There are a lot of open world games out now, even more since Witcher 3 has released. And they still haven't learned the lessons of Witcher 3. Witcher 3 leans HARD on its setting, characters, and themes everywhere. It transforms everything that used to feel bland and more like padding, into something more rich feeling. You aren't just going up to nobody villagers and solving their vague ghoul problems. They have their own unique problems. And while the mechanical things you do in each quest ends up being somewhat familiar, it vanishes into the background, because Witcher 3 is really good at exposition. If you don't like listening to NPCs talk, then this game gets a lot worse I guess. But believe the hype. This is the best open world RPG out there, and probably will be for a long time.
