No wonder Andromeda sucks. Because the game formula they copied, The Witcher 3, sucks!

Also, don't lump this with the other Witcher 3 threads, or I'm out. This focus is different enough for me to not want to get lost in the mess of a thread to follow that is the merged Witcher 3 threads.



Anyway, disclaimer. I couldn't beat The Witcher 3. I tried, I really tried, but the game is so boring and flawed. Did everything in the first world map, and made it as far as hunting for the witch main quest - then doing that cave mission with her. After that I couldn't push myself to keep going with the flaws of this game.

Everyone is tooting this the next benchmark in open world gaming? But this is where the game bombs hardest.

Next, Andromeda really does rip off The Witcher 3 at every turn. Way more then I expected. So all the comparisons of Andromeda to The Witcher 3 are not at all unfound. It's like BioWare took it's skeleton literally and built upon it, because no standard folks are praising The Witcher 3 as the next standard in open and EA wants that open world success formula means they has to rip it off completely. So here are some similarities I've spotted.

- the hold a button long enough to activate something to activate something to save on the lack of buttons for console gamers
- the stupidly hard to pinpoint circle thing on NPCs you have to aim for to activate NPS dialog
- the way too many NPCs who just talk on their own and constant overlapping dialogs that happen with it
- the bland to explore open worlds
- the fact that the open world are not just one massive open world like Bethesda games, but several separate open world maps
- how combat in open world is very lazy thought out (just copy paste a group of enemies in the same setups over and over - for MEA is the same bases over and over, while for TW3 it's just a boring flat ground with sometimes massive foliage blocking your field of view)
- boring combat, but to ME:A's credit, TW3 is way more boring
- how exploring open world feels like a chore in both games
- how both games are padded with way to many boring fetch quests
- the interface for TS3 is also total garbage, lol
- in both game interest in collecting items OCD'ness ends soon because of how much crap these games toss at you and because the UI for menus are such balls to navigate that you never both to looks up and manage all this junk anyways.
- the stupid scanner, yep, in both games and just as stupid in TW3
- riding the horse sucks, riding the Nomad better, but still sucks. Both only serve purpose to get to next destination. While you can use the Nomad as cover, the horse can sometimes get in the way of combat, lol.
- etc, etc.


Gameplay wise and overall design wise, TW3 is actually worse then Andromeda. Not just because of gameplay combat, but how exploration is handled. It literally is a very linear game in a checklist of fetch quest. And you can't just have all the side and main quests market on the map all at once like in Skyrim so you can take the route of least resistance and maybe get sidetracked in discovering and opening/completing new quests discovered on the way to do other quests. No, you can only have one quest at a time highlighted on the map, and to toggle between quests, you have to enter another sub menu, lol. And did I mention on console (PS4) bringing up the map is not instant, but comes with an actual 3 or so seconds of loading?

So yeah, if you want to follow the quests marked on the map, you're basically doing way more riding horse waste of time across boring open world then needed, or wasting extra time in this game's total garbage UI for navigating between menus. "But what about the question marks on the map, surely they are an alternative for more open non-linear exploration" you say? Yeah, well it would have been if those question marks also listed the recommended levels for doing them too, because starting with the second map you end up in areas where enemies are too powerful for you. Meaning you've just arrived at "Waste of time destination! Proceed to next possible waste of time destination through boring over world because you aren't following the one at at time side quests markers marked on your 3 second load screen map!"

How this game got GotY is beyond me. Guess it's all those I have no standards people who say "RPGs don't need gameplay. Just build pretty graphics and story and we will pay." Or in the case of Andromeda "My face is tired animation and graphics to the song and dance of Mac Walters quality of writing & directing? Yes please!"

End rant/