You are Geralt of Rivia, mercenary monster slayer. Before you stands a war-torn, monster-infested continent you can explore at will. Your current contract? Tracking down Ciri — the Child of Prophecy, a living weapon that can alter the shape of the world.
It's a very tempting thing indeed to make comparisons to Skyrim's vast open semi-comedic world and Game of Throne's unforgiving world, though I guess it gets the point across. It's the good old dirty Witcher world we've come to know and love in the previous games, assuming you're a fan. If you're willing to steep yourself in a single game, mastering its combat and so on, you'll come to love it if you have any taste at all.
Above all, the very most impressive thing about this game is the sheer depth of meaningful quests and things to do in general. At most, there is the occasional random group of monsters or token chest guarded by something or someone. Much like Skyrim, the point of this game isn't to get through the main story but rather to invest yourself in the world. Pretty much every village among the dozens of them has a meaningful quest if not multiple or many, never mind the city of Novigrad. These aren't just fetch quests, they are distinct across the board and none have felt convoluted or as if they were added merely to fill time. It can't be understated how totally this puts to shame every "AAA" game made in the past decade. What would otherwise be forgettable tasks in other games feel as though they were given the attention another game's main story would recieve.
Visually it looks quite good but it is demanding on hardware. Regardless, I have textures as well as shadows on their highest settings along with AA and it looks beautiful even with pretty much every other setting on low or medium. Unlike most other games full of stiff objects, wind makes the world feel alive and storms doubly so. If not for being released on consoles as well, I have no doubt it would perform and look better but given CD Project Red's history they'll probably patch it in due time.
To my surprise, there's a card game called Gwent that I've actually come to like quite a bit. Never before have I so enjoyed one of these types of minigames. If Gwent was on Steam for something like $5, I'd probably buy it without second thought.
It doesn't feel stupidly difficult but you will fail occasionally, however you can pretty much win any fight with enough skill if you really want to but retreating is usually an option as well. Combat feels better in general and the necessity to learn how to fight specific foes all over the place provides practical value to lore. The leveling process is very slow compared to other games but not meaninglessly so, as the devs were not kidding when they said you can go on for something like 220 hours. At a point onward into the early double digits, you'll find you have plenty of contracts and secondary missions.
This is plainly the most impressive game I've played in my life, a 'Game of the Decade' worthy one no less. For this kind of game, it is certainly worth full price and a steal during any sale.
Gameplay 10/10
Quests - each quest is unique and has its own story 10/10
Main story - Wild Hunt - epic bosses 10/10
Gerald character possibilities 10/10
Crafting and alchemy system - a bit wierd you cannot have more potions and bombs at once 9/10
Graphics - its fantasy atmospfere gonna eat ya 10/10
Bugs - from very start almost none and if, very small ones 10/10
Area - huge maps with amazing ambient and nature 10/10
Dont know what to say more, ahh I know :
Game - 10/10
[No Spoilers.]
It's a great story and an okay game. High marks for the emotional connections and writing for most of the main narrative and some of the sub plots. I was truly moved by how the story played out at several points: Two playthroughs with two very different outcomes during and at the end means what I did mattered (for a good chunk of the narrative at least). And I was impressed with the graphics both in game and cut scene. Playing on PC helps that last part, obviously.
Low marks, however, for not figuring out that Witcher 2 combat in vanilla state is not what gamers wanted all over again for Witcher 3 vanilla, and it's even worse in certain situations. Geralt combat is like trying to take a fully loaded truck through the Indy 500 race course. Even in Cat Armor, he's a tank to move and fight with. Armor types should determine agility/speed as well as stamina regen. I found the lack of meditation healing in the harder difficulties to be more annoying than anything. Meditation should be optional for all levels with increased AI and damage from monsters as well as stat adjustments to make Geralt use every trick in his bag, rather than just making it an ad hoc survival sim. Geralt and the camera are too tight during fights and even in smaller rooms/areas. It makes combat an absolute chore, rather than a skills-based joy.
Overall, though, it is a satisfying end to a series (maybe). CDPR gets major props for turning out a game that was not broken day one (At least for me, I know there were and will always be issues for some of us day one.); gave us several freebies throughout the last couple of months; and have been great in using customer feedback to patch the game in a timely fashion. Also included in my rating is the fact that CDPR is a gamer-first, mod-friendly company that will be rolling out the engine for this game and mods are out there in the droves already, even before getting the guts of the thing. Which is the one, true way to allow for maximum player agency in a game. I'm looking at you, Ubisoft.
The game is awesome but not perfect. That said as the first game I've preordered I'm not disappointed.
+The story so far seems amazing and by the looks of it will only get better.
+I'm playing with Polish voice overs since I got used to them in The Witcher 2 and in my opinion (in general) they sound better. Of course that also means I don't have Charles Dance voicing the Emperor :(
+The game is literally a technological marvel. I have no idea how they managed to have that many building without even a single loading screen within the region. Also the loading screens that do exist are often hidden through Dandelion's narrative similar to The Wicher 2's act transitions.
+Combat is in my opinion enjoyable. If someone doesn't think it's great they aren't playing on a hard enough difficulty. I'm playing on "hard" second last difficulty setting. So without major spoilers when I was fighting a member of the Wild Hunt I needed to rely on ALL of my abilities to win. At first I was just mindlessly rolling out of the way but after my 4th or so try I began to use the much more efficient dodge. Counters are tricky and I'm not skilled enough to do it consistently enough at this moment. I usually go down the magic route though so for example in The Witcher 2 I'd just spam Igni or Aard whenever I'd face an enemy. In the Witcher 3 I of course use those two but I also find myself using Yrden and Quen a lot more. Mainly because a lot of the enemies have weaknesses towards Yrden while Quen is just useful for staying alive a little longer.
+The minigames are much better and interactive then the previous games.
+/-Controls are in my opinion very intuitive and functional after I remapped them both within the game (through the options menu) and outside of the game (though my keyboard and mouse programs).
+/-The graphics aren't as exceptional as they were shown in the early trailers but with a simple Sweetfx setting Youtube.com it looks much better.
+/-AI could certainly be better but it is good enough that I do not notice it being bad.
-Alchemy is a bit of a disappointment as I liked The Witcher 2's system where I could stock up on potions and they also lasted for a very long time. The automatic regeneration of potions seems stupid and I hope mods fix it.
One of the greatest RPG's ever, only downside is lacking of a full fledged editor which unfortunately the developer went back on their word to.
Just Perfection (Chef's Kiss)
Looking forward to buying the game once I will be able to run it!
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Simply the best game ever!