All an all, this is becoming one of my most favorite games to play. I am big on epic RPG games, as well as all around games: strategy, shoot em ups, beat em ups, horror, survivor horror, story based, turn based, etc. At first, I was just coming off of beating Cyberpunk on the hardest setting. Pretty
depressed from the "best ending" of all of the endings, I needed something to cheer me up. I played Dark Souls 3 right afterwards. Again, after a very very depressing conclusion to an epic series. I started to play Witcher 3 and ended up getting hooked on a minigame inside the game called, 'Gwent'; you can gamble in this card game as well as collect all of the cards to complete a quest. I had to step away for a while because of the combat scheme. Geralt makes so many unessary flowery movements that look pretty but leave you wide open to get mauled like a Qi Gong delusional grand master or a 2nd degree Taekondo player getting smashed by a white belt BJJ or novice Muy Thai fighter. "Why can't you just do a quick thrust or slash like you can do in Dark Souls? What's with the crappy delay in rolling and auto lock gives me a terrible view!' I would find myself yelling and annoying my wife far more than when I played truly hard but fair (in terms of combat) fighting games. It was just so hard to get past the frustratingly bad set of moves. I mean if in real life that would certainly confuse a person if they were attacked from multiple angles but we are pretend fighting an AI that experiences no pain and isn't afraid to get hacked to death. So, it just doesn't work well. I had to step away from expecting the combat to be smooth with straight forward attacks and simply have to get used to Geralt galivanting around as opposed to using straight and hardcore realistic or practical swordplay. Once getting over the imbalance of the AI having telegraphing but a quicker attack and having to time EVERY SWORD STRIKE PERFECTLY and having to button mash attacks because the game does not register commands (I am playing on a new Xbox X with new controllers) things get way better. After accepting the sword play and horrible move set the game go exponentially better. Once I did that I was able to settle into the wonderful and haunting world that Witcher 3 has to offer. Not the entirely best scenes out there, but just like lovers and art beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's no Skyrim or Forenza in terms of realistic landscape and CGI art. It's more beautiful in an almost water color of CGI sort of way, the landscapes of the various provinces are simply dazzling and seem to bleed into each other and can be memorizing at times, especially for me the first time I sailed a sloop and it just happened to start to rain. I can imagine if I had some Bose quality headset and several beers might have been moved to tears my precious. The only downside is that the dungeons are blacker than a necromorphs gums on a moonless midnight and considering Geralt is supposed to have mutations that help his vision it makes no sense that I have to stop the game and turn the brightness levels on my TV up super high in order to play the game during the daytime (the TV is 4K able, 3D able, LG, and high quality so it's not due to a busted screen. As Ori Will of the Wisps has me drooling with how beautiful it is every time I play it on that TV). I can't write anything negative about the NPCs. As they are great and I have yet to come across a dull one. The people, almost in every province, are extremely racist or should I say biggoted towards Geralt, usually gritty, crude, barbaric, rude, and both frustratingly and lovingly raw at the same time. You can feel the fear and or frustration seething off of them as you pass by and they flinch or make some highly inappropriate snide remark as they are clearly intimidated by your/Geralt's mere presence. You can feel there is a very complex culture and deep rooted awe for Witchers as random people show a dichotomous disposition towards as whispers spoken just within earshot swing to the extremes of adoration are quiet abhorrent. You get the feeling of hopelessness from the people that slips out of from a life of constant uncertainty, and day to day threats of death by starvation, savage factions, and terrifying monsters. What is both real and lovely and sad is how the children interact with Geralt at times. There are some heartbreaking lines as well as truly hilarious lines and interactions. But, what is the meat on the bones of this game is killing monsters and making money. The monsters aren't Silent Hill demented scary; however, they are reminiscent of a Creepy Pasta sort of scary and there are countless side missions which throw away monsters that have their own lore that you can read about in Gerald's Bestiary, and I'm sure could inspire hundreds of authors to write stand alone series. There are ghosts, living dead, cursed, devils, from land to sea tales within this epic game and I am scratching the surface of the main quest at a measly level 14. Again, there are some European curse words like "sodding" and "bullocks" that don't mean much to someone who grew up elsewhere. I understand that they are vulgar, but still don't see how bloody or sodding is offensive. However, the queen of dirty words and expletives is used generously throughout the game. So, the dialogue is adult themed a lot of the time. But, for all you pervs, you'll be happy that just as some dialogue is dirty, there are many options choices and options that you can choose that will lead to some cut scenes with the fairer s3x that would result in a quick power down akin to a "slam shut" or quick TV shut off if mixed company happens to enter the room suddenly. Heads up, there are some X-rated scenes so don't play it with the volume too loud at times. There is so much more to write about. If interested, mark my review as helpful and I'll put in more work and descriptions. I will probably add more after I finish the game. But, I am taking my time on this one.
...
show more
