I'm currently doing a playthrough where you playthrough the entire game with your level 1 equipment on Death March. Exp: Witcher's Steel Sword & Silver Sword, Kaer Morhen Armor, Hunting Gaunlets, Boots, Trousers, and finally Crossbow. These items can't change. Not gonna lie it's hard but I'm having a blast.
I think difficulty isn't really an issue with this game. It's very fine tuned and overall gameplay is perfect.
If you want a hard game, try Death March. It'll force you to use your doges, parries, signs, etc. and mix in weak and strong attacks. You need to be a lot more alert and aware, and much more strategic. Give it a go, it'll give you a run for your money!
If you want a hard game, try Death March. It'll force you to use your doges, parries, signs, etc. and mix in weak and strong attacks. You need to be a lot more alert and aware, and much more strategic. Give it a go, it'll give you a run for your money!
You people won't be happy until every enemy one-shots you and a death forces you to start over.
I finished 2 playthrought on Death March and can confirm youdon't need to do most of the things you mentioned.
Dodging- sure
Parries- never used
Signs- perfectly playabale without ever using a single sign.
mix of weak and strong attacks- no, using only fast (weak) attacks is actually better
being alert and aware- not really, if you reach level 10-15 the game becomes a cakewalk and you can pretty much just hack&shlash through the game with the right equip and build
Been there, done that.
All you really need is to open up OP skills such as Whirl and you'll be dropping so called tough enemies in a matter of seconds.
All we're asking for is for Death March to be an actual challenge...
But it appears I'm in the minority here and people just want to cake walk through the game to experience the story. If I wanted to just experience a story, I'd go watch a movie.
Is it so hard for people to comprehend that some gamers find fun in challenge?
BS, I played my first play through in Death March and, besides the fact that the difficulty curve is negative (the first eight levels are the hardest), the game is not playable smashing with the head the fast attack button without using a minimum level of brain. That at least if you don't overlevel Geralt and if you don't accomplish every secondary quest.
Anyway, I am overall satisfied by the difficulty of this game, even 3 or 4 drawners some levels below you can represent a treat if you play cocky. I can remember some epic fights like an Armored Arachas found in the wild many levels over me, Imlerith, the damned Katakan in the Triss mission, the fights tournaments, a Kernun in Skellige and also the first Archigriffin and some battle against many humans. I agree that the last two bosses are very weak but the secret is playing the quests you want even if they are signed with the red skull (like a did many times if they were appealing) and don't become overleveled. I also tried not to use bonus exp trhopies for that. Ppl grinds like monkeys and than complains about the difficulty.
I don't even want to reply to people arguing with Souls game, a game where difficulty came from the clunky and poor animations of the character and the continuous baiting of enemies one by one. Also, Souls game are stupid because they basically force you to die against enemies in order to learn their path and the game is basically a continuous learning of the stupid paths of enemies IA. I prefer by far a game that gives you hints that let you make a strategy BEFORE the battle (bestiary, oils, decotions etc..) than a game like the Souls ones. Unfortunately, ppl started to complain about every single game that don’t want you to die every single step you make.
Anyway, I am overall satisfied by the difficulty of this game, even 3 or 4 drawners some levels below you can represent a treat if you play cocky. I can remember some epic fights like an Armored Arachas found in the wild many levels over me, Imlerith, the damned Katakan in the Triss mission, the fights tournaments, a Kernun in Skellige and also the first Archigriffin and some battle against many humans. I agree that the last two bosses are very weak but the secret is playing the quests you want even if they are signed with the red skull (like a did many times if they were appealing) and don't become overleveled. I also tried not to use bonus exp trhopies for that. Ppl grinds like monkeys and than complains about the difficulty.
I don't even want to reply to people arguing with Souls game, a game where difficulty came from the clunky and poor animations of the character and the continuous baiting of enemies one by one. Also, Souls game are stupid because they basically force you to die against enemies in order to learn their path and the game is basically a continuous learning of the stupid paths of enemies IA. I prefer by far a game that gives you hints that let you make a strategy BEFORE the battle (bestiary, oils, decotions etc..) than a game like the Souls ones. Unfortunately, ppl started to complain about every single game that don’t want you to die every single step you make.
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Comparing to souls is pointless.... of course Dark Souls can be less forgiving... the whole point is that you are undead and *cannot* permanently die... death is a setback but one which in the context is merely a speed bump as you "learn" the fixed enemy spawns and behaviours until you can beat them. It is basically a huge grind-fest.
In almost every other context this isn't appropriate - most avatars are mortal and vulnerable and dying is *supposed* in lore to be permanent... here the learning has to be done *without* dying, every fight has to be survivable with good 'first time' play, otherwise it doesn't make sense. In the particular case of the Witcher, Geralt is vastly superior to most individual enemies, and usually dispatches them with one or two fast & precise blows, but he is also mortal, and can be crippled/killed just as fast. When wounded he doesn't recover just by chugging some water, a chicken sandwich - he is short term crippled and longer term slowed and inconvenienced.
Right now there are no consequences for wounds ~ Geralt and his enemies are as capable at 1Essense/Vitality as they are at 5,000 - this is contrary to how real life works... where a wounded opponent is slower, more vulnerable to follow up attacks, easier to avoid altogether or to capture (etc).
In almost every other context this isn't appropriate - most avatars are mortal and vulnerable and dying is *supposed* in lore to be permanent... here the learning has to be done *without* dying, every fight has to be survivable with good 'first time' play, otherwise it doesn't make sense. In the particular case of the Witcher, Geralt is vastly superior to most individual enemies, and usually dispatches them with one or two fast & precise blows, but he is also mortal, and can be crippled/killed just as fast. When wounded he doesn't recover just by chugging some water, a chicken sandwich - he is short term crippled and longer term slowed and inconvenienced.
Right now there are no consequences for wounds ~ Geralt and his enemies are as capable at 1Essense/Vitality as they are at 5,000 - this is contrary to how real life works... where a wounded opponent is slower, more vulnerable to follow up attacks, easier to avoid altogether or to capture (etc).
I think the end result of all of this is that there needs to be balancing of the difficulty curve. The game starts out quite hard and then gets easy. It seems to be the common theme for most people. At the very minimum Death March needs to be made more difficult. Upscaling and better AI at higher levels would be a good way to go about it.
This pretty much sums up my experience as well. I started the game in Sword & Story and the combat was challenging yet not frustrating. I really loved getting my ass kicked by a pack of wolves as I arrogantly tried to hack and slash them to death. This only lasted until about level 5 when I noticed things getting easier...much much easier.
So I bumped up the difficulty to Blood & Broken Bones which helped until level 10 or so when I started seeing I was getting lazy again. Not afraid of much, not having to plan, practice or prepare. So I bumped up one more notch to Death March. That seemed like the sweet spot until I hit about level 15 when once again I felt overpowered against anything I was allowed to actually hit.
Now I'm level 20 with no where to go and getting a little worried as things are becoming a lot easier already. And I'm not good (terrible at Dark Souls). I started thinking it was just my build (signs) so I changed it all up to be more of everything (hybrid). Stopped using Yrden and Axii, trying to do without Quen. But that's all artificial difficulty hamstringing. It removes fun and interesting mechanics from the game in order for it to be challenging. So less fun combat overall.
Anyway I just think the difficulty curve needs re-balancing. And not just more hp and more damage from monsters but a scaling AI complexity as well as perhaps numbers of opponents.
That's my 2 cents. I don't want to be constantly one-shot but I also don't want to sit back and let my stats do the fighting for me. Just would like it a bit more challenging and fun.
p.s. Game's a goddamn work of art though regardless.
Right, so you're satisfied with the hardest difficulty needing only the minimum level of thinking? If so, then I completely disagree. By the time you have enough skill points to form a decent build, Death March becomes a joke. Difficulty options are there to appease all types of players, but right now we only have super easy, really easy, easy and normal. Seriously the balancing in this game is messed up, if you can't see that, then we're never going to see eye to eye.
Don't become over leveled? That's a mission in itself! Yet another reason why the game becomes too easy. I wouldn't even think of grinding in this game, what a waste of time, it's completely unnecessary.
I never asked or compared TW3 to a Souls game, all I'm asking for is Death March to be as it's described in game. I've repeated this multiple times throughout this thread, which just gets constantly ignored. You have your easy difficulties already, no one is forcing you to play a hard difficulty if that's not your thing. But we were promised a challenging game, CDPR never delivered on that.
Thankful PC players like myself can turn to mods, like the Enhanced Better Combat mod that gets more popular every week. I've given up on the idea that CDPR will address this on their end, unless they finally do bring out perma death mode, that would be nice. Until then, I patiently wait for the red kit to drop, so the modding community can balance the game properly.
Thanks Gods for all those mods! The Enhanced Combat Mod copled with less money mod and less experience mod allows for a challenge and also the need to grind and joy to make all side quests!
In my opinion The Witcher 3 is not that difficult even on DeathMarch but it is indeed the best game I ever played. Only the damage and HP of the enemies were increased but same behavior as the easier difficulties 
I am looking forward to seeing enemies do some unusual stuff when playing the hardest difficulty.
I am looking forward to seeing enemies do some unusual stuff when playing the hardest difficulty.I agree that is not that difficult in Death March, but seriously, this type of criticism is pointless. If you found the game too easy, why don't you start limiting yourself like the mod basically does by itself? Try not to use skill points, don't upgrade your equipment, just swords for the damage, don't buy food, etc... People complain that they don't want to auto limit themselves but this is how the mod basically works, it doesn’t change enemies AI routine I guess. Witcher 3 is not a difficulty-based game, neither a gameplay-based game, the most important thing is the plot and the characters and for that, the gameplay of Witcher 3 for me is by far satisfying enough. I consider it one of the most fun and realistic action gdr gameplay.
The problem with recent games, though, is that they tend to give you so many possibilities that you necessary become overpowered at a certain point. Look at MGS V and its recent leaked gameplay: you have basically dozens of resources and possibilities (the buddy Quiet as a sniper seems so OP that looks more like a cheat) and this is a beneficial for the gameplay (more fun, more ways to play) but the game will be necessary more easy.
In my opinion, I still prefer "diversification" to difficulty.
The problem with recent games, though, is that they tend to give you so many possibilities that you necessary become overpowered at a certain point. Look at MGS V and its recent leaked gameplay: you have basically dozens of resources and possibilities (the buddy Quiet as a sniper seems so OP that looks more like a cheat) and this is a beneficial for the gameplay (more fun, more ways to play) but the game will be necessary more easy.
In my opinion, I still prefer "diversification" to difficulty.
I see no reason for CDPR to not come with a higher difficulty, though I hope they're smart about it. I hate when every enemy is just "leveled up." I should still be able to mow through a random mob of criminals like a scythe through wheat. More higher level monsters with more variable attack patterns. Take Trolls. They have a very easily deciphered attack pattern where level matters very little. Level 10 or level 50 simply comes down to how much dodging and striking you do. Nothing really changes except for the length of the encounter. I know it's probably asking too much, but just artificially decreasing the PC's attack/defense while simultaneously increasing all enemies...is boring. For me that's not really fun, it's just tedious.
^
With respect to the above, while there's obviously some truth in it I do feel people bandy the term 'subjective' around quite a lot...
Everyone experiences difficulty differently but its rooted in the experience of the majority - and most people here are saying TW3 is too easy, just as most people agree that Dark Souls is pretty hard... There is some objective criteria here as well, such as ability to save, respawning, AI quality, hit detection....
@Estaim I qutie agree that people could be more resourceful in making things harder - however, I think the core mechanics could be harder, you should NEED to parry etc and not be able to rely overly on rolling
With respect to the above, while there's obviously some truth in it I do feel people bandy the term 'subjective' around quite a lot...
Everyone experiences difficulty differently but its rooted in the experience of the majority - and most people here are saying TW3 is too easy, just as most people agree that Dark Souls is pretty hard... There is some objective criteria here as well, such as ability to save, respawning, AI quality, hit detection....
@Estaim I qutie agree that people could be more resourceful in making things harder - however, I think the core mechanics could be harder, you should NEED to parry etc and not be able to rely overly on rolling
IMO, the hardest quest in the entire game was the botchling Family Matter's quest. Those wraiths were a terror. Nothing after that came even close.
Oh great, the thread was moved into the Story, location and character discussion sub section?
I guess this is where the discussion ends.
I guess this is where the discussion ends.