Not too much to say, just as everyone in the review section has been stating this game is a masterpiece.
The visuals: graphics, the setting, scenery.
The audio: music, sound effects, voice acting ( dwarves <3) the exception being a bunch of voices in Touissaint, mostly knights, it feels as if they've just hired a bunch of random swedes to voice them.
The story presentation, dialogue.
Gwent!
etc etc etc, all amazing


With that said, here's a few specific things that stood out to me.

The hand crafted camera angles during quests/dialogue add this "cinematic" feeling, they show you some great scenery and backdrops and are just amazing, especially when you compare them to something like fallout where the camera during dialogue is completely static.

Just as many other open world games this game has a lot of side activities. But compared to those other games in which the side activities consist of you collecting a bunch of random ♥♥♥♥♥ unusable collectibles with no attached backstory or clearing 100 similarly looking camps of the same 5 generic dudes. (All of which just exist so that companies could say "this game has 200 hours of content!", looking at you Ubisoft :) )
Compared to those, most side activities in the Witcher have some storytelling attached to them (especially in the expansions) either through notes on the loot or prop placement around the location. These stories revolve around people in this universe, their lives, a trouble they might've gotten themselves in, a message that they wanted to relay to someone... These narrative bits usually don't have any connection to the main story of the game or Geralt himself but they add a lot towards the feeling that this is a living breathing world and while that might not be interesting to some players, having some context added to murdering a bunch of seemingly random mobs is always better than just having target dummies. Same as how collecting hidden recipes/swords/armor is more interesting than collecting some useless unusable trash that exists just to artifically increase play time.

Plenty of RPGs attempt to give you an illusion of choice but they do it in a lazy way with barely any effort placed into hiding that fact. Usually by showing completely the same dialogue/cutscenes no matter what decisions you've made previously.
Well, even though this game also uses the illusion of choice technique, it's not felt as strongly as in other titles because effort has been put intohiding it. And i think it really contributes to the feeling that your actions actually matter.

No hand holding when it comes to morality.


Cool little details/features

The way Geralt slides downhill is awesome and more games should take this approach.
The dialog skip is not bound to the same button as choosing the next line of dialogue, which prevents you from getting into situations where you accidently select the next line of dialogue when really, you just wanted to skip dialogue.
Dialogue choices which will end the dialogue (or get you to the next stage of dialogue).
The automatic movement of horses along paths where you don't have to steer them constantly along those paths (not perfectly executed but solid implementation and a great idea overall).
I don't think i've seen better implementation of trees and their bending in a game than in the Witcher, especially when you combine it with the amazing sound design.It truly feels special.

DUALSHOCK BUTTON LAYOUT

Small negatives

Too many fighting and racing minigames. They were nice at first but have overstayed their welcome.
Fall damage, Geralt isn't capable of falling from anything higher than 2 meters without dying, what?
The UI is cluttered, finding the exact potion or an item you want unless you remember them by their image is aids and the same applies to your "buff bar".
There were more but i cannot think of any of them of the top of my head right now.

Thankfully most small issues can be fixed with mods and this game has great mod support.

The big "bad" thing

The combat.
Just as the first 2 games had mediocre combat at best to terrible at worst, i'd have to say this game follows those steps. The main major improvement is definitely the ability to use potions during combat.(which doesn't fit the lore, but in a game, gameplay comes first, right?) It does improves on the previous titles by a bit but it's mostly just from the production quality standpoint.
The combat stays very spammy with an extremely small variety of moves, fast and slow attacks and rend and whirlwind as your "finishers". And that is really sad considering the amount of ways in which you can modify your character (4 different "talent trees", runeforging, mutations, set bonuses, stats). None of that matters if the base of your combat system is meh. Crossbows are pointless and don't really have a use except for underwater combat and getting flying beasts grounded. Signs are nice and all but they are quite weak (from my experience) and once again, you don't have a lot of options, you've got 2 choices for cc 1 "pure" defensive and 2 offensive ones. So, is combat ♥♥♥♥? No. Is it average? Eh...i don't know...maybe it's average or somewhat good? (when you include all the ways in which you can improve/modify your character with talents/sets etc)
But when all the other aspects of your game are amazing, the Witchers combat being average is a letdown. Not to the extent that you can't enjoy it or that there is no variety in it at all, but still a letdown. Especially if you do not forget that at the end of the day, combat is the "heart" of the game.


So yeah, if there's anything at all to complain about in this game it's definitely the combat.

Nevertheless, as stated by so many people this game is a masterpiece. It's a must own if you're into RPGs and we really should commend and support devs such as CD Projekt Red for the work they've put it into this project. The free DLC, the expansions oozing with content... A company being this good to it's customers is really an exception rather than the rule these days.

Not too much to say, just as everyone in the review section has been stating this game is a masterpiece. The visuals: graphics, the setting, scenery. The audio: music, sound effects, voice acting ( dwarves <3) the exception being a bunch of voices in Touissaint, mostly knights, it feels as if they've just hired a bunch of random swedes to voice them. The story presentation, dialogue. Gwent! etc etc etc, all amazing With that said, here's a few specific things that stood out to me. The hand crafted camera angles during quests/dialogue add this "cinematic" feeling, they show you some great scenery and backdrops and are just amazing, especially when you compare them to something like fallout where the camera during dialogue is completely static. Just as many other open world games this game has a lot of side activities. But compared to those other games in which the side activities consist of you collecting a bunch of random shite unusable collectibles with no attached backstory or clearing 100 similarly looking camps of the same 5 generic dudes. (All of which just exist so that companies could say "this game has 200 hours of content!", looking at you Ubisoft :) ) Compared to those, most side activities in the Witcher have some storytelling attached to them (especially in the expansions) either through notes on the loot or prop placement around the location. These stories revolve around people in this universe, their lives, a trouble they might've gotten themselves in, a message that they wanted to relay to someone... These narrative bits usually don't have any connection to the main story of the game or Geralt himself but they add a lot towards the feeling that this is a living breathing world and while that might not be interesting to some players, having some context added to murdering a bunch of seemingly random mobs is always better than just having target dummies. Same as how collecting hidden recipes/swords/armor is more interesting than collecting some useless unusable trash that exists just to artifically increase play time. Plenty of RPGs attempt to give you an illusion of choice but they do it in a lazy way with barely any effort placed into hiding that fact. Usually by showing completely the same dialogue/cutscenes no matter what decisions you've made previously. Well, even though this game also uses the illusion of choice technique, it's not felt as strongly as in other titles because effort has been put intohiding it. And i think it really contributes to the feeling that your actions actually matter. No hand holding when it comes to morality. Cool little details/features The way Geralt slides downhill is awesome and more games should take this approach. The dialog skip is not bound to the same button as choosing the next line of dialogue, which prevents you from getting into situations where you accidently select the next line of dialogue when really, you just wanted to skip dialogue. Dialogue choices which will end the dialogue (or get you to the next stage of dialogue). The automatic movement of horses along paths where you don't have to steer them constantly along those paths (not perfectly executed but solid implementation and a great idea overall). I don't think i've seen better implementation of trees and their bending in a game than in the Witcher, especially when you combine it with the amazing sound design.It truly feels special. DUALSHOCK BUTTON LAYOUT Small negatives Too many fighting and racing minigames. They were nice at first but have overstayed their welcome. Fall damage, Geralt isn't capable of falling from anything higher than 2 meters without dying, what? The UI is cluttered, finding the exact potion or an item you want unless you remember them by their image is aids and the same applies to your "buff bar". There were more but i cannot think of any of them of the top of my head right now. Thankfully most small issues can be fixed with mods and this game has great mod support. The big "bad" thing The combat. Just as the first 2 games had mediocre combat at best to terrible at worst, i'd have to say this game follows those steps. The main major improvement is definitely the ability to use potions during combat.(which doesn't fit the lore, but in a game, gameplay comes first, right?) It does improves on the previous titles by a bit but it's mostly just from the production quality standpoint. The combat stays very spammy with an extremely small variety of moves, fast and slow attacks and rend and whirlwind as your "finishers". And that is really sad considering the amount of ways in which you can modify your character (4 different "talent trees", runeforging, mutations, set bonuses, stats). None of that matters if the base of your combat system is meh. Crossbows are pointless and don't really have a use except for underwater combat and getting flying beasts grounded. Signs are nice and all but they are quite weak (from my experience) and once again, you don't have a lot of options, you've got 2 choices for cc 1 "pure" defensive and 2 offensive ones. So, is combat shit? No. Is it average? Eh...i don't know...maybe it's average or somewhat good? (when you include all the ways in which you can improve/modify your character with talents/sets etc) But when all the other aspects of your game are amazing, the Witchers combat being average is a letdown. Not to the extent that you can't enjoy it or that there is no variety in it at all, but still a letdown. Especially if you do not forget that at the end of the day, combat is the "heart" of the game. So yeah, if there's anything at all to complain about in this game it's definitely the combat. Nevertheless, as stated by so many people this game is a masterpiece. It's a must own if you're into RPGs and we really should commend and support devs such as CD Projekt Red for the work they've put it into this project. The free DLC, the expansions oozing with content... A company being this good to it's customers is really an exception rather than the rule these days.