Ben-DutkaThe more I play, the more I wonder: How much of this content did CD Projekt Red put in simply to elongate the overall play time?
Hey, I love it. I'll probably want to do everything there is to do. But am I the only one who gets the feeling that the amount of content actually outstrips the mammoth size of the map?
There are just so many missions and as you progress, you will invariably leave more than a few behind. Once any mission is 6 missions or more below your current level, it becomes grayed out; you can still do it but you won't get any experience for it (well, 5 experience, which is the same as none). Because there are so many, you end up with a bunch of these. There's just no avoiding it. This tells me the game is quite simply too big; it has too much content that ends up being unnecessary. It's almost as if the developers didn't want to stop making new missions, without turning an eye to how fast the character progresses. Why and how did I find a Lv. 4 Scavenger Hunt on Skellige? No sense.
When I say "too big" I'm not talking about the map size. In point of fact, I don't think The Witcher 3 is oversized at all. Breaking up the areas into separate maps was a great idea; it makes the entire game more manageable. I vastly prefer it to the sandbox setup seen in games like The Elder Scrolls and I hope more games adopt this structure. However, the "too big" comes from just too much stuff . Too many missions become superfluous due to your progress, and there are way too many useless items and equipment. In my mind, it only adds to the overall depth if these things have a purpose; most things in the game simply don't. They can be sold, of course, or used for crafting and alchemy, but do we really need that much stuff? Nah.
As much as I adore the game, a lot needs to be tweaked for the next go 'round, in my estimation.
So many missions, alchemy ingredients, things to craft, books to read, bestiary info on enemies, etc.
It does become overwhelming at times and I can see where you're coming from. The fact that you found a level 4 scavenger hunt in Skellige says enough. I haven't played since last weekend but I know the feeling all too well.
Can't wait to play tomorrow with my big gaming blanket and become a big ass kid lol.
Last edited by MRSUCCESS on 6/26/2015 10:44:02 PM
Always better to have too much than not enough IMO. I could keep playing Skyrim forever and not run out of things to do, and know people who do. I managed to break my addiction after about 200 hours, though.
I guess it's all about setting personal limits.
200 hours of skyrim?
dedication right there…
I put about 110 hours into one playthrough doing all the major sidequests (Dark Brotherhood, Companions, etc.) and most of the minor ones. Then I spent a good 50 hours doing all the necessary things to buy land in all three holds where you can build your own house, and then building them. Another 20 or so for the Dragonborn DLC, and 22 for my first play where I did nothing but the main quest.
Still nothing compared to my Borderlands addiction. I beat the first two games with all available character classes and all DLC, for a combined total of about 643 hours, according to the Steam counter.
I sometimes have narrow tastes in my advanced age, but when I find a game that works for me I play the crap out of it.
Last edited by Bio on 6/27/2015 2:01:06 PM
I'm still going back from Batman to finish up the last few trophies.
I still have I don't know how many people to get the last random gwent cards from in Skellige, and a few side missions I never finished.
Even though I'm enjoying Arkham Knight so far, I still think the Witcher is going to be my game of the year.
I still can't play it. The gameplay and I just are not compatible. I want to play it so bad though as I loved what I have played. You are all lucky you didn't gorge yourself with hours of Bloodborne. Once you play that too much, other games and their gameplay just don't do it anymore. I didn't finish Dragon Age Inquisition either.
Thanks Fromsoftware. Bastards.
I beat Bloodborne 4 times and have no problem playing the Witcher 3 in Death March.
But I admit when I started playing right after playing Bloodborne it felt weird. Just don't play Bloodborne for a while and you will learn to appreciate the Witcher.
The level 4 Skelliage mission makes no sense. That's just bad design. Perhaps they could've implemented a gallery or bonus content thing similar to MK's Krypt where every mission no matter the level gave you Krypt points. At least that way there would be a reward for every task.
They really needed to slowdown on the mission creation aspects and focus more time on the bug testing or making more character faces. I've seen this one dude's mug on like 5 different people throughout what I've played. Each of which are in cutscenes with dialogue. The last time I saw him he was getting his balls burned.
I'm not sure if I'll ever beat it. Seeing that the main storyline isn't any better than the side missions, from what I've seen, which is a complement to the side missions but a blow to the main story, it doesn't seem to matter to me. If I feel like playing Witcher I can always assume the next mission was about as good as the last. So however long that holds me is an unknown.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 6/27/2015 2:15:32 AM
Oh man i can't stop playing this game, so many things to do to keep me busy and entertained. I'm glad I pay full price for Witcher 3.
I hope MGS 5 and Fallout 4 will keep me busy like this too…
I know the feeling, Ben. I experienced the same in Borderlands 2,where missions greyed out before I could get to them.
Thing is, us completionists need to get over the obsession to do EVERYTHING. Just like in the real world, we can't do everything, we need to choose. These games are designed with that in mind, to give every gamer their own individual experience. They can do that now, so we better get used to it 🙂
You can still do greyed out [trivial] quests, and they can still be worth it for the completion reward if not the EXP. You can also bump up the difficulty by doing them co-op.
Yeah I know, and we did, but it didn't do much for the levels, and it gets boring after a while shooting low-level stuff. What we SHOULD do is to just save the content for the second playthrough.
I just make sure I never advance the main quest until all available sidequests are completed.
But yeah trivial quests weren't much in BL2, but in the first game they were totally still worth it because they were an easy way to hit milestones that often gave massive EXP bonuses. Kill X skags = 5,000EXP, kill X+100 skags = 10,000 etc. milestones were much easier when you could plow through 50 skags a minute lol.
We had return to the main quests to avoid them too being greyed out. 😀
There was no way for us to keep all green. I regret doing so much the first playthrough, should have saved it for the game+ play 🙁
This past week i got a great ending to the main story I'm playing it again to see if i can get a different ending i know there several endings!
Yes, it's overwhelming, not doubt about it. For a completest this might be the equivalent to BloodBorn. There is constantly more and more stuff being found to do.
I agree that there is too much, however it hasn't bothered me in this game yet because every mission is interesting.
I don't care that I'm not getting much xp from low level missions because I play them for the lore.
I'm not saying there isn't a problem with how they set up the progression in the game, however I do think they did the best job they could considering the size of the world.
Yes you're right. I love to do a lot of side quests, problem is that I get overleveled when I want to do the main questline again.
Maybe you're just not meant to play all of it? I can't be sure until I play it, but in most open world RPGs if you're trying to role-play sticking to an interpretation of a character, not every quest will actually suit them.
Yeah I know, and we did, but it didn't do much for the levels, and it gets boring after a while shooting low-level stuff. What we SHOULD do is to just save the content for the second playthrough.
I still can't play it. The gameplay and I just are not compatible. I want to play it so bad though as I loved what I have played. You are all lucky you didn't gorge yourself with hours of Bloodborne. Once you play that too much, other games and their gameplay just don't do it anymore. I didn't finish Dragon Age Inquisition either.
Thanks Fromsoftware. Bastards.
I know the feeling, Ben. I experienced the same in Borderlands 2,where missions greyed out before I could get to them.
Thing is, us completionists need to get over the obsession to do EVERYTHING. Just like in the real world, we can't do everything, we need to choose. These games are designed with that in mind, to give every gamer their own individual experience. They can do that now, so we better get used to it 🙂
I beat Bloodborne 4 times and have no problem playing the Witcher 3 in Death March.
But I admit when I started playing right after playing Bloodborne it felt weird. Just don't play Bloodborne for a while and you will learn to appreciate the Witcher.
Oh man i can't stop playing this game, so many things to do to keep me busy and entertained. I'm glad I pay full price for Witcher 3.
I hope MGS 5 and Fallout 4 will keep me busy like this too…
This past week i got a great ending to the main story I'm playing it again to see if i can get a different ending i know there several endings!
You can still do greyed out [trivial] quests, and they can still be worth it for the completion reward if not the EXP. You can also bump up the difficulty by doing them co-op.
The level 4 Skelliage mission makes no sense. That's just bad design. Perhaps they could've implemented a gallery or bonus content thing similar to MK's Krypt where every mission no matter the level gave you Krypt points. At least that way there would be a reward for every task.
They really needed to slowdown on the mission creation aspects and focus more time on the bug testing or making more character faces. I've seen this one dude's mug on like 5 different people throughout what I've played. Each of which are in cutscenes with dialogue. The last time I saw him he was getting his balls burned.
I'm not sure if I'll ever beat it. Seeing that the main storyline isn't any better than the side missions, from what I've seen, which is a complement to the side missions but a blow to the main story, it doesn't seem to matter to me. If I feel like playing Witcher I can always assume the next mission was about as good as the last. So however long that holds me is an unknown.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 6/27/2015 2:15:32 AM
Yes you're right. I love to do a lot of side quests, problem is that I get overleveled when I want to do the main questline again.
I'm still going back from Batman to finish up the last few trophies.
I still have I don't know how many people to get the last random gwent cards from in Skellige, and a few side missions I never finished.
Even though I'm enjoying Arkham Knight so far, I still think the Witcher is going to be my game of the year.
I put about 110 hours into one playthrough doing all the major sidequests (Dark Brotherhood, Companions, etc.) and most of the minor ones. Then I spent a good 50 hours doing all the necessary things to buy land in all three holds where you can build your own house, and then building them. Another 20 or so for the Dragonborn DLC, and 22 for my first play where I did nothing but the main quest.
Still nothing compared to my Borderlands addiction. I beat the first two games with all available character classes and all DLC, for a combined total of about 643 hours, according to the Steam counter.
I sometimes have narrow tastes in my advanced age, but when I find a game that works for me I play the crap out of it.
Last edited by Bio on 6/27/2015 2:01:06 PM
So many missions, alchemy ingredients, things to craft, books to read, bestiary info on enemies, etc.
It does become overwhelming at times and I can see where you're coming from. The fact that you found a level 4 scavenger hunt in Skellige says enough. I haven't played since last weekend but I know the feeling all too well.
Can't wait to play tomorrow with my big gaming blanket and become a big ass kid lol.
Last edited by MRSUCCESS on 6/26/2015 10:44:02 PM
200 hours of skyrim?
dedication right there…
Always better to have too much than not enough IMO. I could keep playing Skyrim forever and not run out of things to do, and know people who do. I managed to break my addiction after about 200 hours, though.
I guess it's all about setting personal limits.
I just make sure I never advance the main quest until all available sidequests are completed.
But yeah trivial quests weren't much in BL2, but in the first game they were totally still worth it because they were an easy way to hit milestones that often gave massive EXP bonuses. Kill X skags = 5,000EXP, kill X+100 skags = 10,000 etc. milestones were much easier when you could plow through 50 skags a minute lol.
We had return to the main quests to avoid them too being greyed out. 😀
There was no way for us to keep all green. I regret doing so much the first playthrough, should have saved it for the game+ play 🙁
Yes, it's overwhelming, not doubt about it. For a completest this might be the equivalent to BloodBorn. There is constantly more and more stuff being found to do.
Maybe you're just not meant to play all of it? I can't be sure until I play it, but in most open world RPGs if you're trying to role-play sticking to an interpretation of a character, not every quest will actually suit them.
I agree that there is too much, however it hasn't bothered me in this game yet because every mission is interesting.
I don't care that I'm not getting much xp from low level missions because I play them for the lore.
I'm not saying there isn't a problem with how they set up the progression in the game, however I do think they did the best job they could considering the size of the world.