Thrilling storyline, satisfying combat, beautifully written characters and engaging, varied quests. Plus the most detailed and breathtaking open world city in a videogame ever. I've put almost 300h into the game since launch and there's no end in sight. In my opinion the best modern AAA game.
I don't understand all the hate, the game is great. People claim the open world is empty. Wrong! It is packed with things to do. You can't drive a single street without finding a new sidequest or mini missions. Because of this I have barely played the mainquest after 30h gameplay and it simply doesn't get boring. What I love is the amount of detail. Every street, every building, every small alley is unique. Hell it's even fun to read the random graffitis on the walls. Sometimes I just stand and look at the amazing worldbuilding in awe. It truly feels like an actual city that could exist just like this in real life. Also the characters you interact with in the quests are amazing. The way the look, talk and move is so organic and believable, it almost feels like you are talking to actual human beings. Another huge plus is the music and the sound effects. You got to experience that yourself. Every mission got a unique fitting ambient soundtrack that matches the mood, task and place you are at. Love it. The only thing I dislike about CP is the npc AI. Random people on the street feel like robots. They are super generic and stupid. Police spawns randomly at your location when in a chase, people don't react when you crash into their car, pathfinding is basically nonexistent. Even the npcs in gta san andreas from 2004 have better ai. Please fix this CDPR. Regarding performance: I can play with around 30fps at 1080p on ultra (obviously no RTX) with hardware that is mostly from 2012. Only my graphics card is newer (2016). Anyone who whines that the game is not well optimized is talking rubbish. To wrap things up, the game is super addicting and immersive. There are some problems but it's nothing gamebreaking and they don't subtract from the fun for me.
I haven't been hooked to a video game for a long time. Until Metro came along. I decided to do a complete run of the series starting with Metro 2033 and ending with Exodus. While the first two Metro games are amazing and unique in their own regard, Exodus takes everything that was good about those two and makes it even better BUT you need to play the first two to understand and appreciate Exodus fully. So go and play those first if you haven't. Also: play the Metro games at night in a dark room for maximum immersion. The storytelling in Exodus is amazing and the characters and dialogue is extremely well done. I ended up bonding to the characters and feeling like those were actually my friends. It felt like they were real people. I never had experienced something similar with a videogame before. Also I enjoyed the exploration and lore a lot. If you do not rush the main quest and go off to explore every corner of the open world levels you will find so much detail, notes that tell you about the world and its inhabitants, audio recordings, encounters with locals, environmental storytelling and upgrades for your gear that you can only find once in the whole playthrough. For people who like to take it slow and immerse themselvers in a believable well built world that puts emphasis on storytelling this game is perfect. Especially since each level has its own lore and history that you can slowly piece together through enemy dialogue while sneaking, notes and many other ways. As for the time it takes to beat the game: it hugely depends on your playstyle. I really took my time and tried to experience everything the game has to offer and listen to every skippable/missable/optional dialogue. For the campaign and Sams Stroy DLC I needed around 53h. Currently playing the other DLC. That'll add up a few hours on top of that. To sum up: Get. This. Game.
If you like Witcher 3, play this one first, then the second one and afterwards the third one. Also read the books if possible. You will have the most complete experience this way. There are tons of subtle references in all the games to the books and the to the previous game titles that you won't realize when only having played Witcher 3 but that'll have you crack up in laughter and feel very satisfying when having played the previous titles and having read the books. Witcher 1 takes some time to get used to, especially when you are spoiled by the graphical fidelity and gameplay of modern titles. However, after some time you'll fall in love with Witcher 1. The atmosphere is amazing (best in the series) and the combat will be very enjoyable after being awkward at first. BEWARE! This game doesn't hold your hand. It doesn't give you directions and convenient quest markers floating in the world. You need to think and listen carefully to dialogues if you do not want to get stuck in the story without knowing what to do. For some that might be annoying but for others a big pleasure. To sum up: Play this game. Don't hesitate. You'll play a title beautifully crafted by fans for fans.
A while ago I decided to start a complete witcher trilogy run. Finishing Witcher 1, Witcher 2 and Witcher 3 in this sequence and taking the save file of the previous title into the next to have one coherent story based on my decisions. When I began Witcher 2 I was pleasantly surprised. The graphical and technical jump from Witcher 1 to 2 is huge and while the first title had it's own unique art style, Witcher 2 has basically the same one as Witcher 3. Characters, armor design, clutter items and world building are congruent with Witcher 3. Dialogue also feels the same like in Witcher 3 and combat is similar yet a bit different, just like movement and controls. To be honest I PREFER Witcher 2's movement and combat over Witcher 3 but that's just personal preference. It just feels quicker and more precise for me. Regarding the story: it is phenomenal. Plenty of choice that'll have you play at least 4 playthroughs to experience everything and every consequence. To sum up: Everyone who likes Witcher 3 NEEDS to play Witcher 2 (and Witcher 1. And also read all the Witcher books!). In the past I played 200 hours of Witcher 3 without knowing the other games and the books. After having played to the first 2 games and reading the books I can confirm Witcher 3 is even better. You'll suddenly understand a lot more about the world, the lore, the characters. Previous confusion about certain dialogue topics or why the world is the way it is is gone. It'll 100% influence the decisions you make in Witcher 3.
