While reading my complaints keep in my mind that I only mention the things I didn't like. 95% of the game was fantastic and Witcher 3 became my all time favorite game (I'm playing video games since about 18 years) There are some spoilers, you shouldn't read it if you didn't finish the game.
- game balance is pretty messed up. Playing on Death March the game becomes too easy after about 20-30 hours. Some skills(alchemy build, quen, igni, axii) are unbalanced, so is horse combat against humans. Being able to switch potions during combat in combination with some of the alchemy skills was a bad design decision.
- after the main story the main characters (Ciri, Triss, Yen) just disappear, what makes the world feel empty and hollow and kills any motivation to play further and do sidestuff.
- inventory is a mess. They should have added filters so sort it after weight, worth etc like in Witcher 2.
- onesided and flat portrayal of the Wild Hunt and a complete lack of interaction between Eredin and Geralt/Ciri. Eredin followed Geralt through the events of Witcher 1 and chased Ciri for more than 6 years and we didn't get any interaction with him outside of "I will kill you"? No conversation? Not even one sentence between Ciri and the elf, who made her life to hell during the last 6 years? They really dropped the ball with the Wild Hunt. I never had the impression they were more than just some "evil for the sake of being evil" And their King was just shallow. Especially as a book reader it breaks my heart thinking about the wasted potential.
And again (just like the assassin at the end of witcher 1) one important plot point of the previous game was not only not explained but completely ignored: Geralt's time as a Rider of The Wild Hunt.
- too much pointless fetch stuff (treasures) in the ocean around Skellige
- Witcher 2 choices have barely any effect. Some are even illogical. Thaler is alive even if we let him die in Witcher 1 for example.
- sex and romances (not Yen/Triss, though the Triss romance is also flawed) are underwhelming in quantity and quality. 3 romances outside of the main ones? in a 200 hours game? Really? Even Witcher 2, which was 40 hours long had more.
Let's not even talk about the quality. Except for Yennefer all have the same scenes and body models and they are toned down in comparison to witcher 2. (no full frontal nudty) The 16 hours of mo-cap was either bullshit or they cut pretty much everything. Nobody can tell me the recorded 16 hours, for maybe 1minute of unique scenes.
I have seen people being tortured, murdered, impaled, burned alive, decapitated and executed.Just skill the 5th row bomb skill in the alchemy tree and throw a bomb in a bandits camps. You will see body parts flying all over the screen. But god forbid i see people making love without weird camera angles (there was even a sex scene in full underwear....) i don't want porn or anything, just wished it was like in Witcher 2.
Don't want to accuse CDP being "politically correct" in general because there is still a lot of nudity, but still disappointing that while they made the game more violent and brutal in comparison to Witcher 1/2, they toned down the sex scenes. I always liked about the Witcher games, that they treatet both equally without the hypocrisy of the rest of the gaming industry. Especially because they always said they make game for adults and sex is a part of every adults life and they won't shy away from it. That can't be said anymyore imo.
- a lot of clipping issues and roach is buggy as hell while riding through uneven terrain
- I'm a bit disappointed by the daily routine of the npcs, because there is barely anything like this. I would say 95% of the npcs are just doing the same 20 seconds sequence over and over again. i understand they can't simulate a daily routine for every npc, but they could have made it for some main characters.
How awesome would it have been to run into Dandelion or Zoltan while running through Novigrad? Even Witcher 1 did it. Countless times I randomly run into Zoltan while doing quests in Vizima . In Witcher 3 they both just stand on the same spot the whole game.
Yesterday I searched for Rosa Var Attre (shitty move from you CDP to not make her romancable after teasing us through 2 whole quests), thought she has maybe a daily routine,searched in her house, in her garden even the whole goddam city for her, but nothing. She just magically disappeared after i did her quests. Really disappointing
- very little interaction with main characters outside of quests. Through the whole game Dandelion has I think 2 conversation options, Zoltan 1 , Ýen 3-4, Triss completely stops talking to Geralt after Novigrad, even Ciri has only 4-5. And it never changes. They really could have given us new conversation optionsafter certain events in the story.
- portrayal of politics is very mediocre. Both the Radovid vs Emhyr and the Skellige political plot are lacking. I couldn't believe the same people wrote the politics for Witcher 2 (which was a masterpiece in this regard) and Witcher 3.
That are all the complaints, which come to my mind. If there is more I will edit my post.
But again, overall it was a fantastic game. Especially the moments between Geralt and Ciri were some of the best gaming experiences I have ever had.
Thank you for that CDP.