Now that Fallout 4 has been released for over a month, I'm really interested in a discussion/comparison of these two massive 2015 RPGs.
Which one did you like better: Fallout 4 or Witcher 3?
I have a pretty strong opinion that I'll share later, but I don't want to steer the discussion from the start. Please only comment if you have played both games.
Some categories to compare:
- Main story quests
- Side quests
- Quality of writing
- Characters
- RPG mechanics
- Combat
- World/exploration
- Graphics
Please always be respectful when stating your opinion!
Off the bat, The Witcher 3.
But I'll go through each category in order to explain why.
- Main Quests: Hands down The Witcher 3. Just the overall pacing and satisfaction you get out of it is one of the best this year. Fallout 4's main story is only interesting when the goal is "Find your son." After that it becomes a jumble mess with the only good thing being you have 3 branching paths despite the endings being almost the same and weak. The Witcher 3 puts down a certain path but there are drastic choices that can be made and some choices affecting the ending in ways you would never think of. The writing is what makes it shine the most.
- Side Quests: Again, The Witcher 3. No competition. The side quests are the best that I have ever seen. Not in scope but in being engrossed. Every witcher mission you felt like a detective and a badass.
- Quality of writing: The Witcher 3. Want me to get a clip of one of the biggest moments of Fallout 4 and a early scene in The Witcher 3? Because the comparison isn't even fair.
- Characters: The Witcher 3. Starting get redundant. Triss, Yen, Dandelion, Ciri, etc are all interesting characters with history and own motives. If Bethesda made TW3 they would of made a character like Dandelion be a companion despite him having no reason to and him having his stuff to focus on. That is something I felt F4 does a lot and it bothered me. Why is this reporter suddenly following? Why is this detective following me when he has a business set up already? Just cause they "like" me. Characters are tools for the player in F4. Characters are characters in The Witcher 3.
- RPG mechanics: TW3. How is it that The Witcher has you playing a determined character, has a voiced protag, a dialogue system that sometimes lets you only ask two things, but still ends up having more choices overall. There is a cutscene for everything in TW3. You go into combat during a party and you lost? Fallout would have you restart. TW3 has a cutscene just to show Geralt lose. However, the crafting system is a lot more fun in F4.
- Combat: Tie. Fallout isn't a great shooter. The Witcher 3 isn't a great action game.
- World/exploration: Fallout 4. It's the only thing Bethesda still does good. However the world in the Witcher 3 is better crafted.
- Graphics: The Witcher 3.