The Witcher 3 Critique

[@guimblon]

Something I love about The Witcher 3 is that quest just exist in the game, they don't spawn only after picking them up. So you may stumble upon a monster, kill it, and after you visit the nearest town you find out it was actually a contract.

[@silvervixen007]

Exactly

[@tbrown5836]

Makes the world feel even more real

[@tink5488]

One of the main reasons why Fallout: New Vegas is regarded so well, because it operates the same way.

[@btchiaintkidding7837]

lots of oldschool rpg games also had that

[@FlamesAndShadows]

Or you doing things out of order. On my first playthough wanted to see everything quickly so had gone to skellige without finishing the Bloody Baron Ciri survey part, not only Yennifer had things to say about this, not meeting Uma resulted in additional quest, they bothered to make original game's and Blood and Wine characters react to Gaunter O'Dimms mark, not wanting to have the black haired one pour her foul mood on poor Geralt made him take over completing tasks of all other Witcher before being asked too, it also mattered. Now doing a 'bad' playthough while also picking 'boring' responses (boy was I pleasantly surprised) and trying to decline quests or stall whenever possible, playing curmudgeon, misanthrope Geralt is just as delightful. XD

[@Pyrokan]

Funny thing about crossbow is: it's actually not your anti-air but anti-submarine weapon

[@taikajorma7276]

Cadogantes Those damn kgb agents in witcher 3

[@greenthunder1000]

Lmfao. Love how monsters that normally kick the snot out of you outside of their element get one-banged in their element

[@cr3d294]

Crossbows are extremely effective against aerial opponents, you have to time it right tho.

[@greenthunder1000]

Chad Reno or just aard them

[@xenon8117]

greenthunder1000 I always use Aard, so much easier. There’s also that siren horn that grounds them.

[@Chedderbob001]

They do explain why the temple is killing mages. Radovid is behind them doing that to soften up the defenses. Which is why he walks in no problem later.

[@Danickas0]

He finances Witch hunters and church of eternal fire its no wonder he walks in no problem when church basically controls the city.

[@adieu1389]

.

[@luiscorreia3000]

i Like this "critique" videos but he clearly just wants to look more intelectual that he actually is.

[@icantthinkofacoolname1308]

@@luiscorreia3000 why do you feel the need to insult him? Yes Radovid motivation should be obvious but i'll let that slide because I think that was a mistake on his part because everything else he said was 100% true . 1) Radovid is supposed to be a military genius but we meet a crazy man who doesn't seem fit to rule or fight and don't even get me started on his rush assassination that decides the winner of the war. 2) speaking of the fate of the war let's talk about that. Dijkstra is a great character and I think he makes for the best king out of the 3 but he should know Geralt wouldn't just let roche get killed the way he did especially how he and ves fought by his side at kaer Morhen. 3) Roche who played such a big role in the witcher 2 with the choice of him and Iorveth doesn't effect your interaction with roche and lorveth who isn't even in the game(But Letho is) Roche is kind of irrelevant in the witcher 3 tbh. 4) Skelligh fate on who rule which has a bias towards Cerys over Hjalmar and Svanrige who first time players wouldn't even know was a choice 5) finding Dandelion just dragged for no reason 6) Emhyr is criminally underused 7) Avallac'h is just a completely different character compared to the books 8) The Wild Hunt who are supposed to be the main villains are dog shit

[@luiscorreia3000]

@@icantthinkofacoolname1308 how is that an insult?

[@ZephyrusAsmodeus]

Finishing the Bloody Baron quest was the first time in my long years of video games where I literally stopped everything and watched him in the tree and just.. thought.. and watched him swing. That was a powerful end to a sad questline.

[@Corrupted]

Same, amazing highlight - I was unlucky and got "that" ending for blood and wine too, hit me almost as hard haha

[@SkreltNL]

@@Corrupted you were lucky to get a cool ending my bro! interreditube told me there were good & bad endings. And apparently i was unlucky/bad/whatever. i had almost all, supposedly, bad endings. And they were amazing. People aint perfect, witcher least off all. Reflected how i wanted to play the game perfectly for me. Trying to be as good as you can, ending with a pile off horseshit for lunch. Which made it really cool for me personally that ciri became a witcher after i basically botched everything. Ooh man it felt so much sweater because all off the horror. Would have never hit home if everything went statistically perfect happy ending spree jeeej!

[@mandrews6282]

That’s one of the best parts about this game. Replaying it now, but my first playthrough the Baron lived because of different choices I made. I actually had no idea the situation mentioned here was a possibility until I read this.

[@bjarkep2126]

5 Y To 4u7u65æ

[@yesneo6613]

Small detail: when I reached a small village called Livendale I decided to try my boxing skills in the "arena". My opponent was the so-called Fishgulper, and the the guy had the nerve to ask me to lose on purpose. I told him that there was absolutely no chance I'd take the fall, and proceeded to wipe the floor with him. As I was collectig the reward and slowly walking away, I remembered what he said in the beginning of the fight: he was fighting for a simple sack of grain. The guy (and presumably his family) were starving. I felt really bad and tried to interact with him and talk, while having 0 expectations anything would happen...I kid you not, they added the option to give him a few coins to not go hungry anymore. I was so relieved at that moment, the devs actually gave me a chance to leave the village with a clean conscience. CD PROJEKT RED, you are perhaps the best studio in the entire undustry!

[@warmlycalculated390]

Your standards are embarrassingly low. If you actually played good RPG's you'd see that games have these kinds of details everywhere.

[@DennisSFors]

@@warmlycalculated390 Which games?

[@warmlycalculated390]

@@DennisSFors Like... every well-regarded cRPG in history? If you're comparing it to action/sandbox games, sure. Like, it's faster to list the few cRPGs that DON'T have far more intricacies than TW3, like the combat-focused Icewind Dale series.

[@Deeplycloseted435]

Warmly Calculated Witcher 3 isn’t an RPG. Its an action game with RPG elements. Ya know, like 75% of all video games released?

[@warmlycalculated390]

@@Deeplycloseted435 100% agree. Don't tell this to its raving loon fanbase, however.

[@LordofBroccoli]

Why wait for Joseph Anderson? I only just discovered your channel and I'm happy to see you're actually doing a critique instead of just fawning over it. I love The Witcher 3, but I dislike how simplified it has become since The first Witcher, with mechanics like alchemy being all but stripped down to one button [herbs become useless after you brew all potions because you only have to brew them once, for example]. It's good to see someone criticize The Witcher 3's weaker points rather than just glossing over them. But regardless, I am loving the video thus far, and you've earned a subscription from me. Can't wait to watch the full Witcher retrospective and the isometric RPGs. Great work, keep it up :)

[@Mephilis78]

So you've played the first Witcher? Did you notice that this guys said the notice boards were a Far Cry ripoff, at the beginning of the video? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Witcher 1 still had notice boards and Witcher contracts. I'm pretty sure Far Cry had nothing to do with notice boards.

[@LordofBroccoli]

Yes, there were notice boards and contracts in the first Witcher, as well as in The Witcher 2.

[@vanyel_etc8695]

@@Mephilis78 yeah not gonna lie, he shat on this game for things that he complimented other games on. fallout 1, for example, he complimented that your skill choices will sometimes lead to inefficient builds, but they're YOUR build. witcher has the same thing. it didn't focus on balance, it instead simply focused on choice. i feel like he spent more time just repping an underdog style mentality to put controversial viewpoints into his video.

[@purvdragon-sensei]

@@Mephilis78 he literally explained how it fits the Ubishit formula, not just Far Cry. He also explains how inexperienced CDPR were, hence why he says it feels like they're just chasing the trend. Why were you so hung up on this argument?

[@DavidHosey1]

@@purvdragon-sensei except it doesn’t copy the Ubisoft formula, at all. This formula has been here since 2007 with Witcher 1, where it had no possible Ubisoft inspiration since Ubisoft was still making fairly original and less watered down games in that sense. Witcher uses a system that integrates this stuff with the main story, making it drastically different. CDPR may have been inexperienced, but if this is considered an Ubisoft formula then Ubisoft should be ashamed that an inexperienced company could make their own system before them on their very first big game lmao

[@DarthFennec]

"Fighting enemies higher level than you is incredibly slow and difficult, if they are a substantially higher level than you." Once you learn the attack patterns, it's pretty easy to chip away at an enemy without getting hit (as long as it's 1-on-1), but even then it takes much too long to take down a very high level enemy because they just have so much more health than you. My second time through the game, I started the Master Armorers quest extremely early so I could fight an Archgriffin before I was supposed to. That allowed me to brew the Archgriffin Decoction, which allows you to deal percentages of your opponent's health, making it actually feasable to kill extremely high level enemies. Completing later-game areas like this was fun at first, but soon I realized it was pointless anyway, as the only real reward was gear that was too high-level for me to equip yet.

[@strangestecho5088]

It is definitely pointless. The game actively penalizes the player by arbitrarily buffing enemies that already have a substantial level advantage. It makes no sense whatsoever, especially considering that loot is already level-gated. Why discourage players from trying to fight high level enemies when they're dispersed randomly into low level zones? Aweful design decision.

[@LOTRFAN33]

@@strangestecho5088 Yep. I also personally hate when no extra experience is given for defeating a higher level monster and also when monsters level with you even if only to a certain point. It defeats the purpose of improving. I know not all that applies to the Witcher 3 btw.

[@Mephilis78]

I know when it comes to other rpgs people like to complain about damage sponge issues at higher levels... Idk, it makes sense to me. You are continuously gaining HP as you level, more or less depending on choice. So wouldn't it also stand to reason that an enemy who reached a high level also would have similarly high HP? I mean if you are playing a role playing game, then the basic premise is that a high level enemy also started as low as you did and had to fight and train and quest etc to get to that level, just like you. That's the role playing perspective. Then there's the "I'm a gamer" perspective. It would say, it's just a set of numbers that was generated to be a damage sponge that can take me out in two hits. I feel like when people review games and talk about "damage sponge", they are deliberately taking themselves out of the game, the same as someone trying to exploit the game is deliberately taking themselves out of the game. I personally cannot think of a single game that doesn't have some kind of damage sponge going on (the exception being games like Call of Duty where every single player, and npc, is a glass cannon that does high damage and has hardly any resistance). This isn't directed at you, more just connecting some dots as to why I never had an issue with it and others do. It's similar with the two different ideas of how PVP should be handled in survival games, or even mmos to a lesser extent. Offline base raiding is absolutely viable in a game like Ark or Conan Exiles from a purely video game perspective, and griefing follows this logic as well. However, there is no reasonable way for a base to be completely filled with sleeping people who can't wake up to the sound of explosions, or dinosaurs etc, if the hypothetical world the developers tried to build existed. Sorry for the rambling.

[@Mephilis78]

@@LOTRFAN33 I can agree with that. Even from the roleplay perspective, if you have a dual with a master swordsman and you wear him down and defeat him, you'll still learn more than you would have defeating another novice.

[@AugustRx]

That's the thing. It's hard as in it's boring and time consuming not like _git gud_

[@mateuszmazur6246]

I believe the most confusing thing you can do with the Witcher 3 is to expect it to be just an open world ubisoft style game or another of the elder scrolls. The Witcher's roots are very different, they mostly reminds of other european series popular in early 2000's like Gothic and Stalker. Those were open or semi-open world games driven by narratives, where the world was just another character in a story. There were just more important things to do in those games than exploration and quest checking. Things that made them truly great and memorable. And those are almost the same things, that made the Witcher 3 the game it is. Dialogues, characters, ambiance, humour, world building, immersion. It was similar in the Witcher 1 and 2. Considering CD Projekt was at the time official polish publisher of both of those series it can't be just coincidence. I believe the Witcher 3 does actually a great job as a mixture between those roots and international trends, but you can clearly tell than the game itself is what it meant to be - Gothic on steroids placed in Andrzej Sapkowski's world.

[@mattmattmatt131313]

It's the "international trends" then that are ruining this game. I'm playing this game right now(on Death March, so glad I did not choose any lower difficulties, I'm afraid I would be sound asleep right now) after hearing all the hype and I am very disappointed. A Gothic game this certainly is not. This game does far too much hand holding to be something similar to a Gothic game. For every good thing it does, there is something else it does that pulls me right out of the game (like walking into a house and looting everything in sight with no consequence at all). The more I play I'm getting far too many "consolism" and "Ubisoftism" vibes out of this game to truly call it a great game. And it's sad, cause I see the potential for a real masterpiece there.

[@sgt.pepper5078]

@@mattmattmatt131313 Excactly my experience playing The Witcher 3. Played for maybe ten hours then got bored. I may try it again and focus completely on the narrative. For me the exploration is a very important part of an open world rpg. I also can't understand the comparison with Gothic. Gothic 2 imo is still the greatest open world rpg i played so far. The world design is far superior to that of the witcher 3. It's quality over quantity. Gothic 2's world is very condensed from a modern point of view. But evey square meter is filled with ineresting and memorable stuff. I still remember most of the world even years after playing it. And that's because exploration actually felt meaningfull and rewarding. There was no minimap and no questmarkers. You got a quest to explore a cave or whatever and you would have to look for it on your own. There were hints from NPC's and from your questnotes so you would have an idea where to look. But you could only find it by exploring the world. And the world was designed in way that exploring didn't felt frustrating. You couldn't get lost because every area felt unique. This made me truly immersed in the game world. Also the character progression felt like a true progression. At the start you were a weak nobody. Even a pack of two or three wolves could easily kill you. You were shit at everything. Most areas where simply to dangerous for you to explore. Compare that to The Witcher 3 where you were pretty much superman right from the beginng of the game, with a giant open world with not much meaningfull or interesting to discover. I travelled through the world on autopilot following a white line on the minmap.

[@gamersinger5118]

Mateusz Mazur It kind of still does try to be a Ubisoft Open World game though. Think about it. You have lots of places by default which are already littering the map (question marks) yet you haven't even discovered them for yourself. So we take that option off since it is a thing then you come to find that every point of interest that litters the map is so small and insignificant and copy/paste that you really wonder why explore them at all. That is nothing like Gothic which I have gotten to play a bit. Really wish a modern version would be released though complete with full controller support, but that is me getting off topic. Gothic doesn't litter it's map with tons of the same old copy/paste areas in the same way. They have a lot of varying places that feel, for the most part, unique in some way. Also I would still argue that a layered dialogue system still completely stomps the much more limited four button prompt system like in The Witcher 3. The Witcher 3's open world design is very flawed no matter how you look at it though. Of course that isn't the only flaw the game has. It has plenty but that can be saved for a later discussion.

[@gamersinger5118]

@Name Name No kidding!? I will definitely have to keep my eye out then. Thanks for the info.

[@Ariz-gp8rj]

Gamer Singer the playable teaser is from a Spanish developer and not from Piranha Bytes, the german developer who made all gothic games. Everything I’ve seen sonder looks very generic and not much like the original experience. Gothic 1 and 2 are still great games and there are many graphic mods that make them look decent enough to still play them today! Actually I replay them almost every year 😂 just get gothic 1 and 2 on steam for a few bucks and I promise you will have a great time if you give it a chance! And don’t let the controls turn you off, they are weird at the beginning but working quite well after getting used to it. It’s intended to play with only keyboard, even if mouse is supported. I don’t really know about the English localization, maybe the dialogues aren’t great because it was developed in Germany and in the early 2000 dubbing wasn’t as great as it is now 😅

[@discojoe3]

Sweet, a new Joseph Anderson video!

[@UniEez]

This is making me more hyped too see Joe's take on The Witcher 3

[@derpthegr8689]

@@UniEez He still doing that? Starting to feel like an old April Fools joke given how long its taking him

[@UniEez]

@@derpthegr8689 yes he is doing it, bit by bit between smaller stuff

[@derpthegr8689]

@@UniEez That's awesome! Looking forward to it

[@dedstring]

This guys a far better critic than anderson, and his "fun" habit.

[@EAfirstlast]

"The escalation is a little sensationalist" Man, coming from 2020, I wish that were true, but boy do things escalate fast.

[@GiygasStarman]

Yet to burn people on the streets at least...

[@fast1nakus]

@@GiygasStarman totally happens in India and Pakistan

[@jacksonhoyt4840]

True

[@zacharyhockett6248]

Seriously dude I never noticed the hair thing. Now I can't stop fixating on it. Thanks for that...

[@carneus]

One quest in witcher: Full story with strong connections to the world/surroundings, makes sense, possibly makes a tangible change in the world. One quest in skyrim: "I hate bears, kill them and bring pelts as proof"

[@runningcommentary2125]

I wish Skyrim quests were like that. That bear-hater sounds like he actually has an amusing personality.

[@MrMasterKaio]

@@runningcommentary2125 you'll find her in Ivarstead

[@FahrenheitEX]

yeah skyrim sucks as well what of it?

[@Vamirez]

Funnily enough this sentiment is not true at all *shrug*

[@fedi1920]

"The greatest things in life are also heavily flawed because to be truly great involves taking risks and pushing limits and exposing yourself to failure the greatness never come from palying it safe and focsing solely on minimizing flaws" Amazing quote

[@MrSmoore77]

the stealing thing is clear enough, you can't steal in front of guards. it even puts up screen prompts to tell you this . stealing in front of NPC in houses is a bit odd but every game in the series has it . its just the guards react in this one .

[@NeverKnowsBest]

There are places you can steal in front of guards though. You can loot things in front of nilfgardian soldiers or the barons men in villages in velen, and you can loot things inside crows perch in front of guards. Blood and wine also has nothing that counts as stealing, although that's partly because they stopped putting lootable containers outside in settlements but there are still places where you can loot things directly in front of guards and they don't react. As for the message that shows, i think i just loot things too fast to see it, but i guess that is kind of my own fault. Anyway its a small thing, but i didn't feel the inclusion of stealing added anything immersion wise and i don't really understand why houses and settlements were made lootable in the first place. There is plenty to loot out in the wilderness and even if npcs did react it doesn't fit Geralt's character in the first place to wander around looting peoples homes. But anyway, thanks for the comments. Its nice to see other people's opinions on the games and the things i say.

[@MrSmoore77]

+NeverKnowsBest I'm just starting 3 again now I'll keep an eye out on how it works this time . I suppose as I found guards react early last play through and it tells you not to I maybe just don't try and steal in front of them as I can't recall getting away with it . nice set of critiques by the way .

[@Sandkasten36]

@@MrSmoore77 Not every game. I haven't played that many games but for example in Risen 1 you'd better be hidden when stealing. Same in Skyrim.

[@robj4078]

Sandkasten36 He said every game in the series. The Witcher series.

[@ciapatyciapacz5354]

@@Sandkasten36 That's unrelated but I wish NKB reviewed the Gothic series at some point

[@bosseyedboo1450]

I love this channel so much! I just get the feeling it's going to blow up sooner rather than later,I love long game reviews I watch tons of them and you're by FAR my favorite!keep pumping out the great content:)

[@NeverKnowsBest]

Thanks, it means a lot that you enjoy my videos so much and I appreciate you taking the time to leave such a positive comment.

[@andrejz8954]

Yeah, the thing I love the most is that there are no volume spikes and everything is so chill and I can use it for my "sleeping" playlist.

[@ryanmartin1043]

It’s weird, I agree with a fair amount of what you say, yet it’s still my favourite game of all time

[@SCDJMU]

you can criticize something you love, amazing right?

[@I_Cunt_Spell]

Your standards are still shite.

[@differentbutsimilar7893]

@@I_Cunt_Spell Good thing taste in video games doesn't matter to anyone worth talking to then!

[@zenmastakilla]

If this is your favourite, you really need to play more games.

[@johnathanera5863]

@@zenmastakilla go ahead. Tell me what's your favorite game. Go on.

[@pneumonoultramicroscopicsi4065]

Lol, i didn't put much attention to notice boards and I didn't even try to go to every question mark, and I didn't do many of those repetitive quests, seems like I played the game in the correct way without knowing.

[@TheDaniCalifornia1]

Dry Saliva the correct way? Nah, the easy way

[@emre30489]

seems like you havent played the game the way it meant to be played and only followed the main quest. the game has some repetitive elements but it doesnt mean all side quests are bad and uninteresting.

[@Piketom1]

As much as I enjoy the roll-playing in TW3, I think the extent to which others do is largely a matter of taste. One of my friends was really put off by playing an established character. I really enjoyed having a deep, canonical backstory for the player character. The trade-off to this is more constrained character creation.

[@fishnutz5196]

I agree. I like to have a character that has set lore background and motives. After playing all the souls games then playing a game like the Witcher you bond to Geralt so much more than anything in a create a character game.

[@FourthExile]

Yeah for me it’s more interesting to get to know someone else rather than a blank slate that mirrors my own personality/character

[@devinmes1868]

I'm much more like your friend. Maybe it's because I'm a natural writer, but I love building/creating a character. This is what roleplaying _is _ for me. To create a character from a blank slate and play as if you are them. Think about what they would do in situations. Try your best to immerse yourself in the role. And it is this reason that I will always refer games like The Elder Scrolls over games like the Witcher. But I still love the Witcher series.

[@packrunnernes]

"I love it when roleplaying games don't allow me to role-play, so immersive!!"

[@A90skidAu]

I really appreciate your approach to game reviewing. You understand how games are interpreted differently for different gamers, and always give a fair analysis.

[@DarthFennec]

"These points of interest may start becoming repetitive." So ... the first time I played, I took it upon myself to visit and exhaust every question mark on the map. I started to really realize how much of a mistake that was when I got to Skellige and found about fifty worthless smuggler's caches dotted all over the sea. I went and checked all of them to make sure, of course. What a waste of time ...

[@xenon8117]

In fairness to them it’s pretty obvious after doing a few in Velen and Novigrad that they are just some wrecks with some stuff. It’s not like you were unfamiliar with them.

[@jmmywyf4lyf]

Turn off the ? Mark icons. Problem solved

[@DavidHosey1]

I did that too, but that’s more of our fault than the game’s. We’re not supposed to go after every marker, we’re supposed to stumble upon them while doing other things. That’s called good game design lmao

[@mariobadia4553]

@@DavidHosey1 even though that's a bad excuse. I mean they are all over the place

[@DavidHosey1]

@@mariobadia4553 yeah you’re right for sure Lmao

[@Wintermist-SWE]

You really nailed it! Sure it had flaws, but there was so much greatness in there one didn't really care.

[@NeverKnowsBest]

Yeah indeed. Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for the comments.

[@_skaadii]

hes more a Diablo kind of Players without dialogues i guess 😅

[@AngelFluff723]

@@_skaadii there is nothing wrong with enjoying either type. Both have pros and cons

[@Kvs-vf9nt]

I agree.

[@Ner0mancer]

​@@NeverKnowsBest You're welcome

[@hawkeye137137]

Ok, I would like to mention some of my counter-arguments on your various comments during whole critique: - You do points of interest if you are interested in doing them. If not, don't do them then. Doing main quests followed by side quests give most experience anyway and there are more than enough loot in the locations quests send you to sustain your playthrough monetarily and gear upgrades-wise. - Quen is so heavily used, because it is the most useful sign to use in non-sign builds due to low sign intensity. Sign builds use Igni, Axii and Yrden as much as Quen if not more. - If you don't like changing oils so often, then wear Wolf gear for its' set bonus which let's you apply 3 oils to a sword which you can apply according to the most common monsters at your current area. Fixative skill also gives infinite charges to applied oils. - You can use potions, decoctions and oils in your inventory during combat. You can equip/unequip them(and bombs) too. You aren't limited to the ones you equipped before the start of combat which show on your quick access.

[@willthrizzal2647]

The world and lore is something special. The characters are written so well you feel as if you know them especially if you've played all three witchers. Each game improves 10 fold.

[@I_Cunt_Spell]

glitcher 3 is ten steps backwards.

[@vincentjohnson7015]

Paulo K you really go to every positive comment and say something negative? You’re literally obsessed.

[@nxamaya]

I'm loving the game currently, and I agree with you completely. I started to get burned out trying to get all points of interest done, and since I'm playing a blade oil based build I feel like I have to explore everything or I may miss a blade oil recipe, guess I'll start googling them from now on, I really want to finish the game and don't want to get bored out of it. Points of interest did give me a break though from the boring quests related to Dandelion, gosh, that sht takes yeaaaaaaaars

[@nathantoy5711]

Using guides is recommended imho, just try not to spoil too much for yourself

[@Antiformed]

The map he shows at 10:13, I am ashamed to say I personally sailed to every single one of those barrels and looted them. Harpies sank my boat twice.

[@pabloangelzarateperez7400]

That Zoltan at 52:33 scared the crap outta me

[@NeverKnowsBest]

Yeah Zoltan does look a bit more like something Geralt would take a contract to kill than be friends with.

[@roughrambo1000000]

I think that the Eternal Flame is more of a look at Christianity from the perspective of the Pagans. The witch hunters' burning and oppression are more akin to the forced conversions of the old days then just the idea of religion bad. Most people probably don't realise that probably and just write it off as CD not liking religion. Also Poland has one of the most strict laws on religion that it borders on oppression to anything but Catholicism. A great example of what I'm talking about is Nergal, the frontman of Behemoth and a known Satanist. There are plenty of articles and interviews of him to prove my point. P.s. like your video, love to see more content like this. Thumbs up and subscribing.

[@johnisaacfelipe6357]

You should know about the reasons as to why 1) Mages are hated in the north, 2) Why Humans hate non-humans (especially elves) to realize why the eternal flame does such things.

[@existentialmoron6334]

I've actually done all the Skeillege points of interest and it was great just taking in the great scenery and music and stopping at some islands and looking around idk I remember having a great time

[@silvervixen007]

Same!

[@thecakeisalie652]

I am a huge fan of the witcher games - especially the witcher 3, and I agree to some of your critiques, but I don't play that game as an "Ubisoft player" would. You never played the sign-alchemie build? :D It is so much fun imho. And I agree this is no real RPG, it is pretty linear - you play Geralt and he is stubborn with a special philosophy. The magic comes when you read the books and feel the heart the developers put into random NPCs. You can feel that the developers loved Sapowskis book and tried to put their heart into it. I love that and I regularly get lost into this small details, journals and ingame books that are enjoyable to read (looking at you, Skyrim :D). And I agree with you - this world is dark, unfair af, this game messes with the player and I love it so much I can't stop replaying it. There is a youtuber that makes videos from of a lot of hidden details after years of playing (xletalis - you are welcome) and I admire this game, that this is possible with this game. What I also love about it, is that the obvious good ending always has a bad taste and the good (rewarding) ending is sometimes the morally worst. I enjoy that so much that this game will make you cry at some points. But you are right, in case of fighting and the roleplay aspect this game is not the best game. To the white frost - there is a nice speculation in fandome if you have the bad ending and assumably ciri died stopping the white frost, you have the ending where you kill the last crown. just have a look at the magic tapestry that the crown made. There is a bird flying away from the tower (of the swallow) on it. Maybe the white frost is a theme that cdpr left open on purpose and if we get some Ciri-related content in Witcher "4", it could be more about the white frost. Or this is the consistent topic in the witcher verse. I mean you had the same problem at the end of witcher 1, where you could assume that the little guy you left at triss/shani is the same as the antagonist and he tried to stop the white frost and failed where Ciri succeded. Normally I don't like the deus ex machina ending but I am still curious if they want to reuse it as a mysterious, world-theatening topic in this witcher-verse. I agree with Eredin though - you don't understand him if you did not read the books. They should have elaborated this ingame and have me the option to hate Avallach more openly :D (but Ciri didn't tell Geralt what Avallch did, so well - he is the unknowing father).

[@htg41]

Wind Waker has same kind of water chests, but they don't bother me the slightest, since they are optional and contain rupees and even some fun stuff like maps etc.

[@Venched]

Waiting for the Blood and Wine critique.

[@NeverKnowsBest]

Should be soon.

[@jamieclarke2694]

The Baron's guards at that Inn, I decided to let them live, then heard the conversation they had immediately after when they sat down... Killed them straight away after that and will never let them live on any playthrough.

[@TheCrayonMaster]

Same! And if you listen to the guys outside, they're all horrible. My first playthrough, I thought killing them would be like fighting soldiers, so I didn't. During my third playthrough, I went after the guys outside first, which has the 3 from inside the inn come outside and fight you too. It makes your arrival at Crows Perch quite different!

[@oRnch199]

As I do enjoy a comprehensive critique for a game that typically gets a blind praise in many respects; I don't think I've heard so many subjective opinions stated as an objective fact in my life.

[@DavidHosey1]

Honestly. This guy talked less about why the Witcher 3 has become a masterpiece and more just talked about his personal thoughts on it. Less of a critique video and more of a complaint video

[@doctorlolchicken7478]

I agree. I noticed that some of the same criticisms were not leveled at other games by the same critic. Skyrim has a quest compass and is very shallow in many respects, but there are a couple of places here where Witcher 3 is compared unfavorably to Skyrim. It’s not that the criticism is unfair, it’s more like he has 30 minutes to cover the dozens of flaws with Fallout 4 so each one sounds really minor, but for Witcher 3 he devotes the same amount of time to far fewer problems, so it makes those problems sound far worse.

[@arniemarnie]

You're channel is severely underrated my friend. I really appreciate your fair critiques, there are too much biased or plain ignorant opinions on youtube. Also thank you for the work you put into this, I love 1 hour+ reviews.

[@DavetheTurnip]

I've only started watching this (I'm about 7 minutes in), but I love it. I'm researching critiques for my own Witcher 3 video, and so far you've made multiple points I needed to write down. I can tell I'm going to find what you have to say through the whole video very interesting. I appreciate your approach :)

[@vergulyanets]

This game made players who got the sad/bad ending cry.

[@thebanished87]

Me...

[@dr_volberg]

10:40 - In the Wine&Blood expansion the developers seem to have realized this also. Some of the markers on the map turn out to be related to quests.

[@sinkler123]

what a great comprehensive review, i loved it. Most of your points surprised me at first, im too used to people blindly praising or hating on this game as u said. But after thinking about it I clearly remember feeling/thinking ~ the same way while playing, so i can only humbly agree. xD made me want to play it again though. ^^

[@Frenchfraeis]

I did admittedly also get quite lucky when it came to the Red Baron's questline. I did end up taking the path in which his wife dies, and when I returned to his castle to talk with him, it was during the night, and also during a storm. Seeing him there at the end hit me for maximum effect and I don't think I'll ever forget the image.

[@TharusPSN]

I consider the Witcher 3 the best game ever made. I wrote the next paragraph before you said remove ? from the map. I'm guessing you didn't know the remove undiscovered points of interest from the minimap removes them from the main map as well giving you a blank slate. You can only have them show up when discovered or never show up at all. When I started the game I went into the HUD and turned off almost everything. I did the major missions like the Witcher contracts and the treasure hunts. While on the way to those locations I explored the major landmarks on the map. This ended up being my favorite open world to explore xD. I am the only one who used the map markers to mark high level monster locations that looked to be guarding good things because I had turned map markers off. My wife though turns the markers on. She gets lost much easier and likes the extra direction. Neither of us removed the mini map. I always used the main map to find the direction of the main quest objective so I figured if i'm just going to open it i'll leave the mini map on. As for your roleplaying comments. When doing the pen and paper stuff I always play pre-made characters. I know their general attitudes then I role play as how I think they would behave or grow based around what I know about the character. This isn't not roleplaying and The Witcher 3 gives you a set template and I think does a good job of giving some varied options that are realistic to the character given. I hate when i'm roleplaying with somebody and they ignore their alignment or just do what they want ignoring the character they are supposed to be. They can also bother me with extreme stupidity where the DM has to cut a lot of slack and make things work when it never should. So i'm not against the sticker rules for how Geralt can lead the story. I do think in the witcher 3 the always full xp mod dramatically improves the game. And I agree also that the detective work should have been made much harder... I would remove the yellow circles and just have you move to the quest area and have it vanish saying find evidence. No circle on the map saying it's in this tiny area. If you go way too far away it gives you the return to the quest location. And make the witcher senses only show up at a much closer distance so you need to look much closer. Items I don't think i'm ever just in the witcher gear. It's good but it's not the best and a lot of the stats are a waste. I always find gear that is better in someway and only find myself in witcher gear near the second half when it's no longer the base version. I always find myself in the nilfgaardian armor and the undvik armor but sometimes I avoid upgrading to keep a good unified look. The over leveling thing is a problem but crafting and shops are too good at gearing you up. The quest items are good if you avoid the other 2. Not as bad as skyrim with it's crafted gear but still a problem. I would make quest rewards much better until late game when crafting overtakes it. There isn't many quest item rewards so idk why they aren't better. The combat is what I am least impressed with. I don't dislike the set up of the skills or feel that the heavy attack is too underpowerd. But I would make dodge, heavy, and light attack take stamina like the souls games. Give multiple light attacks a bigger stamina take away than 1 good heavy so you may get slightly more damage but have less stamina if you choose light attacks. You wouldn't be able to spam attacks nonstop if dodge became unusable momentarily if you over extended. Make timed block a little bit harder to do and use less stamina than dodging. Also make it work on more monsters on all but the big telegraphed attacks. It's all too late though and I feel they are very minor. Many things can be fixed with mods but we'll have to wait for the next game and see how they improve their general game mechanics. *edited for clarity and to fix some of my countless errors*

[@NeverKnowsBest]

I didn't know that about the map. Thanks for the detailed comment, nice to know your thoughts.

[@felix-lucianbejan4939]

In regards to your combat criticisms, I would like to suggest installing the Witcher 3 Enhanced mod, found on the Nexus. It really, REALLY, makes the game a different animal.

[@kissaninja9700]

Witcher3 looks good. It's world is very beautiful. Tho it's mechanics are nothing new and many of them are very bland. There's also the questmarker...

[@yashkaushik6116]

combat is the most dull part. You have absolutely no choice in combat you will be doing the same thing to a particular monster at the end of the game what you were doing in the begining of the game. Zero variety as compared to other RPGs. Also playing as a premade character is your choice so that doesnot make witcher 3 greatest because many people like me like playing with their own characters with different fields like necromancer or a wizard or warrior etc. Its good that you write "I consider" witcher to be greatest because that is completely your subjective opinion and that doesnot make the game a factual masterpiece :)

[@_1More_]

Yash Kaushik except the game is a factual masterpiece....

[@artur6912]

Witcher 3 is a masterpiece not because it's flawless, but because we all still talking about it in 2020 despite it's flaws. It left a powerful impression on players and skyrocket CDP red to a worldwide recognized name for a reason.

[@bboy32167]

I love witcher 3 mostly as an exploration game and for having well written side characters You are right about the rpg elements though the gearing is easy and boring and its too easy to make broken builds even if you put constraints on yourself like never using quin

[@brandonmorin1179]

Enhanced Edition mod improves a lot of the combat and some of the wider gameplay mechanics, definitely worth checking out. Still, I think you nailed it about the RPG and exploration elements. It's part of the reason why, even with the enhanced mechanics of the Enhanced Edition mod, I can't stick with a 4th playthrough.

[@danzigmcnaniel5226]

Concerning the difference in dandelions voice between narrator and character; I always got the impression that he was telling geralts story via the players decisions long after they'd happened.

[@TheCrayonMaster]

If you go back to Graham's hut after his ghost lover kills him in the tower, you'll find a noose hanging in his hut. He was suicidal.

[@ThisJustIn1516]

Here is the thing: there is an option to have enemy level scale with the player. For most of my playthrough, I really liked playing that way. It kept all the end encounters feeling engageing. EXCEPT in the quest where you have to go through the sewers with Triss, and you get swarmed by a thousand level 50 mice. I died to those damn mice more than any other enemy in the game.

[@mattmattmatt131313]

Something strange has happened in video games, where what we call MAPS aren't maps at all, they are GPS systems. A MAP is something you reference against your surroundings, you take what is on the MAP interpret it and then navigate to your destination. A GPS on the other hand shows your exact location at all times, tells you all the info (how far away your destination is,...) and tells you exactly where to turn to get you to where you are going. Both lead to a completely different experience, interaction with the game. Wish more games would understand this.

[@onearmedwolf6512]

Places of power aren't the only exception. You get great crafting and alchemy diagrams at those question marks

[@stanners1714]

You know, when I first started the video (like the first minute) I was concerned this would be a video being critical for be sake of being critical, like a lot of critiques of universally praised games are. But, after hearing all of your points, positive and negative, I can say this could be the most balanced review of this game I’ve ever seen. It’s honest and critical, but none of the criticism is unjustified, and the praise is similar. Good job mate

[@NeverKnowsBest]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.

[@anitelufalemei4200]

Stanners it was trash. First thing he said was the Witcher 3 is not an rpg. So all these other critics are lying and this shitty KZbin channel is better? Geta grip. He can’t even speak properly. No wonder he has no subscribers.

[@UmerFarooq-db5gu]

@@anitelufalemei4200 shut up you shithole. Go fuck yourself and get your fucking ass out of here

[@bonseez]

@@anitelufalemei4200 the witcher 3 isnt an RPG.... the term RPG has been watered down by the streamlining of rpg mechanics for consoles. There is no roleplaying that is possible in the witcher. That doesnt mean it's a bad game, it's a fantastic game, one of the best I've played, but that doesnt mean it's good at being an RPG. His criticisms were all fair, and he still really loves the game. Dont let your love/fanboyism keep you from thinking critically or lashing out before watching the full video:(

[@bonseez]

@Blizard fan I define an RPG as a game that lets you create a character and effectively playthrough the game as that character. I take the name very literal, Role-playing-game. A game that lets you play the role of any character you want and adjusts the game world accordingly and gives you sufficient options to do so. I'd consider skyrim more of an RPG than the witcher 3 personally. The witcher 3 has more narrative choice, but not choice in your character. I could be a lowlife thief in skyrim and complete the thiefs guild, be a psychotic orc mage on a quest for all daedric artifacts, etc. That style of RPG is what i consider "true RPG" for lack of a better term, i know its pretentious.

[@SireDamien]

Amazing perspective! Granted, I turned the HUD off the minute I started this game to avoid the minimap trap, but I DID however fall for the point of interest checklist, and damn, its exhausting. You just sold me on completely turning off the "?"s and just enjoy the game. Well done man.

[@JA-re8gi]

The magic of The Witcher 3 is how every little sidequest pulls you in with it's top tier story telling. It's the only game where I find myself not skipping dialogue.

[@deschain1910]

I still don't understand where people are coming from when they say it isn't a masterpiece. A masterpiece doesn't mean it has to be perfect. The gestalt of the thing just needs to be a masterclass in some aspect. In this case, I think this game is a great exemplar of how to make a game out of a book series, while also giving it its own identity. If this doesn't qualify as a masterpiece, then I don't really understand what would. I probably just don't understand what their definition of a masterpiece is.

[@Aethelhald]

It may not need to be perfect to be a masterpiece, but it shouldn't have so many problems if it is a masterpiece.

[@deschain1910]

@@Aethelhald So, your definition of a masterpiece includes some kind of threshold of problem count that excludes a piece from consideration? Interesting. So, would you say it's a masterpiece now that many issues and bugs were fixed through patching, or would you say it's a masterpiece with certain mods that fix certain issues? I'm curious to know where your threshold is.

[@yashkaushik6116]

I think its very subjective in considering anything to be masterpiece, It might be masterpiece for you but for me its far from it. I had too many problems with this game. But then I am very different kind of gamer than you so its totally fine. But you cannot expect literally everyone to consider any game a masterpiece let alone witcher 3

[@arsalkidwai5175]

@@Aethelhald Eh, I agree with all of the criticisms in this video and even have more of my own, but I would still say it's valid to call it a masterpiece. This game does enough things extraordinarily well and leaves such a strong impression that I think it warrants that title. When you look at other rpgs considered masterpieces, they all have deep flaws as well.

[@deschain1910]

@@yashkaushik6116 I'm coming at it from a perspective similar to Arsal's here. I'm evaluating it similar to how one would evaluate art pieces. Many paintings are considered masterpieces even though plenty of flaws would be evident. Usually this is either due to the painter being considered a master, or the work being particularly impressive in some way. And I mean impressive in the literal sense, as in it leaves a great impression on the viewer (player in this case). I can see how a player may not fully experience the game if they can't get past the game mechanic issues. However, anyone who fully experiences the game, I can't see how the world-building and presentation wouldn't be considered a masterclass in book-to-game adaptation and wouldn't leave a deep impression. In my opinion, this would be THE game I would point to for this process, even given it's mechanical issues.

[@Marius-us1tq]

About the last part.. I understand Dykstra is a likeable characther but hhats from the player perspective. He proved time and time again that he can't be trusted and Gerald knows that. Also i belive Nilfgards victory was iminent regardless who you wanted to win. Gerald may be able to tip the balance a bit but hes 1 man, not an army. Plus " If i have to choise between evil and a lesser evil i'd rather not choise at all " Just my take on the subject...

[@martinmyggestik292]

The mod “Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition” fixes A LOT of the bad things from the vanilla game.

[@grosuciprian]

tried it, still prefer the vanilla

[@chrisragnar1]

Too many trash mobs?

[@matthiasthulman4058]

How do you get it if you already have the old one? Can it be updated, or do you have to buy it outright?

[@gamersinger5118]

Martin Myggestik There is a lot of problems so I seriously doubt it fixes everything as some things like Skyrim can't be fixed unless you remodel and remake the game completely from the ground up.

[@gamersinger5118]

@Victoria Carson Yep. Just another sad case of overrating a video game.

[@hpcarlos2255]

The Witcher III Goty Pc edition Has become my favorite of all time 🎮 Been Gaming Since Atari 2600 & Commodore 64c Day’s 🕹 Storytelling @ it’s Best 🖥

[@Sssniperwolf1996]

This critique about witcher 3 is a masterpiece like the game 😁👌👍

[@alwaysdrunk5461]

What I didn‘t like about this game is the leveling system, the weapon scaling, the crafting system and the skill system. CDPR makes good games, but their perception of stuff mentioned above doesn‘t fit my taste.

[@TheSimonCle]

It never occured to me to run around looking for points of interest. I just followed the quest, and explored a bit when I got bored by that. There is enough stuff there, that you’ll run into something by just exploring. I never played any of the Ubisoft open world games, so maybe that’s why I didn’t feel compelled to ruin the experinence for myself. So happy about that looking back at it now. To me The Witcher 3 was a great open world experience.

[@miked8064]

I was introduced to the Witcher when I was gifted the first game after its release, I loved the story so much I immediately began to track down the books. The last time I played the Witcher 3 - it was the last step of a process that began with reading all the books, then playing one and two first on the hardest difficulty with imported saves from each until finally tackling a completionist play of W3 on the top difficulty. It may not be a perfect game, I don't think a perfect game exists. But personally I love the characters and the story. And that's where I think CDPR did their best work.

[@Stentron]

I think I’m about to embark on this same journey. Played Witcher 3 when it came out but since then I’ve read the books and it makes me want the full experience.

[@Driesownsyou]

Personally I like that you're always overleveled, in the books most fights geralt takes are over in seconds because he's skilled enough to mow down most people he gets in a fight with, and being overleveled made combat feel like how Geralt is portrayed in the books, a highly trained, very deadly fighter who doesn't have problems fighting groups of enemies and defeating them in seconds

[@TheOrian34]

This is crazy how many of the points were the same I noticed during my playthrough. Only exception being the oils, since they added autoapplication since.

[@WhiteWolf-di2nh]

well i couldn't complain about the "detective " thing. it's more like investigation but anyway ... they are supposed to be easy because they are easy if you have all the mutations from trial of the grasses + additional second trial of mutagens which only Geralt undertake and more specific only Geralt survives. It makes sense and it's not an issue because when you are a witcher - it's normal to be abnormal - for example superhuman eyes, super strong senses , sense of smell , superhuman hearing, everything so it IS logical for the detective jobs to be easy cause you just have so much more advantages thanks the mutations.

[@stipser1]

The whole time you talked about the witcher not doing the ubisoft formular well, I kept thinking 'thats not how i play the game'. so when you discribed the 'proper' way very sinmilar to how i always played it spoke straight from my heart. honestly i think immersion alone is enough to justify an open world as an open world game. then again, i'm kind of an immersion ultra. I'm currently loving to finally get to play the game on pc, in part because it allows me to costumize the UI so that the minimap is only displayed with the witcher senses. To me, thats the perfect combination of keeping me from constantly looking at the minimap (and also keeping my UI as minimal as possible, i don't like things in my visuals) and still quickly being able to look up my current objective

[@JesusGreenBL]

Fantastic critique. Can't even remember the last time I watched a YT video this long all the way to the end, so well done. I would love to see more people reviewing games in this style, rather than the very black and white "This game is utter trash and there is nothing good about it whatsoever" or "This game is so good the developer's could literally take a dump on my chest and I'd thank them" style of reviewing we see so much of. Rather than simply trying to pin games to a 1-10 or 1-100 rating scale, I think it's far more important that we look at WHAT a game did right, and what it did wrong. It's only with that information that we can move forward and create even better masterpieces. If you've played it, and fancy going over it, I'd love to hear someone's critique on Arcanum sometime. It's another game I regard as a flawed masterpiece - it was plagued with so many bugs, so many issues, and had so many weaknesses, but the things it did well, it did _really_ well, and to this day it remains one of the most fun RPG experiences I've had. It again garnered many black and white reviews - people who think it's perfect and somehow managed to miss that it had more holes in its game design than swiss cheese, and people who completely dismissed it because of said flaws and never gave it a chance. I'd love to hear if you came to similar conclusions to me on what it did well, and what it most struggled with.

[@NeverKnowsBest]

I have played arcanum and i'd like to talk about it but i don't plan to cover it any time soon. One day though, hopefully. Anyway thanks for the comment. I'm glad you enjoyed the video enough to watch to the end.

[@dontbothertoreply9755]

one of the greatest games I have ever played and I think on my top ten, the reason is because you are treated like an adult, and it treats itself with respect and polishes the most important part. I agree with the same problems, and the lack of roleplaying, and specially the lack of detective work and preparation.

[@farmsalot1233]

This games great because a combination of everything from narrative to side quest to world design pull you in . It's a jack of all trades sort of. Also look at mass effect trilogy, its flawed and dated but for alot of the same reasons people swear it's the best . Imho both what makes a game great is if it influences future games and the games ability to pull you in .

[@carlosIAAC]

The way you describe flaws in w3 in the intro is the way i feel about souls flaws, i just dont like them yet i can understand how my is my best friend's favourite franchaise

[@Liventtt]

There was this little quest on Skellige, don't remember the exact premise of it, but you met a guy, then went to a tavern with him and he died in a fight while there. And even though I dont remember squat about the story in that quest, i remember that it hit me emotionally more than anything seen in, say. Skyrim, for example. Really amazing storytelling in this game

[@frogglen6350]

I love how Velen is supposed to be the player friendly area like white orchard, but randomly has level 30 recommended quests and enemies scattered around that can one hit kill geralt.

[@lilrizq]

I disagree with you about RPGs having to be a "creator a character" type game in order to be a proper RPG. Final Fantasy vii is 1 of the greatest RPG experiences of all time and still stands the test of time even to today's greatest RPGs imo. Doesn't mean the RPG experience is limited because you can't create a character or because Cloud already has a defined back story. The "make your character" aspect is a fairly recent feature in RPGs (don't know exact dates or anything) that is dope of course, but to say because your playing the "Role" of Geralt"... a defined character... limits "Role" playing is a bit of a reach. It's based on a novel... so of course your playing the "role" of the character from the book, but you're "role playing" nonetheless which is what an RPG is all about. In Dark Souls you can create a character but it doesn't add depth or anything extra to the role playing experience imo. I feel like the most important thing to add more depth to the RPG experience is world building... in which games like The Witcher 3 or fallout 3/New Vegas does well. Mainly because there is lore and backstory from books or previous games that the developers were able to implement. FFVII also didn't have choices that change the story drastically(an RPG play style that was also implemented fairly recently) but still turned out to be an amazing RPG experience and was the game that actual turned me into an RPG fanatic. My point is having choices in an RPG doesn't limit the experience and immersion of the said RPG. I feel like bad storytelling and minimal world building (which leads to less immersive experience) can only do that. My only gripe with The Witcher 3 was that the NPCs of the world felt like empty husk with routines and nothing to say. Like their soul purpose is to populate the cities to make it look alive and bustling, kinda like GTA or something. Talking to NPCs and learning about the world through their stories are 1 of my fav parts of RPG immersion. Luckily The Witcher 3 makes up for it through it's story based missions actually being quite interesting, so I forgive CDPR for that minor flaw :) Everthing else your saying is on point... this is the end of my rant, lol. I like the vid by the way. #NewSubscriber

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

Its funny how I prepared for fights in minecraft Twilight Forest more than I did in the Witcher 3. In Witcher 3 I just spammed shield doge and fast attack. In minicraft when fighting the labirinth I made a bow to shoot the boss from outside the place where he spawns, and lost of torches to find him. For the Hydra fire rezistance was very useful. .....

[@benl2140]

Why would you put decoctions in quickslots? Since they last a long time, I usually drank one from my inventory before entering an area where thought it would be useful (the way that the Witcher 2 seemed to want you to use potions). Some of them can be quite useful in some circumstances, so I found myself using a pretty large variety of them.

[@amazur31]

Still, best game of this decade.

[@regriefing1807]

TheAmazur20 rdr2 might take the throne of that statement

[@amazur31]

tbf rdr2 has a lot of bugs, the story is great but i think GTA 5's story was way better @@regriefing1807

[@regriefing1807]

TheAmazur20 gta 5 story nope doesn’t come close to rdr2’s story

[@regriefing1807]

TheAmazur20 but i agree the witcher 3 might be alongside rdr2 xD

[@CrowofYharnam]

@@regriefing1807 meh fucking boring overrated trash no innovation just more realistic and better graphics

[@BURNALUCARD]

I'm not sure if someone has already said this, but the situation in novigrad is so bad because novigrad is in redania and all trust for mages has been lost due to the events in witcher 2 with the lodge of sorceresses destroying what little trust was left between mages and the kings that remain. To the rest of the world the lodge was responsible for all of letho's actions im the service of nilfgaard. Actions that have shattered the northern kingdom's defenses and allowed nilfgaard to make waaaay more progress taking over temeria than they might have otherwise. Radovid and the church, which is centered in novigrad both spread this information like the plague among the populace to destroy the people's faith in mages, which had already never really recovered from the events in the books, namely thanedd. That's why it's so bad in novigrad for mages. The witchhunters and the church of the eternal fire have ALWAYS been against nonhumans, they've only been emboldened by lumping them in along with the mages for not being normal.

[@Bhazor]

I went the other way in terms of combat. Dropped it to the lowest setting and just mashed through the combat one handed to get to the story stuff.

[@tomrichardson4896]

Fantastic critique of one of my favorite games ever. Subscribed to your channel, its fantastic.

[@ToTheNines87368]

My boy Geralt chose neither woman, he’s a man of the road and a Witcher xD also my extreme contrarian urge always objects when I feel like a game is trying to “force” romances upon me.

[@karolinakuc4783]

Good choice. Ladies make a lot of troubles for Geralt and the world. Better to be a lone wolf than a pushover

[@blub232324]

I find it funny how you pronounce the 'CD' in the company name very 'Germanic' whereas in Germany we pronounce it completely 'English' (like 'see dee').

[@LostHorizons0]

You know English is a Germanic language right ?

[@karolinakuc4783]

I guess it should be CD "tseeh deh" not "see dee" because that's how we in Poland pronounce it. But idk some think pronouncing stuff like it is in original language is showing off.

[@perryborn2777]

My favorite thing about the Witcher 3 was going to areas I really wasn't ready for and fighting the stuff there. I killed like a level 30 wyvern at a rather low level, and by the end of the fight I had it's moveset 100% memorized, and could dance around the thing like crazy, and I killed it with a broken silver sword. Also, I really enjoyed hunting down the specific witcher armors Oh yeah, and Gwent

[@kristianstepancic3440]

Don't know about consoles, but playing on PC you can turn off POI in HUD configuration so it's turned off both on the main map and the minimap. You talked about how combat is easy while getting rekt by a few drowners on medium difficulty.

[@PopularZoneGaming]

You went off the rails when talking about the alchemy side of things. You talk about quick slotting decoctions, which is bizarre and unnecessary as they last several hours real time. So why would you quick slot them? Also when you invest in the alchemy skill line you can increase your toxicity threshold, allowing you to use up to 4 decoctions at once, each lasting several hours. Quick slotting them is completely irrelevant, you only quick slot things you need to use during combat. Also in regards to oils you can upgrade them to make them last longer, even making them infinite when upgrading the oil skill 3 times. But even if you don't wanna max out the oil skill, you get more uses when you take the time to craft the upgraded version of each oil, so you're not constantly going into the menu to use them. Upgrading alchemy based skills also increases the potion duration, so you can quick slot healing items, but also go into the menu, use various potions like black blood or whatever and these will last a generous amount of time during a fight. The combat for me became very satisfying when doing the alchemy build, as you get far more out of crafting potions, decoctions etc and can make incredibly powerful builds. It also encourages you to put more thought into crafting potions and what potions, bombs etc you want to use in each fight. There's a skill that gives you a health boost with each decoction used. So levelling your character ina way that increases maximum toxicity threshold allows you to use more decoctions at once which gives you an insane health boost lasting several hours. It's things like that which are beneficial, but feel rewarding as you have to put the work in to get those skills and craft the decoctions etc. The depth is there if you make the effort, but if you wanna keep it simple and focus your build on just increasing sword damage output like light/heavy attacks then thats an option too. It's up to the player what they get out of it really.

[@listerfiend4577]

Music Fiend exactly. I love the options for build optimization and specialization. I feel lots of people that criticize the combat and skill trees just need to play on death march and learn how important specialization, preparation and patience in every fight is.

[@Kvs-vf9nt]

Just do the question marks away. And minimap to small. And put the stipple line off. And I'm on my first playthrough. I really like the game. For me it's great finally a game where decisions have consequences. I wear gear that looks good mostly light or medium armor. Never heavy armor. And I agree with points you said. But still the game's good for me. Edit: I play the next Gen upgrade.

[@CastleOfAvalon]

I get bored of games really fast. My avarage playtime with a game is 10h. I possess 50 steam games and only 2 of them exceed this number. Crusader kings 3 with 50h (which isn't much either) and the Witcher 3 with 250h. I love the story line, the battle mechanics and the many types of monsters and opponents in the game. And this is enough for me to say, that it is a good game. There may be a big open world with many question marks, but that doesn't mean that you have to explore them. I myself didn't. Or rather I did barely some of them. And I was totally OK with it, I didn't felt the need for doing them, they were there and that's it. I was happy with the story and characters I encountered. So much that I replayed it 3 times if I recall correctly.

[@ercaner_buzbey]

Well complementing on story only is the harshest criticism one can make on CD project red as a game design company, it is like saying them they made witcher novels into a good graphic novel but failed on every other aspect as a game.

[@ChairmanKam]

The outcome of the war was written from the perspective of the Polish fate of being stuck between Germany and Russia. They will always show you that the allies you are supposed to count on just want to overpower you.

[@sankharaYT]

Great analysis of the game! I loved it, played it 3 times as well. But I have to admit I turned a blind eye to the flaws you point out... while still feeling annoyed by them. Immersion is important for me and Witcher 3 is good at that. I also like many of the designs of towns, monsters etc. - it's fun to look at. But yeah, the gameplay is flawed in many ways.

[@arsenii_yavorskyi]

damn, I didn't even realize how many legitimate complaints about the game I repressed. clearing the map from those bloody question marks really burned me out on the game, which is a shame.

[@Kevin-jb2pv]

Weirdly, I don't remember the hair problem you were having. Maybe they've patched that out since you were recording for this video, but I remember it staying still indoors.

[@Robert399]

I'm glad you distinguished "open world" and "sandbox" because so many gamers mistakenly think they're the same. A sandbox is a mechanical playground. Games like Just Cause, Prototype, GTA, even Assassin's Creed a bit have mechanics to let you make your own fun screwing around in the overworld. Whereas, games like Witcher 3, Red Dead 2, Elden Ring, the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games aren't don't have much to do in the overworld _outside_ the scripted content. That doesn't make them worse (personally I prefer them) but they are different and I think some games, like Witcher 3, Red Dead 2 & Horizon, waste a lot of effort on a needlessly large & detailed open world because they think they're a sandbox when they're not.

[@franciscoorozco2448]

I disagree with u right at the first point of ir video haha, when u refer to the similarities between ubisofts exploration model u state that the Witcher fails at it but i think they are much better because even though those are the same mecanics over an over,(clearing bandit camps, chasing treasures, etc?), the setting never repeats itself, there are notes that create stories, and everthing un the world makes sense with a Lot of detail on them, and we are just talking about extra activities not Even sidequests, for example, at the south of velen u can wipe out a bandit camps but it turns out they are cannibals.

[@jacek-v9y]

The Witcher 3 must be the least polarising game ever. Basically everyone agrees it's great , the dispute is whether it's the best game ever.

[@I_Cunt_Spell]

Just goes to show how pitiful the state of gaming is nowadays considering glitcher 3 gets so much undeserved praise. It is the game that made me stop playing and enjoying video games how bad it was.

[@marshallbeck9101]

It’s a great a game, for me personally I could never fully get into it, tried multiple times, nothing is bad but nothing really kept me wanting to level up and continue, gameplay loop just didn’t hook me for whatever reason

[@LOTRFAN33]

I finished it but i understand your point. I prefer story driven games like Mass Effect. After my first playthrough of Witcher 3 i forced myself through a second playthrough only to try different choices and love interest. I skipped a lot in my second playthrough and haven't done the expansions again. Just not that motivated. In contrast i replayed ME1 and ME2 and im about to replay ME3. All of which i have played multiple times already.

[@PsiJohnics]

All things considered, which game is objectively the best if not the Witcher 3?

[@ruskij_medved8179]

You can have your opinion, but it's still GOTC

[@flashtras107820]

He said its great with flaws, which summerizes p much everything great in life

[@jasonck9635]

Love your detailed assessment of one of the greatest games of its time , the campaign and side missions are deeper then most , but most of the failures you listed were well articulated !

[@Benjamin-x6z]

the good thing about the witcher 3 is that the bad parts of the game can be fixed for example if you want a better and a deeper combat system you can higher the difficulty which makes you use bombs potions and oils more often and for the open world you can turn the minimap off and hide the POI's for a more immersive exploration kinda like breath of the wild which i heavily recommend doing because playing with the minimap on is the inferior way to play the game exploring the open world and finding points of interest by just exploring and not looking through the ma or minimap is amazing the next gen update gave the witcher 3 the things that it needed to solve its problems. the best way to play the witcher 3 is playing it with the minimap permanently off which you can do by going to the hud section of the settings and with all the points of interest being hidden and with the difficulty being on the higher end

[@DagothDaddy]

The witcher 3 has skyrim problems in terms of hype and the narrative surrounding it. For one it was far far far more accessible than it's previous entries leading to far more casual gamers and non RPG fans playing it leading to it sticking in the mind of people and publishers of their image of an RPG which of course lead to many games specifically Ubisoft and Assassins creed games being cheap knock offs of it. To a point where despite my love of the game and the series when I hear "Witcher style open world." I role my eyes and usually ignore that game as the that instantly tells me the only unique part will be the story something I can just watch online

[@SuddenlySlanted]

The clear difference between skyrims open world and the witchers open world is that skyrim gets you exploring the locations organically. You don't find yourself exploring a nordic ruin to check a box, you explore it because someone came running out of it screaming as you pass by, fighting bandits, and telling you their boss has gone mad over an artiact and not to go in there. It captures the intrigue of the unknown and organically draws you in to wanting to explore the dungeon because you want to know more. The witcher has a bunch of check box question marks to tick off. Yeah the areas are interesting sometimes, but do they offer the same tantalising pieces of lore, story or rewards for all the points of interest? Not really.

[@I_Cunt_Spell]

glitcher 3 is not even an RPG, but a PPG (perk playing game) and a piss poor PPG at that.

[@DagothDaddy]

@@I_Cunt_Spell it does feel like Witcher 3 gameplay and mechanics wise was made with the sole intention of funding Cyberpunk's development costs. It was clearly aimed at a far broader audience and market than Witcher 2 leading to much higher sales but also a large portion of the RPG elements being scaled back. It is still more complex than most modern AAA "RPGs" in terms of those elements but clearly dumber down in comparison to previous entries. I hope that Cyberpunk borrows more from the witcher 2,Og Deus Ex and Morrowind than Deus Ex HR,Skyrim and Witcher 3

[@ARmy2510]

I am the only one who enjoyed question marks on Skellige's wathers. I had a motivation to complete every armour set.

[@pelimies1818]

Three main flaws for me: 1. Almost zero interactivity with the world; feels like movie set. 2. Every 5 minutes you find armor, weapon that is 1% better than previous. 3. Gerald, a superhero, loses to every guard and bandit, because stupid level system.

[@keenanpaul8968]

Open world music and ambience is amazing

[@samueltheprideofafrikarobi9319]

I know I'm late to this party...but... Story and character wise, I find it interesting how the game has always painted your love interests. More accurately, I've always wondered why the game series as a whole even deigned to give you a choice since it seems pretty obvious that the series itself never liked the idea of Yen and just wanted you to like Triss anyway. (outside of the fact that Yen's a thing in the books that the fans likely wouldn't have allowed them to ignore.) Admittedly, I've not read the books, so I can only go by what the game trilogy has presented. But, is it just me or does this series and its writers honestly hate Yennefer of Vengerberg? (Although, given her personality, I can easily see why.) She's completely absent throughout the first two games, becoming a visible character only after the final game's second act starts. And the only times she's referenced before then, it's almost always with an air of "oh...her." Whereas Triss Merigold is ever-present from the beginning of the first game to the end of The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine DLC. And everybody who speaks of her does so very kindly if they're friendly to sorceresses and not racist. Who (if you're truly role playing the game in Geralt's shoes and not giving in to the unnecessary fan-service sex) wouldn't choose to be with Triss over Yennifer? Yen's self centered where Triss is selfless. Yen is egotistical where Triss lacks ego almost entirely. Yen is materialistic and bossy whereas Triss is giving and compromising. Yen can be hateful and even a tad vindictive whereas Triss is kindhearted and forgiving. Putting aside the POSSIBILITY that Triss was tring to emotionally manipulate Geralt into loving her, there's really no competition between these two women game universe-wise. And to add insult to injury NOBODY actually enjoys being around her. Even Geralt. Not only is he seemingly only tied to her because of a badly worded wish when he was trying to save her life...magic he himself would like to have dissolved, but when questioned by Cirilla as to his choice if you romance Triss in the Witcher 3, Geralt outright admitts that with Yen everything was always a fight or a struggle and with Triss there's none of that and that its simply...good. Hell, even Shani, who's completely absent in The Witcher 2, is a more appealing choice overall; even though she doesn't end up staying with Geralt past the third game's Hearts of Stone DLC. The whole back and forth just always felt like a waste of time to me as it was a forgone conclusion that nobody chooses to be with a b*tch for their entire lives; especially if they have a far nicer and sweeter option. It just seemed as if even the developers and writers themselves didn't even care for Yennifer........or maybe she was always an a** hole in the books and Geralt was blinded by "hotness". Regardles, I've played through The Witcher 3 four times. And all four times, without fail, I've chosen Triss. I've just had no interest in Yenn...stuffed unicorn or no. Also...as a side note, I've also always found it hilarious that Witchers all have a cat's eyes, yet as far as the games are concerned, they're aesthetic only as they've never functioned as a cat's eyes would. What's the point of mutating the body to produce feline peepers if you still have to take self-damaging potions to see in the dark? Once again, I've never read the books, but am I the only person whose found that to be a bit stupid?

[@omiorahman6283]

Samuel if you read the books there is 50/50 chance you will love yen She is very popular with book fans, male feminists and guys who like more assertive woman The ladies have variety of selection But male fans are more monotonous in this case And some guys and girls say yen is legit and has soft interior Me personally thinks she is too perfect for geralt and the whole djiinn thing makes it a cookie cutter Disney movie It is up to the player to decide who is best The 3rd game kinda forces you to go with yen as liara from mass effect Yen emasculates Geralt repeatedly and Geralt simps for her so Great choice 10/10 The writer wanted Geralt and yen But the ladies at CD project red saw that 1 players won't like a character like yen 2 it could be because ciri left and yen and Geralt died and geralt looking for yen is a strong character goal to drag the series So yen for simp Geralt Triss for pimp Geralt People have no choice on who they love the book Geralt loves yen they have a family with ciri but players won't have to Stories and games with a emasculated male doesn't sell well So far Ladies want single player types males in fiction Getting him tied down loses the sex appeal that's why you never see male character in relationships in some stories It works some times like goku Or Desmond or Stephan in Vampire Diaries Or Peter Parker with mj Or batwoman with her love interest (though the writers retcon and made her single again) Let's be clear a sizeable portion of fanbase wants Geralt for themselves

[@BURNALUCARD]

The appeal for yen comes from understanding her. The books are required for that, but I will say there is so soooo much more to her as a person than her surface behavior. I would type more but I don't feel like torturing myself because I'm on a tablet, I just wanted to note that.

[@tbrown5836]

I disagree about the liara example, I think the game is very fair with both characters and the reason why yen has more screen time is that they needed her to catch up to triss because triss has about 8 hours a screen time then yen and yen is just more important to the ciri plot because she is basically ciri’s mother