-maybe,just maybe add a follower to help the journey of geralt hehehe
^Geralt already teams up with way too many side characters. He is a witcher not an inquisitor.
Just finished the game on PS4. It is the best game I played this year and the best Witcher game.
The game has a great story, deep combat system and lots of little details that allow us to immerse ourselves in Sapkowski's world and its lore.
I am sure you are well aware the game is beautiful and the way sunsets and sunrises are rendered just makes you want to put the controller down and just watch it in awe.
I will try to keep this short and honest.
Technical issues/bugs.
-PS4 framefrate especially when fighting in fog
-'Ministry of funny walks' Skelligers
-I was unable to get a few side quests marked with exclamation marks
-A few crashes. mainly pre 1.04
-waiting for textures to load
-enemies stuck standing after being killed
-Vesemir unable to comment on Berengar's sword
Story, Pacing
The Prima guide divided the game into 3 Acts, I didn't want to read much of the book so that I don't spoil the story for myself.
-Act I until finding mysterious Island, was massive, I have done most of my questing here and managed to get to lvl 25
-Act II involved lots of fast travelling and really not much to do other than that, there werent many quests for me to do except the new DLC Fools Gold which is a a lvl 14 quest
-Act III let me finish a few contracts I didn't want to undertake as a lvl 25 Geralt (Just hit 35 thanks to a few bandits and a certain v. powerful archgriffin)
-Felt like I was dragged through the end of Act I and Act III and didn't have much to say in what was going on
-Yennefer I found way to bossy and as I did not romance her she was quite annoying, to be frank I didn't want to help her at all and found her ideas selfish most of the time
-Triss always felt like a side romance throughout the story, saw her for a bit then she was gone. Felt like Yen was the right one to romance in the game. Well, not to me. That's what she gets for laughing at what I wore to a feast.
-I did accidentally get the ending I really wanted, except a few minor political aspects but when it comes to the main characters, they ended up doing what I wanted them to (thank you)
-I did want to disobey the Emperor and Yen, had to eat from their hands
-The night at Kaer Morhen quest - simply brilliant, always good to see the boys to get up to shenanigans
Skills, RPG mechanics
-Most of the gambesons aka clownsuits, cmon, really, had to wear one til 1st Feline. Conversely, some of the medium armours (next playthrough)
-Feline School, fast and hard with a few yellow skills to boot. I had no issues with endgame and bosses. Stacking all kinds of nasty bleeds and burning
-I really really liked arrow redirection and the amount of satisfaction you get after pulling it off
-Crossbow hit a few flying creatures other than that it was cool to look at
-Bombs were quite fun, maxed a few random ones. Northern breeze vs fire elementals...oh yeah
-Can't comment on signs as I mostly used unskilled Quen and Yrden and a few Aards (next Playthrough - signs)
-I remember the first time I used my whirl and decimated this grave hag 10 lvls higher....too good
-Hitting rend is a bit like lottery
-Can't honestly say I liked the randomly spread enemies at certain levels, made making 35 a real struggle (there is also a certain amount of charm to it : preparation, leaving ? for later and so on
-I would love to place my own pins on the map beside the waypoint ones - pins to mark locations I should come back to
-Horseback riding was fun and efficient and so was sailing, I did not discover all the ? at Skellige as most of the loot was pretty useless to me
-Where can Tor Zireael be found?
Overall
- a Masterpiece
- Tough saying goodbye to Geralt
- Great story with too much Yen (shrew!)
- Can't wait for expansions
Suggestions
- more Triss & trolls
Thank you
P.S. I could not be more proud to see a game based on Sapkowski's prose and Slavic myths and pagan customs do so well and reach so many people around the world. To further immerse ourselves, at every step the gamer is exposed to some thematic folk music created with the help of Percival.