[DISCUSSION] Witcher 3 - Reviews

+
Playstation Official Magazine UK
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a surprising failure as an open-world video game, but within its beautifully lit world of monsters lies a much more traditional story-driven RPG of immense quality.
This site is just :facepalm: , biased unprofessionals.

Just look that the new article they just wrote:
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate changes everything you know about the series , we all know that it will have the same unlock towers, conquer forts, eagle eye and parkour mechanics..

p.s. sorry for offtopic :hai:
 
IGN said that the Witcher 3's storyline is "straightforward and fetch-quest-heavy", "the main story is ultimately the least fulfilling part of The Witcher 3."
Is it a joke ?
 
What concerns me is the over-levelling thing. It's a bit sad to have so many things to do but not being able to do most of them without becoming to powerful. No scaling at all is a difficult thing to balance... hopefully it will be less problematic in the harder difficulties since your stats do not increase with levels hence once you have your 12 skill slots maxed you can't really become more powerful, just more versatile.
 
Hmm.. did any of the reviews say which difficulty they played on at all? :)
I assume they chose the easiest or normal in order to get thru the game and story to write a review, no?
 
I hope you're right, I rather be wrong & it is great but intution is saying there is something a-miss & the shady going arounds of CDPR sided with the Reviews confirms this.

All will be revealed on May 19th. (Couldn't help but think of this youtube clip when typing that)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TgKd3cdKdak

it's good to have a skeptical mind but I would like to note that CDPR would not have had the balls to release the embargo on reviews on a game that's still being polished if they weren't confident of its success. The fact that it's rated 92 on metacritic for a game that's arguably not even at it's most prime presentation gives credence that it could only be better.
Also, I highly doubt of any string pulling or under the table deals of giving out better reviews just from the fact that CDPR are not this big corporation that have this huge influence on the industry. History have shown that the games that usually end up a huge bust are the ones that didn't want to show much of their product. The Witcher 3 was shown aplenty.
 
Hmm.. did any of the reviews say which difficulty they played on at all? :)
I assume they chose the easiest or normal in order to get thru the game and story to write a review, no?

Kotaku reviewer played on normal and hard and said hard was spot on.
 
Main plots are "simple" - but they can be complex in how they interweave with their world.

I can't think of a single really good piece of fiction, theatre or movie that has a "complex" main plot... but I can think of lots that have complex interweaving of characters, their motivations and actions/consequences.
 
I think there's truly no need to be skeptical about the lack on PC/Xbox One reviews. It was the same story with Ps4 and Xbox One gameplays, some said that CDPR had something to hide et caetera...
This game will definitely not be another Destiny (Monument to false advertising and reviews embargo.)
 
Congrats REDS, on the ballzy week early, very positive reviews. Hopefully all of your sweat and tears will be vindicated : )

*A few personal opinions on some of the comments I've read through the thread so far.

I don't think people should be concerning themselves too much on TW3 scoring higher than X, and Y games, etc. sure, people are gonna compare / contrast anyway, because people just like doing that kind of thing.

Some games (Skyrim, GTA V for example), are easy crowd pleasers. (I.e.) Far more people are going to, firstly, be interested in (example) GTA V, because it's just one of those games that is aimed at everyone. Secondly everyone already knows what to expect in a GTA game, therefore more are likely to enjoy it, once they've played it.

Obviously, the higher the score the better for them, for the very least marketing, etc (and some less informed people, that take reviews as law lol). But, I wouldn't expect this game to maintain higher meta scores than games like these. They are far less complex in terms of lore, characters, material, etc, and more focused on sandboxy 'do what you want all the time' sort of gameplay that more "casual" people go for (no offense intended here).

If everyone understood, and loved The Witcher 3 equally, I'd be genuinely concerned that they'd numbed the experience, and simplified it too much, to merely be 'another aaa crowd pleaser'.

#Edit: I'd intended to just say grats to the team, but I kept writing lol, a bit of a messy rant, apologies ;p
 
Last edited:
IGN said that the Witcher 3's storyline is "straightforward and fetch-quest-heavy", "the main story is ultimately the least fulfilling part of The Witcher 3."
Is it a joke ?
IGN wouldn't recognize a good story if it hit them in the head.
Although it is very strange, considering they called side quests well written and interesting (I'm paraphrasing here).
 
On purpose i am not reading the reviews, but a friend of me told me about IGN's verdict and....damn.

Though the straightforward and fetch-quest-heavy main story overstays its welcome, the option of joyfully adventuring through a rich, expansive open world was always there for me when I’d start to burn out. Even if the plot isn’t terribly interesting, the many characters who play a part in it are, and along with the excellent combat and RPG gameplay, they elevate The Witcher 3 to a plane few other RPGs inhabit.

That's somewhat of a bummer. Especially when CDPR spoke about fetch quests in interviews before and how they don't like them.

I bet its just that CDP didnt give a bag of money to the reviewer. :p

Very subjective. keep in mind he referred to the main quest and not the sidequests . which he loved. i get the feeling that he didnt dig the main quest all that much because he wasnt much of a fan of Ciri or couldn't quite connect to her character because he was either unfamiliar of her or didnt like her

the main quest is more personal than about political intrigue, so to get more of that you need to be more into the sidequests and since he had to rush them he likely didn t see all of them

More than anything bey reading all the reviews is feels like whether you will like the main quest or not wiill depend if you enjoy the father daughte relation between Geralt and Ciri

---------- Updated at 05:14 PM ----------

I didn't read any of the reviews, but I skimmed something from IGN's about the story decisions being a bit 'tasteless' and I have no idea what that means. Having as much faith as I do in CDPR (and the fact they threw a 9.3 at the goddamn thing anyway) I'm probably sure that means it's a subjective thing and I'll be heartbroken or whatever in a good way.

As for overlevelling, I figure in open world games it's pretty inevitable -- for me it's *how* they handle the issue and if it becomes too obvious. That's pretty much down to how the player plays, imo, so it's not a huge worry seeing that in a review.

*does a little dance for cdpr's review success*

likely it offended his SJW sensibilities
 
Congrats REDS, on the ballzy week early, very positive reviews. Hopefully all of your sweat and tears will be vindicated : )

*A few personal opinions on some of the comments I've read through the thread so far.

I don't think people should be concerning themselves too much on TW3 scoring higher than X, and Y games, etc. sure, people are gonna compare / contrast anyway, because people just like doing that kind of thing.

Some games (Skyrim, GTA V for example), are easy crowd pleasers. (I.e.) Far more people are going to, firstly, be interested in (example) GTA V, because it's just one of those games that is aimed at everyone. Secondly everyone already knows what to expect in a GTA game, therefore more are likely to enjoy it, once they've played it.

Obviously, the higher the score the better for them, for the very least marketing, etc (and some less informed people, that take reviews as law lol). But, I wouldn't expect this game to maintain higher meta scores than games like these. They are far less complex in terms of lore, characters, material, etc, and more focused on sandboxy 'do what you want all the time' sort of gameplay that more "casual" people go for (no offense intended here).

If everyone understood, and loved The Witcher 3 equally, I'd be genuinely concerned that they'd numbed the experience, and simplified it too much, to merely be 'another aaa crowd pleaser'.

#Edit: I'd intended to just say grats to the team, but I kept writing lol, a bit of a messy rant, apologies ;p
yes, that is my concern. however, kevin van Ord from gamespot, one of the very few people who still appreciate old school RPGs like the risen series (the first one is my favorite) and like profound RPG experiences, gave the game a 10/10, which is a very good sign.
 
For the people getting antsy about the IGN review. Look at it this way - the guy clearly didn't like the game all that much overall (from his own personal opinion, subjectively). But he still felt the game deserved a 9.3. That's more impressive to me, than some of the love filled 10/10 ones lol.

----

yes, that is my concern. however, kevin van Ord from gamespot, one of the very few people who still appreciate old school RPGs like the risen series (the first one is my favorite) and like profound RPG experiences, gave the game a 10/10, which is a very good sign.

Yeah Kevin is still my favourite reviewer, after all these years lol. I typically agree with him on games, so it's the only review I completely read (not this time yet, because of spoilers, though). Then I typically just check out meta scores. Just as a reference.
 
Last edited:
More than anything bey reading all the reviews is feels like whether you will like the main quest or not wiill depend if you enjoy the father daughte relation between Geralt and Ciri

after reading remarks on this, i'm regretting not having read any of the books, as while playing the witcher 1, I didn't give a damn about yennifer as I knew nothing of her.
 
I'm really happy Kevin Van Ord gave this a well deserved 10. I really trust his reviews. Looking forward to the reviews on the PC version whenever they will be available.

Now that we got this out of the way..the next 6 days are going to be a landmine of spoilers that I will want to avoid.
 
Top Bottom