Oh maaaaan. After a pretty great start, I have to say that The Witcher 3's main story is starting to drag like crazy. It's basically just "the princess is in another castle".

I'm at the point where I just met those underworld crime bosses in Novigrad. Now that one dude has me investigating the robbery of his vault, and the other thread has me finding some dude named Whoreson. Now I'm not just looking for Ciri, but Dandeloin and Whoreson as well. Is that just how this story plays out? Constantly looking for other people? Same thing in Velen with the Baron's family, and the witches.

And man I feel like things are at a stand still. It doesn't really help things that I've done so much side content that I'm pretty overpowered, and all fights are incredibly easy. The core gameplay loop of conversation, exploration, investigating and fighting has been really fun, but now it's only conversations and cutscenes.

It's actually kind of disheartening to see that games with a story focus still lean so hard on conversations with barely any input from the gamer. And man, could you be less creative with camera angles? This game is screaming for some wide shots and creative camera work.

Is this what I can expect from here on out? Please tell me that it starts to pick up the pace soon.

This is actually a common occurrence in every Witcher game.

Witcher 1 you spend the whole game tracking those who stole your Mutagens.

Witcher 2 you spend most the game tracking down Triss and Letho.

Geralt is pretty much a missing persons investigator.

That being said, I thought the story was pretty good. The Dandeloin part drags like crazy, but after you find him it picks up again, and his side quest once you've found him is pretty cool and quite disturbing. Keep it up and grind past the Dandeloin hunt and you should enjoy it more.

I think the main story is really good but the worst part of the game so far was leading up to finding dandelion. Once you find him and do that questlines and you get into Yennefer stuff it gets MUCH more interesting. Just stick with it OP, I haven't finished the game yet but was getting a little sick of hunting Dandelion but it gets much better.

I do not agree with this at all. The story is just more personal ,you are not saving the world or mankind, the good of humanity does not wait for you to decide. Novigrad/Dandelion/Whoreson quest line is change of pace compared to Bloody Baron. Undergound criminal orginazation, detective work and such. And while true the quests line drags , there is less fighting but the characters and writing are entertaining. Dijkstra is like side character from Guy Richie film. And the camera work during dialogue is stellar but I agree wide panoramic shots would have been great addition considering how spectacular the environments look. And the end of Dandelion quest there is some really dark stuff. But maybe the witcher is not for you. It is a possibility.

@legion_: What difficulty level are you playing on? I've been playing through on Death March & just got up to Skellige, while the lower level enemies aren't a problem there's still a decent amount of challenge to some of the fights.

No, it definitely is. Loved The Witcher 2 to death, and I really like most of The Witcher 3, but I'm disappointed by this leg of the main quest. It just drags, and is no fun. And the game has a foul tendency to follow a very spesific set of objectives, typically going:

1. Talk to a person.
2. Go to a location.
3. Investigate using witcher senses.
4. Fight.
5. Talk to person again.

This loop is fine for the monster contracts, but it's a shame to see it so heavily featured in this leg of the story. The whole Novigrad-part has been really, really bad in my opinion.

And I just don't understand how you can praise the camera work. It just becomes so obvious in this part that they basically use two different angles during every conversation.

I feel like the story is probably a lot more interesting if you played the last 2 games (which I haven't) and actually know the characters you are interacting with.

And not only do they use the same camera angles every time (soap opera talking heads style), they also re-use a lot of the gesture animations. It's like 1 guy motion captured all the characters.

The world itself will draw me back in someday, though. I love riding the horse through windy forests : )

I'm loving the main story but I've been mixing it up with quests and random exploration. I've never played a game differently I don't think, and usually I enjoy the pace.

All games of this length drag in places but your main complaint is just design disagreement I think, as well as not enjoying the story. I definitely feel differently, and really enjoy how heavy the main quest lines are conversation wise. That's what the Witcher is about to me anyways. Combat isn't the main point of the game. Exploration, detective work, talking, that's the Witcher how I play it. I do think dialogue decisions are input, and they can be fairly meaningful in this game. At the end of the day though it just comes down to how much you like the characters and writing. I think the game is designed with the Witcher Contracts being the combat challenge of the game. I've been playing them all when light red in between story quests and it makes the more laid back story more fun. Plus it makes sense. After tracking and fighting some incredible beast in a one hit kills duel to the death atop a mountain in a raging storm, big city bandits and henchmen, soldiers, of course they're just punks.

@legion_: Well I praise camera work because I played and finished Dragon Age: Inquisition. So maybe it looks really good compared to it? And while W2 I liked it a lot and it is a better game than W1, for my taste W1 is just better and W3 vibe felt more like the first one. I do not know, either power through the questline or just take a break? It is a massive game so I can easily see people getting burned out.

Hah, I'll give you that one.

Been working my way through this part of the story today, and it's not as bad as I initially thought. Still a little confused to wether I should solve the break in and find Dandelion first, or go to see Vernon Roche, which is now a option. Thoughts on that?

Still eager to get to Skellige though.

If you're overleveled, go to death march, etc.

I'm at the same point and it hasn't been the strongest part of the game, storywise. Luckily I seem to be at the very end. But it's the point where I developed a really good handle on the mechanics. Still really great, with far better side stuff than Batman (which I really like, but I'm mainlining it just to get back to Witcher).

Yeah, Dandelion's quest is not bad per se but it is weaker compared to the Bloody Baron quest line.

Fuck man, Bloody Baron was great.

Also fuck the Crones.

I think Dijkstra was one of the coolest characters in that game. Tough, smart, a huge dick, and his love stories are hilarious. Keep with it Duder!

@legion_: Considering you are not so hot on main do the Roche quest.

At first I thought I could say I agree with OP. After thinking about it for a moment, though, I'm just easily distracted. My search for Dandelion has taken such a long time because whenever I see a marker on the map or overhear some chatter I drop whatever I'm doing to check it out. I can't really blame the game for putting so many other interesting things to do in my way. I'll agree that Novigrad has been the weakest part of the game for me as well, though.

I completely disagree. But i would say that what makes the witcher 3 special is not just how good the main story is, but how the main story and side quests are actually all interwoven.

I thought Novigrad was cool but I can definitely see why people didn't like it. It was a complete shift in the type of quests and activities you are used to doing. You basically don't do any witching the entire time you're there. I liked the characters and dialogue enough to not really mind though. Plus I liked spending all that time in the city.

I definitely agree. I really loved the Witcher 2, but something about the Witcher 3's main story just felt boring. In the Witcher 2, your quest was mainly to find someone, like in 3, but there was a greater sense of mystery and more political machinations to deal with. It wasn't just about finding a person, but slowly discovering why that person was assassinating kings, why he was going to the places you followed him to, and how the major players of each region reacted to the vast political changes occurring in the world. In 3, the thing you are discovering is why Ciri was in certain places, but each step in the process barely adds anything. Each step felt pretty much like finding one of 3 keys necessary to opening a chest, where each key doesn't tell you anything, but once you get all of them and open the chest, you get a huge dump of stuff all at once. While the Bloody Baron section of the main quest was great, I just felt like it meandered and was never as interesting as some of the side content. I wanted to get more involved in Nilfgaardian politics, I wanted to get more involved in the war between the north and the south, but it all just sort of gets pushed aside in favour of more looking for Ciri. While the side content does mix in with the main story somewhat, it really doesn't cause any significant changes, and I found myself wishing there was more side content and less of the main story, because the characters in the side content were infinitely more interesting.

The ending I though fell particularly flat, especially since there was already a moment earlier in the game that felt much more climactic. Novigrad was definitely the weakest part of the game for me, Skellige picks up again, but after that, by the end I thought it had just become boring again. The worst part was that even on the highest difficulty level, combat had become so mindlessly easy, that I had basically stopped finding satisfying encounters with the exception of a couple of boss fights.

I suppose it doesn't help that I didn't like Ciri very much.

The game at least gave a bit of a reference to how stupid the quest really is. There was a line of dialogue that went something like "you need to find Whoreson, with the goal of finding Dandelion, with the goal of finding Ciri, seems to me you're just looking for a lot of people".

Just because there's a lot of dialogue, it doesn't make the story good.

The Novigrad stuff had me straining to do it. At one point, I just went and did a whole bunch of side content while chipping away at the main quests in Novigrad here and there. Really, now that I think about it, the only stuff I liked in the main quest were the Crookback Bog and Skellige bits.

The story is fantastic. It makes you meet a lot of central characters and all of them have heavy implications in the plot and their fates are decided later in the game depending on what you do. I personally loved all the crime stuff in Novigrad and it was all good character work that just paid off for me in the late game in a huge way. Very satisfying stuff goes down in Novigrad later.

Not blaming people, but kind of sounds like a lot of people got distracted around Novigrad in a way I personally did not. There is a lot to do but for me it was all paced well. Maybe that was my approach or just luck, but worked out.

Regardless, saying the main story is boring where you're at is very premature. It all comes together later on. You aren't hunting Ciri down for the whole game.

Yeah he was pretty great in this game. Depending on how you play him you have an awesome amount of tension with him only rivaled (in my game) by the Emperor.

Funny because I'm a little past the point you are talking about and feel the same way.

I recently did that quest where you put on a play. I was really enjoying the game with the Bloody Baron and then these last few hours with finding Dandelion... I haven't played the game in weeks because that stuff isn't fun nor do I even understand why I'm doing a lot of these quests. Maybe ill try to pick it back up but Batman has taken my attention.

@artisanbreads: I feel like this whole thing is just padding. I mean, I just finished a damned play? That was the worst. Some of the worst writing I've encountered in a game in some time. At least I rescued Dandelion now, so soon I'll be off the Skellige, which I've heard is a good part of the story.

So far this game has been good, but not as good as expected. Remember loving The Witcher 2 when it came around. Especially the first act, when you're in Flotsam. The whole place just feels so well made and unique. In The Witcher 3, I've walked into the same tavern ten times over. So disappointing. And this part of the story. Ugh, drags the game down a whole lot. And Dandelion is still the worst character in this series.

Man, it's a shame. I don't think I've played an RPG since Mass Effect 2 that had me enthralled the whole game. Those were the days.

I totally disagree, I loved everything about the Novigrad area because it reminded me a lot of the pace and activity I loved from TW1. Most of the quests were about meeting people and hearing and seeing their experiences. Not about going out and killing dudes and saving the world. It's far less typical and I really appreciate that. Things like teaching the Nilfgaardian girl swordplay would be relegated to a 1min cutscene in most games but TW3 turns it into a quest which expands on the character throughout.

I'll be pretty honest here, it sounds like you just don't like that type content. The writing for that quest is not bad at all seriously some of it is fantastic parts were genuinely funny, I just don't think you appreciate this sort've content in games. Especially reading your statement about Mass Effect 2.

I guess we just aren't going to agree. The writing in this game is so much better than just about any other games I've played that it's another category entirely. Quite enjoyed the play. The game does comedy super well which is one of the best parts of it and something most games really fail at. I love dark stories with comedy.

I hadn't thought about how it is similar to Witcher 1 but you're right on that. Good call. I liked the quest you bring up because yeah, it gives you a little bit of insight into a Nilfgardian who isn't the emperor or a military man. Even if they are a noble with their nose in the air.

This is hyperbolic unless the Witcher is the only video game you've played in "some time." I get the complaints that that section of the story drags on but look at the writing in just about any other game and then look at the writing in Witcher 3. In a medium with historically terrible writing, to call anything in Witcher "one of the worst" is pretty ridiculous.

@artisanbreads: @baronsamedi:Yes, this part reminds me of Vizima in The Witcher 1, and I remember hating that part as well. I don't really know what you mean about "that kind of content", but no, this certainly isn't something I enjoy. Boring quests with cringe worthy dialogue tend to bum me out.

This is almost as bad as the whole party quest in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

And again, I have to point out that it's this part of the game that has me bummed out. I think a lot of the other stuff has been really good. The whole quest line with both Keira Metz (that haunted tower in particular) and the Bloody Baron were great. The writing and pacing in those parts were just world beyond this slog. I do have to admit that meeting Zoltan again was a nice touch though. But I'm glad I'm done with this whole part.

And yeah, the quest you mentioned was okay. But it ended super abruptly, and unless she shows up later in the game, I don't really see the point of that quest.

Maybe I just expected too much from this game. Feels oddly like Dragon Age in this Novigrad-part.

I specifically meant that part. But the whole Novigrad-questline has been far from great in terms of writing though. I almost turned off my system when Whoreson said "what in the sandwich fuck" or something along those lines...

@legion_: "That kind've content" meaning, stuff that isn't grandiose, content that is just menial in comparison to the rest of the content. Your love for Mass Effect 2 really hones this in because literally every single ME2 mission is this:

ME2 just likes to pretend that every mission could potentially result in a galactic catastrophe.

Also I really fail to see how any of the Novigrad quest line dialogue is "cringe worthy" which again just makes it come across as you simply don't like and or appreciate this kind've content.

This is the part of the game where I got bored and put it down. I was pretty much glued during the Bloody Baron stuff and couldn't wait to get to Novigrad, but everything in Novigrad is just uninteresting. It feels more like an overly long sidequest - finding Dandelion should not be taking this long.

Yeah, I lost interest too. Deleted the game and my saves. Its obvious that this is a really exciting game for some folks I apparently am not one of those people.

Kinda weird how you have me pegged after I mention Mass Effect 2 once. But yeah, that game is pretty brilliant in my opinion. A lot better than The Witcher 3 so far, though that is not a criticism of The Witcher as much as it is praise for Mass Effect 2. Generally though, I like games that have a focus on personal stories and steer clear of the big picture stuff. Red Dead Redemption for instance had a great personal story.

As for the quality of the writing, maybe we just have different expectations. I read a ton of books, and prefer the old stuff, like Douglas, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and that probably has colored me in a certain way.

As for games with good writing, basically anything by Chris Avellone.

@legion_ said:

How so? you claiming to have been enthralled by it the whole time puts it on a pedestal that provides a pretty big frame of reference to your tastes. I love ME2 as well so if you think I have a bone to pick because you like it you're mistaken. Just comparitively I find that your complaints for TW3 can be shared to a lot of experience within ME2. Your preference to games steering clear of big picture stuff is interesting as well making my ME2 comparisons apt.

I'm not sure expectations is the right word and more so "tastes." Because if I expected more from TW3 then I'd be expecting the world in terms of writing. No game comes close when discussing characterization and world building through narrative as far as I see it.

I don't know, I expected The Witcher 2 levels of writing at least. And hey, that might be the case. It's just that I've been in Novigrad so long, and so much of the dialogue has been lacking there, and it might well be that the game picks up when I get out of there and on to Skellige. I've heard Skellige is great, so I can't wait for that. Looking forward to the reunion between Geralt and Ciri, and really looking forward to more Wild Hunt, because those guys are pretty dang cool.

@legion_: The Novigrad quests really do drag. It picks up after a while, but yeah, it goes on for way too long.

I enjoyed getting my teeth into Novigrad, there was enough going on there that it didn't feel like a chore. The main story really picks up after that.

My favourite bit is visiting the mountain.

@legion_ said:

I actually realised i might have put a couple minor spoilers in there so sorry to anyone who may have read.

3 had a different writing team. Stępień (lead writer for 1 and 2) went over to write for Cyberpunk and it shows though it may just be the open world - the main quest goes heavily downhill after Velen. Picks up a bit in Skellige and then falls down flat never to stand up. Its just really sad seeing brilliant side quests outshine the main quest for the most part. And the wild hunt is a major disappointment for villains that have spanned almost a trilogy so its best to not get your hopes up, almost no development as characters they dont even talk, just generic villains the main guy is a discount Sauron. And then you get things like watered down Politics, the game points you towards decisions because hey there evil, witcher has always been about the world being grey and the characters having subtle reasons in the way they act, yes in some cases twisted but in the end you would have to choose the lesser evil. Radovid exemplifies evil for evils sake. The writing has been a disappointment, pretty big shift from the mature world presented in witcher 2, even the romance scenes have become prudish.

How many of the secondary Novigrad character quests are you guys doing? Those really will extend your stay in that lovely city. I feel like I need to finish all of the character quests before moving on with the main story.

1. I disagree

2. If you look at your quest log it lists the 3 main areas of the game, so you know you're going to all of those.

This is an example of "its not the destination, but the journey". If all you can say is "man, I'm tired of not finishing this" then I don't know what to say. The side quests + the main story = my game of the year so far. Best writing of any Witcher game and the best combat of any Witcher game.

I like the story, but I guess that is because I played the other witcher games. I am being introduced to a lot of characters that I have only heard of in previous games, and it's kinda cool

Once you get through the Novigrad questline, the Skellege section of the story is better, and what follows after that, for me anyway, has been fantastic, really kicks up a gear after skellege. Keep going!

Yeah this is getting pretty absurd. So far I've:

• Looked for Yennefer
• Looked for Ciri
• Looked for Keira Metz
• Looked for the Baron's wife
• Looked for the Baron's daughter
• Looked for Dandelion
• Looked for Whoreson
• Looked for Triss
• Looked for Dudu
• Looked for Hjalmar
• Looked for Cerys

And BOY has the left trigger gotten used a lot in this game. It's COD levels of left trigger right here.