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....

[Nightfall]

Początkowo opublikowane przez bc10000:

you moron, u want an easy to play game?

this is suppose to be hard.

..but it is not even hard. You can cheese out pretty much every fight by exploiting the stupid AI.

[Morgan]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Nightfall:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Dr. Forrester:

I tried to take this "review" seriously, but I can't. This smells like an attempt to be different from everyone else, Oh look, the pro reviewers are giving this game high marks, therefore I will give it an "honest review" and tear it down. Look it's your opinion, not really a review. We understand that there is some room for improvement, especially in the area of fluid character movement. But overall the game is pretty amazing. You just have to get used to some of the game mechanics. My personal opinion, is that this game has more in common with Red Dead Redemption, than the other games you cited. And ever RDR has it's share of control issues.

Some reviewers gave this game a perfect score.

It is a good game, but it is FAR from perfect. There are glaring gameplay issues easily noticeable in the first 5 minutes of the game, literally.

I agreed it really shouldn’t be getting perfect scores. It has optimisation issues, clunky keyboard controls and interface. Also hit and miss graphics. I’d class it as a flawed gem that you will really enjoy if you like characters and story in your game. Less so if those aren’t priorities.

[GLiTcHeD]

LOOOOOL a 2 for gameplay for the combat...

This isn't a button spammer. You need to time strikes, await the right moment when to strike or when to distance...

But well, if you don't have patience or insight, that's fine.

[Fancypants]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Nightfall:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Dr. Forrester:

I tried to take this "review" seriously, but I can't. This smells like an attempt to be different from everyone else, Oh look, the pro reviewers are giving this game high marks, therefore I will give it an "honest review" and tear it down. Look it's your opinion, not really a review. We understand that there is some room for improvement, especially in the area of fluid character movement. But overall the game is pretty amazing. You just have to get used to some of the game mechanics. My personal opinion, is that this game has more in common with Red Dead Redemption, than the other games you cited. And ever RDR has it's share of control issues.

Some reviewers gave this game a perfect score.

It is a good game, but it is FAR from perfect. There are glaring gameplay issues easily noticeable in the first 5 minutes of the game, literally. The Witcher became an incredibly popular franchise - such issues should have been addressed.
Seems to me that the stellar reviews are more due to the hype train rather than objective assessments of pro and cons.

I disagree on the "hype-train" comment, but agree that there is room for improvement. Most of the reviews did go into pros and cons. I read quite a few of them before buying, and am enjoying the game immensely. Does it deserve a 10? Probably not, but a 3? That is silly.

[Nightfall]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Graeves:

LOOOOOL a 2 for gameplay for the combat...

This isn't a button spammer. You need to time strikes, await the right moment when to strike or when to distance...

But well, if you don't have patience or insight, that's fine.

No, you don't really need all of that.

Play any of the Souls games, if you want that.

In here, so far, I was able to roflstomp everything by spamming the crossbow from safe range.

[Morgan]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Dr. Forrester:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Nightfall:

Some reviewers gave this game a perfect score.

It is a good game, but it is FAR from perfect. There are glaring gameplay issues easily noticeable in the first 5 minutes of the game, literally. The Witcher became an incredibly popular franchise - such issues should have been addressed.
Seems to me that the stellar reviews are more due to the hype train rather than objective assessments of pro and cons.

I disagree on the "hype-train" comment, but agree that there is room for improvement. Most of the reviews did go into pros and cons. I read quite a few of them before buying, and am enjoying the game immensely.

I think if you enjoy what the game does well it eclipses its shortcomings.

[GLiTcHeD]

Początkowo opublikowane przez I RuBiiX I:

Combat is fine but the movement mechanics outside of combat are horrid.

Well, those are bit stiff, just like any predecessor. But there's worse out there, alot worse. You get used to it, or not. But it doesn't make or break this game to justify the gameplay score. But well, seeing as a total ♥♥♥♥♥♥ judged this game and even felt fitting to plaster a score on it speaks for itself.

Sorry to say that I cannot take this piece of excrement review by a total and utter moron seriously.

"Oh herp-ma-derp, I haz play so musch I knowz ma stuff an' I rate ze story 4 while I haz no f'in idea what it's about or how it evolves. I r smart purson."

Here's a good idea for TC. Piss off and come back when you have an inkling about what makes this game great.

[MICHAEL]

I am few hours into the game and i have to agree with everything you say if you are reading this and u want better RPG or something like that.. go for shadow of mordor its much better i have both and i remember when buying shadow of mordor on release nobody would have thought it will be better than W3 this prove you cant make the best game with just money

this game is good enough to be able to finish it but its not worth it you are only enjoying little things here and there i would say 3/10 is the right score for this game

[Nightfall]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Morgan:

I think if you enjoy what the game does well it eclipses its shortcomings.

Pretty much this. Game is good, I just believe it is extremely overrated due to people liking the characters and story, and thus they are somewhat blind to all the other issues.

Liking the game is perfectly fine, mind you - I will keep playing it and I will enjoy it. Again, I just believe it is not GOTY material.

[GLiTcHeD]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Nightfall:

In here, so far, I was able to roflstomp everything by spamming the crossbow from safe range.

... that's utter ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Even with upgraded crossbows I do 1 damage, 2 or 3 if it's a critical hit.

[Liffero]

Początkowo opublikowane przez joejccva71:

So major review sites give the game between a 9.3 - 10/10 but you're giving it a 3?

Basicly the major sites have been payed off :p or testing the game on a console. this game feels like a bad port. keyboard and mouse dont work for this game..so a 3 is fair decent score. gfx vegitation felt like papermario and looked like a big pile of blury colors. im not impressed at all myself.

cutscenes have good gfx..but once out and back into gameplay gfx is downgraded by far...its a joke.

[GLiTcHeD]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Crge:

prove you cant make the best game with just money

this game is good enough to be able to finish it but its not worth it you are only enjoying little things here and there i would say 3/10 is the right score for this game

Another moron joins the fray.

Because Warner Brothers financed Shadows of Mordor, with a MUCH bigger budget than TW3 had.

Sigh... Stupidity seems contagious...

[Morgan]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Crge:

I am few hours into the game and i have to agree with everything you say if you are reading this and u want better RPG or something like that.. go for shadow of mordor its much better i have both and i remember when buying shadow of mordor on release nobody would have thought it will be better than W3 this prove you cant make the best game with just money

this game is good enough to be able to finish it but its not worth it you are only enjoying little things here and there i would say 3/10 is the right score for this game

Does that game ever move out of Mordor (granted that may be a silly question). I found it far too grey.

[Nightfall]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Graeves:

... that's utter ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Even with upgraded crossbows I do 1 damage, 2 or 3 if it's a critical hit.

It is not ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Yes, it can do 1 or 2 damage. So what? You can still pincushion things until they die without them realizing they are dying, due to the stupid AI. Yes, it takes a while. But yes, it can be done. The gameplay mechanics of this game can be easily broken, that is all I am saying.

[MizManFryinP🍳]

I disagree I loved the game.