So I just read this book on history of games called “Blood, Sweat and Pixels” and was fascinated by the chapter on The Witcher 3 and mostly how the team put in so much thought and care in every single side quest. And seems that there are a lot of moral decision to be made on each adventure. So I finally decided to give it a try. Got any advice for me?
As other folk said, definitely do get the DLCs. There’s a whole other game in there.
It’s been a while since I last played, and this game IS a masterpiece, no doubt about that, but the one of the first sections can be rough. Iirc it’s gloomy af, there’s some hard monsters in some quests that can be demotivating and the combat/mechanics takes some getting used to which makes the previous point worse. Just know that the game opens up and there’s a whole world out there.
There are tons of side quests which are great, so you should do those but also don’t feel like you need to do all of them. It can be easy to get side tracked and then lose steam and quit on the main story.
Especially because like I said the DLCs are amazing. They are also quite self contained so it’s like a breath of fresh air
Enjoy this amazing game. I’m jealous of you
Tell your friends and family that you love them but you won’t see them for a while
Don’t chase all the markers on your map, most of them are crap and you’ll burn out.
Don’t try to go for both main romance options, the outcome isn’t worth it. Better to do two playthroughs if you really want to know.
If you have the patience for it, try playing on a much harder difficulty. The medium and low difficulty levels don’t provide the same weight. Many systems in the game are unnecessary at lower difficulty levels but higher difficulty forces you to engage in them to get the extra edge over certain encounters.
Higher difficulties force you to engage in potion brewing, reading up on enemies, and making genuinely tough choices morally in order to keep Geralt alive. Lower difficulties remove all the tension from these systems.
Also as another user mentioned, don’t skip any dialogue and engage in the side quests/contracts as they give a lot of unique flavor and nuance to the world and story.
This, this game isnt about fighting, it’s about prepping, it’s about researching your prey and knowing what you need to get the edge on it before you go in, brewing the potions you need and knowing what to hit it with
Oh yeah, I really wish I had played on a higher difficulty for this reason. Especially because one of the most immersive and thematically cool parts of the game for me was the main story section near the end of act 1 where you have to make a blade oil to fight a >!werewolf!< . (Vague wording to minimise spoilers in my main comment.) I really liked this because it made me reflect on what it means to be a Witcher — how the knowledge might be more important than the mutations and the magic.
An additional point to the prepping is that being open-world means that you can potentially go to areas or take on challenges far beyond the “intended” level. On lower difficulties, I didn’t feel sufficiently punished for being audacious in that way, and I think the potential for punishment is part of the fun of the audacity. Especially when getting destroyed like this isn’t the game “fuck you for even trying”, but rather a “try exploring some more, find some new recipes and come back later (or just read the bestiary and find out that you already have the item you need)”
Do the side quests before the main quest as some of the side quests get locked off when you compete main quests.
A note on brewing potions: You only need the herbs the first time you brew any particular potion, after you’ve brewed it once it will get restocked automatically when you meditate.
No advice really, just wanted to say I absolutely love the game and have played through probably 6-7 times now. Very addicting and is especially comforting to play in the winter, with all the beautiful scenery and sounds.
Crafting armor is 100 percent superior to found and bought armor. But if you don’t like crafting, the found and bought stuff will get you through. Also don’t sell or dump old crafted armor pieces, you need them to craft the next tier up.
Dont forget the DLCs, both won awards independently of the base game.
Don’t skip the dialogue, even if you use subtitles and are a fast reader. It sometimes switches from one sentence at a time to whole chunks of dialogue and action getting skipped. Plus, the voice acting is superb, and the physical reactions of characters can convey a lot of emotion.
Apart from White Orchard, you shouldn’t need to complete all side quests in your area before moving on. Particularly with witcher gear, it’s sometimes expected to need to come back at a later time when you’re more powerful.
Others may disagree, but I don’t bother dismantling gear and weapons. I find it simpler to just sell things and buy materials I need from vendors.
Be supportive of your daughter…dont make my mistakes
“But I thought I was helping!”
-Me after the bad ending.
I should have had a snowball fight.
Also a good advice for real life. Another instance of games imparting good advice for real life (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞
Although this isn’t quite relevant before finishing the main game, be sure to pick up both the DLC once you’re finished.
Both DLCs are fantastic standalone stories, super rich in content they could even beat some full priced games. You could play the DLCs before finishing the main game (and there is an additional game mechanic introduced in Blood and Wine), but on a first run I would still recommend playing it after to not get distracted and take away the impact of the main story.Blood and wine is a masterpiece
Put the baby in the oven
Just trust me on this bro
You’ll know when the time is right
I don’t trust you…
That’s a thing everyone needs to find out for themselves.
I try to get everyone to try playing on Death March, no fast travel.
I did my first playthrough like this. There’s so much to see in the world and so many paths to take. Fast travel is neat and all but you may miss out on so much. I took it a step further and also didn’t leave regions/nations until I completed the map. I found more incidental quests by taking a wrong turn or a shortcut over a hill than I did by following the main quests.
On Death March: It’s actually not hard at all and feels like how the gake should be played. What it actually does is forces you to look at the bestiary, learn or guess weaknesses and attack patterns then use potions, spells and pils to fight enemies. It actually feels like playing the witcher as lore accurately as possible. Going to the local herbalist, buying supplies, meditating then hunting down the enemies.
I disagree, it made the enemies become tedious damage sponges and currently making the game less enjoyable.
This isn’t a Souls game. Whatever difficulty setting is one/two below the hardest is an acceptable balance between completely wasting my time or challenging fun.
Interesting! I never really found the combat to be all that tedious or enemies too difficult so long as you kept up with alchemy, oils and gear upgrades.
Obviously, different strokes for different folks. There’s a reason one of the difficulties is story only.
There’s a reason one of the difficulties is story only.
That is something I appreciated about the game, it makes it clear that lower difficulties are valid ways to pay the game
