Must read before buying. (A brutally honest review)

[Ronin Ghost]

I"ll make this as Short and Sweet as possible. Or as Long and Sour....as necessary

Right off the bat any gamers who has played gems like "Shadow of Mordor" or the "Arkam Knight" series are going to recognize similar elements this game shares.
Such as "Witch Vision" which highlights items and areas of interest in the game to be investigated.

Blocking and parrying mechanics which are reminiscent of the previously named games.
However this title does not share in any way the fluid and nearly blinding polish the other games have in terms of mechanics and gameplay.
Shadow of Mordor plays like an experience. You block, parry, counterattack and perform killing blows in a manner that allows you to literally take on dozens and dozens of enemies at once. And these enemies are of varying difficulty levels, bosses included.

The Witcher III, well, not so much. Granted the games designed to simulate better games. But in practice its just not fun and fails to emulate the polished combat of other titles.

The first hour in game felt like work. Real work.
While trying to follow after one of the NPC's in the opening movement tutorial, I could not stop myself from falling off ledges, overstepping doorways, and bumping into walls.
Dozens of times I had to retrace my steps because the controls didn't allow a smooth approach to a door, or ledge.
The controls were just simply horrendous.

The same goes for combat. The combat tutorial was a chore. There is zero intuition in terms of parrying or blocking, and any enemy with a modicum of skill will have you backing up and cornered quickly.
Once out in the world and fighting actual monsters, your basically just locking on to them and swinging away with next to zero planning or technique.
Unlike games such as Dark Souls, Shadow of Mordor, Arkam Knight, where you feel like every ounce of combat is a carefully orchestrated chess match and balet combination, The Witcher III is soul less and empty combat.
Unlike games such Assassins Creed, where your movement through the world is amazing and fun, this game feels choppy, annoying and tiring.

Overall, this game is so far a big disappointment.
I've gotten over an hour into and without even mentioning how boring the cinematic scenes are, or how mediocre the Graphics actually are, I would recommend a big fat pass on this title.
Sadly, I'm not sure I can even mount the courage to continue playing past my first hour or so to see if it gets better. Because the flaws I've mentioned are not storytelling flaws, or commentary about the game not being fun due to nothing exciting.
They are issues with game mechanics, and handling which in essence are the cause for the game not being fun, or almost unplayable in my opinion.
Things like poor fighting and movement mechanics don't get better deeper into a game. And about an hour is all I needed. In comparison, Games like Shadow of Mordor, Arkam Knight, Dark Souls, etc... All had me fully entrenched and enjoying every second of combat within the first 10 minutes.

My Breakdown: 1-10 with 10 being best, and 1 worst.

Graphics: 6 (Sometimes the graphics inch up to be amazing, but mostly they're just ok)
Gameplay: 2 (Horrendous controls and combat mechanics)
Sound: 7
Cinematics cutscenes: 4 (They have you looking for the "Skip" icon every time)
Story: 4

Overall Rating: 3 (Because sound doesn't weigh as heavily as gameplay)
Unless your dead set on buying and playing this game I'd say STAY AWAY....

[CrankyQuack]

Here is my brutally honest review of the OPs review.

If you read this and believe him then you're as ignorant as he is.

He is clearly new to the game. Has no idea of combat concept in The Witcher series. He mentions games like Shadow of Mordor and Arkam and has the nerve to mention that they similar concepts? They clearly don't lol.

I'm stopping myself there. The was a laugh to read, thanks for the comedy act.

[la_nague]

this game isnt a "wait for counterattack-use cinamatic special move" game likle assassins creed or batman or mordor.

Mordor isnt "responsive", you just wait for a counter attack and then you go into invulerability frames while your counterattack animation plays out.

[Hussar]

I stopped reading after shadow of mordor
2700 steam user rate very positive 85% like the game, go away troll.

[John Boot]

i agree with OP... very letdown

[Teran]

Escrito originalmente por Ronin Ghost:

Saved for Later correction if necessary. (Very unlikely)

So what I got from the review is you're playing with your feet while drunk and because you failed to provide any examples of what "amazing" means your numerical grades are meaningless.

The graphics inch up to amazing on occasion? Ok... what's amazing to you?

Controls? Work fine for me using KBM... but then again I'm not playing with my feet while drunk and high on mind altering drugs so other people's experiences may vary.

Sound 7... seems silly to grade something you couldn't be bothered to mention in your review.

Cutscenes: You are an hour into the game... that pretty much disqualifies your opinion by itself... really it disqualifies your whole review.

Story: Yeah, one hour into the game. Do you write reviews about books half way through the first page?

This is basically a paragon example for why user reviews should be ignored by anyone serious about making a buying decision about a game.

[MyProfile]

None of the Witcher games have been really intuitive or smooth in their controls in my opinion. I did enjoy the first one more than the second... I hope I don't enjoy the second one more than the third because I never even got out of the second town in two.

[Hussar]

Escrito originalmente por Teran:

Escrito originalmente por Ronin Ghost:

Saved for Later correction if necessary. (Very unlikely)

So what I got from the review is you're playing with your feet while drunk and because you failed to provide any examples of what "amazing" means your numerical grades are meaningless.

The graphics inch up to amazing on occasion? Ok... what's amazing to you?

Controls? Work fine for me using KBM... but then again I'm not playing with my feet while drunk and high on mind altering drugs so other people's experiences may vary.

Sound 7... seems silly to grade something you couldn't be bothered to mention in your review.

Cutscenes: You are an hour into the game... that pretty much disqualifies your opinion by itself... really it disqualifies your whole review.

Story: Yeah, one hour into the game. Do you write reviews about books half way through the first page?

This is basically a paragon example for why user reviews should be ignored by anyone serious about making a buying decision about a game.

+1
Some people had 10 hours clocked in just in the first map tutorial area. The side quest are great in this game.

[supertrooper225]

Escrito originalmente por Vanity:

Honest review? Seems more like some random hipster trying to be different.

That is because that is exactly what the review is.

[FTL_FAM]

I'm 40, and embarrassed this guy is "one of us", supposedly.

I, too, have been gaming since the days of the early Apple PCs, Atari, etc.

TW3 is a great RPG.

The combat is intuitive and the controls just fine (if you use a controller vs. KB&M). This game oozes atmosphere and is a nice addition to the RPG genre, warts and all... Not that there are many, IMO.

Also, you're a fool if you pay full price for a new release. I paid under $40, for my full copy off a legit key site for GoG. I never pay full price, but please, keep spouting your "years of experience" because if $1 = 1 hour of entertainment and you surpass that... Then you've gotten your money's worth. And that is being generous considering tons of other hobbies cost WAY more e.g. shooting, boating, golfing, etc.

[-shhfiftyfive]

i would love the combat in this game if it was as responsive and polished as shadow of mordor... but tw3 is not. the review is accurate in terms of the unresponsive controls and the bland combat boiling down to smashing mouse one light attacks and throw in a sign attack on cooldown...

an enemy does a heavy attack on you in the same time frame it takes you to do a fast attack... and you get staggered... and they repeat that.. and you get chewed up in 3 hits... and don't forget it's usually either a big enemy spamming heavy attacks 3x faster than normal, or you have 3 enemies surrounding you spamming heavy attacks while you do what?

why why why why can't you parry or counter heavy attacks from pack mobs???? why on earth are those moves in the game? we might as well remove them and just have roll/dodge and that is it...

nowhere in the tutorial does it say you will not be able to parry or reposte heavy attacks.. and that you will get staggered and raped...

at least shadow of mordor had fun acrobatic ways to avoid telegraphed attacks. this game just has roll and dodge, which is limited by clunky controls and a lock on camera and objects on the terrain.

you try to hold shift to sprint away in a retreat... and instead the fricken lock on camera keeps pulling you back into the fight until you get hit again and die...

[Jason]

Escrito originalmente por -shhfiftyfive:

an enemy does a heavy attack on you in the same time frame it takes you to do a fast attack... and you get staggered... and they repeat that.. and you get chewed up in 3 hits... and don't forget it's usually either a big enemy spamming heavy attacks 3x faster than normal, or you have 3 enemies surrounding you spamming heavy attacks while you do what?

why why why why can't you parry or counter heavy attacks from pack mobs???? why on earth are those moves in the game? we might as well remove them and just have roll/dodge and that is it...

So in your perfect game, every opponent is a mirror image of the protagonist skill and stat wise? Using the same attacks with the same character traits?

How bland would that be. First human I fought had a 2 handed axe. I parried him and he stunned me and did some damage... fair enough it's a freaking axe.

I learn adapted and side stepped his attacks and use combination light and heavy attacks to defeat him. Some animals you can parry some you can't, some will attack twice in a row some won't. This creates a challenge, you cant just YOLO into a new enemy and do your routine and expect to win..... ugh.

[CrankyQuack]

Escrito originalmente por Jason:

Escrito originalmente por -shhfiftyfive:

an enemy does a heavy attack on you in the same time frame it takes you to do a fast attack... and you get staggered... and they repeat that.. and you get chewed up in 3 hits... and don't forget it's usually either a big enemy spamming heavy attacks 3x faster than normal, or you have 3 enemies surrounding you spamming heavy attacks while you do what?

why why why why can't you parry or counter heavy attacks from pack mobs???? why on earth are those moves in the game? we might as well remove them and just have roll/dodge and that is it...

So in your perfect game, every opponent is a mirror image of the protagonist skill and stat wise? Using the same attacks with the same character traits?

How bland would that be. First human I fought had a 2 handed axe. I parried him and he stunned me and did some damage... fair enough it's a freaking axe.

I learn adapted and side stepped his attacks and use combination light and heavy attacks to defeat him. Some animals you can parry some you can't, some will attack twice in a row some won't. This creates a challenge, you cant just YOLO into a new enemy and do your routine and expect to win..... ugh.

We are going to be getting a lot more posts about these types of issues with combat. These are newer players who have no concept of the TW series. They play games like Shadow of Mordor which is a joke in terms of combat and they expect the same thing. Unreal.

[christian]

Impressive, did you play all the game in 8 hours? Wow...

[-shhfiftyfive]

Escrito originalmente por Jason:

How bland would that be. First human I fought had a 2 handed axe. I parried him and he stunned me and did some damage... fair enough it's a freaking axe.

the deserter with the 2handed axe hit me once and it took 75% of my health away and staggered me, even with the extra 500 vitality ability... and while i was being shot by an archer and surrounded by 2 other swordsmen... so your only strategy is to run away and hope to fight them one at a time... that is FINE... but completely boring... it's not a matter of "learn to play" its a matter of "please god why is this so lame".

the drowners stick together in tight groups. you won't be able to pull them apart for 1v1 fights. and they each can hit you fast stagger you. trying to run from them can equal death because the camera will force you to reengage after you repeatedly try to disengage and run away... that is just BROKEN.

look, i'm not some scrub who doesn't like difficult games. this is just not polished or enjoyable.

[Hussar]

Escrito originalmente por DarKinG:

Impressive, did you play all the game in 8 hours? Wow...

8 hours is just the tutorial, looks like he reviewed the tutorial LOL