One of my best friends introduced me to the Witcher series. If I were to get involved with it, it would be for the weapons, spells and to sightsee the world it takes place in. He said it is similar to TES in alot of ways. The only turn off though for me is, there are several parts in the game that are abit too gritty for my taste. It still does look enjoyable.
I wish I could like this game. The lore is decent. The characters, voice acting, and storytelling are amazing. But the combat is terrible.
Against one enemy, sure, it's fun. But against four or five? It just gets tedious and frustrating. I have to spam Quen or whatever it's called because I'm guaranteed to get hit. Dodging is slow and I don't think it has i-frames, making the "quick-step" dodge useless. Healing items barely heal. Am I doing something wrong that I don't know about? I'm not that far at all in the game, I'm only level seven and I just finished the Family Matters quest, but the combat has been pushing me away since.
Honestly if you just went around and talked to people, the game would be much more fun.
It's all about learning enemy combat styles, planning ahead and also inventory management.
By finding the Swallow Potion (Increased Health Regen) early on, fights will be a lot easier to survive, the healing boost is pretty great, especially with different upgrades. White Rafford's Decoction is also great for healing (it's a straight up healing potion), but I don't think it's as easy to find. Food and Drinks are alright between battles but just don't cut it when you get in one.
Quen is ridiculously useful, I played one character that basically only used it for defense later on and it was actually Overpowered as all hell. The Exploding Shield and Active Shield upgrades make it ridiculously powerful so for some extra survivability I'd pick them up.
Studying enemies is extremely important. Check out their entries to figure out their weaknesses and try and utilize them. A lot of early monsters are weak to Igni (Such as Drowners) and pretty much every enemy has a weakness to a bomb that you could use.
Bombs are just the greatest...Seriously dude, try and use them when possibly (especially against Humans) because it makes fights so mcuh easier. Humans are especially easy with bombs because they generally aren't as strong as monsters and group together a lot.
Dodging is best with Light Armour and I always found the full roll more useful (roll backwards to dodge, strike 2 or 3 times with a light attack, roll back and repeat). Blocking is good agianst Humans but mostly useless against Monsters.
The main rule is to never let yourself get surrounded, and take on one enemy at a time (Unless your using AoE attacks). I found that taking them out one at a time while dodging the rest is easiest. That and just generally weakening them all before they got close.
I found the combat to be one of the strongest points actually. It does take a lot of getting used to but it's definitely about being patient, good positioning, and timing your attacks and dodges. The quick dodge is useful since it's faster than normal walking and doesn't interrupt stamina regeneration like the roll dodge or sprinting. It's mostly good for moving just to the side when say a Ghoul or Drowner is lunging at you.
And remember if you're having trouble to try using potions and bombs. I'm not going to bother writing a big guide here but once you get used to the combat I think you'll start to enjoy it a lot more.
I bought TW3 a while back and started on it but I feel it's too big and I won't be able to spend the time on it to fully appreciate and enjoy the game. I felt like this with Skyrim initially but once I took the plunge I enjoyed it and it's been one of the best game purchases I've made in a long time.
TW3 is just massive compared to Skyrim. I really must make an effort and pay it more attention maybe when I get a new PC as it needs high end hardware to shine.
I've gotten a bit farther in the game now, just finished the main questline in Skellige. I think I can make a fair judgement this time. Here is a comment I made earlier today on gamefaqs:
"The game went downhill since the Bloody Baron. The combat and controls are wonky at best, and there really is no character development, except from said Baron (and maybe Dandelion). The graphics are amazing for such a big game. The quests have become tedious and repetitive, and it's starting to become a chore playing this."
Am I wrong here? I think I have gotten a grip on combat, but it is still annoyingly slow. I don't even like the dialogue option feature as much anymore because the characters aren't interesting...
Thank the gods I figured out how to play Gwent, though, that game is fun as heck.
I so wanted to be proven wrong about this game being overhyped. At this point I give it a 6-7/10, for the sexy open world and art design if nothing else. I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but this game was hyped up way too much. All of that said, I still plan to finish it, and I might even go back to play the Witcher 2.
Witcher 3 is really long game and I have enjoyed the story right from the start to end. Only problem with Witcher 3 is that as you´ll get more levels, game slowly becomes easier and easier. There were very few encounters in the late game that made me sweat, even on Death March. The DLC was of course much much more harder.
Most disappointing final boss the first time I played it, I don't think I really took damage from him But until then, the game was pretty difficult, and a lot of fun for me. And to be fair, I was on normal difficulty so it's supposed to be easy-ish
Personally, I don't see it being any shorter, I put at least a solid 100 hours into my first playthrough (Which was, finish just about every quest I could in the early regions and then blitz through Skellige (I REFUSE TO SEARCH THE SPELLING DAMN IT) which I regret because I think it was the most interesting location.
I'm hoping to come back to the Witcher now that I have Hearts of Stone, but I'm going to wait until Blood and Wine before I give it a real playthrough again.
Your enthuasim Trouty touches me. As I feel the exact same thing about Skyrim. You can never get tired of it and there is ALWAYS something to do or learn. I hope you're future campaigns in the Witcher are as memorable and powerful as your opinions expressed on here forever to come. It teaches us a whole lot. Cheers!