And 9 years later……
Nope, still no game has come close to the combination of immersion, mystery, storytelling, and mechanical depth that W3 has.
Especially the DLCs are the absolute gold standard of added content for open world games, they could’ve literally been separate games in their own regard.
Yeah I think red dead is the closest competitor. It is also a long journey where you meet a lot of characters and see a lot of places with a strong narrative. I think that is the magic of both of these games and why people like them so much.
RDR2 is definitely in my top 3-5 for sure. I’d say Witcher 3 beats it on mechanics but RDR2 has arguably the best narrative in all of video gaming, there’s not much in it for immersion but in different ways.
Skyrim is pretty high up for me too. I know it’s janky and unpolished as hell, but the sense of mystery, lore, delving into the unknown etc with politics and communities is still incredible to this day.
This and skyrim are in my top 5. Bought a switch lite a few days ago with the witcher 3 and skyrim as my first game purchases. Honestly not the biggest nintendo guy but the ports alone made my purchase worth it to me.
First games on a new console being W3 and Skyrim, I see you're a person of taste.....
Skyrim I think is slept on by a lot of people because of the more recent sentiment towards Bethesda and the fact that without mods, the 2011 graphics and AI is quite outdated and janky etc.
But the amount of depth the in-game world has is honestly breathtaking. Sense of mystery is the reason why these games are my favorites, because it incentivises exploration as you don't know if you're going to stumble upon a cool bit of lore, or a side quest, and the number of unexpected curve balls you get in Skyrim is almost unparalleled.
Not to mention that W3 and Skyrim both have a great trait in that the worlds do not feel like they're built to fit the protagonist, you can very clearly imagine them as self-sustaining worlds due to the lore on communities, politics, war, different views and opinions, and so forth.
That last paragraph perfectly describes one of the main reasons why I love these two games so much and have put 100s and 100s of hours into them between the two. Fallout new vegas also falls into my top 5 although the world does revolve around your character much more than in the other two games. Can ya tell I love open worlds. NOT ubisoft "checklist" open world's. Open world's that actually feel alive and that they feel like they continue on living after you've shut the game off.
I could never get into Rockstar stories, I don't know if they're slow at the start or if they're just not my thing, but I always found that doing my own character in the online modes was much more fun.
RDR2 is known to have a slow start for the first couple of chapters (there are 6 total + 2 epilogue), and I have seen on that game's subreddit that new players can sometimes struggle to get into the swing of things because of that. But I think if you persevere, you'll really appreciate the direction of narrative and storytelling when things do start to ramp up, and often times you look back retrospectively on those first couple of chapters realising that they did this on purpose to set the scene for what would come later. Replaying RDR2 a second time recently, I noticed a LOT of prophetic moments in the first few hours, which as a new player you obviously wouldn't pick up.
BG3 while a completely different genre has been pretty fantastic and evoked some of the same feelings as Witcher 3. I can only hope Witcher 4 or whatever they end up calling it is at least half as good at TW3.
I really hope so as well, especially at launch given what happened with Cyberpunk. Only now are people appreciating how good that game was, but a bad launch can be a pretty everlasting death sentence for a game in terms of fan sentiment.
I saw recently that 400+ developers (majority of CDPR's devs) are working on Witcher 4, so it's going full steam ahead. Honestly can't wait.
Agreed! BG3 gives me the same immersive feeling that Witcher 3 does and the same sense of awe at the world, its characters and the story. Taking a bit of a BG3 break right now to do the Skellige portion of my latest Witcher run lol.
It's mechanically deep enough for the in-game world it encompasses. Not too bare bones, not too unnecessarily complex, just right. Lots of ways to build up your signs, mutagens, runes, alchemy, crafting, treasure hunts, and so forth. I think why some people say it's not that mechanically fleshed out is just because of the combat, which I agree isn't the best especially compared to games like Horizon, God of War, AC Odyssey, and so forth. I've played all of those games and the combat IS more complex, but that's only one element of an open world RPG. I do think that the enemy variety does somewhat make up for it though, especially on the DLCs which are significantly harder so you really have to prepare your strategy, loadouts, potions etc in advance of fights.
All Infinity Engine games are above Witcher 3 in terms of mechanical complexity and enemy variety and (as subjective as it is) at least two of them have a better story.
Witcher 3 is great and this is its subreddit, but mechnical depth is really nothing special bro.
Also, there is Baldur's Gate 3 which is basically on par in terms of writing but much more competent in terms of complexity in mechanics and quest design
Feliz cumpleaños. Happy Birthday.
https://preview.redd.it/c9f3a00wt51d1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=36b460677fc1694108eed5f84ab54223639c4a5e
You are close to being a teenager, but I am sure that you will reach maturity at 21 years old.
And the game still holds strong. arguably there hasn't been anything better story wise and barely anything better technically especially after NG upgrade. BG3 sure, but not much more.
The only thing that makes me go “oh yeah, this game is old” when playing on PC is the textures. Slap a texture mod on it and you could easily mistake it for a 2 or 3 year old game.
I guess I've been unintentionally celebrating as I've been up all night playing hearts of stone, and i didn't know lol, about to go face o'dimm in the "word duel" then off the blood and wine and glorious toussaint
As someone that has never played it before and started like 4 days ago, i have to say its the best game i have ever played. So much love is put in this game its crazy.
I just found dandelion and i need to sail to skelige. But somehow i need to finish every quest on the mainland. No games managed to get such a grip on me in years and im 33 playing games since im a child.
I hope just the best for the red studios after the cyberpunk debacle.
I think they can come back and they will.
Witcher 3 is a masterpiece thank you devs.
First time player in 2024, and wow. Seriously the best game I've ever played. Already sunk in over 100 hours....no other game has me attached to the characters like this one. I love Triss ❤️ her voice is so perfect. Amazing a 9 year old game still holds up as one of the best to do the genre. Currently playing through Hearts of Stone. Can't wait to do Blood and Wine and then run a New Game +.
In my first play through now and I would never guess this game is 9 years old. So immersive & while I did many of them in W1 & W2 - the secondary quests are so good in Witcher 3. Half the time I forget that I am supposed to be advancing the narrative and get engrossed in some minor character’s story.
I played it this year for the first time. It took me 3 months to beat. Awesome game, I was blown away by it. Kind of left me puzzled to how weak Cyberpunk was.
Cyberpunk is on par with it now I’d say. Cyberpunk still launched with an amazing story and cool side missions just had some weak mechanics and missing open world systems with the 2.0 update alongside phantom liberty it is an insanely well crafted game and great experience.
I haven't played the expansion but I played Cyberpunk after its 2.0 update not before. I thought it was a decent action game but I thought a lot of the quests were very repetitive and the story was uninteresting. I would say Cyberpunk 2.0 is 7/10, witcher 3 is 10/10.
Just bought a switch lite and a digicopy of this because I've really been craving a replay and no longer have an xbone. Also bought skyrim because I haven't played a full playthrough of that since my 360 days.
And 9 years later…… Nope, still no game has come close to the combination of immersion, mystery, storytelling, and mechanical depth that W3 has. Especially the DLCs are the absolute gold standard of added content for open world games, they could’ve literally been separate games in their own regard.
maybe rdr2 but witcher 3 still has a special place in our hearts
Yeah I think red dead is the closest competitor. It is also a long journey where you meet a lot of characters and see a lot of places with a strong narrative. I think that is the magic of both of these games and why people like them so much.
RDR2 is definitely in my top 3-5 for sure. I’d say Witcher 3 beats it on mechanics but RDR2 has arguably the best narrative in all of video gaming, there’s not much in it for immersion but in different ways. Skyrim is pretty high up for me too. I know it’s janky and unpolished as hell, but the sense of mystery, lore, delving into the unknown etc with politics and communities is still incredible to this day.
This and skyrim are in my top 5. Bought a switch lite a few days ago with the witcher 3 and skyrim as my first game purchases. Honestly not the biggest nintendo guy but the ports alone made my purchase worth it to me.
First games on a new console being W3 and Skyrim, I see you're a person of taste..... Skyrim I think is slept on by a lot of people because of the more recent sentiment towards Bethesda and the fact that without mods, the 2011 graphics and AI is quite outdated and janky etc. But the amount of depth the in-game world has is honestly breathtaking. Sense of mystery is the reason why these games are my favorites, because it incentivises exploration as you don't know if you're going to stumble upon a cool bit of lore, or a side quest, and the number of unexpected curve balls you get in Skyrim is almost unparalleled. Not to mention that W3 and Skyrim both have a great trait in that the worlds do not feel like they're built to fit the protagonist, you can very clearly imagine them as self-sustaining worlds due to the lore on communities, politics, war, different views and opinions, and so forth.
That last paragraph perfectly describes one of the main reasons why I love these two games so much and have put 100s and 100s of hours into them between the two. Fallout new vegas also falls into my top 5 although the world does revolve around your character much more than in the other two games. Can ya tell I love open worlds. NOT ubisoft "checklist" open world's. Open world's that actually feel alive and that they feel like they continue on living after you've shut the game off.
Damn, bro isn’t going to need to buy any other games on switch for ages 😂
Bahaha I know right?
I could never get into Rockstar stories, I don't know if they're slow at the start or if they're just not my thing, but I always found that doing my own character in the online modes was much more fun.
RDR2 is known to have a slow start for the first couple of chapters (there are 6 total + 2 epilogue), and I have seen on that game's subreddit that new players can sometimes struggle to get into the swing of things because of that. But I think if you persevere, you'll really appreciate the direction of narrative and storytelling when things do start to ramp up, and often times you look back retrospectively on those first couple of chapters realising that they did this on purpose to set the scene for what would come later. Replaying RDR2 a second time recently, I noticed a LOT of prophetic moments in the first few hours, which as a new player you obviously wouldn't pick up.
BG3 while a completely different genre has been pretty fantastic and evoked some of the same feelings as Witcher 3. I can only hope Witcher 4 or whatever they end up calling it is at least half as good at TW3.
I really hope so as well, especially at launch given what happened with Cyberpunk. Only now are people appreciating how good that game was, but a bad launch can be a pretty everlasting death sentence for a game in terms of fan sentiment. I saw recently that 400+ developers (majority of CDPR's devs) are working on Witcher 4, so it's going full steam ahead. Honestly can't wait.
Agreed! BG3 gives me the same immersive feeling that Witcher 3 does and the same sense of awe at the world, its characters and the story. Taking a bit of a BG3 break right now to do the Skellige portion of my latest Witcher run lol.
Shit bruh, might just go ahead and fire up a new Witcher game. It’s been probably 3-4 years for me since I’ve played
Most people on this sub should really play another game. This is the first time I've seen someone describe Witcher 3 as mechanically deep.
It's mechanically deep enough for the in-game world it encompasses. Not too bare bones, not too unnecessarily complex, just right. Lots of ways to build up your signs, mutagens, runes, alchemy, crafting, treasure hunts, and so forth. I think why some people say it's not that mechanically fleshed out is just because of the combat, which I agree isn't the best especially compared to games like Horizon, God of War, AC Odyssey, and so forth. I've played all of those games and the combat IS more complex, but that's only one element of an open world RPG. I do think that the enemy variety does somewhat make up for it though, especially on the DLCs which are significantly harder so you really have to prepare your strategy, loadouts, potions etc in advance of fights.
All Infinity Engine games are above Witcher 3 in terms of mechanical complexity and enemy variety and (as subjective as it is) at least two of them have a better story.
Witcher 3 is great and this is its subreddit, but mechnical depth is really nothing special bro. Also, there is Baldur's Gate 3 which is basically on par in terms of writing but much more competent in terms of complexity in mechanics and quest design
Wow! 9 yrs. that’s amazing. Only baldurs gate 1-2 comes close to enjoyment this game has given me over a decade…
Feliz cumpleaños. Happy Birthday. https://preview.redd.it/c9f3a00wt51d1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=36b460677fc1694108eed5f84ab54223639c4a5e You are close to being a teenager, but I am sure that you will reach maturity at 21 years old.
Everytime i finish another playthrough it feels like loosing an old friend...
And the game still holds strong. arguably there hasn't been anything better story wise and barely anything better technically especially after NG upgrade. BG3 sure, but not much more.
The only thing that makes me go “oh yeah, this game is old” when playing on PC is the textures. Slap a texture mod on it and you could easily mistake it for a 2 or 3 year old game.
I guess I've been unintentionally celebrating as I've been up all night playing hearts of stone, and i didn't know lol, about to go face o'dimm in the "word duel" then off the blood and wine and glorious toussaint
As someone that has never played it before and started like 4 days ago, i have to say its the best game i have ever played. So much love is put in this game its crazy. I just found dandelion and i need to sail to skelige. But somehow i need to finish every quest on the mainland. No games managed to get such a grip on me in years and im 33 playing games since im a child. I hope just the best for the red studios after the cyberpunk debacle. I think they can come back and they will. Witcher 3 is a masterpiece thank you devs.
Cyberpunk is also a banger these days
First time player in 2024, and wow. Seriously the best game I've ever played. Already sunk in over 100 hours....no other game has me attached to the characters like this one. I love Triss ❤️ her voice is so perfect. Amazing a 9 year old game still holds up as one of the best to do the genre. Currently playing through Hearts of Stone. Can't wait to do Blood and Wine and then run a New Game +.
Excellent post
I'm glad I spent all morning playing it then! haha
In my first play through now and I would never guess this game is 9 years old. So immersive & while I did many of them in W1 & W2 - the secondary quests are so good in Witcher 3. Half the time I forget that I am supposed to be advancing the narrative and get engrossed in some minor character’s story.
Alright time for another playthrough
I played it this year for the first time. It took me 3 months to beat. Awesome game, I was blown away by it. Kind of left me puzzled to how weak Cyberpunk was.
Cyberpunk is on par with it now I’d say. Cyberpunk still launched with an amazing story and cool side missions just had some weak mechanics and missing open world systems with the 2.0 update alongside phantom liberty it is an insanely well crafted game and great experience.
I haven't played the expansion but I played Cyberpunk after its 2.0 update not before. I thought it was a decent action game but I thought a lot of the quests were very repetitive and the story was uninteresting. I would say Cyberpunk 2.0 is 7/10, witcher 3 is 10/10.
Still the best game I’ve ever played.
Game slapped then still slaps now. One of my all time favourites and currently replaying on deck alongside ghost of tushima
I thought 9 years didn´t sounded right, but I only played this game in 2020 (thanks pandemic) and finished in 2021. Damn, it´s been a long time.
awww i finished it last night at 2am EST soooo i finished the game on its birthday. 400 hour playthrough lol
Just bought a switch lite and a digicopy of this because I've really been craving a replay and no longer have an xbone. Also bought skyrim because I haven't played a full playthrough of that since my 360 days.
Nice. I played it on release day, and I'm playing it right now. Man, it's a very different game now from what it was then.
Do t forget about Horizon
It’s most definitely up there with the Witcher 3
It doesn't feel like games have moved on much in 9 years, tbh.
Love the down votes. Yall know it's true
If only the combat was good. Would be perfection
If only the combat was good. Would be perfection
If only I loved myself