DA Fan gives TW3 a shot: Text Based Let's Play

It's probably some of the best storytelling they've done. Very layered and full of foreshadowing and symbolism. There's a marvelous part where Shani points out the moon's reflection on the lake..and yeah. Sa'll I'm saying. 

IDK why this song reminded me of Witcher.

I've now played Witcher 2 both paths and actually have a clue about the cast of TW3!

So I've bought the PC version of the game WITH DLC and shall be playing it again from start to finish.

I'm torn on the issue of Empress vs Witcher Ciri. And I'm romancing Triss this time. She seems a bit of a sad sad lady from my feeling of her in TW2. Geralt regainging his memory means her Withholding KEY ROMANTIC INFO about Yennifer is glaringly obvious.

Will her "Lying to you during your amnesia so I could have a shot at you" gambit going to work? Yes it will! because I'm romancing her just to try out something new.

I didn't come anywhere close to doing all the side content the first time I played and there is also DLC I'll be trying out. So here I am, Necro-ing my own thread so I have a place to write about my new-to-me impressions of the content.

You get to see CorinneTilly again!

Play Death March difficulty!

The DLCs are quite a bit harder and boss heavy, but the combat encounters all around are improved. I think even the AI of random monsters and bandits was tweaked. Also, you'll need alot of coin for some cool new items and other stuff. So be stockpiling it as you play the base game. 

The combat system builds upon TW2 but is fairly different. Sword fighting is the most similar aspect between the two, but TW3 has short as well as long dodges plus the adrenaline system. Signs are nerfed and Quen is not as essential. Alchemy is a lot better, specially since you no longer have to meditate to drink potions or craft potions more than once (though you have to refill them with meditation and alcohol).

The alchemy tree is fun because it allows you to do cool things like stuff yourself with potions, make explosions with gas bombs and Igni, and drink decoctions with over-the-top effects like getting healed when you do damage or getting healed when you use signs. Those are good for things like swordsman/alchemist and spellcaster/alchemist hybrid builds, respectively. But I would say that practically any build can be fun and get you through the game, though I never got going full spellcaster; signs strike me as too weak to stand on their own.

Without going into spoilers, I would say that the expansions are indeed more difficult than the base game. There are a lot of enemies, specially bosses, with unique attack patterns you need to work around, as opposed to the mostly straightforward attacks of opponents in vanilla.

While technically you can play both Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine before completing the main game, and HoS even has some little dialogue nods towards the main quest if you haven't finished it yet, both are fairly obviously designed to be played after completing the main game. Hearts of Stone first, and Blood & Wine last since it not only takes place in a completely different map than everything prior, but also because story-wise it's designed to be a high-level adventure and the epilogue for TW3 and Geralt. You're honestly in for quite a treat when you get to the two DLC's, they're easily the two best pieces of DLC I've ever played for any game. Blood & Wine in particular is essentially a game unto itself.

And since you're now on the PC version, I'd suggest getting at least a mod to increase the amount of loot you can carry just for the convenience. Or maybe it's just me because I like having multiple crafted Witcher armor & weapon sets on me so I can switch depending on my mood. Also makes crafting and managing food items for healing less of a hassle

Two votes for Hearts of Stone post prologue, one vote for it after main game.

Three votes for Blood and Wine Post Game.

Well, if we're voting I would probably prefer doing Hearts of Stone post-vanilla myself. The reason I suggested doing it earlier was because you do get a few extra lines of dialogue, but those either don't add much if you've already beaten the game or just make the situation more baffling e.g. why is it that Yennefer, Triss, and Ciri don't help Geralt with the stuff going on in Hearts of Stone when it is obviously a Big Deal? Your mileage may vary.

This is the alchemy build pre-nerf:



It's still powerful today, but before you kill an entire army with this build. I suggest trying out, I plan on doing so in my death march playthrough.

Be patient and you'll see later.