So I finally finished Witcher 3 last night. Every contract, every side quest, all the DLC. I ended up getting every point of interest too except for the treasures in the Skellige sea. I guessed that none of them were Places of Power I'd be missing out on, and I really didn't feel like diving for all that shit...like I need a 12th pair of Assassin's Trousers.
Overall I was impressed with the game, although to be honest I was not completely sold until the DLC. The game's dark atmosphere is great, but I found the quests in Heart of Stone and the atmosphere of Toussaint to be a refreshing change of pace. I about died during the wedding party with Shani when Geralt is possessed, not to mention when your horse starts talking to you in Toussaint when you're tripping on mushrooms! The fucking spoon house and breaking that curse creeped me the fuck out. Obviously the main quests were very well done and engaging, although some of the side quests and contracts were a bit of a slog at times. Great quests overall though, characters were wonderful. I thought the combat was supposed to be more unforgiving, but I was surprised to find you can abuse Quen quite a bit and just mash the slash and dodge buttons quite a bit to get through fights. I never really bothered to parry. I started playing around with some other builds late, but I didn't bother much with oils and potions. I'm literally Rowan's Witcher from VLDL.
I do have a couple things that have always bugged me about this game though. For one...I love pretty much all the NPCs, but Geralt as a main character just falls kinda flat imo. I get the whole "Witcher emotions are dead" thing, but hell...even Vesemir has more life in him during conversations than Geralt. I feel like Lambert isn't as dull, and even Eskel. The monotonous voice of Geralt just gets to me, I felt the same way about Ulysses in Fallout NV, least favorite part of the whole game. I'd almost rather Geralt be a silent protagonist, it would be easier to see myself in his shoes. To go along with that...why the fuck is Yennifer considered the canon true love? I like Yen the character, but she really doesn't provide a good foil to Geralt. Geralt is emotionless and often serious, Yen is often just bitchy and quite serious herself. They just do not work together as a romance. Triss, on the other hand, is more lighthearted and sweet. That's a perfect foil to Geralt. I've always felt like they work together better and so I obviously went with that romance in the end. I just found myself smiling often when they interacted together, but when Yen's there it's always such a downer.
Before I get down from my soap box there's one more thing I'm going to nag...fucking Gwent. I fucking hate Gwent. Don't get me wrong, I've played my fair share of side card games in RPGs. Sometimes I actually enjoy the diversion. Gwent becomes more than a fucking diversion though, it becomes a got-damned full time job. It's not even a challenge once you get some decent cards, the CPU is often so predictable you can force their hand. I would be fine if they left Gwent as a side hustle, but there's literally a damned Side Quest to collect every fucking card in the game. It's impossible for me to leave a Side Quest up if it's in the journal, so I ended up challenging every asshole I could find to Gwent so no cards were missed. Wouldn't you know it, by the time I got to the end of Blood and Wine I had everything except two damned cards, both of which are random rewards from random players. So what do I have to do? I have to go through a fucking list and go town to town to track down every merchant to see who I missed. A couple dozen towns later I found a couple Armorers in Skellige that I probably missed because the town was a 1 time stop and the merchants were closed for the night. So seriously...fuck Gwent.
Plot/Characters: (A) - I would have gone A+ here if Gerant wasn't so monotonous with his dialogue. It's always been a gripe of mine though, so I wasn't too harsh here.
Graphics: (A) - I thought this game was released later than 2015, but given it was 7 years ago I felt like the models and terrains were well done for the time. No complaints, beautiful scenery. The dreary backdrops in the main game got a bit old, but the DLC Toussaint and NE Novigrad balanced it out nicefly.
Sound: (B) - Voice acting was pretty good overall, but I didn't feel like the sound track was amazing or anything.
Gameplay: (B-) - I felt like the combat was hyped up to be like Dark Souls, but it wasn't particularly difficult and with the right build you could basically faceroll most fights just abusing dodge and quick attack. Boating is buggy at times, there were a number of times I would be trying to leave a dock and the boat would be kind of...stuck. I'd try to be pulling away from the dock, but it's almost as if the boat was stuck on it's side with nothing in front of it, and then the boat would somehow take damage once it finally came loose. Fortunately you don't spend much time boating in the game, because the boats are about as strong as paper. It's one reason I skipped diving for treasure in Skellige.
Entertainment: (A-) - I felt like I spent half my time playing Gwent for one damned Side Quest. I would have much rather spent more time exploring the world. There was something intrinsically satisfying kicking the crap out of Bandits and other assholes that were up to no good, never really felt like it got old, especially when they underestimate the Witcher and talk trash. I love kicking the crap out of those shit talkers.
Replay Value: (B+) - There's definitely several quests I wouldn't mind going back to revisit and see how my choices would affect the outcome. I did reload a number of saves to see how different scenarios played out so my first playthrough would have the outcomes I wanted. Coincidentally everyone seems to talk about the Baron quest line online and many seem to think the best outcome is for the Baron and his wife to leave and help her memory return. WTF?! And leave the orphaned kids to be eaten by the Crones?! No fucking way. I get that the Baron and his wife were both assholes at points in their lives and redemption is great, but not at the expense of the kids. I ended up changing the wife back from the water hag into human, she got her moment of clarity with her daughter and husband, then the Baron hung himself...but the kids lived. Of course the town gets wiped out too, but they were kind of asking for it since they kept fucking with the tree. No way if you have a soul do you let those kids get eaten, they've been through enough. Besides, it was Anna's wish they live anyway.
Overall: A/A-