The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Review — 5 Years Later

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt released 5 years ago and people are playing more than ever, thanks to the revitalization from the hit Netflix series. Game Enthusiast put 3 editors on the task of reviewing the game 5 years later.

[TheKingKratos]

Loved the story but hated the gameplay

[starchild]

The gameplay was good. Definitely better than what you get in most RPGs.

[jeremyj2913]

What RPGs?

[AspiringProGenji]

Better than most? NOt really. it was serviceable at best and not in the level of Souls games or even Monster Hunter World which have more fluid and responsive combat. Even FF XV combat is miles better

[Frodosmugins]

Yes. I played it when it first came out and couldn't get in to it and I bought it recently on ps store and still can't much as i want to as it's such a beautiful game and great story.

My issue is the controls. Example, when I jump standing still my character moves forward or when i just tap up on the analog he takes 2/3 steps forward. It's really annoying but I will complete the game just for the immersion.

[TheFirstClassic]

Yeah the controls were awkward, witcher 2 felt way better to play even if the animations were simpler

[carcarias]

Don't know if this will help but they added an alternative control style in the options menu. Might be worth a shot.

[Darkwaver517]

What about the gameplay did you hate?

[RazzerRedux]

I loved the gameplay personally.

[bikar]

gameplay 9.4 ?
I would give it a 6

[bouzebbal]

Why is the gameplay not good?? I haven't played it

[AspiringProGenji]

the combat is serviceable. it lacks punch and the ballerina style of Geralt will get you kill a lot because at times he does these unnecessary long turn animations that leave you open to attacks. Blocking is not as responsive and most of the attacks you won't be able to block it unless you are battling humans which will make you spam QUEN (Shield magic) a lot.

I say the game is still worth it but don't expect a mind blowing combat, and needs some time to get used to and master

[Ratty]

The gameplay is quite all right in my opinion. I believe people refer to the combat aspect of gameplay. It's too easy and repetitive for sure but I never got to the point where I find it boring.

I agree it's not the game's strong suit but it's not as bad as those other guys say.

It's an amazing game if you ask me.

[Gatsu]

I never understand why some say the gameplay isn't good. It is so good and easy, what kind of games do you guys play lol xD?

[jeremyj2913]

Could ask you the same thing lol

[Father__Merrin]

Good game but extremely over hyped by pc fans who see this as some kind of quasi exclusive. The amount of times it gets referenced including non stop geralt pics comes off as a weird fetish

Used to have the goty version on ps4 I was a few hours in great game I might get it back if I see it going cheap on pc

[XbladeTeddy]

How is it over hyped? It's won countless awards for a reason. It's used as a reference point for other games of the genre to aspire to for a reason.

Also, PC gamers aren't like console gamers and get a hard on over exclusives as a PC is an open platform so no brand loyalty, it's simply a platform for gaming so you can take your "it's overhyped by PC fans because it's a 'quasi' exclusive" and shove it up where the sun don't shine.

[KyRo]

Tbf the animations are janky, the voice acting is quite bad for the most part and the controls are more tedious to use than they need to be. It's not a bad game. It's just not as amazing as everyone makes out to be either. Much like the Fallout and Elder Scrolls games.

CDPR looks to have come a long way from TW3 though as CP2077 looks like it's addressed all the issues I noted here which sounds good for the inevitable Witcher 4

[MrVux000]

''...so no brand loyalty''

Yes lets ignore countless ''Nvidia vs AMD'' arguments over the pass 20 years...

And yes, PC gamers do get a hard-on when they get certain RTS MOBA exclusives on the PC.

Consoles always had their share of fanboys, nothing new there, but lets not pretend PC platform is immune to those.

[Ddog45]

AMEN brother!!!

[XbladeTeddy]

"Yes lets ignore countless ''Nvidia vs AMD'' arguments over the pass 20 years..."

nVidia and AMD are just hardware fanboys, not about games. PC gamers don't care about exclusive games period. They only care when they get a crappy port because of the devs focusing on console optimization and not optimizing for PC.

[King_Noctis]

“ Good game but extremely over hyped by pc fans who see this as some kind of quasi exclusive”

What are you talking about? This game is available on all platforms day one, so how is it “quasi exclusive”? This game got praised by everyone because it is a great game, not because people thought of it as “quasi exclusive” (whatever that is).

“The amount of times it gets referenced including non stop geralt pics comes off as a weird fetish”

That is because the Witcher IP as a whole is becoming mainstream with the release of the Netflix series. I’d rather have people keep mentioning great games like this rather than games like Anthem, Fallout 76, or GR Breakpoint.

[TheOptimist]

"over hyped by pc fans"

Same can be said for all exclusives just replaced by:

"over hyped by ps4 fans"

You aren't objectively stating what's wrong.

Inb4 gameplay is clunky. RPGs are supposed to be clunky. Witcher 3 might just be the least clunkiest of them all, but it's also the least RPG of them all. I mean if you have played games like Gothic, Risen, Kingdoms of Amalur or more recently games like Elex, then Witcher 3 feels very less clunky. This is not a diss at the game considering the scope and scale of the world and story. There has been no other game with third-person action, such a huge immersive open world, branching narrative (Both main quest and side quests) outside of dialogue choices with real-time combat and an extremely reactive world (That even reacts to many side quests).

The only games that trump the world-building of Witcher 3 are titles like Divinity Original Sin 2 and Pillars of Eternity that are full-blown RPGs with turn-based combat.

[starchild]

You mean the way you guys overhype every Sony exclusive as the second coming? You guys are so damn petty in how you try to downplay everything on other platforms, whether multiplats or exclusives. You just can't stand anything but Sony exclusives getting any positive attention. I think Sony does a good job with their consoles and I really like some of their exclusives, but you guys are just completely over the top with your zealotry and it's been this way ever since I started coming here in 2005.

[MrVux000]

Fanboys aside, but remind me how many times did you state that you will stop visiting N4G since 2005?

And second thing a man would think that in all those years spent on one site, you would learn to ignore the bullcrap PC and console fanboys say?

Just making simple observations here...

[MadLad]

Exactly.

[carcarias]

It holds the record for greatest number of GoTY awards and is only 5 years old so it's not surprising it gets mentioned so much. Same thing used to happen with Deus Ex.

[Gatsu]

How is the game that has won most gaming awards in the history over hyped?

[MrVux000]

I'd rate the difficulty and gameplay much much lower.

[Darkwaver517]

What about the gameplay do you not like that much? In terms of difficulty, that metric is subjective as the setting you're playing at defines your experience. The fairly low grade stems from the fact that the difficulty is sometimes inconsistent. But if you want a Dark Souls Geralt lovebaby, putting it on the highest difficulty will scratch that itch.

[MrVux000]

''What about the gameplay do you not like that much?''

1)Character movement. It was later improved with ''alternative movement'' patch, but it still felt clunky.
2)Softlocking enemies.
3)Balancing issues/ difficulty scaling.The player gets so powerful from skills and gear that it makes the flaws in the combat more apparent unlike In the early game when you have to be super careful the combat feels almost great.
4)Combat animations can feel sometimes really stiff

Now concerning the difficulty, Death March was a walk in the park (comparable to being somewhere between easy-medium difficulty setting of Witcher 1) post level 7.

It was so unchallenging that i even started chasing down overpowered enemies with underleveled Geralt...
You don't need to believe me, here is a 8 minute video i made on my second playtrough, that i also did on my first playtrough. And yes i even tried doing it without decoctions and signs, took me 3 tries.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[carcarias]

Not having a go at you here but I'm not sure what point you're making about difficulty. I watched your vid and you're doing everything right. Potions, dodging, using all buffs and signs correctly. You did everything right and were rewarded.

You want it hard so that the gameplay works how exactly? So that even if you're a good player using all the tools at your disposal you still don't win? You want that Griffin to hit so hard that it goes clean through your Quen and one shots you? Would that make the game better for you?

I mean, people call Souls games hard, right? Yet there are people out there who make it look easy and speed-run them. So if they said, 'Sekiro is a walk in the park', you'd agree?

You're just better than most people at this kind of game and you've used the systems correctly, they way the developers intended. Playing well and using all tools at your disposal = winning. It's how all games work.

You also took three tries to do it without buffs so that, at least, gave you some challenge, no? If you could have won without even having to try then you would have done it first time but you needed three attempts so you must have had to concentrate. If you need to concentrate, the game must have posed some kind of challenge, no? What level of challenge would have pleased you? 5 tries? 10? 20? To what end? Let's also not forget it's a story driven RPG, not a Soulslike.

I've tried to tell people that they have to play the game on DM in order to get the most out of combat but I've seen them get slaughtered again and again just fighting drowners or wolves. There's no point in that for them.

The game might not have been difficult enough for you but I dare say any extra challenge would have been a difficulty setting made for far less than 1% of players.

I'm also surprised you found W1 more difficult, but I guess it's all gonna feel different to different people, so no biggie.

[AspiringProGenji]

Death Martch is only hard in the first couple hours and when you start unlocking skills it becomes too easy. The healing during day time Skill cheapens the difficulty by a lot

[MrVux000]

''You also took three tries to do it without buffs so that, at least, gave you some challenge, no? If you could have won without even having to try then you would have done it first time but you needed three attempts so you must have had to concentrate. If you need to concentrate, the game must have posed some kind of challenge, no? What level of challenge would have pleased you? 5 tries? 10? 20? To what end? Let's also not forget it's a story driven RPG, not a Soulslike.''

There is a reason i used Quen in the video and why it is always recommended to use it when you are underleveled and fighting enemies like Baisilisks and Griffin types, and any respectable Witcher 3 player would know why. The reason why i use it and why it took me 3 extra tries without it, is because enemies like Griffins have an unvisible AOE hitbox when flying away (meaning the game will register it as a hit even if you are a respectable distance away...but that is a bad game design if anything else).

''I've tried to tell people that they have to play the game on DM in order to get the most out of combat but I've seen them get slaughtered again and again just fighting drowners or wolves. There's no point in that for them.''

Ofcourse, that is why The WItcher 3 has gotten quite casualized in comparison to Witcher 1 and 2 to accomodate to those people (which explains the statement i made for W3 difficulty in comparison to W1).

''The game might not have been difficult enough for you but I dare say any extra challenge would have been a difficulty setting made for far less than 1% of players.''

Lets ignore countless of comments from people saying the game has gotten too easy and has difficulty scaling issues.

Hell most of the peoples reasoning behind the statements like ''gameplay is not the strongest part of this game'', is because at most times game feels too easy and/or feels clunky.

Difficulty consistency, meaning that game should remain challenging throughout the game (if one chooses the highest difficulty). So even if i have the best gear, potions and signs i can still have a challenge, and don't need to downgrade my Geralt so that i could balance things out.

The most recent perfect example of difficulty consistency would be the new God Of War, a game that had consistent challenge on it's highest difficulty leaving very little room for error on first playtrough.
Sure the game will get easier since you do unlock some OP, gear later on, but still in comparison to Witcher 3, the game respects my choice of difficulty and my intellegence.

[carcarias]

@AspiringProGenji

Well, I do agree with you about DM plateauing and then getting comfortable and then easy, but come on, 'a couple of hours'? That's a gross exaggeration and I think you it and are just being mischievous ;)

The first two hours of W3? You probably spend that doing the tutorial, talking, riding about and exploring with only a couple of fights here and there, not to mention Geralt also bathes twice in that time, heh.

Look at it this way, it's around a 150 hour game if you do everything, not including expansions. Let's really low-ball it and say it's 100. You're saying that DM is difficult for 2 hours or so and then easy for the other 98?

Most comments I've read feel the game starts to plateau once you reach level 8-10, and then it eventually gets easy around 15, give or take. That's a lot of hours of game time, by which point most games these days, maybe even two or three of them, will have been completed and uninstalled.

On a side note, imo, healing during the day was a wasted skill slot when you can just use potions and then meditate for 1 hour to re-stock :)

[AspiringProGenji]

Death march was only hard in the first area of the game. Even the griffin was easier once you craft the Viper School weapons. After that you keep leveling and the game feels easier. Game is mot balanced right

I also thought that restocking while meditating made crafting and gathering useless. That function should have been turned off in that difficulty

[carcarias]

It's all good, I was simply wondering how hard and in what ways you would have changed W3 in order for it to be to your satisfaction. I assume it can't just be down to how many attempts you need because that's a poor metric. By that standard Genesis Silver Surfer is a master class of difficulty design.

You mention hit-boxes which is fair enough, though that's a design problem. Not that I was fussed since I never really noticed anything too bad.

I didn't want to focus on Quen btw I was simply throwing an example out there because I was wondering how the Griffin fight could have been more challenging for you in a way that would have satisfied without simply resorting to more damage.

I mainly replied because you said DM was a walk in the park compared to W1. I'm still not sure why you consider W1 or W2 harder or better balancing/mechanic wise than W3 but no worries. There's nothing about 1 or 2 that I found more difficult but then people will experience things differently, which is fine :)

A common complaint about W3 is poor, clunky combat but the consensus is also that it's still the best in the series, with people often saying combat in W1 was awful and that 2 was mediocre. I don't agree with them but there you go.

Are you saying that people believe it's the best combat in the series because they found it easier? Surely they could have simply played lower difficulties in the previous ones then, and enjoyed those too?

'Countless comments'? I'll have to disagree with you there. I spent hours on the official forums in the months before and after release and very few people, if any iirc, mentioned a specific decline in W3 combat difficulty compared to the first games. In fact, the reason I replied to you was precisely because it's such a rarity to hear this complaint.

The only difficulty complaint I've often read is that it plateaus, something I myself noticed too and so I agree with you there but I got a similar feeling in the previous games too. If often happens in rpgs.

One mustn't forget that it's a 130-150 hour game so it doesn't plateau and get a lot easier for a long, long time. By the time the combat gets easier than you might like for DM, you'd have already finished and completed several games, depending on type. Mainly I read that it's clunky, as if people expect Bayonetta, Souls or Devil May Cry.

Anyway, thanks for replying.

[MrVux000]

Well at least you disagree in a respectable manner, for which i commend you.

Concerning my ''countless comments'' statement, there are other places besides the CDPR forums upon which you will find those comments and posts.

The game got relatively easy in first 10 hours (give or take) on DM.

Cheers mate!

[P_Bomb]

Late to the party as I’m not a swords ‘n’ sorcery, dungeons ‘n’ dragons, wizards ‘n’ wyverns kinda guy. But this...THIS is pretty frikkin great! Playing on deathmarch and I just beat a lvl 24 boss at level 11 by dodge/oil/attack. So it’s not the deepest combat, but by gawd I’m having fun. It’s just qualitatively and quantitatively good!

[silenthillstrangler]

Man time flies. It take AGES for an anticipated game to come out then before you know it its been 5 years, im here tongueing for the next gen consoles and before i know it theyll be old news.

[WillyC009]

Best game of the generation, by far. I am currently on a 4th play through.