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[Venfayth]

Again you seem to be regressing into some meta-critique, unable to specify whats broken, you simply say that it HAS to be because they added an additional control scheme. After that its just more hyperbole. This is exactly what my point was in my first post.

It might be that any time someone specifies what they're talking about you misdirect the critique into something unrelated like you did to me a post ago?

I specifically said I wasn't talking about rolling and attacking and yet you cited those.

Geralt absolutely circles and plays preparatory animations before he just goes in the direction you face. This is what their alternate movement setting improves but does not eliminate. You are being intellectually dishonest if you continue to pretend this doesn't exist. It's clearly a design choice, but it's not imaginary.

 

[silva1991]

I never thought it was frustrating to play even tho it wasn't also great.

I don't remember the alternate controls when I played it on release on PC. Was it added months after release?

 

[Neuromancer]

It takes a little used to getting to but I think some people here are being very overdramatic, in the fashion of the times I suppose.

 

[thefil]

Again you seem to be regressing into some meta-critique, unable to specify whats broken, you simply say that it HAS to be because they added an additional control scheme. After that its just more hyperbole. This is exactly what my point was in my first post.

I can hit on a little bit about what I struggled with. The movement in the base game is very clearly animation-driven. If you tap forward on the stick quickly, Geralt will not stop moving until he is able to finish blending from a startup to a wind-down anim. If you're right near a pick-up, it's possible to tap back and forth over it without being able to hit the button to get the thing. This happened to me multiple times in my few hours.

It's basically the difference between:
player input -> choose which animations to play -> move avatar as a result of anims playing

and

player input -> move avatar -> play animations which match the movement.

The latter is more difficult to make look good, while the former is more difficult to make feel good, and CDPR didn't really hit it for me with their version of the former.

*edit* This video seems to capture some of the swimminess of the original controls versus the updated version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agjn3O1Unrw

 

[Noctis3]

It takes a little used to getting to but I think some people here are being very overdramatic, in the fashion of the times I suppose.

You and me both.

 

[Exentryk]

Doesn't change my argument, just replace one word with another.

Lol, they're completely different things. Copying movement has a much less impact in terms of keeping with the world and the setting, than say copying the whole combat and gameplay.

Wait, aren't you the same guy that couldn't even notice the rough gameplay in Biomutant? Yeah, nevermind.

I don't remember the alternate controls when I played it on release on PC. Was it added months after release?

Yeah, it was added a few months later. I recall making a thread on CDPR forums with Geralt being controlled with a steering wheel, haha! The devs added alternate movement in the following patch

 

[Chandler X Bing]

The game doesn't exactly require a lot of precision. There's so much excellent stuff in the game that I think its pretty easy to get used to the controls in the long run.

 

[texhnolyze]

Funny, because I prefer The Witcher 3 controls compared to Horizon with its randomly switching camera PoV.

That shit is nerve-wrecking.

 

[ExtinctionEvent]

Again you seem to be regressing into some meta-critique, unable to specify whats broken, you simply say that it HAS to be because they added an additional control scheme. After that its just more hyperbole. This is exactly what my point was in my first post.

Do you know what movement, controls , animations are? Its hard to describe. But when you play Gerald is not always responsive, he feels floaty, animations when fighting ate always the same and it takes player control away while he finishes his animations. If you want to bury your head in the sand and think witcher has good controls, animations than cool. It doesn't. They patched it for that reason.

 

[Exentryk]

I recommend walking as much as possible. Added bonus is immersion and getting to appreciate the environments more.

 

[Fanuilos]

There's so much excellent stuff in the game that I think its pretty easy to get used to the controls in the long run.

I agree. Most games have weird quirks and a learning curve, even the best ones.

 

[KingV]

This is one of those complaints I'll never understand, I can't find any fault in how the Witcher 3 controls or plays.

Do you play it on PX or console?

I played it on PC and never really had a problem either. It's certainly not "OMG amaze balls, aaaahmazing controls" but it certainly controls well enough.

I'm wondering if there is a difference between PX and PS4 for the game or something.

 

[Nev]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agjn3O1Unrw

How people can take that character seriously when he runs like that is something I'll never understand.

Waste less time in sex scenes with the sexualized dollified waifus and invest some resources into these embarrassing early 3D era animations.

 

[BeauRoger]

It might be that any time someone specifies what they're talking about you misdirect the critique into something unrelated like you did to me a post ago?

I specifically said I wasn't talking about rolling and attacking and yet you cited those.

Geralt absolutely circles and plays preparatory animations before he just goes in the direction you face. This is what their alternate movement setting improves but does not eliminate. You are being intellectually dishonest if you continue to pretend this doesn't exist. It's clearly a design choice, but it's not imaginary.

No i was talking about your claim about "canceling irrelevant animations", and that you can actually do that in combat, but maybe you only intended that for the specific point about changing direction. As i mentioned, switching targets with the targeting system does that well enough. But if the only thing you can specify is that the turning is bad, which i dont even agree with, then the general claims about the bad combat still becomes extremely hyperbolic, because you made it clear that you were not criticising the other elements of movement such as the roll and the dodge, or attacking. Your direction change issues seem to be basis for this entire point.

 

[silva1991]

Yeah, it was added a few months later. I recall making a thread on CDPR forums with Geralt being controlled with a steering wheel, haha! The devs added alternate movement in the following patch

Duly noted. I'll check them out if when I do another playthrough. I want to do Yennefer justice since I totally ignored her in my first playthrough. lol.

 

[BeauRoger]

Do you know what movement, controls , animations are? Its hard to describe. But when you play Gerald is not always responsive, he feels floaty, animations when fighting ate always the same and it takes player control away while he finishes his animations. If you want to bury your head in the sand and think witcher has good controls, animations than cool. It doesn't. They patched it for that reason.

You are still blurting out the same tired, unspecific points, only now you have added that its bad that a game has finisher animations, and that Geralt does not always respond to input commands, which he absolutely does.

 

[7roject28]

Controls were fine to me. Never had a complaint. The way they make him move and feel is more natural and real where it makes him feel like he has mass and weight in turning or getting up and go. Most games have the character turning left and right at break neck speeds.

 

[ADS]

I'm actually more surprised that there are people who don't think the game controls like shit.

I thought everyone pretty much agreed it's a great game in spite of the awful movement/combat.

 

[hokagespit]

the only reason ive kept from getting too into the witcher the lighting hurts my eyes, feels flickery or something, outdoors moving in and out of shadows, i think its my tv, some games lighting these days make them unplayable. farcry primal was the worst.

 

[terencecah]

Amen

 

[Memento]

the only reason ive kept from getting too into the witcher the lighting hurts my eyes, feels flickery or something, outdoors moving in and out of shadows, i think its my tv, some games lighting these days make them unplayable. farcry primal was the worst.

I didnt want to say that because I thought people wouldnt understand but that is also a problem I am having. I mean, the graphics are great and all but the lighting is so overwhelming. It is distracting and it hurts my eyes a lot too :/

I think this may be a problem with us instead of the game though.

 

[BeauRoger]

I can hit on a little bit about what I struggled with. The movement in the base game is very clearly animation-driven. If you tap forward on the stick quickly, Geralt will not stop moving until he is able to finish blending from a startup to a wind-down anim. If you're right near a pick-up, it's possible to tap back and forth over it without being able to hit the button to get the thing. This happened to me multiple times in my few hours.

It's basically the difference between:
player input -> choose which animations to play -> move avatar as a result of anims playing

and

player input -> move avatar -> play animations which match the movement.

The latter is more difficult to make look good, while the former is more difficult to make feel good, and CDPR didn't really hit it for me with their version of the former.

*edit* This video seems to capture some of the swimminess of the original controls versus the updated version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agjn3O1Unrw

I see what you are saying, and I agree in part when it comes to the out of combat movements that its more animation driven, as you put it. Out of combat i dont think this presents any issues because i'd say the control scheme matches the demands of the world around you, when it comes to navigation. In combat however, where more precision is required, the more "naturalistic" animations take a backseat to a more practical approach where you are fully capable of canceling animations, make sudden lunges and directional changes and respond as fast as your reflexes allow you to.

 

[Renekton]

The combat is awful too. Just play for the story and presentation.

 

[mugwhump]

PC + mods = no problems

Which ones? I'd like to know for when I get back into it

 

[ethomaz]

The combat was since release ridiculous bad.

Everything else is great.

 

[DigSCCP]

I remember coming directly from Bloodborne it was hard.
Anyway I got used to it.
I wouldnt say that is shit, I think its only aceptable, serviceable.
Put effort to continue it.
What it lacks on the gameplay departament it shines way above in all other posible ways.

 

[matrix-cat]

Witcher 3 is my game of the generation, but I 100% agree that Geralt controls like shit. He's just as sluggish and unresponsive as any modern GTA or Assassin's Creed character, and the alternative controls help but they don't make him feel good. I guess the saving grace is that this is just walking/traversal controls we're talking about. It'd be nice if Geralt felt snappy under your fingers, but at least you aren't going to get killed because he wouldn't respond to your controls. When you're in combat you shift gears into 'combat mode', where you move by dodging or rolling, and it's all close-range combat so you don't have to worry about precise positioning like you would in Horizon or MGSV.

Witcher 3 would be an even more wonderful game than it already is if Geralt controlled well (I mean, even if they just dropped Witcher 2's controls in there, which were nothing to write home about but perfectly fine), but as it is the controls don't prevent me from enjoying the game.

 

[Xe4]

I thought the combat and controls were completely fine. I legit had no problems with them and didn't even know it was an issue until I read forum posts on it.

I'm not that picky about controls and combat though, just the really garbage ones like GTA and Skyrim bug me.

 

[ExtinctionEvent]

You are still blurting out the same tired, unspecific points, only now you have added that its bad that a game has finisher animations, and that Geralt does not always respond to input commands, which he absolutely does.

Lol, I explained, you dont get it it cannot understand is a you issue. , thats fine. Controls, combat are not great in witcher,3. Agree to disagree. There are many people explaining it, you will just brush it off, a pointless enfeavour.I mean you sound like you dont even know what transition animations are. They suck in the witcher.bye.

 

[MikeyB]

A Tugboat Named Geralt.

 

[Ahasverus]

How people can take that character seriously when he runs like that is something I'll never understand.

Waste less time in sex scenes with the sexualized dollified waifus and invest some resources into these embarrassing early 3D era animations.

Are you drunk or something?

 

[Spinifex]

I loved Witcher 3 but I have to agree. The game generally controlled like shit, but it's story, voice acting etc was great.

My dream game is those parts of Witcher 3 combined with the feel and responsiveness of say, Breath of the Wild.

 

[Stranger Things]

Walking sucks

The combat sucks

And the horse riding is AWFUL

Compare the horse to MGSV and it's a joke

 

[Varna]

It's the reason I can't ever immerse myself in this game despite it being the exact type of game I look for in general.

Tried all the combat enhancing mods but they can only do so much to mask innate problems with the game. Movement just feels floaty, attacks feel unresponsive and the camera can be a total joke in certain situations. It's just not a very fun game to play.

 

[Exentryk]

Walking also makes you feel more badass!

 

[Sanctuary]

Walking also makes you feel more badass!

"Oh, shit, oh shit, oh shit, it's Geralt...fuck this, I'm outta here!".

 

[Flame Lord]

The Witcher 3 really bummed me out. I was really hyped for it but it played like shit, and I found the menu difficult to navigate and understand, even after the update. Also, I don't know if it's something that I misunderstood or what, but one thing I really hated about the combat was having to use alchemy to make potions and poisons to kill certain enemies. This would be a cool mechanic, if the game played well, but you combine playing like shit, while also having to stop and make poisons to fight some enemies it just felt like work, extremely boring and tedious work.

 

[Exentryk]

Also, I don't know if it's something that I misunderstood or what, but one thing I really hated about the combat was having to use alchemy to make potions and poisons to kill certain enemies. This would be a cool mechanic, if the game played well, but you combine playing like shit, while also having to stop and make poisons to fight some enemies it just felt like work, extremely boring and tedious work.

You only need to make the potions once. After that, they automatically refill every time you meditate. If you're talking about the oils, yeah they needed to be applied to your sword every time. It went with the immersion of preparing for the fight. Personally, I enjoyed this immersion aspect at the start, but later on I used a mod called "Auto-apply Oils", which got rid of the tedium. I understand console users don't have this feature, which is a shame.

 

[Nasigil]

I can understand the complain.

I notice in Witcher series, in almost every design element that needs to balance between "natural look" and "responsive controls", CDPR usually chose the former. Yes there's a noticeable inertia when controlling Geralt which makes it feels "unresponsive", but it also makes his moves looks natural and believable on a viewer perspective. While in games like Dark Souls 3, the way character moves looks totally unrealistic, but the controls feels great. That's a intentional design choice to make the game feels more cinematic.

I don't really agree with it tho, although Witcher 3 is still my fav game of all time, I do wish Geralt's control can be more responsive.

 

[neoism]

Especially after playing open world games like Horizon Zero Dawn and Metal Gear Solid 5, which controls like heaven, The Witcher 3 feels like a fucking chore.

Just walking around is a suffering activity. And the animations are so poor. Not even going to discuss combat, but you can be sure it is not highly regarded for the most part because of the terrible controls.

It is such a pitty, because I want to experience the world and the story, but Jesus Christ, everytime I have to walk it is so slugish and bad.

i played for for the first time this whole summer...


one of the best games ever made. it controls great, i always thought id hate the combat but it was fun all 260hours of it

 

[NJDEN]

I thought everything about the witcher 3 was good to excellent.

Combat was good... did not blow me away, but never felt like a chore or anything.
Controls with the patch were great... Felt about on par with lots of other open world 3rd person RPG games.
Environments were excellent... Really amazing work all around.
Characters models were great... occasional weird bump or texture, but nothing game breaking.
Story was excellent... felt very connected the whole way though and was very sad when it finally ended.

The only thing that might give me pause was combat in extremely confined areas like a tomb. Sometimes it would feel particularly claustrophobic and affect game-play, but I recall that only happening twice in a very huge game.

 

[Envelope]

yeah the controls suuuuuck but the rest of the game is so good

 

[Wadiwasi]

I think that CD Projekt Red will work on the controls for their future console games. It is by far the single biggest criticism of the game I've seen and you can believe that they have seen it too. They weren't great but I don't personally believe that they were so bad you couldn't enjoy the game at all.

 

[Durrzerker]

Didn't have a problem with it but sorry you did

 

[icecold1983]

the gameplay is bad

 

[Beerman462]

Witcher 3 Thread: Check
Inflammatory Thread Title: Check
PS4 Fanboi: Check
Two year old "Hot Take": Check
Inevitable Horizon ZD injection: Check


OT: The Witcher 3 more than makes up for it's control short comings by having such a large amount of content packed into a $60 game at release. Along with DLC that rivals some full games in content.

 

[Sanctuary]

OT: The Witcher 3 more than makes up for it's control short comings by having such a large amount of content packed into a $60 game at release. Along with DLC that rivals some full games in content.

I don't know when this trend started, but it's something I just can't understand. Quality > quantity. The Witcher 3 did a lot of things right, but it was also extremely bloated with filler and superfluous additions.

 

[bobbytkc]

I never thought it was frustrating to play even tho it wasn't also great.

I don't remember the alternate controls when I played it on release on PC. Was it added months after release?

It wasn't frustrating to play, since the combat never really requires precision so the game is built around its limitations.

I don't agree with the apologists though. They have a great world, but the moment to moment mechanics is something CDProjekt should definitely invest in for their next game..

 

[Polygonal_Sprite]

Those alternate controls look much, much better. 0:37 until 2:00 looks fantastic! -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agjn3O1Unrw

 

[n0razi]

I really wanted to get into this game but after playing MGSV back in 2015 I found it to be next to impossible. There are so many things i like about it and so many things are incredibly well made but the core mechanics are the worst parts of the game.

Witcher 3 with the MGSV engine would be heaven