This original 2015 Witcher 3 review is still a great read in 2019

Jos

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The Witcher series easily ranks very high, on par with Mass Effect IMO in terms of overall artistic and gaming achievement. Definitely in terms of storytelling.
 
The Witcher series easily ranks very high, on par with Mass Effect IMO in terms of overall artistic and gaming achievement. Definitely in terms of storytelling.

On par? Witcher out shines ME in all aspects. It's a tighter package conveyed by a vastly better story. They both belong in a game collection, but CDPR > BioWare.
 
On par? Witcher out shines ME in all aspects. It's a tighter package conveyed by a vastly better story. They both belong in a game collection, but CDPR > BioWare.

Haven't finished Mass Effect 3 yet and haven't played Witcher 3 properly neither. I'll wait for more patches, DLCs, etc before I'll have a final impresion ^_^
 
I find this not really worth reposting. They've made many updates that fix some of your gripes and not a single updated word on the DLC.
 
I played it for the first time around a year ago. I bought all the expansions so I could get the full first-time experience. There are a lot of confusing and undocumented things in the game, such as the enhanced versions of the same weapon/armor sets. Only after extensive online searching could I figure it out - it was part of the expansion and would be very far into the game. The disappointing part? I bought the expansions, but this content is not until *after* the storyline is done. I lost all interest after the story completed. The expansions just felt like more side quests. It was a waste of money to me. I thought the extra content was more story. :(

Another aspect was there were some storyline choices I didn't quite understand the full meaning of. I hadn't played prior witchers, so they may have been lost on me. I had to research the outcome (cheat) to finally decide which was the right moral choice. While adultery is forced in this game, thankfully I was still mostly able keep my morals.

Thank goodness I was not forced to play gwent though, but a character had to die because I didn't know how to play... that was disappointing.

The combat was well done, although riding the horse with slow mo sword slashes felt like cheating. I could defeat enemies many levels above me. When I was forced with foot combat, I still did well beings I had acquired advanced weapons from the horse combat. I think I played on the Hard difficulty.

Other than these couple issues, I must say it has been a very long time since I was so impressed by a game. It had basically everything - combat, story, and graphics. The extra content purchases felt like a lost purchase. I would consider buying more storyline if it actually uses the extra content.
 
"Whoa, slow down there maestro. There's a Witcher...3?"

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I played it for the first time around a year ago. I bought all the expansions so I could get the full first-time experience. There are a lot of confusing and undocumented things in the game, such as the enhanced versions of the same weapon/armor sets. Only after extensive online searching could I figure it out - it was part of the expansion and would be very far into the game. The disappointing part? I bought the expansions, but this content is not until *after* the storyline is done. I lost all interest after the story completed. The expansions just felt like more side quests. It was a waste of money to me. I thought the extra content was more story. :(

Another aspect was there were some storyline choices I didn't quite understand the full meaning of. I hadn't played prior witchers, so they may have been lost on me. I had to research the outcome (cheat) to finally decide which was the right moral choice. While adultery is forced in this game, thankfully I was still mostly able keep my morals.

Thank goodness I was not forced to play gwent though, but a character had to die because I didn't know how to play... that was disappointing.

The combat was well done, although riding the horse with slow mo sword slashes felt like cheating. I could defeat enemies many levels above me. When I was forced with foot combat, I still did well beings I had acquired advanced weapons from the horse combat. I think I played on the Hard difficulty.

Other than these couple issues, I must say it has been a very long time since I was so impressed by a game. It had basically everything - combat, story, and graphics. The extra content purchases felt like a lost purchase. I would consider buying more storyline if it actually uses the extra content.

The Heart of Stone expansion has one of the best story lines ever. How could u not like that one for story???
 
The Heart of Stone expansion has one of the best story lines ever. How could u not like that one for story???

I'll quote myself in case you might have missed it:

"The disappointing part? I bought the expansions, but this content is not until *after* the storyline is done. I lost all interest after the story completed. The expansions just felt like more side quests."

The main plot of the game was finished. The others just looked like side quests as they didn't have to do with the plot. Once Ciri left, in my mind I felt "it is finished" and lost interest. All of the closing and completion scenes ran.

I saw maybe some of the weapons/armor and started a few quests before I completed the main plot, but it felt tacked on. It was also way above my character level since I completed the main plot just as it became available. This was with doing tons of side quests already. I didn't feel going back to grind the "kill this monster for me" side quests far below my level. No, I don't want to start a new default character for it.

I guess I could give it another try. I'm kind of reset in my mind from the game so it might feel like something new. Thank you for piquing my interest again. I'm still heavy into Civ6 right now. It might be a while. :)
 
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