand-out moments especially near the end of the game
like
Battle of Kaer morhen, Winter worlds, Geralt taking on White frost .
Overall i would have liked some set-piece like moments like these instead of just going through
the dialog but i suppose making set-pieces is expensive. Overall story is bit weak but there are some funny character moments which make it worhtwile.
-Side quests are often praised in witcher 3 but i didn't find them intresting or worthwile as in terms of loot aside from side-quests linked to main-quest
Overall i since like others have said game feels like interactive movie, which definently could feature some more agency from the player in terms of available choices.
Since listening through dialog is kinda monotone after a while i could never really play more than an hour at a time. Overall i enjoyed the game especially it's length
(35 hours for main campaign) even though i ususally don't like long games, it felt like a journey through Geralts life.
Thank you for the open and honest thoughts. I think Ill skip W3. The combat just doesn't sound appealing, and from all the streams I watched, It really just seemed like a chore, and not fun.
Dear GAF, maybe someone can help me? I played Hearts of Stone a long time ago and just wanted to start with Blood and Wine on PS4 (Pro). Unfortunately I can't. I have the (German) retail version of Witcher 3 and bought the limited retail releases of HOS and BOW (package contains a DLC) and when I try to start BOW the game tells me that HOS is missing and I can't use my save without it. The PSN tells me HOS is downloaded, when I remove everything from my console, install Witcher 3 and everything else again I get the same problem. The strange part: After removing everything PSN says HOS is still installed.
Maybe someone else had a similiar problem? No answer from the customer support until today :-(
During Kaer Morhen battle you will need to protect Lambert yourself or he will end up been killed alongside Vesemir. And Keira Metz's death is a bad ending for Lambert either way.
I played withcer 3 main story last last christmas and now played through HoS and later will play BoW. Anyways i thought will write some thoughts on the game so far since
i am not expecting game to be that much different coming in the final DLC.
-Combat. Well this has been discussed to death, often with dumbing it down to just bad or mediocre. My thoughts on the matter are as follows:
-Unresponsive. This especially true to signs, often i just find myself pulling right trigger and nothing happens. Switching between signs is "slow". I would have preferred to pull
right trigger and then press face buttons for total of 4 quick access signs. The gameplay possibilities as in why should i use signs when i can just hack enemies to pieces,
which is faster and easier never opened for me.
-Unrewarding. I never got satisfaction in killing enemies since they were never hard only spongy or annoying. I never got satisfaction of well timed dodge like in dark souls
-Potions, eating and just trivialiases most encounters and just make them last for longer.
-Lever restrictions. I don't find it fun when higher leveled enemies are just beyond killing for arbitary reasons.
-Too many mechanics. Toxicity, aggression and even stamina. I never paid any attention these, they hardly make any difference gameplay wise they are just there as a cognitive load. Stamina in
souls games is carefully balanced, here i hardly ever noticed it, usually just annoyed by it. I also never used bombs, crossbows, let alone potions and decotions, there is just too many
of them. There is also runestones and mutations stones or whatever stones. They actually make kind of big difference in terms stats but are they really fun "mechanics".
I switched swords regulary so i never committed to any runestones.
-Open world
-Well it is big which make travelling in kinda tedius. Having horse makes enviroments typically kind of flat since it cannot scale major elevations in terrain.
Not that having geralt climb anything with current controls would be pleasant.
-No memorable locations or architechture in cities or wilderness. It just some rundown medieval locations.
-Too much shit to loot which ultimately doesn't matter in first place. Best gear requires a guide from youtube which futher marginalizes point of loot.
-Story
-Well it is the best part since previous to discussed points hardly impress. There were definently some stand-out moments especially near the end of the game
like
Battle of Kaer morhen, Winter worlds, Geralt taking on White frost .
Overall i would have liked some set-piece like moments like these instead of just going through
the dialog but i suppose making set-pieces is expensive. Overall story is bit weak but there are some funny character moments which make it worhtwile.
-Side quests are often praised in witcher 3 but i didn't find them intresting or worthwile as in terms of loot aside from side-quests linked to main-quest
Overall i since like others have said game feels like interactive movie, which definently could feature some more agency from the player in terms of available choices.
Since listening through dialog is kinda monotone after a while i could never really play more than an hour at a time. Overall i enjoyed the game especially it's length
(35 hours for main campaign) even though i ususally don't like long games, it felt like a journey through Geralts life.
If you play the Witcher 3 on the harder difficulty modes, particularly Death March, things like Bombs, Signs, Oils, Potions become much more important. I mean, you wouldn't be suggesting that restricting to only using your sword is more effective than anything else unless you were playing on an easier difficulty level. I will say though too, the game plays better on a keyboard and mouse, IMO. On keyboard and mouse you can quickcast any of the signs you want to use.
But yeah, if you're not utilizing all the tools that the combat provides you the combat is going to feel especially dull and I think that's the case with a lot of people that say the combat is "trash". Not that you said that just speaking in general, and you're certainly entitled to your opinion but I think you would have benefited from having taken more time to immerse yourself in the various tools that you get in combat.
I'm surprised this thread is still active. I finally got around to playing Hearts of Stone in February before Horizon came out after not touching the game for a year and I finally started Blood and Wine yesterday. Man, do I love this game. Loving the new area in B&W, it's a nice change from the previous locations. It's going to be a sad day when I finally finish B&W and have no more content waiting for me to play it.
After a half-year long hiatus I picked TW3 back up and it's got its back in me real deep. I'm at the point where I can do some of the higher level quests in the Velen and Novigrad area, and I'm constantly surprised at how much I'd not yet seen there. SO GOOD.
I played withcer 3 main story last last christmas and now played through HoS and later will play BoW. Anyways i thought will write some thoughts on the game so far since
i am not expecting game to be that much different coming in the final DLC.
-Combat. Well this has been discussed to death, often with dumbing it down to just bad or mediocre. My thoughts on the matter are as follows: -Unresponsive. This especially true to signs, often i just find myself pulling right trigger and nothing happens. Switching between signs is "slow". I would have preferred to pull
right trigger and then press face buttons for total of 4 quick access signs. The gameplay possibilities as in why should i use signs when i can just hack enemies to pieces,
which is faster and easier never opened for me.
-Unrewarding. I never got satisfaction in killing enemies since they were never hard only spongy or annoying. I never got satisfaction of well timed dodge like in dark souls
-Potions, eating and just trivialiases most encounters and just make them last for longer.
-Lever restrictions. I don't find it fun when higher leveled enemies are just beyond killing for arbitary reasons.
-Too many mechanics. Toxicity, aggression and even stamina. I never paid any attention these, they hardly make any difference gameplay wise they are just there as a cognitive load. Stamina in souls games is carefully balanced, here i hardly ever noticed it, usually just annoyed by it. I also never used bombs, crossbows, let alone potions and decotions, there is just too many
of them. There is also runestones and mutations stones or whatever stones. They actually make kind of big difference in terms stats but are they really fun "mechanics".
I switched swords regulary so i never committed to any runestones.
I think I found the source of your problems
I'm half-joking, but surely you understood that stamina governs your casting, right?
The potions and decoctions aren't really that hard to understand. There's a limit to how much of them you can drink, which is your toxicity. Doesn't seem very complex. I personally thought it was a pretty fun system to exploit for the big encounters since the investigation beforehand will always tell you what type of enemy you're facing and what its weaknesses are in the beastiary.
Having played TW1 and TW2, I was never expecting much from the combat but I actually ended up enjoying it well enough. My only serious gripe would be the super vague hitboxes on enemy attacks (mainly elementa) and that the dodge (not the roll) is super overpowered.
I hate everything else. Like, I honestly despise most of the gameplay.
Idk this is such a weird game. I don't know how these folks are going to create a TPS... it's gonna control worse than a GTA game. But have a better story.
I cleared every ? on all maps, so I had a shitton of money. Especially all those annoying to get smugglers caches in skellige give insane amounts of money.
I cleared every ? on all maps, so I had a shitton of money. Especially all those annoying to get smugglers caches in skellige give insane amounts of money.
Between that and just picking up garbage weapons and selling them, I made a ton of money in this game without using any of the exploit methods. I think I just spent like 20k on the house in B&W and still have 128k left. If I need more, I'll just clear out my stash that has WAY too much in it and should be sold/dismantled.
I'm leveling too fast... it's hard to do the quests at appropriate level. And I'm specificly trying not to stray from the main quest path, yet I'm still leveling too fast.
I'm leveling too fast... it's hard to do the quests at appropriate level. And I'm specificly trying not to stray from the main quest path, yet I'm still leveling too fast.
I'm leveling too fast... it's hard to do the quests at appropriate level. And I'm specificly trying not to stray from the main quest path, yet I'm still leveling too fast.
I think turning on enemy level scaling mostly makes this a nonissue - you won't get meaningful XP after overleveling, but it won't ruin the combat. Or have you already turned it on and are still bothered by it? I thought the only impact of the quest levels was on enemy level and XP rewards, but I may just be wrong about that.
I certainly shared this problem on my first playthrough, though - it's pretty much impossible to avoid leveling past the main questlines (and other sidequests) if you want to do a sizable portion of the game's content. I eventually just resigned myself to it.
I think turning on enemy level scaling mostly makes this a nonissue - you won't get meaningful XP after overleveling, but it won't ruin the combat. Or have you already turned it on and are still bothered by it? I thought the only impact of the quest levels was on enemy level and XP rewards, but I may just be wrong about that.
I certainly shared this problem on my first playthrough, though - it's pretty much impossible to avoid leveling past the main questlines (and other sidequests) if you want to do a sizable portion of the game's content. I eventually just resigned myself to it.
Not too keen on resorting to a level scaling solution.
I didn't really want a heavy-handed level scale to make every wolf or bullshit whatever-else become my level and suddenly make every encounter in the game a chore. I like some stuff to be easy (like killing a wolf) but quest stuff to be appropriately balanced. I'm playing on death march already... just seems like they really misjudged the quest levels, idk.
I might have to use it. The game is very easy so far... occasional jank and the 30fps controls kills me more than anything else.
Is there any reason to get the top level upgrade armor other than to get it? I am debating wasting the time to get materials, money etc or just keep plowing along.
Not too keen on resorting to a level scaling solution.
I didn't really want a heavy-handed level scale to make every wolf or bullshit whatever-else become my level and suddenly make every encounter in the game a chore. I like some stuff to be easy (like killing a wolf) but quest stuff to be appropriately balanced. I'm playing on death march already... just seems like they really misjudged the quest levels, idk.
I might have to use it. The game is very easy so far... occasional jank and the 30fps controls kills me more than anything else.
For whatever it's worth, I personally find the game to make more sense with level scaling on - it makes no narrative sense that Geralt gets vastly better at killing wolves or anything else, given that he's this grizzled, experienced monster slayer. Obviously, in some sense it makes no sense that he'd level up at all, but outleveling enemies really highlights this dissonance.
Also, in my own experience level-scaled minor enemies like wolves and random bandits still go down very, very quickly to a somewhat optimized character on death march - the game is still pretty easy on its hardest setting if you're passably familiar with its systems. I would suggest giving it a shot and seeing how annoying you find it. One warning though: they may have fixed this, but if you find yourself getting slaughtered by, say, a swarm of rats, you're probably getting screwed by the level scaling being misapplied, and should just turn it off quickly for that encounter.
For whatever it's worth, I personally find the game to make more sense with level scaling on - it makes no narrative sense that Geralt gets vastly better at killing wolves or anything else, given that he's this grizzled, experienced monster slayer. Obviously, in some sense it makes no sense that he'd level up at all, but outleveling enemies really highlights this dissonance.
Also, in my own experience level-scaled minor enemies like wolves and random bandits still go down very, very quickly to a somewhat optimized character on death march - the game is still pretty easy on its hardest setting if you're passably familiar with its systems. I would suggest giving it a shot and seeing how annoying you find it. One warning though: they may have fixed this, but if you find yourself getting slaughtered by, say, a swarm of rats, you're probably getting screwed by the level scaling being misapplied, and should just turn it off quickly for that encounter.
I played through the vanilla game (about 80 hours) doing just about all the side content I could find, with the exception of Gwent. Over the past week or so I made my way through HoS and B&W, and .. wow. It was so easy to get sucked back into the world, and I loved them both. Of course now I'm done and just want more. I wouldn't mind if they just kept releasing expansions to this one game forever, but I'll be there day one for the next game. I'm definitely going to miss Geralt, but this was a good send off.
I was thinking about starting a new game plus, but apparently the level scaling can knock enemies and equipment up above level 100, which you can't reach? I'm thinking I might just start a regular new game. I haven't played the main game since release, and some unfortunate bugs led me to start a standalone game for the DLC instead of using "my" Geralt, so maybe I'll try again and do a run right through. I might have a problem.
Regis was a good addition to B&W, I think. I enjoyed the quests where he joined in along with the banter between himself and Geralt. The friendship was believable along with the tension surrounding Detlaff, as well as Regis' sadness about the way things turned out. Regis and Geralt sharing a drink knowing they're about to part again, maybe for a long time, and not wanting to go was a powerful moment. And fitting. I'm just rambling now, but it's still fresh and I have a lot of thoughts.
If you want, you can do Hearts of Stone before you finish but you definitely want to wait on Blood and Wine until after you've beat the game and Hearts of Stone.
If you want, you can do Hearts of Stone before you finish but you definitely want to wait on Blood and Wine until after you've beat the game and Hearts of Stone.
Technically it affects a thing near the end of Blood and Wine but it was probably set in stone in your game a while ago. If you are not playing B&W using the standalone option the last story quest won't pop until the main game is beaten anyway.
Technically it affects a thing near the end of Blood and Wine but it was probably set in stone in your game a while ago. If you are not playing B&W using the standalone option the last story quest won't pop until the main game is beaten anyway.
Not that I'm aware, but for what it's worth in most of the fist fights you can force the AI to choose a slow, easily parried punch by staying a medium distance away. Then block, punch back a few times, then hop away to regain the medium distance. AI will throw the same punch, repeat.
Dunno if it works for the fight you mention, but it's pretty foolproof for most others. As long as you don't hug the other fighter, they'll never throw fast punches.
Yeah I finished the main story. Even with the bad ending, my time with this game has been something else. What a freakin ride. And I'm still going because of how fun/interesting these characters and world are. I realize this is that game you think about "if you were stranded on an island what game would you take with you" thing.
Also, I went from Zelda BOTW to this. Probably the two greatest open-world rpgs ever made, I feel blessed. I need to meditate on it more, but right now this game edges out BOTW for me. While the gameplay isn't its strongest suite, the story/characters/world all push this to the top.
Fleet Footed Max (5/5) level makes the sidestep dodge invincible. Saved my ass through the entire last half of the game essentially. I would say its almost gamebreaking but there is a small window which your opponent can get you, but it rarely happens when you are spamming the max sidedodge
I played through the vanilla game (about 80 hours) doing just about all the side content I could find, with the exception of Gwent. Over the past week or so I made my way through HoS and B&W, and .. wow. It was so easy to get sucked back into the world, and I loved them both. Of course now I'm done and just want more. I wouldn't mind if they just kept releasing expansions to this one game forever, but I'll be there day one for the next game. I'm definitely going to miss Geralt, but this was a good send off.
I was thinking about starting a new game plus, but apparently the level scaling can knock enemies and equipment up above level 100, which you can't reach? I'm thinking I might just start a regular new game. I haven't played the main game since release, and some unfortunate bugs led me to start a standalone game for the DLC instead of using "my" Geralt, so maybe I'll try again and do a run right through. I might have a problem.
Regis was a good addition to B&W, I think. I enjoyed the quests where he joined in along with the banter between himself and Geralt. The friendship was believable along with the tension surrounding Detlaff, as well as Regis' sadness about the way things turned out. Regis and Geralt sharing a drink knowing they're about to part again, maybe for a long time, and not wanting to go was a powerful moment. And fitting. I'm just rambling now, but it's still fresh and I have a lot of thoughts.
Thanks for this post. I am in the same situation as you were. Played the vanilla game for nearly 300 hours but never came to try the new stuff which was implemented in the game. Now I think I will do it the same way you did it: Play the addons sepertly and after that start a new game. I never could get settled how I wanted to continue playing (NG+, continue with my save to the addons, start new or whatever), but your way seems like the best idea.