Some lessons that should or could be learned from Witcher 3

+
Some lessons that should or could be learned from Witcher 3

The lack of of Iorveth, Saskia and other W2 choices making themselves known in W3 highlights that the developers prioritised content in an unfortunate way. If half of the energy and work put on side quests would have been put on tying the trilogy together we would have ended up with a game that with higher potential in terms of consistency and satisfying storytelling.

To me it is clear that IF you are planning to have a trilogy driven by strong characters and a strong story, the gameplay should reflect that.

Yes, Geralt is a Witcher, but the story is not about Geralt taking contract to earn his bread. It is mainly about Ciri, the wild hunt, his friends, power intrigues and the shape of things to come. That is why focus should have been shifted significantly more towards these things. That is not to say monster hunting or taking contracts have no place in such a story, they do, but it should have been integrated much better IMHO.

In stories of urgency, side quests should reflect the ability of the player to act logically. Running to look for loot or sitting down for a round of cards while a man in screaming for help while hanging of the cliff might not be the brightest idea if you want to save the life of that man. Because if you do, you go look for the loot or play cards after you saved him. Of course, sometimes there is not time to do both, and thus it boils down to a choice that will reflect on the character you play.

I don´t think I am alone in saying that I would rather have seen 10x less contracts and side quests giving room for a logical expanded storylines involving characters and events from previous games coming to a conclusion than the other way around.

The lesson I think is to remember what the core and tone of the story you want to tell is all about and focus on that.
 
Last edited:
They wanted to make the world's largest single player open-world game there was.

So they did.
 
They wanted to make the world's largest single player open-world game there was.

So they did.

Just wish they did it in way more relevant to the story of W1>W2>W3.
Large areas to roam and explore does not conflict with a good story and nor does it with a functional integration of gameplay and story.
 
Your actions in Vergen are mentioned by the dwarf guarding the blacksmithing materials during the Of Swords and Dumplings quest, Iorveth is rumored dead and Saskia is mentioned by Philippa as being free of the spell hence she has no idea where she is or what she's doing. Honestly I don't think that your choices in the previous games were ignored, it's just that Nilfgaard invading takes precedence over everything else.

Yes the games themselves have changed throughout the series but the focus on strong characters and story has always been there. Maybe we didn't get to see
Saskia, Iorveth but we got a bunch of all new characters to the games that were really well fleshed out. I find that preferable to a cameo. Honestly if I want more old characters I'll just replay the other games.

Side quests and gwent are also an option, heck it's an Open World game. So if you think rescuing a man hanging from a cliff is more important then by all means go for it. No one's forcing you to look for frying pans and broken rakes.
 
Just wish they did it in way more relevant to the story of W1>W2>W3.
Large areas to roam and explore does not conflict with a good story and nor does it with a functional integration of gameplay and story.

I agree.

I gave the game a 10 out of 10 because it's still the Witcher and one of the best written games ever BUT there's nothing gained from the massive-massive amounts of space full of nothing.

Skyrim is a place where you can't wander for 5 minutes without tripping over something awesome.

The Witcher 3? 5 minutes between finding anything cool.
 
The lesson to learn here is don't make a trilogy again if you're going for broader audience with each release.

Don't make Cyberpunk a trilogy with "save imports"! Change time&setting and introduce new protagonist and characters each time instead if you're not willing and able to justify the decisions made in previous games, otherwise you'll upset the long term fans like you did with Witcher trilogy.

Having said that I understand why W3 have come to be this way; first game was only for PC and was not exactly a mainstream material given it was more of a cRPG experience, with more action oriented W2 a lot more people who haven't played W1 came aboard to play it, then with W3 being multiplatform and open world and all that a lot more people who never played even W2 came aboard which made making the game a standalone experience a priority rather than a true sequel.

Now for Cyberpunk, it'll come to all platforms those matter from the get go. I assume there won't be as much issues like mentioned above for it's possible sequels so It won't be as hard/as unprofitable to make content specifically for the players who played the initial game/s and probably there'll be save import feature if it'll come to be a duology or trilogy. Still, if you think you won't be able to justify implementing the decisions from earlier game/s or if you think what you did for witcher 3 sets the bar for it... Please don't do it. Change protagonist/time/setting/characters instead.

I killed Saskia in W2, so I didn't miss her at all. And overall, still better than Mass Effect's trilogy.

Witcher games are better in most of the ways but nope, save import was more important/justified for Mass Effect trilogy.

Now for encouragement : P: Bioware did a better job with Mass Effect save imports even with its ending fiasco(dragon age save imports was a screw up tho). I believe in CDPR to top that! Go CDPR!

ps: freaking games. I'm already worried about Cyberpunk sequels when the first game is still years away : p I'll probably die from lung cancer which I'll pick up from 1.5 packs a day over the years by the time a hypothetical 3rd cyberpunk game will come out.

also I know devs aren't morons. they probably wanted to make everything mentioned by most people but we don't know the development process of the games, all those cut features and whys of it etc... hope they are finding useful stuff they haven't thought of themselves among these posts : D
 
The Witcher is probably the best written game series of all time but it's still massively massively erratic.
 
I agree.

I gave the game a 10 out of 10 because it's still the Witcher and one of the best written games ever BUT there's nothing gained from the massive-massive amounts of space full of nothing.

Skyrim is a place where you can't wander for 5 minutes without tripping over something awesome.

The Witcher 3? 5 minutes between finding anything cool.

I had some hope that the techpriest inside of CDPR's engineers would awaken and they would go the STALKER route of making empty areas cool.

Via awesome AI that simply wonders about and has its own jobs and such (simplified version of A-Life). That would make these vast open areas a whole lot more random and exciting WITHOUT breaking immersion.

True, that would require level 101 coding wizardry... :(
 
I had some hope that the techpriest inside of CDPR's engineers would awaken and they would go the STALKER route of making empty areas cool.

Via awesome AI that simply wonders about and has its own jobs and such (simplified version of A-Life). That would make these vast open areas a whole lot more random and exciting WITHOUT breaking immersion.

True, that would require level 101 coding wizardry... :(

Eh, I'll be satisfied when they do the Oxenfurt Expansion and one of the major Empty Areas of the game is suddenly full of life. I really do think Saskia and Iorveth were intended to be in the game (there's a reference to Iorveth in the Scoia'tael dialogue) but they ran out of time before the release date with the game already being ridiculously large.

I think they got told, basically, FINISH THIS DAMN GAME ALREADY AND RELEASE IT.

Which they did.

The exact same thing happened with L.A. Noire in they'd kept making the game larger and larger until Rockstar finally said, "ENOUGH." Which is why so many large DLCs were added because they'd made huge amounts of material for the game which never made it in.
 
Eh, I'll be satisfied when they do the Oxenfurt Expansion and one of the major Empty Areas of the game is suddenly full of life. I really do think Saskia and Iorveth were intended to be in the game (there's a reference to Iorveth in the Scoia'tael dialogue) but they ran out of time before the release date with the game already being ridiculously large.

I think they got told, basically, FINISH THIS DAMN GAME ALREADY AND RELEASE IT.

Which they did.

The exact same thing happened with L.A. Noire in they'd kept making the game larger and larger until Rockstar finally said, "ENOUGH." Which is why so many large DLCs were added because they'd made huge amounts of material for the game which never made it in.

Well we will see.

I am prepared to buy even extra expansion packs (apart from the two announced) and DLCs. The game is so good it is worth it.

And, even though I know that modders can (and might, if we can get the insane ones on board) fix all these issues... that would leave our console brethren hanging :(
And still, I would rather CDPR to do that.
 
I'm hoping CDPR does the following:

1. Hires some new people to work on the Witcher 4.
2. Rotates people out so they don't get burned out on the franchise.
3. Does the Expansions
4. Considers doing, if not the Witcher 4, a use of the same engine for a Spin-off game (either a Prequel or a Ciri game)
5. Keeps putting out fun little DLC.

4# would be good financially and be less draining for them. "Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon" didn't take much effort and everyone loved it and it made Ubisoft a lot of money.
 
I agree.

I gave the game a 10 out of 10 because it's still the Witcher and one of the best written games ever BUT there's nothing gained from the massive-massive amounts of space full of nothing.

Skyrim is a place where you can't wander for 5 minutes without tripping over something awesome.

The Witcher 3? 5 minutes between finding anything cool.

It always boils down to quality over quantity. Dead time is something that should be avoided, but that is something that can be fixed with gameplay features such as fast travel between focused areas of interest. Exploring vast but empty wildernesses, setting up camp, hunting or enjoying the sunset in solitude from a clif in the deep forrest definitely have its own quality to but might not be for everyone. The importance is that the landscape and its features reflects the imagined reality of the gameworld in realistic and satisfying ways. Isolated locations for bandit camps if forgotten ruins provides a sense of realism that can heighten the experience. Skyrim did not really do that with 5 min walks between ancient treasures and ruins.
 
In stories of urgency, side quests should reflect the ability of the player to act logically. Running to look for loot or sitting down for a round of cards while a man in screaming for help while hanging of the cliff might not be the brightest idea if you want to save the life of that man. Because if you do, you go look for the loot or play cards after you saved him. Of course, sometimes there is not time to do both, and thus it boils down to a choice that will reflect on the character you play.

I agree with you on everything except this one, because some concessions can be made. Although one or two quests were Time is a factor would have been nice, it's not a must have for me. And yet again: I only made it one time through the game. Maybe on a second playthrough things will play out differently.
 
I agree with you on everything except this one, because some concessions can be made. Although one or two quests were Time is a factor would have been nice, it's not a must have for me. And yet again: I only made it one time through the game. Maybe on a second playthrough things will play out differently.

I think the aspect of choice and consequence of actions is something that needs to be emphasised in order for games to "grow up". Because it will challange the player to to consider and take the actions of the character seriously.
A related issue is the one of stealing. I wish it was implemented more strictly in the game. One of the main reasons to steal is the need to hoard and grind crafting materials for constantly getting new gear and so on, which is completely unnecessary form a story standpoint. Games that focus on being more adult and serious will do well to avoid the archaic formulaic approach of videogames that was developed in another time when other restrictions and ideals regarding gaming was present.
 
Top Bottom