Caveat: I did not enjoy Witcher 1, as I only played about 10% of it before I got bored and stopped playing. Witcher 2, I got bored after 30% into it, and stopped. But Witcher 3 blew my mind in every conceivable way. What had stopped me from enjoying the first two games properly was well fleshed gameplay mechanics, that worked fluidly. It's hard to describe exactly what it was about the game mechanics that made Witcher 3 work for me. But I think the fact that the whole game world was a lot more expansive without so many load screens helped a lot, combined with the improved combat mechanics. The stories were so well written, as to cause tears in my eyes at some points, hilarious laughter at other times.. and in between all those very strong moments, I experienced the awe of the world surrounding me, and a genuine lust for exploration. And frankly, I experienced AWE in realizing how much effort CDPR put into EVERY SINGLE SIDE QUEST. What I'm used to with other RPG developers (like Bethesda etc), is that they put very little effort into the quality of their side quests. Dialogue often feels bland and flat in the side quests of most games. The quality of the side quests in Witcher 3 is greater than the best main quests in any Bethesda game. Witcher 3 has basically set a new industry standard for how an Action RPG and storywriting can be. As for criticism, there's not really much to criticize. But if there is something constructive I could say to the developers, I would say the "detective" puzzles where you have to track down a monster seem a bit too simplistic. There is a lot more potential in these detective puzzles. It uses the same kind of formula that I've seen in the Arkham games. It's basically "Enable detective mode" and find the bright glowy clues, and follow the bread crumbs from there. This was the best game of the year it came out. But for me, it's probably the best game ever. I can only imagine what Cyberpunk 2077 will be like after this.
