Is The Witcher 3 Accessible for Newcomers to the Series?

An LTG writer writes "I know that the Witcher series has vast amounts of lore, sort of like Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls, but I know almost nothing about it. So, in the build up to release I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t be able to connect to the game in the same way."

What follows is an opinion piece that attempts to explore whether or not CD Projekt Red's new game is accessible for those that are new to the series.

[DonkeyDoner]

its easier especially on combat, i cant play witcher 1 because of weird control

[poppinslops]

Yeah, that first game is a tough slog - similar to the first Mass Effect, in that it tells a great story with janky gameplay - still, it's absolutely worth pushing through.

Chapter 4 makes up for all that swampy bulls£@t and the ending is chock-full of important story points... the first game also features quite a lot of characters who don't appear in 'Assassins of Kings', some of whom are almost certain to reappear in 'Wild Hunt'.

And Sapkowski's novels are well worth a read... they give a lot of insight into Geralt's life before Amnesia - particularly his relationships with Yennefer and Ciri.

Apparently the cartoonist who does the comic-style cutscenes is doing a film that tells the books' story... which should be handy, considering the third novel (the Sword of Destiny) is yet to be translated.

[wheresmymonkey]

Sword of Destiny has just come out in English my friend. See. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Swo...

I think they've done up to Baptism of Fire offically but there's some good fan translations about for the last couple of books.

[poppinslops]

HUZZAH! Finally!
You just made my bloody day!

I read 'the Last Wish' after completing my second run at Iorveth's path on 'Assassins...', which seemed appropriate - given Geralt was himself remembering it's stories.

When I started 'Wild Hunt' I immediately realized I knew next-to-nothing about Ciri, so I got 'Blood of Elves' and I've resolved to finish it before I leave the game's tutorial... Poor old Vesimir is getting his arse kicked.

That said, I was planning to forgo the fan translation of 'Sword of Destiny', but now I can read it while I wait for this second patch to arrive... it's set before 'Blood...' so that should work out nicely.

Perhaps it's time I crank up the difficulty... give the old man a fighting chance.

[psman012]

I had never been interested in the witcher series until I first saw clips of this game. I've put only about 4-5 hours in on the PS4 but I absolutely love it so far. I personally think the crafting system and character upgrades are very hard to grasp onto initially, and THE MENU TEXT IS TOO SMALL! Otherwise I have no complaints

[Bolts]

This game is hard as hell. I'm playing on Death March and it's more hardcore than Bloodborne right now.

[Kingdomcome247]

I chose to go with Blood and Bones on my first run. The drowners are far from being the game's apex enemy, but dangit can they be annoying at times.

[Hellsvacancy]

I went with Blood and Bones, I didn't want my first playthrough to be frustrating but I also didn't want it too easy

[Snookies12]

Same here, Blood and Bones is the way to go. It's challenging, but not frustrating. The perfect mix it seems. I mainly just didn't want Meditation to heal me. I preferred just having food as my main source of regeneration.

[Bolts]

Drowners can 2 hit you and they come in huge packs...OMG. It's crazy.

[ChronoJoe]

Choose the right skills and pick your battles and the game's a breeze, even on death march.

If you use Quen correctly you're basically invincible, irrespective of the difficulty you're on.

[Kingdomcome247]

Absolutely I'd say. This is my first foray into the Witcher universe, and I've gotten a reasonably good handle on the game's systems thus far. Albeit I'm only level 7, and about 6 hours in. I'm playing on Blood and Bones, and I learned pretty quickly that patience and dodging are your two best friends in combat. Not to mention preparation.

[carlingtat]

I'm going to find out when I start playing it.

[ninsigma]

Yes and no. While it's a new story line, there are plenty of references to people and events from past games that I have no clue about. Doesn't particularly bother me though. Having fun :D