3043

This is wrong on so many levels:

  1. Witcher 3 is mechanically shallower than pure action or pure tactics games, because it is not its focus. That doesn’t make its combat bad, its combat works fine in the context of the game. It surves its purpose just fine.

  2. The skill tree seems boring to you but in reality it is a pretty good skill tree. Witcher 3 has only 1 class: The Witcher. The Witcher is a 2 handed swordsman with some light magic use, some light alchemy use, and a crossbow. How many skills can you fit in that paradigm? I think CDProject did a good job.

  3. The progression curve is the most wrong cricism you made: The main quest of the game is relatively short, only the side content makes it go up to 100 hours. But what is more important, the main quest is not long for its progression curve as you say. Yes, the story is about visit X, place, then Y, then Z, then find Ciri, then protect protect Ciri, then counter attack the bad guys. If you want to simplify it, it can be described in a sentence. But that doesn’t mean that the main story is simple or should be short: There are many subplots and complications along the way which require a lot more time to resolve.

All i see is a hipster gamer who attempts to throw dirt on the game of the generation because he tries to be contrarian.

3044
  1. If its purpose is to be shallow than yeah, you’re right. The combat however is bad for different reasons. Among them are bad hitboxes, pirouette dancing instead of a more deterministic swing system, an absolute ass of an ability wheel, crossbow that does 10 damage on land and 10 000 in water, onedimensional signs (despite having two modes if you go mage), annoying alchemy management for very small benefit (oils) and loot that is, outside of witcher sets, completely worthless. The overall balance of the game is some real amateur hour work.

2 and 3) The skill tree is boring. You’re limited by 12 skill slots, most of them are passives. To get to third tier you need to invest 20 points I believe? So by level 25 you’ll have seen about half of the game’s content, probably more if you play it in a typical rpg fashion and do all the side content first (which awards significantly less xp) and you’ll have unlocked 8 skill slots if I’m not mistaken.

So let’s look at the popular fast attack build example

Muscle memory - 1% ap gain, 5% faster light attack speed per level, 5 levels total
Arrow Deflection - because we need to climb to the next tier, 3 levels total
Precise Blows - 2% chc and 15% chd per level, 5 levels total
Fleet footed - because we need points to filly the shitty tier meter, 5 levels total
Undying - same as above, 2/5
Whirl - a new ability! 5/5 levels total

And we’ll stop here because FA build luckily peaks at third tier so you don’t have to suffer the slow XP gain any longer and instead squeeze a modicum of fun out of the game’s shitty combat system a little sooner than other builds.

So we’re now 25 points into skill tree and we got: two skills that enhance our main attack (so much variety in it, too!), 3 filler skills and an ability that’s actually worth something. Realistically you’re looking at lvl 20 before you get 25 skill points, assuming you explore and find some of those magic stones that give you fabulous powers. Some people spend up to 80 hours to get to that point.

80 hours to enhance your main attack skill by slowly trickling skill points into the two respective skills, and an ability that lets you spin around. 80 fucking hours. If this was Fallout 2 you’d get a perk point every 2 levels and would be able to pick something that actually changes the combat or interaction with the environment and npcs.

Fwiw, I finished the game at release and I’m almost done with my second playthrough where I only have the last third of Blood and Wine left to wrap it up. Played both times on Death March and tried out all the different builds. I think it’s an amazing game but the gameplay and mechanics are by far its weakest point. For extra measure (since I got reminded of it when I thought about B&W) I’ll throw this in - putting witcher set bonuses on equipment that you get to use in the last 10% of the campaign was a colossally stupid idea.

3045

The NPCs that are just “soul text” were backer rewards. They’re all irrelevant although some of them are entertaining to read anyway. They have a different color nameplate, but that wasn’t really explained so it’s easy to bore yourself reading endless mini-stories looking for side quests that don’t exist. The game also did need an editing pass and they have admitted as such.

3046

You state your opinions as fact. The fact is many of us enjoyed Pillars. If a person doesn’t like reading in their games, then yes they probably won’t like Pillars. If they don’t like tactical party battles they probably won’t like Pillars. I loved The Witcher 3 - one of my favorite games ever, but I’m glad both games exist. Pillars and Wither 3 are such different types of RPG that direct comparisons don’t even make sense.

3047

Actually, at least the text you quoted is not an opinion, it is a fact. PoE has a lot of text exposition while Witcher 3 has more cutscenes. No opinions there…

Yes, many of you enjoyed Pillars. Plenty of people are enjoying Justin Bieber, that doesn’t mean Bieber’s music is above criticism…

3048

If you just compared Pillars of Eternity to Justin Bieber…

EDIT - Why do people feel the need to come into the thread for a game they don’t click with and take a shit all over it? I’ll never understand that. I’m not in the Player Unknown thread or other multiplayer MOBA/Shooter threads and sinking the joint up? Especially when the game you are championing, WItcher 3, is just as beloved here as it is everywhere else?

3049

Some people haven’t learned the concept of “not to my taste” or “not for me” and then proceed to talk about game titles in an objective manner.

3050

Wat? BG2 is not smaller than BG1. It’s much larger. It is less open, however.

3051

My NPC cries every time someone doesn’t read his backstory.

3052

Since you’re blinded by your own desire to be ‘right’, I’ll bold your opinion so it is more obvious to you…

It is an opinion that a well-designed crpg has to show the player things instead of using text.

While sometimes you have decent points to make, you are so full of yourself that you think your way is the only way that makes sense. If you don’t like something, then it isn’t ‘well designed’. I think you need to learn how to express your opinions without sounding like a prick.

There is a difference between stating that you don’t like aspect A, B , and C of a game and stating that it isn’t well-designed.

3053

It’s also unreasonable to expect every CRPG to have the budget or creative freedom Witcher 3 had, or to assume that every type of RPG is best served by full 3D close in perspective.

3054

Planescape:Torment. God what a shit game!

3055

Who made you the judge of what kind of games belong in the current gaming landscape? You are a decent writer but your arrogance makes you intolerable, I get that you have your preferences, but stating them as facts and insulting people with other views calling them hipster gamers makes you sound like a total douchebag.

3056

/shrug. Witcher for me, suffered from horrible combat and movement, to the point where I lost interest in it every time I tried to play. POE suffered from the typical D&D problem of being one shot at low levels unless you managed to pick the exact skill set that would prevent it. In general the balance, scaling, and timing was bad, and felt forced into a combat style that didn’t gel at all with the mechanics of the skill system.

The reality is, both games had huge gaping holes mechanically, that get glossed over by whatever tolerance you happen to posses. Some people love minutiae, some people hate it, there’s plenty of room in the world for every permutation of design. As they used to say in the car business, there’s an ass for every seat.

TLDR: They both sort of sucked in various ways, which doesn’t preclude you from loving them if you have the tolerance for that particular shortcoming.

3057

Switching gears a bit, has anyone seen or played anything of the console version? As dumb as it may sound, I’m wondering if this would be fun to play again on my HDR TV in 4K?

3058

Bieber? That hurts :) Besides just being a little mean, I’m going for;

Ad Hominem
Bad Analogy
and maybe some Straw Man.

See this link below:

http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/skeptic/arguments.html

3059

My less good parties often murdered him for his armor.

3060

You are truly soulless! The curse is real!

3061

Wait, the backer NPCs drop gear?

3062

I didn’t buy a Holy Avenger and Vorpal Sword for nothing. Did I?