So I've been playing this game over the past few weeks. While I enjoy the game, there are some aspects of it that are extremely frustrating and infuriating. I feel like I need to get it all off my chest. Here's my list of irritating aspects of Witcher 3:
-The controls in general. I've been playing with a controller, but I shudder at the thought of playing with keyboard/mouse, since I've heard that's even worse. The character Geralt moves so poorly and awkwardly and slowly. He's seriously like an asthmatic 85 year old. The smallest thing on the ground like a stick or a rock will stop him in his tracks. Rolling, dodging and climbing and agonisingly slow. I remember how excellent and responsive the character was in Witcher 2, they definitely fucked up the formula. The slow way he moves makes combat a chore rather than fun.
-Combat. In general. They really should have just used the system they had for Witcher 2. It's just awkward and pretty repetitive. It's irritating that it goes into "combat mode" and suddenly Geralt slows down to snail pace and is suddenly unable to jump. Rolling/dodging is this long drawn-out animation that takes forever. And the whole thing is pretty much disguised QTEs. The combat is way too simplified; most battles can be won by spamming the "quick attack" button. They should have incorporated shields or something, or just used the system from Witcher 2, or stolen some ideas from Dark Souls.
-The horse. OH MY GOD probably the most excruciating part of the game. Riding this horse is like getting around town on a square-wheeled bicycle made out of rocks. Any tiny pebble or blade of glass on the road will make the horse sudden stop for no apparent reason. Even when there's no obstacle the horse will often draw to a halt. Then getting the horse back up to speed takes forever. It's generally much faster just to ran/walk to the destination. The horse is broken. And the whole "autopilot" feature is terrible, it's more of an annoyance than a blessing. It's broken and doesn't work and I only notice it when it's pushing the horse off in some weird unplanned direction.
-No menu access: I'm unable to access the menu and quit/save/etc during cutscenes and many other parts of the game. It's just irritating. Also it's impossible to alt-tab out of the game, which means if I want to check my email or whatever I have to quit to desktop. Irritating.
-Same button for ignite/loot: Any time I run into this "feature" about 100 times per hour. I want to loot a chest, but the game instead ignites a nearby torch. Very frustrating. It should use a different button.
-Broken quests: I've encountered quite a few broken quests. In particular the 'Gangs of Novigrad' quest or whatever it's called. Apparently it's broken for pretty much everyone. It's sad because I really wanted Ziggy to come to Kuer Mohren with me. Sad face.
-Shitty character progression: When I want to level up my character I'm not excited. 99% of the skill tree is boring and hardly gives any perceivable benefits. I wish there was something really cool to unlock at the end of the skill trees, some cool powers or something. It all seems kind of lame. Especially the alchemy skill tree; totally pointless. They should have added in some awesome features/spells/attacks here instead of just things like "1% adrenaline point gain". Sure the spinny quick attack thing is cool and all, but they could have done more.
Fall damage: broken. Basically Gerald must have really bad arthritis or else he wears glass prosthetic legs under his armour. Basically if you fall from more than 1 foot in the air then you will die. I've died in the game by stumbling off a small rock or jump off a tree stump. It's ridiculous.
-Number 1 Irritating Bug:This 'feature' is on par with the broken horse, although I think it's actually worse. This is the most irritating part of the game. It's the "auto-look" feature. Whenever I'm controlling the character, the boat, the horse, etc. the game wants me to look straight ahead. I'm not able to control the camera. For a game that's so pretty I am shocked that I'm not able to turn off this feature. So often I'm sailing a boat past the landscape and I wish to view the scene, but instead the game wants me to look straight ahead. Extremely irritating, it should be disabled.
Wow I didn't mean to write such an essay here, but I really needed to get all of that off my chest. Now that I've aired my grievances, I will conclude by saying that the game is actually still really good and I'd still recommend it. The awesome characters, story, open world, crafting, pretty graphics, etc. more than make up for the cons and it's a fun game for the most part. It's really immersive (once you get into it) and it's just fun to explore this huge, beautiful, rich, and detailed world.
