So I just read this book on history of games called “Blood, Sweat and Pixels” and was fascinated by the chapter on The Witcher 3 and mostly how the team put in so much thought and care in every single side quest. And seems that there are a lot of moral decision to be made on each adventure. So I finally decided to give it a try. Got any advice for me?

  • Anderenortsfalsch@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    2·
    10 minutes ago

    In the first region in the midst of the first small village two neighbors are arguing. They are not giving a quest, they just talk to each other and listening gives such an insight in how war can turn people against each other that have been living peacfully and been friends for years.

    Do the side quests and take your time with the dialogue. Some of these stories are impactful, mostly sad and worth your time. If you are told that you should talk to people to find out more about your contract, do it. Some of these quests can be done with only talking to one person but you want to get the information from everyone and especially their side of the story.

    Do not look up the outcome of decisions. Make your decisions and live with them at least at your first playthrough. Most decisions have impact and seeing the outcome unfold makes this game special and yes often there is no “good choice” - that’s war for you.

    Last: Buy every Gwent card you can get your hands on and play with everyone you can. If you can’t win just come back later with better cards and obliterate them - it will feel goooood!

    The DLC’s are a must.

    Try out difficulty settings - there is a sweet spot for most people somewhere but what it will be for you no one can know, but it would be a shame if you play through the game not having found the difficulty that fits you best because you “always play on <insert difficulty>”.

    Have fun, I wish I could play this game for the first time again.

  • WolfLink@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    13·
    5 hours ago

    If you do every sidequest you will be massively overleveled.

    If you go to an area where “you are not supposed to go yet” you’ll be massively under leveled.

    I’ve heard there are mods that just even everything out so you can play the game at your own pace.

    • lemminger [he/they] @lemm.eeEnglish
      3·
      46 minutes ago

      they actually sorted that out pretty nicely with updates. the pace is quite even since they published the next-Gen rework. the problem with being under-leveled still persists though.

  • EarWorm@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    4 hours ago

    No not use any DLC equipment. While the combat in the game is far from perfect, using the viper gear (I think that’s what it’s called) ruins it further.

  • bi_tux@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    6 hours ago

    beware the botchling (don’t progress to far to fast, level up or things like the botchling will be frustrating)

  • stardust@lemmy.caEnglish
    131·
    10 hours ago

    First few hours can seem slow with the early map not being the most exciting, but if you make it through the huge world opens up and things start getting much more exciting.

    When I played I printed out a side quest list to try to experience as much of the game a possible and checked off ones I completed. Side quests are amazing and better than the main quest as opposed to being the usual fetch quest with a weak or no story.

    • pflanzenregal@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 hour ago

      Good advice. It took me two or three attempts to finally get hooked by the game. But it was totally worth it.

      • stardust@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        7 minutes ago

        Yeah, the first map area is small and kind of lifeless and I think like 3 hours long? Some don’t give a game longer than that, but the entire game took like 300 hours for me to finish so it was very small portion of a very long dense game.

    • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      11 hours ago

      I’m nearly finishing up The Witcher 2. Judging from the discussions, I’m afraid of starting Witcher 3 because I have other backlog of games I have to finish as soon as possible.

  • hahattpro@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    9 hours ago

    Witcher 3 can be played like the puzzle game on max difficulty.

    You don’t have to grind level or have good controller skill to beat those boss in max difficulty. In fact, it like puzzle game. If you know how to beat the boss (read in game wiki), or have oil, spell, or do something before, … you can beat a boss easily, without need much skill or overlevel.

  • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    231·
    13 hours ago

    Don’t try to go for both main romance options, the outcome isn’t worth it. Better to do two playthroughs if you really want to know.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      51 minutes ago

      I mean it’s definitely an ending worth seeing. So 3 playthroughs. And then all the other variable ending stuff. Let’s face it we all YouTubed the other endings after our second playthrough.

  • JimmyMcGill@lemmy.worldEnglish
    151·
    12 hours ago

    As other folk said, definitely do get the DLCs. There’s a whole other game in there.

    It’s been a while since I last played, and this game IS a masterpiece, no doubt about that, but the one of the first sections can be rough. Iirc it’s gloomy af, there’s some hard monsters in some quests that can be demotivating and the combat/mechanics takes some getting used to which makes the previous point worse. Just know that the game opens up and there’s a whole world out there.

    There are tons of side quests which are great, so you should do those but also don’t feel like you need to do all of them. It can be easy to get side tracked and then lose steam and quit on the main story.

    Especially because like I said the DLCs are amazing. They are also quite self contained so it’s like a breath of fresh air

    Enjoy this amazing game. I’m jealous of you

  • Contentedness@lemmy.nzEnglish
    36·
    15 hours ago

    A note on brewing potions: You only need the herbs the first time you brew any particular potion, after you’ve brewed it once it will get restocked automatically when you meditate.

  • bugieman@lemmy.worldEnglish
    201·
    14 hours ago

    If you have the patience for it, try playing on a much harder difficulty. The medium and low difficulty levels don’t provide the same weight. Many systems in the game are unnecessary at lower difficulty levels but higher difficulty forces you to engage in them to get the extra edge over certain encounters.

    Higher difficulties force you to engage in potion brewing, reading up on enemies, and making genuinely tough choices morally in order to keep Geralt alive. Lower difficulties remove all the tension from these systems.

    Also as another user mentioned, don’t skip any dialogue and engage in the side quests/contracts as they give a lot of unique flavor and nuance to the world and story.

    • somtwo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      8 hours ago

      I’ve done two full playthroughs of the game (plus dlc), one on the standard difficulty and one on hard. I can confirm that many of the game’s systems are rendered unnecessary by the easier difficulty. I really enjoyed my second playthrough and would definitely recommend.

      However, if you don’t think you’ll enjoy that (having to plan and work for every advantage to be able to succeed) I would wholeheartedly endorse the easier levels. The story and quest design alone are worth the price of admission! Side quests in this game make many other games main story pale in comparison.

    • yokonzo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      13 hours ago

      This, this game isnt about fighting, it’s about prepping, it’s about researching your prey and knowing what you need to get the edge on it before you go in, brewing the potions you need and knowing what to hit it with

      • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.netEnglish
        3·
        12 hours ago

        Oh yeah, I really wish I had played on a higher difficulty for this reason. Especially because one of the most immersive and thematically cool parts of the game for me was the main story section near the end of act 1 where you have to make a blade oil to fight a >!werewolf!< . (Vague wording to minimise spoilers in my main comment.) I really liked this because it made me reflect on what it means to be a Witcher — how the knowledge might be more important than the mutations and the magic.

        An additional point to the prepping is that being open-world means that you can potentially go to areas or take on challenges far beyond the “intended” level. On lower difficulties, I didn’t feel sufficiently punished for being audacious in that way, and I think the potential for punishment is part of the fun of the audacity. Especially when getting destroyed like this isn’t the game “fuck you for even trying”, but rather a “try exploring some more, find some new recipes and come back later (or just read the bestiary and find out that you already have the item you need)”