I played on all difficulties to get a feel for what actually changed and Blood and Broken Bones! difficulty seems to be the sweet spot for me, BUT!
The problem is that enemy AI changes somewhat on higher difficulties, I've seen people say that only HP values change and no Vitality regen during meditation. There's more to it though and it's a bit of a problem for me with the game.
The Witcher 3 is very animation heavy, almost like the Souls games. Witcher 2 and to a lesser extend Witcher 1 were like this as well but in Wild Hunt it's a LOT more so. Because Geralt animates so deliberately and reacts a bit slower than you're used to in third person action/RPG games the increased aggression in enemy AI on the harder difficulties kinda breaks the combat.
When facing a single opponent it's fine, it's still tough, it has to be. It's basically the game's hard mode. But when facing a pack of Drowners or a pack of wolves that are around 8 to 10 mobs Geralt can literally not keep up with the enemy's fast attack patterns.Geralt's deliberate and animation heavy attacks cant deal with 5+ wolves all attacking at once. The game is simply not responsive enough. Thus 1 vs many engagements turn into roll-a-thons and Yrden clustersfucks.
This is how *I* experience the game of course. Witcher 2 felt a lot more responsive to me and I felt a lot more in control. I'm quicksaving all over the place and approaching every confrontation like it's a bossfight. But when a pack of 5+ wolves kills you quicker than a Werewolf something feels wrong to me.
There are a lot of things about the harder difficulties that make the game loads better though. You NEED to use potions, oils and bombs and investing in Signs is absolutely necessary to survive. But I feel almost powerless sometimes when facing packs. Thus I'm often just walking Roach around those Drowners or Ghouls because I know I'm gonna be stuck facing those guys for at least 10 minutes when going towards my next quest marker.
What do you think about Witcher 3's harder difficulties and the gameplay in general?
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