Now I fully expect to get attacked for even writing that title and I fully expect (and want) people to tell me why I am wrong. I am not saying that TW3 is bad, because it definitely is not bad. However, I just can't understand how it is that people and professional critics pretty much universally call this one of the greatest games ever made and how it is gaming perfection.
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I am very late to the party but that is because I generally will not pay the initial price of $60 for a new game. I picked up TW3 for around $8 a month ago.
To be fair, I am not very far into the game. I only recently finished the Bloody Baron part of the story and I realize there is about 70 or 80 hours more of the game remaining - I really don't think I am going to end up playing all that and here are a few of the reasons why.
Cutscenes and their associated loading times
I like a good cutscene, but I don't like when said cutscenes happen at every friggin available avenue sometimes so often that I feel like I am watching a movie where I occassionally control a dude walking around.
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Some of these scenes are so long that you have to watch a "loading" meter for what seems like an eternity, then find yourself skipping through most of the dialogue anyway (well, this was the case for me - because i wan't to play the game, not watch it.) In some particularly frustrating instances, you wait for the load to a cutscene, listen to it for 10 minutes, FINALLY get released from said cutscene only to return to control your character on to walk down a hallway or something trivial like that and then ANOTHER cutscene gets triggered. It's too much!
I don't pretend to understand why some games take longer to load than others but when you die in this game... OMG does it take ages to load your latest save game.
Combat - is this really all there is to it?
Even the super-fanbois of this franchise will admit that the combat is a bit lacking in this title. While I am certain that it gets more involved later on, basically it is a situation of light attack, dodge, dodge, light attack, use sign, dodge, light attack and so on.
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There's gonna be people that tell me I am doing it wrong or that i need to "git gud" or whatever, but most of the combat is going to end up being close quarters combat since the crossbow is damn near useless (i've heard if you activate the last perk this changes but I'm not gonna do that.)
Parrying is both OP and useless at the same time. I've been surrounded by enemies simply holding down the block / parry button and none of them can hit me, even if they are behind me. Then there are other enemies that you can't parry at all even if they are normal sized (because it is understandable that you couldn't parry a strike from a bear.)
Also, running away in combat is an exercise in frustration. Geralt insists on backing away from an enemy slowly and the only way i've found to get away is to roll away like a lunatic thus activating an acceptable distance to allow proper running.
There doesn't appear to be any option to take on a ranged combat style like mage or ranger, you have to get in there with your sword even if you don't like that style of play.
Item degradation
I get it, this is more realistic because over time any weapon or armor used in combat is going to need some form of maintenance. After a while the effectiveness of your weapons will diminish and eventually become unusable if you don't repair them. This incorporates carrying your own tools or going to a town to pay someone else to do it for you.
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Of course this involves a miniature dialogue between you and the blacksmith that no matter how many times you have been to the same person, you are forced to watch.
Maybe i am being nitpicky here, but I find this entire aspect of the game to be annoying AF.
Leveling up is a gruelingly slow process
Even very early on in the game it takes absolute ages to advance in levels and as you would expect this takes even longer the further you go into the game. Seeing as how getting a higher level is the main method of advancing your skills you have to wait a really long time to advance the "skill tree."
Lots of running around
While the game is meant to be open world and the map is absolutely massive, there is a ton of "get on your horse an go waaaaaaay TF over there!" only to arrive at a house, not encountering a single battle unless you wanted to find one, and then talk to a person inside that house who sends you waaaaaay TF to the other side of the map - of course there are at LEAST 2 cutscenes, some that involve boobies, mixed into this process.
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It is friggin massive and this is just ONE of the areas
The map is mostly filled with nothing too. I'm not saying that there needs to be an adventure every step of the way, but when you charge through for 5 minutes on your horse and don't see anything the entire time - well, what are we really doing here? It isn't as bad as the car rides in Final Fantasy 15 or anything but if there is nothing there, and there isn't ever going to be anything there.... what's the point?
Sure there are easily destroyed bandit camps every now and then and also monster nests that can eliminate with a bomb but these are completely optional for the most part.
The person you are rescuing is much more powerful than you are
A large portion of the game is spent on looking for a woman named Ciri. While I haven't played the entire game she does seem to be the main focus.
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Rather than just talk about her the game puts you in control of certain events that you or someone else is meant to be thinking about or talking about that happened to her. It is at this point that you use the same controls that you would for Geralt (the Witcher you normally control) only to discover that she is significantly stronger than you are. She faces the same enemies that you struggle with and dispatches them with relative ease. Who's rescuing who here? She was so much more powerful that it makes you a bit disappointed to return to Geralt.
Load times
I touched base on this before but one of my biggest motivations to avoid dying in combat is not fear of game progress (since you can save pretty much anytime you want as long as you aren't currently in combat.) I don't want to die because if I do i am going to be presented with a loading screen that lasts long enough for me to make a sandwich and eat half of it before it is done.
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go ahead and get used to looking at this... unless of course you can promise to never die
Summary
This game, isn't as great as people say it is in my opinion.So go ahead and tear into me because I know that this game is revered and loved by a vast majority of the gaming community and I guess I'll just have to be one of those people that doesn't get it. I don't feel terribly compelled to carry on in my quest because if I want to watch a movie, i'll do that. On a side note: The voice acting is supurb in this game, but that doesn't change the fact that i don't want a constant narrative - I want to play a game.... because i bought a game.
So far the game is really disappointing to me because i was so excited after hearing how "gaga" my friends are about it. Tell me what I'm doing wrong folks!