Is Witcher 3 a good starting point?

[Mike Isn't Real]

Am I good to start with the Witcher 3, or do I need to play 1 and 2 in order to understand the story?

[CupCupBaconBox]

I think starting with 3 is a terrible idea, but a lot of people do it and seem fine with it, so I guess the story is still enjoyable for them.

I recommend playing all three games in order, then reading the books, then replaying 3 :)

[Moist Butt]

I suggest playing the 2nd one to know a bit about the characters and lore. The choices you made in the 2nd one also transfer over so there's that too. In the end you can get alway with playing the 3rd one from the get go tho. In addition you might not like the previous installments because they play very differently. So it really depends on how much time you have and how much you care about the story/lore. If you care about the story/lore and don't want to invest too much time into it then watch a simple youtube video to cover it.

[Zzz]

Watch 1 & 2 on youtube and play 3rd...

[Moist Butt]

Originally posted by CupCupBaconBox:

I think starting with 3 is a terrible idea, but a lot of people do it and seem fine with it, so I guess the story is still enjoyable for them.

I recommend playing all three games in order, then reading the books, then replaying 3 :)

Lmao that is so much time invested just to play one game tho xD.

[razvedchiki]

if i had the spare hours i would play witcher 1 then 3 an avoid 2.
TW1 has opening, mid and closing it is full game. There is story here that is told and has pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome twist.
TW2 has no opening because it is ending of TW1, mid and no closing because by the end of game Nilfgard attacks and you recover all memories of yennefer and ciri. Literally all you did was to fumble around and recover memory. I liked main story and finding out Letho was BFF but it doesn't change the fact it is basically prequel to TW3.

TW1 has very similar to TW3 theme, art design and characterization. Focus on low key fantasy with down to ground themes.
TW2 literally has you taking part in kingdom war with fantastic battlefield of dead soldiers, assasination of kings, siege of city, literal kraken attacking city and so on. It was bombastic fantasy that didn't fit witcher themes. Game literally opens up with siege of castle with literall ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dragon attacking you.

TW1 had pretty good OTS camera which despite being made in 2008 it was pretty free and there wasn't that much clunk.
TW2 was clunk impersonated. Everything felt floaty and clunky, invisible walls everywhere, delays before every action, hell if you load game enemies could hit your before you could hit them. IT was consolized which was proven later when they released xbox version.

All of those problem stem of from CDPR trying to do bombastic fantasy for muricans and consoletards.

TW3 is like mea culpa. They saw that they ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up in their vision about TW2 and went back to redo TW1 style but this time with just better graphics and backtracking on consoletardation to acceptable levels (mostly due to consoles moving toward PC style controls)

So TW2 despite having some great stuff in it like 2 complete separate campaigns after act1 and plenty of good C&C is just failed experiment.

You can fire up TW1 right now and despite its dated mechanics you will still have plenty of fun toying with alchemy, figuring out who murdered that dude, getting drunk with friends, collecting ♥♥♥♥♥ cards and so on.
Then there is act 4 of TW1 which is basically what CDPR used to make TW3 theme.

[Stelar Seven]

I've only played 3 and there are definately gaps. Places where characters know each other and I'm meeting them for the first time.

If you don't mind reading up on those bits, or just not knowing, it's a great standalone game.

[tmwfte]

Read the books. Play 1. Watch the Hexer movie. Replay 1. Watch the Hexer television series. Re-read the books. Watch the Netflix series. Re-read the Last Wish short story. Play 1 through 3. Read the comics. Replay 2 and 3.

[mxndlz]

I think its not necesery but i would watch a recap of the first two games. And watch the series on Netflix its great and got me into witcher.

[Ogami]

There are some good recap videos on YT that compress the events of Witcher 1+2 and bring you up to speed with the start of Witcher 3.

[Shmurder]

honestly never got into wither 1 or 2, but went riiight into witcher 3. had ABSOLUTLY no problem getting the story. and it was kind of CDPRs job to make sure anyone can pick up and play. you could always just watch a "story soo far" vid on youtube,

[ᛋ_FiendxD_ᛗ]

you can skip the first game and watch the lore on youtube. Second game is pretty amazin, I've finished it 4 times lol. There are many characters and deep lore

[House M.D]

Witcher 1 is a direct continuation of the books, then it's CDPR's plots and ideas with Witcher 2 and Witcher 3.

My opinion, read books then pick up Witcher 1 then 2 and then 3.

Witcher 1 is a bit clunky, so if you don't want to play it, just watch a playthrough

[RitualistEssence]

Both W2 and W3 were the best looking Graphics in a RPG when they released in 2012 and 2015. Witcher 2 destroyed TES Skyrim vanilla graphics and W3 destroyed DA inquisition. However Witcher 1 was released with it being outdated graphics compared to TES Oblivion, i never finished the first Witcher as found thr graphics to be too outdated.

[sigina ✝]

Start with Witcher 2.

[NerV]

Get a friend called Drakefance5! hes my go to Witcher lore guide and has helped me understand a lot about "The Witcher Lore"