So, a few years after buying it, I finally started playing W3 a few months back. I’ve got about 15 hours in it and I guess I’m going to give up.
I hate the combat.
I played and finished W1 and W2 with only some difficulty, but even on the easiest level in W3 I’m dying left and right. I spoke to a friend who said “oh yeah, you need to block, you need to use oils and potions…”
Nope. Not going to do it. I don’t like this kind of combat. I don’t think about potions and things, played Skyrim for 500 hours without using any but health and magic restore.
Like the story, the world, the characters, and even the Netflix show, but this game’s idea of “easiest possible” is combat where I strike once and then get hit repeatedly, staggering but not recovering before the next hit, till I’m dead is just ridiculous.
Absolutely zero enjoyment from this. It’s like playing an F1 game where the only way to proceed is to beat Hamilton in your first race and on easy they just give him bruised ribs to slow him down. That’s not easy, that’s choosing between 98 and 100 on the scale.
I was able to get all the way through Witcher 1 and 2 on normal or easy, I don’t even remember which, and neither were ever this hard.
Ya, I remember when I first started it I almost quit multiple times. But then I learned the unique combat gameplay, and after 230 something hours I’ve finished it, loved it, my favorite all time game now. It takes a learning curve, but once your mid level and understand the mechanisms it gets much more easier, too easy IMO.
But like all those flight sims that I play on easy… got to be willing to learn.
I still haven’t finished Witcher 2.
Somehow I lost interest in it after 20 hours or so, no clue why.
Never tried part 3 because I didn’t finish part 2 and it just didn’t feel right to skip it.
One thing that i learned to hate about the game is the lack enemy levels. You can just have the easiest fight ever and move 3 feet and get stomped my a high level foe.
I’m on a second go using highest difficulty and the point is to be prepared for combat and not to rush in. Lean about who you’re about to face and have a plan. Signs/oils and blocking (rolling?) is required. Building your character is very important and not trying to bite too much on enemy above yours.
Btw W3 is much easier than other realistic game. If you want super frustration - try KingdomCome Deliverance (also on max difficulty).
Yeah, see, I despise the very idea of oils and potions. Might be fine in a book to say you need it, but I find the concept tedious. It’s like work.
With this stupid fog creature I’m stuck on, I can hurt him just fine. One hit knocks out 1/4 of its health. The problem is I only GET one hit. Then it hits me, I stagger, and it keeps hitting me before I recover from the previous stagger.
Is there an “anti stagger” potion? I’'ll make 1000 of that and just drink it all the time. Nothing irritates me more in a game than seeing my on screen character caught in an animation I can’t interrupt, and when it gets me killed it makes me want to punch the developers in the face.
Of course, I’ve never liked 3rd person combat. I think it always should be 1st person. Every 3rd person shooter I spend 100% of combat in iron sights because my own body shouldn’t be blocking my view of the target. It’s fine for exploration, like Tomb Raider type stuff, or Batman-style brawling, but as soon as I have a weapon, even a sword or axe or whatever, I want 1st person.
You are not on your own, bought it for the wife as she loved skyrim and fallout etc. She played for a couple of hours and then told me she hated it.
Gave it a whirl as the whole world adored the game and thought she must be doing it wrong. Absolutely fricking loathed the combat. I even found Dark Souls more appealing and I hated that as well. Utter trash.
The lore, the world, everything else was a wonderfully crafted experience but my god did I hate the combat. I had a similar problem with the Mass Effect games. Want to be this deep meaningful experience but the gameplay suggests otherwise…
LOL, I love Skyrim and Fallout 3 onwards, too! I tried Oblivion but couldn’t get into it.
I did enjoy the Mass Effect games, although again I found the combat the least enjoyable until ME3 when it became a passable cover shooter in combat. Not that I enjoy cover shooters all that much, but it didn’t detract from the game…it just failed to add to it.
The quen (yellow shield) sign is what you are looking for, it can be quickly cast, and will counter/block most attacks, without you getting staggered. Helps a ton early on, especially with Foglets. Thing to remember is you can cast it and it will last a solid few minutes before it expires, at which point you can cast it again. Any hit while it’s active (yellow spark around you) should get blocked and the opponent stunned without you getting stun locked. You can then cast it again pretty much immediately. As long as you have a second to mash the sign button.
Oils are a set and forget kinda thing for the most part, unless you know you are going to specifically be fighting something that’s hard, you generally don’t need them unless you are super minmaxing. The other thing is dodging over blocking the vast vast majority of the time. If you are blocking, it’s just so you can dodge to get out of the way, or you are timing a parry, which doesn’t work so well against monsters, so dodge, and quen are what you are looking for.
Other thing is explore some of the other signs, the purple trap sign generally stuns or unmasks things that can go invisible or teleport, so can help a lot. Some bombs are also incredibly effective against specific foes as well.
