It drives me nuts that I still haven’t played The Witcher 3.
I mean… I’ve “played” it. I remember a bit in the beginning with Geralt and Vesimir, sitting around a camp talking about girl problems (which would probably make more sense to me now that I’ve seen the Netflix show). I remember a bath. I remember some training/tutorial stuff. I remember a tavern, and a fight with (I think) a hippogryph?
And that’s about it. Maybe I went a little further up a road and a guy in a tower wanted me to do something, but I’ve never made it further than that, despite having started the game on half a dozen separate occasions.
I’ve never been able to stick with it, really get into it. And I want to. Not because I’m any huge fan of Sapkowski’s take on fantasy; in fact I find it all a little “meh” to be honest. But because over the heard I’ve heard such great things about this game, I want to give it an honest-to-goodness chance. Like a real attempt, at least ten hours or so, to see if it can get its hooks into me. At that point, even if I hate it, I can at least say I gave it a real shot, and never look back.
At this point the fact that I’ve not played what is on many people’s lists of “the greatest games of all time” draws incredulous, disbelieving responses from some. Like finding out last week that my dad has never seen The Godfather. How does that happen? they gasp. And I just throw my hands up. I have no idea.
I’ve been telling myself for the past year that once this next-gen edition drops, this is it. This is my time. And I’m trying to carve out a window right now; I don’t want to abandon something I’m in the middle of, or try to split my attention, so I want to finish up the games I’m playing, so that The Witcher 3 can have my undivided focus.
We’ll see if I can do it, or if someday I’m back here making a comic about how the Playstation 7 VR Legacy Edition of The Witcher 3 is when “I’m finally going to play this damned game.”
I did play the game quite a bit further than you did, but I couldn’t get through it myself. I just kept losing interest and ended up picking something else instead every single time. Same with the Mass Effect series that I was never able to finish either. I just got too bored and/or annoyed to play through the rest even after getting to the last 25% of the content.
Same here. I probably put 30 hours into the first region really knocking out everything, then it moved me to Skellig and I just lost interest.
IMO, Skellige is the slowest part of Witcher 3 and I did not really enjoy my time there. I would put off going to Skellige as long as possible when playing.
Yup. Same. I’m at 46 hours, and I even downloaded mods so that I wouldn’t run into the same barriers-to-entry (a.k.a. the same gameplay that made it so I didn’t finish The Witcher 1 or 2). I can’t bring myself to play it. Truth be told, the Dark Souls series really did this to me too, but I gave Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring the same shot. While I still didn’t finish them either (admittedly due to lack of skill and time), I’m glad I did because I can appreciate them for what they are. If I felt the… Read more »
I think my record for “invested time but did not finish” is FF 10. Finished all the sidequests and optional dungeons, got all the way to the final boss, and just… ran out of steam. It was like 2 AM and I just half-arsed the fight, lost, and went to bed, planning to finish tomorrow. And then I just never summoned enough interest in that world or its characters to wrap it up. I tried a couple times, and petered out before even loading the game.
Although nowhere near the time investment, that kind of reminds me of Star Fox on the SNES. The final boss fight of Andross was so terrifying for me that I couldn’t play it for weeks. It was my biggest accomplishment to not only beat Andross, but to eventually get 100% on ALL THREE difficulty levels. And we all know it wasn’t an easy game in the slightest.
I’m glad I am not alone anymore! Is there such thing as a fear of finishing a game? I’ve lost count of the number of games I get to the proverbial 95% complete, and then just stop before getting to the “final boss”. Maybe it is fear of closing the story, knowing that if I do finish, I’ll likely never play it again.
Funny. Almost the same went here. The moment, we were to enter this biggy im not about to name for spoiling reasons, i felt this fear of loosing something (lile tim described for his son some strips ago). I already fell into such a hole after ff7 and that deterred me so much, I stopped playing.
First I thought it would just be for a while. Taking up the game again. But i did’nt. Never finished it. One of the quite few backlog entrys i have.
I literally just finished Mass Effect Legendary Edition – one playthrough from ME1 start to ME3 end. But I do have to say, that I struggled at the end of ME3.
Bet she finishes games For people.
those are 2 of the best franchises ever tbh
I understand that. Witcher 3 can be a real slog to play. The story is good, but the crappy gameplay just gets in the way. Funnily enought, that’s why I didn’t finish Mass Ef fect 2 the first time I played it. I really enjoyed the stories it offered, but I groaned everyime I entered a room with yet another set of waist-high obstacles…
The exact same happened to me !
I actually have it on my backlog as well. I have some 6 hours in it, which honestly isn’t that far for the game(I finished the first area back in December 2019). I think the biggest issue, is that I know it is a super long game, so I don’t want to start it if I don’t have time to get really deep into it.
Same, there are a bunch of games that I have been meaning to play, but haven’t yet because they are such big games. (I also haven’t played the witcher 3 yet)
I suppose it’s not for everyone, but I love this game. I’ve done 3 or 4 playthroughs.
I finished 2 complete playthroughs. Though at the time of release I started multiple times and never finished. It took me a couple of years to pick it up again and then I did it in one go. A year or so later, I got the last expansions and played through a second time. (From start to finish – didn’t want to play the expansion of an old save)
Sadly, the starting zone is the weakest point of the game. It took me three tries to play the game, and it only happened because I decided to push through the starting area. Wraith in the well was especially annoying, but after the matter with dwarf’s blacksmith was resolved, that was when I decided to do more, if memory serves right.
I agree, the start was the hardest part. Once I got past it, the game flow was much better and I finished it in one go, but the start caused me to lose interest several times.
Honestly, at some point I’ve learned that sometimes, the big, shiny, game that everyone’s playing just doesn’t hit for me. I’ve learned what games work for me and what doesn’t, and games like The Witcher, or Animal Crossing, etc. will, despite numerous attempts, will just not scratch that part of my brain. And that’s okay.
Sometimes I get pleasantly surprised (Pokemon Scarlet/Violet was a big reversal for me after I struggled to finish the last few generations), but usually I’m okay with skipping something that at first glance doesn’t excite me.
I found it funny that these were the games you chose because of how far apart they are.
I think that’s the point, they’re so far apart in genre that it’s actually more likely someone would like one or the other.
I’m one of those who thoroughly enjoyed Witcher 3 and am planning to play through the next-gen version as well. I do, however, have a game on my list people keep clamoring about how it’s so fabulous and unbelievably good and all: Horizon Zero Dawn. I just…I don’t feel enthralled by that game. I find its controls quite clunky, the game-world formulaic and boring and the combat doesn’t really manage to make me feel much, either. I’ve tried a couple of times and I still have it on my “todo list”, but, honestly, I’m not sure I’ll ever manage to… Read more »
I gave up on Horizon Zero Dawn after just 4 hours, upon realizing that it’s just another Ubisoft open world game. Yeah, it’s not made by Ubisoft, but it’s Ubisoft’s formula that I’m just so over down to a T. Oooooh wow, the radio towers are giant robots now. Thanks, now I have to climb a nearby ruined building or mountain and wait for the radio tower to walk by before I can reveal the map, thanks Horizon. More waiting is definitely what this already tedious process needed. Also didn’t help at all that I didn’t find Aloy and her… Read more »
Not finding Aloy relatable is why I cannot stand RDR2. We are told multiple times we cannot trust Duke, but how can we progress the story? Sure it is prety and they put a lot of effort into other details, but if I want to play a character that has to be brain-dead to get through the narrative there are many other games I can play. Usually Bethesda developed games.
Seriously. I was ready to dump duke by the time you moved the camp to the river, and I was trying to shoot him by the time we moved to the caves. I would have dropped off after the big death but I wanted to kill Duke so badly.
Unless you pick some very specific dialog options Aloy definitely doesn’t want to join the tribe. She just wants to win so she can win a boon, use it to know who her mother is from the tribe elders, and thus learn why she was exiled at birth.
There’s more to it later, but (to me at least) her reasoning made sense. I just always treated her as someone who wanted to know why, and escape it. Rather than someone out for revenge.
Still her best introduction of herself yet in either game: “Aloy despite the Nora”.
If someone has gotten from the story that she wants to join the tribe, they either skipped all optional dialogue, or barely touched the game.
that’s not even remotely true, but hey, your loss I guess.
It took me two tries to get into Horizon. Like Witcher 3, the opening is the worst part of the game and doesn’t do the plot justice.
Opening zones are rarely great in open-world games. I mean I don’t have a better way to work a tutorial in – a straight tutorial would be worse – but it always hamstrings the game in the early hours, which is bad. That said Horizon ZD was one of the lesser offenders to me in that category. The opening video was great and really got me invested, and while the first section of running around as a child was pretty bad, it was fairly short, and I at least had fun finding the early lore-pieces in that ruin. But no… Read more »
I haven’t even played Witcher 2 yet! My backlog is insane.
It’s better than 1, but still a bit clunky.
Witcher? I kid… I know what it is, but have never felt the pull to the series.
To me, the 2 biggest issues with Witcher 3 were 1- the combat, which is very extra and took me a long time to get into and 2- it’s kind of a slow burn. Which I normally don’t mind, but when you have a feeling that the game is MASSIVE in scope, it kind of can feel overwhelming. A bit like beginning to read some really heavy literature. You know it is good and meaningful, but *just* getting started…oof. The payoff was SO worth overcoming it though. Game is not without flaws, but it has SO much to offer. And… Read more »
The combat is indeed very extra. It also didn’t help that no matter what I did while playing it on PC, the combat would cause the frame pacing to get all wacky. So combat for me was stuttery and unsmooth and off-putting in addition to being extra.
Also it has weapon fragility, and I HATE weapon fragility in games.
Try re-installing it lol good things don’t come easy
I don’t know. I didn’t get the same sense about the writing. If the writing had been better/more engaging in the beginning of the game I might have overcome the complexity of crafting and the scope of the side quests. There were just too many times during the first 20 or so hours of gameplay where I was holding the controller thinking “yawn, why am I playing this again? nah.”
Yeah I get that. As I said, slow burner. What was so outstanding about the writing to me is that there later on is a LOT of nuance, a lot ambiguity – however, they managed to do that without it feeling..indifferent? Dunno how to put it. A lot of choices into which you actually can put a lot of thought. There are bad-bad guys like in most stories, but also many characters which appear to be monster from one angle, but then you learn more and you go like “Oh…Oh well…shit…” Doesn’t mean you will condone what they do or… Read more »
the combat system is absolutely boring and bad to me tbh. I played my second run in easy to avoid that exactly.
Now change The Witcher with new models Space Wolves army, and we are no so different…
P.s: happy new year pals, and to smash those buttons
I might be in the minority here… but I found the witcher 3 to be “meh” kind of game. Being Polish my self I was kinda obligated to love it so I was fairly dissapointed that the gameplay overall seemed like a cheap Assassin’s Creed/GTA/RDR knockoff. You get the map with marked monster dens, bandit camps etc… you traverse the land, clear all those things on the map, then you go on with the Main Story Quest and move to another location. Enemies spawned are displayed as red dots on the minimap just like in all the rockstar games… and… Read more »
I was in full agreement with you until the part about Cyberpunk ?
yeah well “I” had more fun 🙂 I know the game doesn’t sit well with many people. (I also played it loong after the initial release and after several patches that fixed majority of the problems). 😉
I too have had more fun and play time with cyberpunk to each their own I guess.
I gave W3 eight hours. Then I realized I’ve already played such a game: Gothic. It is a different story and W3 is probably even the better story, but gameplay loop is the same thing I’ve spent countless hours on, almost two decades ago. So I may as well just read the books or something.
On the other hand few weeks back I finally bought C2077 and I have a blast with it. I’ve never played any 3D GTA game so this may just be filling the gap. Or it’s the aesthetics and the world. Dunno.
The Witcher games are sequels to the last book, not a single adaptation among them. You might as well enjoy Gothic again by another name.
did you even play the game? because it sounds like you played 1hour and left. “a cheap assassins creed” lmao.
Hey, it makes sense to me. I’m still surprised to look back and see I put 20 hours into it before finally having enough and uninstalling it.
Don’t worry Tim, it took me 9 years to play Skyrim. You can always take your time.
This! Bought it on sale, never even installed. Think I played my brothers copy on xbox for about 10 minutes.
Eh. Same here. I haven’t played Witcher 3, even though one of my best buds was raving about how it was the best open world ever. For me, though, it has more to do with the type of mature content in it, and being OK with not playing every single game that ever tickles my fancy.
I’m more interested in the fact that this comic implies that Tim bought it four separate times, often at full price.
Lmao I had that thought as well xD
It’s a great game, make sure to disable enemy upscaling though, it makes your life more bearable.
It’s good
I played Witcher 1 when 3 was already out. Now I am stuck a bit in Witcher 2 because I did not find the time.
The games are real fun. I like the story and if you go through them the fantasy is also fine. It is just a well rounded package.
But for real RPG and fantasy I stick with Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 (not playing 3 since it is still not ready) and Icewind Dale 1 & 2.
If it’s any consolation, I’m in a similar situation with it. I started it briefly, made it into the training tutorial… and then I just stopped. It wasn’t bad by any means, but I got sidetracked. At this point though, if they keep porting it to new consoles, in another few years we’ll be making Skyrim jokes about it.
overall I didnt like witcher 3 that much; its kinda good but also somewhat bad (to summarize bit, character build gets initially nice but overall not nice; openworld is nice to explore but lacks direction and reason to explore, quests are bit bland)
I’m with you – I started playing once, but I could never get into it and just… stopped.
It’s still on the list to go back to, but I still don’t feel like I’m missing toooo much.
It’s ok Tim. I took this week to finally play Baldur’s Gate for this first time. We all have that game we will try sometime.
To be fair, somehow I’ve never seen The Godfather, either. And I’m (late) Gen X.
There are a bunch of well-knowm movies I have not seen. The most egregious is probably that I never saw the first Top Gun (although I did see the recent one). And yet, I saw both “Hot Shots!” parodies on Blockbuster VHS in high school. Figure that one out. ?
I’ve also never been to Disney World, although that one is actually intentional.
I’ve not played Witcher, nor watched the Godfather. And Skyrim only got about 8 hours from me.
Some things just aren’t made for some folks.
Same..I started playing Witcher 3 a couple times but never got very far. Despite my love for massive open world RPGs I never made it past the first couple of hours. Like a lot of people I never wanted to go all in until I was ready to devote the time necessary. After the next gen update I decided to get serious about playing this game. I have to admit it looks amazing and gameplay is much better than pre-update version. I’m about 10 hrs in and despite the tons of fetch quests within the game, that are apparently “necessary”… Read more »
At “our” age, you can’t like everything. There’s just not enough time. I personally love the thing, it’s like playing a book you really got into, and it feels like a great combo of hack/slash/magic/alchemy for the right scenarios. Having said that, and even though it’s partly your “job”, you can’t get into everything as a Dad/Husband/etc. There’s just no way. Cut yourself some slack.
I found the game amazing; and the DLC’s are excellent too. On the other hand, I also have not seen any of the Godfather movies.
I’m with you Tim. I paid a combined $21 for all three Witcher games over the years and have never made it passed Chapter 1 of the first one. Just can’t do it.
play only the third, the 2 first havent aged well
I’m a lousy gamer in general. I have over a dozen games I’ve played but never finished.
Whelp – guess based on a lot of the previous comments I am the odd man out here. Loved Witcher 3, played through multiple times, and will likely play through again with the new shiny. Played Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West both to complettion – Loved both. Have played through RDR2, again, loved the game (but the epilogue portion…WHO-BOY what a slog!). MASS EFFECT – Don’t you be coming at my baby that way. 😉 ! Played through I think 5 times now, and will likely start a new one soon as Karen Sheppard – Biggest Karen in the… Read more »
I bought all 3 Witcher games a few years back on GOG with the intention of playing through all 3. At this point I have yet to finish the first game 🙁
That moment, when your wife is guilt tripping you into playing a game. If mine ever did that I know that I majorly fucked up 😀 (she doesn’t really like to play games)
Netflix will not help you understand Witcher 3 in any fashion. You might be better served stepping back to Witcher 2 and playing through that and if the story still has your attention at the end – then move on into 3.
I am finally playing it on PS5. I too have played the first hour multiple times. They have made the spell casting much better and it is nice to finally have a machine that can play it in buttery smooth 60Ffps (This is a lie I tell myself, it stutters and lags quite a bit.)
Having fun, there is so much to do.
Got further than you, but I also stopped playing.
I admit the reason I stopped playing was a little stupid though…
I play these games to explore and hoard everything before advancing the story, so I never have the urge to replay them again, but when they have achievements locked behind separate paths so I can’t 100% it, the desire to play past the point of that split dies.
It’s also a timing thing, I think. Like Skyrim just came out at the right time and right place in my life and it “clicked”. I sure as hell won’t do that again, now. The whole Witcher thing I caught on late and I got about as far as you did Tim. And I’m actually okay with it, it’s still cool to see so many fans of it, the story behind the making of it etc, etc. I don’t need to actively participate, next gen or nay.
I did not like the first game, but the 2nd was great and the 3rd game was amazing. Even playing the 2015 version today is a good experience.
I had similar experience with the last of us.
As for witcher series one time I played for 16 hours straight.
So I’m not judging.
I feel very called out here, including owning it on multiple platforms. I at least haven’t started it yet.
I also found the same thing with God of War, I pick it back up every Father’s day, I just can’t get through it for some reason.
I’m more of a gameplay person than a story person, generally speaking, and I LOATHED the gameplay in Witcher 3. I got about an hour in and was like “Nope, can’t do this for the next 40+ hours or whatever it’ll take” so I quit and never looked back. Don’t even feel bad about it.
I’m a firm believer that if you tried it like 3 different times and it never hooked you, you really don’t need to feel compelled.
Look just commit to playing the game before the full release of Star citizen. you’ll be fine
I played and finished the Witcher series, though you had me at “Godfather” movies. Somewhat. I had a look at them on some VOD service, saw that each is over three hours long (I think, might misremember), and decided I don’t care to watch them all that much.
There will always be some “classics” that someone considers a “must have”, but you just don’t care about all that much. And that’s fine. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. 😛
Yeah, I’ve never been able to stick with it either. The movement and interaction targeting is really awful (yes, even with the “alternative” movement scheme), which makes it really hard for me to enjoy the game.
And aside from that, RPGs typically either really hook me or really don’t, often for not obvious reason and irrespective of how good or highly praised they are. All the Witcher games (and I’ve tried all of them) have fallen into the “really don’t” category.
Yeah I have a few friends who never got around to playing it either. For them the roadblock is often that they haven’t played the previous games, and the first one in particular is very clunky and difficult to get into. The writing is top notch across the whole series though, better than Bioware has ever produced.
You definitely do not have to play the first two in order to play the third. I only played Witcher 3 and loved it (one of the games that I was sad when it ended). It’s easy enough to google “storyline of Witcher 1 and 2” and then you don’t have to suffer through clunky gameplay to get to the good stuff in 3.
…imagine being suckered into buying the same game 5 times when it doesn’t even entice you to play it. At some point you gotta either accept the truth that you just don’t want to play the game, or at least play one of the versions you already have. Having it on another console won’t make you want to play it more.
oh I know that feeling, I picked up a Witcher Deal/collection with all 3 Witcher games on PC like 5 years ago. I haven’t touched a single one of them despite constantly saying “This year I will”
I felt the same way I own the Witcher on ps4 for years now. I did finally play it for a day to see if I would like it after that I realized it wasn’t my type of game even though I like open world video games. I guess I really only prefer open world games like horizon zero dawn or like final fantasy to my liking.
Jinx! This along with your text is EXACTLY what has happened to me with this game. Literally yesterday I told myself that since I finally beat Elden Ring I have to go back and give Witcher 3 a try because even though I only played a couple hours if it a couple years ago, I have heard it was so great.
Personally, I’m one of the dozen or so people who actually really like the first Witcher game and still play it. Sure the graphics aren’t great and the combat is incredibly simplistic but I found the story, characters, and writing to be top notch, there’s lots to explore and do, and I love the moral and ethical questions raised by the Order of the Flaming Rose vs Scoia’tael conflict. Plus it introduces Siegfried of Denesle who is hands down the biggest bro of the series and, depending how you play the game, one of Geralt’s best friends.