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[Raptor85]

I know I'm kinda late to the game on  this one but finally decided to give it a go, and gotta say, i LOVE the story lines in it, and following through all the books/etc and learning what happened, I also love how your choices do change things around the world.  But i gotta say....does anyone else absolutely hate it's combat system?  Maybe i'm just completely ruined on dark souls but man the withers combat system kinda sucks, and it's so easy to abuse, lol. If you just constantly backstep and swing after the enemy misses you win every fight, even ones against super overlevel enemies that can oneshot you (you gotta get lucky if they're a ghoul though or  they'll heal faster than you can damage them). I find strong attack to be basicly useless too, since all hit effects are per swing, you're better off stacking your stats on fast attack and just button mashing.

I love how it gives you the option to investigate further first and prepare to kill the beast/spirit/etc, makes it's world and people feel more alive, but man, the combat just kinda blows it for me. I feel like i'm literally just mowing things down as fast as i can to get to the next bit of investigating and story.

Then the camera, oh god, that thing has a mind of it's own, always turning on me when i'm doing something like trying to climb out of water and i end up instead 180ing and diving back in. Slopes feel super weird too, things i could easily walk up IRL you just slide down uncontrollably.

[J-Snake]

But i gotta say....does anyone else absolutely hate it's combat system?

Yes, that's the main reason why I am not playing this game.

[s0]

i actually kinda enjoyed witcher 1 back when it came out (not played in ages tho). i've given 2 a LOT of chances and always ended up bored. the story was well told i guess, but it didn't interest me enough to make me slog through the awful combat. i also disliked that there weren't actually a lot of story choices and your character was pretty much predefined but that's just personal taste. i've had a similar experience with witcher 3 so far.

i think the reason why it was more tolerable in witcher 1 is because, even though the combat is probably even worse, the game also emphasizes it a lot less. it's throwaway rpg combat. witcher 2 and 3 try to be these "epic action games" in addition to being story-driven rpgs and it just doesn't work at all (for me at least).

[Tovy]

There are some problems in the game and the battle system isn't the best, but still Witcher 3 is above all similar RPG games I have ever played. Design, world, art, story, quests, atmosphere, characters, details (including for example clothes) - everything is excellent. The world is large, so it's impossible to make so big game perfect in all ways, but they almost did it. I like the Witcher books, but the game is much better. And it is not happened very often.

[Slowminder]

Witcher 3 combat system is good, especially when you play it on highest difficulty level. You have to use potions, oils, bombs, etc. I've finished main game on 3/4 difficulty level and finished DLCs on 4/4 difficulty. It's quite punishing, but still interesting.
The only aspect of combat system that is pure garbage is melee combat. It has no depth - you simply counterattack enemies over and over again...

[NowSayPillow]

Witcher 3 combat system is good, especially when you play it on highest difficulty level. You have to use potions, oils, bombs, etc. I've finished main game on 3/4 difficulty level and finished DLCs on 4/4 difficulty. It's quite punishing, but still interesting.
The only aspect of combat system that is pure garbage is melee combat. It has no depth - you simply counterattack enemies over and over again...

I agree, Witcher 2 and 3's combat doesn't really shine through unless you're playing on the harder difficulties, it's just kind of boring other-wise.

[Raptor85]

I'm on the hardest difficulty, and i haven't found that i have to use bombs and oils unless i'm fighting things WAY above my level (or the cases where it's part of a quest and you learn what you're up against ahead of time), i think what absolutely breaks the combat system more than anything is that doing a dodge seems to 100% work no matter what, even if you dodge THROUGH the thing attacking you (and it doesn't really seem timed like, say, a roll with only certain iframes like dark souls has, it seems that you pretty much have iframes for the whole dodge animation). Combat is basically just tap O until you see the swing animation/attack animation on the enemy then as soon as it's safe mash square twice then go back to attempting to break my O button.

I think I'm about 3/4 way through the main story and still haven't figured out how to aim the crossbow with any precision mid-fight, it seems to basically just be suicide to attempt to use it outside of a quick blind shot. Flying enemies always land eventually anyways, so doesn't seem to have too much of a point.  I rarely take the horse with me too, all he seems to do is get stuck on every rock along the way and since i pretty much don't use the roads the auto-run is useless.

I am LOVING the stories in it still though, researching the backgrounds of the characters, asking around town, learning about the person who died/disappeared/etc and the circumstances, each one just feels so well written and though through, and most can be done without any/minimal fighting if you research things well enough! 

[DJFloppyFish]

the writing and structure/pacing of the story stuff in 3 is absolutely phenomenal, and the blood & wine + hearts of stone expansions are even better in that regard.

[MeshGearFox]

I think I mentioned this before but.

I played Witcher 3 up through Whitehaven and LOVED it. A little handholdy but it was a tutorial area so that was understandable.

Then I got to the bigger part of the game world and the handholdiness never stopped. Like, every quest was just follow witcher sense to the thing and then follow it more to the next thing.

And then the story was like needlessly grimdark. You're walking through these beautiful forests and there's decaying viscera everywhere. It was just so joyless and impossible to care about the world because of that.

[Slowminder]

I'm on the hardest difficulty, and i haven't found that i have to use bombs and oils unless i'm fighting things WAY above my level (or the cases where it's part of a quest and you learn what you're up against ahead of time), i think what absolutely breaks the combat system more than anything is that doing a dodge seems to 100% work no matter what, even if you dodge THROUGH the thing attacking you (and it doesn't really seem timed like, say, a roll with only certain iframes like dark souls has, it seems that you pretty much have iframes for the whole dodge animation). Combat is basically just tap O until you see the swing animation/attack animation on the enemy then as soon as it's safe mash square twice then go back to attempting to break my O button.

I think I'm about 3/4 way through the main story and still haven't figured out how to aim the crossbow with any precision mid-fight, it seems to basically just be suicide to attempt to use it outside of a quick blind shot. Flying enemies always land eventually anyways, so doesn't seem to have too much of a point.  I rarely take the horse with me too, all he seems to do is get stuck on every rock along the way and since i pretty much don't use the roads the auto-run is useless.

I am LOVING the stories in it still though, researching the backgrounds of the characters, asking around town, learning about the person who died/disappeared/etc and the circumstances, each one just feels so well written and though through, and most can be done without any/minimal fighting if you research things well enough! 

It's not necessary to use bombs and oils - true. But otherwise combat combat becomes long and repetitive - you have to deal too much damage to the enemy, while it's 1-3 hits for you to be dead.
Dodge does not always work. If enemy uses AOE-attack, you'll have to leave attack radius. Otherwise you're screwed.

[s0]

ok im playing witcher 3 at the moment and i have to say im actually enjoying it now. i pretty much completely "reset" my expectations for it and that did the trick.

my mistakes were:

1. thinking this is some kind of hardcore rpg. it's really a modern AAA open world game and not very challenging or mechanically complex. i would even say it's kind of excessively handholdy with the minimap and the witcher senses.

2. taking the combat too "seriously". im playing on normal difficulty and the works ok once you treat it as fluff.

3. i was led to believe by all the hype that the game is somehow mindblowingly innovative. it isn't very innovative at all, but that's ok because it's really well put together.

the game has really good writing and beautiful graphics. they stepped away from the grimdork edginess and "everyone is a scumbag" thing of the first two games somewhat, which is good. it gives the characterization more depth than previously. geralt is still kind of a boring snarky antihero imo but i can see myself getting invested in some of npcs.

[joseph ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

ya tw3 is really great as an 'adventure game' with aaa trappings. The writing gets stronger as it goes on, and character relationships (all of which are strikingly natural and respectful compared to like, every other rpg/game) evolve. Lone Geralt Stuff is sorta meh brooding rpg shit, but still very well executed.

[Slowminder]

ok im playing witcher 3 at the moment and i have to say im actually enjoying it now. i pretty much completely "reset" my expectations for it and that did the trick.

my mistakes were:

1. thinking this is some kind of hardcore rpg. it's really a modern AAA open world game and not very challenging or mechanically complex. i would even say it's kind of excessively handholdy with the minimap and the witcher senses.

2. taking the combat too "seriously". im playing on normal difficulty and the works ok once you treat it as fluff.

3. i was led to believe by all the hype that the game is somehow mindblowingly innovative. it isn't very innovative at all, but that's ok because it's really well put together.

the game has really good writing and beautiful graphics. they stepped away from the grimdork edginess and "everyone is a scumbag" thing of the first two games somewhat, which is good. it gives the characterization more depth than previously. geralt is still kind of a boring snarky antihero imo but i can see myself getting invested in some of npcs.

1. Most of players would abandon game halfway through, if it had those obsolete RPG elements. I can judge it by PSN achievements in Divinity: original sin. ~10% of players have beat the game.

2. Well, as mentioned before, combat becomes really dangerous when you're playing at least on hard (nightmare is recommended).

3. Can't remember if people were talking about innovative nature of the game. The game is simply beautifully crafted. Plus (unlike some of Bioware games) your choices really matter. The outcome heavily depends on your actions.

[s0]

i don't like the combat mechanics so i don't want it to be difficult. playing on hard after being told it's the "correct" way to play was the main reason why i gave up on tw2. fighting just pissed me off.

[NowSayPillow]

I can judge it by PSN achievements in Divinity: original sin. ~10% of players have beat the game.

Woo! I'm one of them! <3

[Slowminder]

I can judge it by PSN achievements in Divinity: original sin. ~10% of players have beat the game.

Woo! I'm one of them! <3

Same here. But the game was just TOO long. Tons of backtracking and pixel hunting.

[s0]

witcher 3 is a good game.

[s0]

I have been wrong about games before, but never this wrong. This is an excellent game.

[ProgramGamer]

Witch >Evolves Into> Witcher >Evolves Into> Witchest >Mega Evolves Into> Witchester

 

[s0]

Combat is still mediocre tho.