Now I am a huge Witcher 3 fan and it is my personal favorite game of all time, but that doesn’t stop me from criticizing Witcher 3 and calling out it’s flaws. There are some aspects that just need improvement or rather evolution from previous RPG tropes/trends, and seeing as to how The Witcher franchise has evolved dramatically over time, I am pretty sure that CDPR are going to improve a lot of aspects in Cyberpunk 2077, which is my most anticipated game (Probably of all time). So I wanted to talk about a few gameplay aspects that could be improved in Cyberpunk 2077. I would like to clarify before moving forward that, this is not about combat mechanics. I know that Cyberpunk 2077 is probably going to be a shooter RPG (It would be great of CDPR surprise us and make it melee focused or give us the option to develop the character in either of the fields). So with that out of the way, let’s get into the list:
4. Difficulty Scaling
Difficulty system is pretty decent in Witcher 3, not bad, not very great, just alright. But why do I find it it “just alright”? It’s because, as you shift the difficulty to higher levels, the damage that any particular enemy does, scales up at a steep angle. The AI does not vary much from Blood & Broken Bones to Death March, but due to the steep curve in the damage scaling, you’ll find yourself dodging a helluva lot unless you have developed your Quen Sign or have some complex alchemic regenerative potion.
3. The Leveling System
Now the leveling system is good for a story driven game like Witcher 3, where the game doesn’t make you grind through tonnes of enemies to level up for the next boss or contrastingly, grinding at the beginning of the game through enemies to be overpowered for the rest of the game. But then it also loses the thrill and rewarding feeling of defeating enemies at a much higher level, which works against the open world formula where many might just want to tread into unknown territory in between story missions. Many a times, our Witchers have ventured into dangerous territory and found a Cockatrice or Basilisk of a much higher level, and after killing the monster, taking a considering amount of time, we get some diamond dust, some feathers and a sword that probably can’t be wielded because of Geralt’s experience falling short in spite of spending most of his life monster hunting. I personally have no idea how to circumvent this issue, but I hope that CDPR is able to figure something out.
2. Better Interactivity System
Remember all those times in Witcher 3 where you tried to open a chest, but continuously lighted up the candle kept on it instead? Yeah I know that feeling of annoyance and don’t worry, Geralt also has some similar feelings. Now, this is not just the case with Witcher 3, there are quite a few games where playing in third person mode can be quite annoying when a world is filled with detailed interact-able items. And one such fine example of how a game is trying to circumvent that problem will have to be Star Citizen. They create a temporary cursor on on screen in-game while trying to interact with objects which helps the player distinctly interact with what he/she wants to. I can’t find the video I found this feature in, but I’ll be sure to update once I find it. (If you find it, please comment below with the link, I’ll be grateful)
1. Alternate Endings Through Multiple Playthroughs/ Player Actions
This is probably me just being too un-apologetically demanding, but after playing and getting various endings in Nier: Automata, and revealing the real ending through multiple playthroughs or through the player not completing objectives in more than 2 ways, I think it should be adopted in more games. Now hear me out before you start saying, Witcher 3 already has 36 endings which depend on what you do through out 150 hours (That’s how long it took me on the first playthrough) of the story. Yes the game has 36 endings, and I have played it 2 and a half times over, but after the game is done, and you have completed all the interesting quests, all you can do is start a New Game+ to go through the story again or have to load up a save file at crucial points of the story to see how various endings turn out ‘to be’ (hehehehe). I consider NG+ an old school mechanic/aspect currently and it’d be great if CDPR could incentivise multiple playthroughs aside from just buffing up the enemies to a higher level. Yes the game already incentivises multiple playthroughs, but you can always change decisions/outcomes by loading up the previous saves. Now I am not expecting CDPR to pull off a Yoko Taro here, but they certainly can try and it would be impressive as hell.
Now these are my personal preferences and I know that I might have missed out some of the other points which were observed by more keen eyes, so let me know your thoughts on this. Peace out.
Make it NOTHING like witcher 3 because apart from graphics and a decent story it had nothing much to offer in a gameplay POV, make it dark, dont take ANY idea from the fallout series because theyre shit beyond shit, make it 100% original. Thank you
Well, from what I have experienced, most games have become less gameplay centric… It still had much more depth than most games of 2015-16 which include all your heavy hitters- Ubisoft titles, Activision titles, Sony titles… Probably Dark Souls is the only exception…… Apart from that, in 2017 only have there been games with depth in gameplay- Nioh, Nier Automata, Yakuza 0 etc…..
I think horizon should be there as well, the story on that game was pretty deep and a well thought out one
I haven’t played the game personally, but there are quite a few critics/friends whom I follow are saying the opposite….. I’ll check it out later this year.
I’ve played about 45 hours of witcher 3, that is just a fraction compared to the hours people have put into it, but i was honestly disappointed with the final product, their initial vision for the game, before it went multiplatform, was just something else because i had believed they created the perfect game, but somewherw along the process of making the game they had to change their approach to cater to console gamers and unfortunately lost some of its original quality so I didn’t love it as much as many people did. But horizon on the other hand is an entirely different thing, from visuals, to gameplay, to story, they did a fine job explaining why everything around you is what it is. Im sure you’ve seen gameplay videos as well, it goes beyond what you see on youtube, you need to do a lot of planning and the best part about it is the hunting. I really hope you pick it up
Hmm…. I dunno…. I doubt that they reduced anything but visuals for Witcher 3… And there are in game ini files which make the game look like the E3 version on PC…..
As for the other parts, yeah I do agree, Horizon Zero Dawn looks good, very good, but then it loses a lot of depth in doing so from what I have seen of the gameplay…. Witcher 3 has 36 endings depending on how you play the game throughout.
But at this point I’ll be comparing apples to oranges, Witcher 3 is a full blown RPG which caters less to the action fans and Horizon Zero Dawn is an action adventure game with RPG elements which concentrates on the action part….. I personally spent about 600 hours on the Witcher for completing 4-5 endings
I fully agree with you, one is a full sized RPG game that needs 100s of hours and the other is more of the action adventure game, but you aren’t fully allowed to judge Horizon yet since you haven’t played it yourself and trust me when i say this but the action is anything but linear.
And for the Witcher 3 downgrade that im talking about, you wont like what you’re about to see, I’m going to post a video of the debut gameplay trailer, what’s in that trailer compared to what was released are 2 completely different games.
https://youtu.be/TZ_G6XiHoUA
I am not fully judging the game anyways…. I am just saying from what I have seen…..
As for the trailer, I really see no difference in anything but the visuals which honestly, as long as the gameplay is good, I don’t mind and which can be tweaked to look good by adding mods…
Combat is the same honestly, what else includes gameplay?
Lol okay I see it now, the fact that you denied seeing any difference between the trailer and whats been released shows that I’ve been arguing with a fanboy who would refuse to mention any differences no matter how evident they are, go to the comment section of the video and see for yourself, its literally every single comment on the video. I should have known right from the part where you judged Horizon even though you’ve never played the game. Peasant
I need objectivity here, not just some random and vague “the games are different”. Tell me how the gameplay is different and I’ll agree, but without any reasons, I can call you a fanboy myself.
Well for one, the combat isn’t dynamic and tactical like its shown in the trailer, rather it feels like any other hit then roll dodge game. The way he frikin walks in the trailer is even much better. The graphics and dynamic weather in the game are 10 times better on the trailer, the fire in the trailer is much better, and look at the gorgeous volumetric smoke coming out of it, oh and the beautiful looking sea and riding a boat deep sea with wind affecting the water and everything around it. Listen here buddy i have all consoles and a pc because I’m anything but a fanboy, if you don’t acknowledge the difference then goodbye because I’m not going to argue with you any further. I bet you probably watched that trailer 5 times already ever since i posted it to you and read the comments on it. Please go away
Tactical combat… Hmm… What would you call a good tactical melee combat? I would like an example. Dark Souls is the same- hit one time, dodge 3-4 times, learn attack patter and that is a tactical combat game. Way he walks, sure there are a few animation differences, but it’s just the coating of graphics that makes the E3 version that makes it look better in the trailer, but how does it affect the gameplay?
Fire in the trailer, dynamic weather, gorgeous volumetric smoke, beautiful looking sea everything is good graphics, want the gameplay differences, as I clearly stated. If you can’t tell me any gameplay differences, then there is no point to the argument.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7b97bed0583cd470281e9e24ac72661ae668b7ef5f8b426d6e6be4d38be51945.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e5934025cfb94dec6b35661a18d24a3e31a40090a68bdd62a02c3b833f666124.jpg
The combat in Witcher 3 annoyed me a little. I always felt that I ended with more or less the same fighting skills as I began. Your “stats” increase but you don’t really learn new moves or techniques. Also the enemy types became a bit similar. The story telling, world building and character development were very good though. Hopefully it is different enough from Witcher, Cyberpunk seems like it will need mechanics etc that the Witcher games don’t have…
As I mentioned, combat is not the focus here.
As for the new moves? I mean there were alternate signs which unlocked at a minimum of Level 15 and to unlock all alternate signs it took a lot of levelling up. Then there was the whirl which unlocked at the bottom if you increased the melee side…. I had two totally different builds between the start and the end of the game…. I started with melee focused and ended up with a sign focused Geralt.
I just found that I basically stuck to a few moves no matter the enemy. The upgrades where mostly stat based and increased a percentage. I’m not saying go full Devil May Cry but maybe Dark Souls or For Honour? I thought the combat repetitive, great basics but seemed to stay the same. I guess that you can’t add a lot of stuff to Geralt without going away from the source material so you can’t really give him crazy new powers but I just found the combat, well a bit boring after a while. I agree with the article but for me the combat got a bit boring after 150+ hours…To each his own, I suppose.
Yeah that I would agree with…. The story actually carries the game through for me…. I doubt they could put a For Honor like combat system in Witcher 3, though Darkl Souls is doable, but piroutte is a huge part of the Witcher lore, so they needed to stick to that…. With shackles removed from the Witcher lore, they could probably do a lot more.
Oh, I loved the story! It was great and I do think it was more a “lore” thing than anything else but, well, its fun to think about what “could be”! THAT level of story and an AMAZING and varied combat system? Well, I think we would both love that just as much, if not more!?
I really need to replay Witcher 3 as well because I haven’t played the last DLC yet and It gives me an excuse!
COMBAT! After playing the Souls series it’s hard to find Witcher combat enjoyable. It’s too simple, too easy