travo said:It's crazy we are at almost the same spot but you have about fifteen extra hours of gameplay. You must've played the hell out of some side quests.
I play tons of Gwent. Which I love. And I replayed some missions to see how they play out differently.
Dvader said:As a super high level where every quest will be no challenge. It's not unique to this game, game developers have no clue how to properly level up players.
I would think the main story would be harder if you don't level up through a million side missions first.
Ok I did the cat treasure hunt quest and it was exactly what I needed. For once in the game the quest let you actually think for a moment, it didn't hold your hand like every part of this game does. Minor spoilers [spoiler]it tells you to go under temple isle but the marker is not specific so some exploration is needed[/spoiler]. To me the "how do I reach that" moment in video games is one of my favorite things so I was so thrilled to finally have one of those moments in this game.
First I took a boat around the back of the island to see if there was an underwater entrance, there was not but I did see the entrance on the cliff . So I went back up and found the path to the side of the cliff and in the cave. Then inside the cave was an actual puzzle! It was simple, moving some statues but still a quest where actual thought is needed and I am not simply following red glowy stuff. And it ended with [spoiler]fighting a horribly mangled witcher,[/spoiler] totally awesome. If the whole game was like that I would be in heaven.
edgecrusher said:I would think the main story would be harder if you don't level up through a million side missions first.
right but then you skip the side quests and when you get back to them they are super easy. There is no balance to it. The game levels slowly so it's not that bad but if you do try to do things around your level you will level up faster than the missions.
I feel Vader's pain, and like he says playing just the main quest isn't a good solution. I'm near the end of act 1, and after focusing on the main quest I'm now over-levelled for all the side quests I could have done, so they're blander than they might have been. And the game has settled down into a pretty predictable rhythm, too.
Plus, the difficulty curve doesn't work. It starts out brutal, to the point where I almost lowered the difficulty. Now even when doing quests that I'm under-levelled for, the game is a pisstake, with the only difference being how spongy enemies are. And what happened to the great pacing of White Orchard?
Yeah I am on death march and I am destroying eveything within 6 levels f me.
Going camping this week so I won't return to this game until Wednesday evening. 
In typical fashion I was heading to an island to do part of the main quest and got sidetracked ghost busting a lighthouse. When I went to collect the reward, I got into a mix up a put into a mining prison.
This game looks and sounds so fantastic. I love simply walking around when it's windy and/or rainy and just looking at the trees and listening to the sound effects. Games like this really give me a great sense of exploration.
I finally caught up with Ciri. That reunion...
Out of all the places I've traveled to, Kaer Mohlen is still the most beautiful. The lighting on the mountain plus the stone is just beautiful.
Sixty-eight hours later and the main quest is finished. I think I got the positive ending. At least I liked it a lot.
Here are some final thoughts. The game is fantastic, worthy of GOTY for me. I do have a feeling others will top it but it is certainly worthy. I rarely care about stories but this one was quite gripping. I was constantly rooting for Geralt and Ciri. I love their relationship. He starts off as a paternal figure but I love how he's noticed that she has changed, grown in skills and in maturity. When the two finally meet again after so long, well, without spoiling anything, it was quite the emotional experience.
If we are going to compare this to Skyrim, which we all will, Witcher 3 runs circles around it with its characterizations and choices. But combat is in Skyrim's favor. There's not much variety. Signs help a little with variety but not much when most enemies are pretty much the same. I know exploration is pretty straightforward but it didn't really bother me. I guess I'm conditioned to accept a certain type of mission structure with certain types of games. Between both games, I'm not sure one is better than the other. They both excel at different things. I guess it depends on what you want out of a game.
Overall, this game is probably in the 9.4-9.6 range. I love the WRPG structure too much. That with the phenomenal story elevates this to fantastic highs despite the very few shortcomings.
I'm 80 hours in and not even starting act 2. This game is too big.
Dvader said:I'm 80 hours in and not even starting act 2. This game is too big.
I wished I knew what was the beginning of act 2 and 3.
I'm to the point now where I've given up on doing anymore side quests. I've spent about as long on the game as I want to spend for now, so I'm just going to blast through the main story to get it done. Gotta get more stuff done to prepare for Batman and all the other games coming soon.
Problem is, it's impossible to blast through the main quest because so much of it is walking from conversation to conversation lol.
How many have finished Witcher 3?
I'm almost there...should have it done tonight.
I'm am the only one...I think.
As a super high level where every quest will be no challenge. It's not unique to this game, game developers have no clue how to properly level up players.