In defense of this game's combat

[TheForgottenOne]

In defense of this game's combat

Hello there, I'm new to this forum, well sort of. I lurked around here for years, but I decided to finally join up today. I want to discuss this game's combat. Now I also lurk on the cancerous website called gamefaqs and the people there often talk how bad about TW3, primarily it's combat. Now there's nothing wrong with having a different opinion, but they always crow about how awful it is, with so few willing to defend it. I'm just gonna post my two cents here regarding this game's combat. Because I think it has a good combat system.

Playing as Geralt during combat, I always feel I'm dancing around my foes, which more or less I can describe his dodging. It just feels so much fun dodging monsters like a Gryphon or a Fiend, it adds tension and excitement to what is already a fun game. Using signs in this game can also be fun like using Igni to burn some enemies down, or using Aard to bring down enemies. The melee combat is also fun, between mixing light and heavy attacks, and parrying enemies, it's a pretty neat system.

Sure the combat system isn't perfect, at worst it's serviceable. The hit detection can be wonky, and the camera's soft lock can also hinder the combat a bit, making it clunky to move around. However, it's easily manageable. And I really think more could've been down with the crossbow, which is just mostly used to bring down flying enemies.

Even if its not the best combat system in the world, but I think it's one of the better ones when it comes to western made rpgs. It's sure better then the combat in Skyrim.

 

[killkenny1]

I never understood what was wrong with TW3 combat and why so many people complained about it... Personally I found it to be good and enjoyable.

 

[TheForgottenOne]

I never understood what was wrong with TW3 combat and why so many people complained about it... Personally I found it to be good and enjoyable.

Go to gamefaqs, the people over there just love to complain about the game's combat. I swear they don't know what good combat is actually like.

 

[AnklaX]

W3 combat is deep. Many of who put negative comment about witcher 3 gameplay aren't even aware of the depth of the gameplay and the diverse character development possibilites. Watch some popular gamers who regularly post game videos online. How many of them know that you could hold down the left trigger and use d-pad to select powers on the fly, without hindering the flow of the game? not many. How many know you don't always have to steer the horse when on a patch? not many. How many do you see wearing a full set of witcher school armor? very few. All people can talk, not all can play as well as they can talk.

At first playthrough, W3 seems very, very hard but more familiarity vastly improves the experience despite maintaining the difficulty. Playing well, dodging dangerous enemies properly, for example, feels great.

Witcher 3 ruined other sword based RPGs for me. I tried Skyrim again looking at all those beautiful graphics mods. But the gameplay is torturous boring and movement/travel sluggish. Same with DAI. Wanted to do a second playthrough after finishing W3. I started but the sluggishness of the game was killing me. I just let it go. Even when I was playing Skyrim, I kept thinking, damn, the story is so good. Its a shame how they made the game. If only CDPR did it.

I'm in my 9th playthrough and it still feels great. I just keep coming back. It just feels so action-packek and brisk compared to other RPGs. Its not perfect. The gameplay could be better but that is always the case with any game. It is better than anything out there.

Pay no heed to negative opinions. For many, Skyrim is a drug. Let 'em hate Witcher. If its good enough for you, its good enough for you. What does it matter if others don't like it.

 

[scratcherpen]

The combat evolved -yes. But it still lack many good things that lost in the previous games. There are just few finishers and no finishers and group finishers for monsters for example, just cleaving. No special attacks, sets of combos, counter attacks. Steel/Silver sword styles completely same and doesnt differs on monsters and humans. No styles, stances and other things like in Witcher 1 or for example now-Nioh. Crossbow is absolutelly completelly useless. And most of all-where is all that 90 combat animations we heard about?

 

[Krull32]

I never understood what was wrong with TW3 combat and why so many people complained about it... Personally I found it to be good and enjoyable.

Absolutely
Don't have and never had problems with the combat system in W3. Its very smooth.

 

[chrispowers1010]

The combat in Witcher III is superb, and I can only assume those who are complaining are bad at it and don't put in the time required to become good. To dodge, roll, parry, combine signs + alchemy + blade oils + bombs.. it's got extreme depth. I'm on my 5th playthrough on Death March and I challenge myself often. The people who complain are either bad or are masking their blind love for another game to put down the superior one.

 

[scratcherpen]

The combat itself is good. Just wished it was more complex. That Geralt will have more moves, combat styles, combos, tactics. And most dissapointing part-is level scaling in combat. After some level Geralt became almighty. Bandits and simple monsters even on high difficulty levels are just meat. And you never fights more than one high level monster at time-basilisk, wyvern, etc. Funny thing In Hearts of stone expansion some ordinary monsters can really kick your ass.

 

[cyberpunkforever]

there are two bad things abou the combat: on is the slow energy regeneration, for a witcher, energy is vital, and the second, the camera softlock takes too much time to change from one enemy to another, and that's dangerous, because you can't see or react fast enough to enemies on the sides and behind. but this combat system i still very very good, fluid, dynamic, fast, you can use signs, throw bombs, dodge, roll and don't break the speedness of the combat, to parry some attack and strike back and kicking the enmy, or for example cut the tongue of a monster is a very good detail, and animations are perfect, it's useful to pay attention to the enmies on the sides and everything will be fine, and don't roll unless it's absolutely necessary, for it drains too much energy that is neded for signs, just dodge,
there are a lot of abilites to try and use that make the combat totally different,
the people complaining just have to find which abilites , movements and signs they are comfortable with,

 

[jj284b]

Combat in Witcher 3 is great. It very realistically represent the swordfight. Of course it is not perfect, there are some bugs mostly to the autoaim area, but overall, i like it most of all Witcher games. Must say, there are not many games which will give you actual real feeling what it means to be a swordmaster... Witcher 3 is that game.. just watch some modern day Swordmasters fighting using medieval longswords, and you will find a lot of things Geralt is doing in the game.. ofcourse there are no 80 separate animations ( i guess this number is a summary of all animations, even those in "movie sequences"), but you have all important ones in the game, while overall swordsman feel is there - swords were used because they were fast, thanks to their speed they dealt damage, not because of their weight like Skyrim and other RPGs have it..

---------- Updated at 05:53 PM ----------

camera softlock takes too much time to change from one enemy to another

if you are playing it on PC, you can use mod that actually fixes the camera softlock.. makes the combat a bit more challenging though, as you need to be aware of your orientation.. but at the other side, it allows you to hit multiple enemies at once.. managed to kill 4 drowners once with one sweep around me... was quite cool (under Blizzard effect, bodies fell down at the same time like in some japan cinema )


http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1432/?

 

[carabidus]

You want truly awful combat? Try Dark Souls 3. Played it for 96 minutes and promptly requested a refund from Steam specifically due to the horrible combat mechanics. TW3 combat system has that game beat by lightyears...

 

[killkenny1]

combos.

Oh please no, no combos! I hate those things. Can't be bothered to learn all those button configurations or remember after a long hiatus.
That was one of the reasons I quit Shadow Of Mordor. You had to learn too many bloody combos in order to be effective in combat...

 

[scratcherpen]

That was one of the reasons I quit Shadow Of Mordor. You had to learn too many bloody combos in order to be effective in combat...

What?It was so simple and gived so much combat possibilities.

 

[AnklaX]

What?It was so simple and gived so much combat possibilities.

Shadow of Mordor is one of the hardest games I ever played. Apart from Souls games, it is the only one I could not finish. I'll have to try the easiest difficulty but that is like accepting defeat. That game is so hard. Its very similar to Arkham series but just a lot more of that.

 

[Riven-Twain]

Moderator's note: Please, try to head back towards the topic of combat in The Witcher III. Comparisons or contrasts with other games are fine, however, if the conversation wanders too far from The Witcher, the discussion of other games should take place over here, please: Let's talk about Video Games. Thank you. Carry on.

 

[scratcherpen]

I think thats the problem-the gamers want to that be easy. To tutorial and the game itself guide them by hand. No challenging, no finding own and opponent weak and strong points and best tactics. And the most of time its leads to the choises to nerf the game itself, the difficulty of the bosses.combat and ruin all the joy from such challenge, when you in fact could just switch the difficulty level. This is bad tendension.

 

[TheForgottenOne]

I would like to also point out, the problem is that they find the game too easy even on Death March. Some of these critics say it's nothing like Bloodborne or Dark Souls combat so therefore it sucks to them. They're so wrong!

 

[scratcherpen]

Of course its not. This is not that games -its the Witcher.Not the game when you must find every opponent weakness and can die at every ocassion. Not such hardcore. Maybe in future games(if they decide to continue) they will choose such harcore method , but not now. Even the game points you where to go and where is not for now and most of the bosses was nerfed . Actually sometimes in gamethe enemies can kick your ass bad-the spiders,boars,that faceless Iris guardian. If the critics havent noted that-really sucks for them. So yes, the game can give you challenge on high levels, aspecially on high difficulty levels and NG+, but not so mazochistic as the games you mentioned.

 

[Holgaroni]

A game where in 100hrs of content you can only press X and ,if you really feel the itch, the Y button is superb? You all serious? So tactical. And i'm talking about the melee combat, that's what interests me the most.

Oh and... Aard whatever thing you see----->Autokill----> You won.

Lel.

---------- Updated at 09:07 PM ----------

The combat evolved -yes. But it still lack many good things that lost in the previous games. There are just few finishers and no finishers and group finishers for monsters for example, just cleaving. No special attacks, sets of combos, counter attacks. Steel/Silver sword styles completely same and doesnt differs on monsters and humans. No styles, stances and other things like in Witcher 1 or for example now-Nioh. Crossbow is absolutelly completelly useless. And most of all-where is all that 90 combat animations we heard about?

Exactly my point of view.

 

[georgetziotis]

Ok the combat mechanics are pathetic nothing in depth.

The combat as animations moves and visuals is really good.
Combat seems cool but only if you watch it cause if you play the game you see that the combat lacks of depth i never felt i had an amazing battle with an enemy or boss.