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

Blasphemy!

Where have you guys been all this time lol.

I played both Witcher games for a total of 20 hours then I hop on Skyrim and do something like this

Not if there's blackjack and hookers. 

Emperor Palpatine just loves this place from all the hate it generates.

How many open worlds are there then?
Minecraft style
MMO style
Skyrim
MEA/TW3

Yup thats about right.
The pure sandbox.
The themepark relying on quests on end (WOW) or actionfest relying on grind on end (BDO).
The atmosphere world where the story is just some sidecontent.
The atmosphere story where the world is just some sidecontent.
Cant speak about HZD or the latest Zelda, but the first was like a MMO... questing and grinding.

Alright, I'm surprised to return to some decent discussion. At least so far.


No, but I was planning on trading TW3 GotY for Horizon Zero dawn, as it seems pretty focused on shooting mechanics what with the bow. Plus it has sci-fi in the mix and I think I heard it's not crazy padded with side quests.

But now your previous post is making me think I should maybe not 100% write off TW3. Despite how crazy boring the combat is (there is no way I can see combat in this game ever impressing me as a Dark Souls fan that I am), and the fact that it's open world exploring does not compare at all to the two Bethesda efforts I've played. ... Like a lot of times I really thought I was getting into and enjoying TW3, then there are slow parts in the story and that's when I snap to reality and it's flaws just explode to the forefront. Like the developers don't respect my free time.

It really also feels like TW3 has the same issue as Andromeda too in another way. Like they should have just focused on what previous games were good at, tight linear narrative and dropped the whole open world nonsense. Seems like everyone is forcing the open world craze solely because Bethesda made a ton of money off it. To the point that it feels so tacked on. Because it is.



But yeah, Bethesda games raised my standards for open world games and Dark Soul series raised my standards for sword and sorcery game play. So excuse me for my higher standard, princesses.



We can still bang, ok.

Open world combat I wish for something like Fallout 3 but way less broken. Man that game's biggest flaw is how broken it is (Western devs sure can't seem balance game play). But at least still had a ton of fun with Fallout 3 game play.

And yeah, in Skyrim I love the sneaking and shooting style. I am a Solid Snake Nord in that one. Draining my solid snake to mark new territories and boldly go where no Nord has gone before. In search of new real estate and adopt a son, lol, why Bethesda, why.   


For Andromeda, I thought the gameplay was easily the weakest out of all Mass Effect games. Yes, I'm even including Mass Effect 1. Though out of the 8 times I've played ME1, I only played Soldier. So not sure if that has something to do with it? In fact, ME1 first time I played with it's way to much talking and barely any action at the start of the Citadel imbalance almost made me give on it a few times. Even though the gameplay felt so clunky by 2012 standards, it still had this certain space magic that kept pulling me back. And by the time I hit Noveria, everything about ME1 clicked with me and I became a hardcore fan of all 3 original Mass Effect games that I am today. Lets give it up for fun game play, folks.


Then we have TW3. *cough, cough* Ah yes. "Gameplay"

We has dismissed that claim.

What do you do in this game? Shit for exploration, and sword and sorcery game play that doesn't even hold a candle to the standard of Dark Souls. All I ever do in this game is, talk to people. Talk some more. Ride a horse over a massive plain of nothing but tall grass covering the entire planet. Listen to the same boring somber tune over and over. Talk some more. More talking. Horsey time! "Come here, Roach!" ... what's this, a groups of enemies. Alright enemies, this flat open field with zero level design to hamper us looks as good as any. Lets us enter the combat zone. A flat open world with tall grass and sometimes trees and even your horse Roach getting in the way or block your retreat because you have no control over the camera while dodging or attacking! And how the game switches between two game play styles while in and out of combat feels pretty sloppy too "Oh crap, these enemies are way too op! Better dodge like an idiot behind me over and over and hope not to hit too many trees until the game decides switch and let me run the heck out of here game play." ... back to more talking. Talking. "Come here, Roach! Lets us ride the boring grass hills some more, so we can talk to more people on the other side of the boring grass hills." ... "And, Roach, was you mother a tank? Because you sure handle way worse then the MAKO. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk."


But this is an RPG, RPGs always had tacked on game play, you may say. Well this is the future. We're supposed to built on the primitive ways of the past and look forward to the arrival of the machines to replace us.

Honestly, if the story, dialog, lore, and voice acting held up to previous ME games, It wouldn't have been as upset with Andromeda as a Mass Effect fan. When I played the 70 or so hours of Andromeda, it was actually game play alone that kept me going. I absolutely hated every minute of Andromeda's story, dialog, lore, character and voice acting. It always made me think of how much I missed ME1 & 2. Then the gameplay and exploring finally got old, boring, repetitive by around 60 hours and decided to make the big finaly push for Priority mission before I lost all interest in playing anymore... So yeah, I don't know what else to tell you. Seeing the franchise I loved so much turn to this. It's not fun and not something I wanted.

It's definitely not going to be on a dark souls level but you may get used to the fact that you playing as a "Witcher" who has a very distinct fighting style. The lore and characters refer to it often. Fast, light and agile with a touch of magic. You aren't a full wizard bc then you would burned at the state nor a knight. Witchers don't use shields or heavy armor. Their combat is supposed to be like a fluid dance. Which the "whirl" skill basically is. I do that and I have upgraded my force push to do a 360 force that freezes enemies. It also explodes them into a bloody mess now. Some of the trolls, golems, leshens, giants, etc fights feel like dark souls. There are also enemies that will put you on your ass. Highly recommend getting into gwent too as the card collecting becomes like collecting and winning Pokémon cards. You eventually create a bad ass/killer deck to use in hard tournaments.

I still play Witcher now on new game plus with all my abilities and my favorite weapons and armor. Basically Geralt is my "Jamie Lannister" of that world being a sly bad ass with the shorter hair that Jamie sported in season one with a shaved face. I literally just play the game without a map and explore from town to town, staying at inns, playing gwent, and accepting monster contracts. All the little questions marks and chests I'll find by chance.

But yeah the political quests in novigrad, the witch hunts, skellige in general, the crazy demon monster quests, tousaint dlc as a whole, and the man of glass are my favorites. Shani is by far the best romance in hearts of stone dlc but she's my athletic kinky doctor which mirrors my own life. Blood and Wine DLC alone, to me, is the best video game experience ever for fantasy open world. I liked more than most games and it remains in my top ten of all time. Hearts of stone's story is amazing as well especially if you enjoy the various demon quests in Skyrim.

I would say try to ignore the flaws as the fighting is a little dated now. I also felt that game's wonky controls and combat but extreme attention to detail was a sure sign that the game was made by a smaller studio fill with passionate people who love video games. We don't get that often. Witcher 3 felt like playing an older Zelda game or older Bethesda game but with a ton of love and care.

MEA I feel is better in terms of combat, in terms of having companions with you for banter while exploring, in terms of customization. But Witcher 3 nails it with its characters, tone, worlds, side missions, and attention to detail. And I was hooked when I finally got to skellige. It's one of the best looking open maps that rivals and often beats Skyrim's map

And nothing beats skellige' music. nothing

I don't think I could get used to that ever. When I play fantasy type games, I either need to be a full on archer capable of killing anything with my bow, or a full on mage that can kill anything with magic without having to touch the sword at all. I am not a fan of swords in video games especially when most fights halberds and spears were used. Swords were just defensive weapons.