Alright the beef I have now with Witcher 3 is that it's pretty much the same as Dragon Age Inquisition (With improvements mind you.).. But I feel like this takes far too much away from the story up till now.
The biggest design mistake in my opinion is the levels system and the way "quests" are done. For example.
I bought a map from a merchant in Velen. Thought it would give me an interesting armor piece and was excited to do it.. Boom. The level requirement for it was 33 meaning that it was completely impossible to do. So with this comes an issue. You made me interested in a content that I have NO CHANCE of doing until later in the game and there's constant level restrictions everywhere I go.
In the starting area, I could pretty much take on any quest and do it without an issue. It felt seamless in its execution. But in Velen everything falls apart and turns into an MMORPG.

Spoilers for WItcher 2 ahead:
I'll bring up Witcher 2, in the end of it, you killed an elder dragon. Solo.. You don't have amnesia in Witcher 3, so there's no point taking away all the power that we had.. Yes I can understand it's a new game, so you gotta make things harder. But in that case don't give us a carrot and tell us that you can only get it after you reach a certain level. That's not how Witcher 2 was where you could do pretty much everything without thinking of your level and if you got an quest that you had to do later, it was usually just a "Hey there's this treasure in your next area" and you acknowledged it without thinking of the levels or anything..

The controls themselves also feel not well thought out. The strong attack requires you to hold down a keyboard button while pressing the mouse button which doesn't feel good. While you went for the Assassin's Creed mouse layout with the block and parry being on the RMB. In WItcher 2 it was on E, and it worked fine.. Because you also had the alternative of dodging out of the way, so most of the time you rather dodged and gave them a power attack.. Now it's far more fiddly. And I can't see the reason of taking the block away from the E key, especially when it has no combat function and you can't even bind block to E without unbinding all the other keys that are on it (ALthough all of them are non-combat keys.)

The big difference betweene Witcher 1 & 2 and Witcher 3 is that you can travel backwards, forwards and every wich way whenever you wish. It's a free world, so it only makes sense to have reasons to need to return to areas. Unlike previous installments of the game, things were very linear and you couldn't really travel back once you'd passed certain acts. This is basically making the whole world feel more like Skyrim, only with the excellent Witcher story and flair.

This is linear.. Because there's only so many places you can go at your level without getting killed.
In the previous witcher game it felt like the areas were smaller, but I had far more options to choose from..

But it's not linear in the traditional sense where you can not return to an area if you didn't finish it. Here you can push the main story forward and never really touch side quests and then come back to them - or just do all the side quests and not bother with the main quest until you feel like it. However, regardless of what you choose you can still go back to previous areas, visit old towns, etc. I'm currently at a point where I have probably 10-15 things I could do in the area I'm in, a few quests / locations that I'm still too low for but if I really wanted, I could just go back an area or two and level more, farm stuff or whatever. Or, I could just push the main story onward and come back to the stuff that's available now. There's just so many choices and you can personalize what you really feel like doing. It only makes sense that there are mobs / quests / areas that are too high now, if there wasn't then what would we have left to do down the road? What incentive would there to be re-visit places we've been and see what new things were being offered? Obviously I'm just one person, and certainly not you, but I think it's okay how it works now. Again, just IMHO.

Edit: however, I did at least want to comment that I couldn't possibly agree more on how clunky and awkward the controls feel. Plus, I HATE that there are locked in keys that I can't rebind under any circumstance. That's just downright frustrating!!

I actually prefer this system as it gives me some adventures to look forward to, where as you see the flip side of the coin and see them as adventures you can't immediately do.

For me the primary thing to do is to run around and get the question marks.. But guess what? I run for 5 minutes and I reach a wyvern that I can't kill, then I go to the other one that's close by, there's this huge basilisk/griffin thing (Can't remember the exact name it started with B) that I can't kill .. Move around a bit and then I see a town that's filled with ghouls whose levels I can't see (High levels.).. So now I wonder how does the "power level" thing in this game work? Ghouls are a type of monster, so I wonder how can it be possible for those beasts to be such a huge power difference. In Witcher 2 the normal wraiths were all the same strength, nekkers were all the same strength.. So how can there be such a huge difference in strength for the same type of monsters story-wise?
Why Can't I use this silver sword I crafted when it's just a high quality silver sword? In MMO's the weapons are magical so I can understand, but in this universe, a normal sword or blackjack shouldn't be like "you can not use it". I feel like this could have benefitted from being tied to ability points instead of levels. As it simply makes no sense story-wise again.

I feel like they compromised the story to bring us this Skyrim like experience (I personally disliked skyrim, always liked Morrowind far more. And in that you could use whatever sword you came across.. Same in Witcher 2) .. Because in Witcher 2, if you saw an nekker, you knew how strong it would be, if you saw a wraith, you know how strong it would be. Here, it all depends on the level that's above their heads (And I really want to know the story explanation on how the ghouls and nekkers from 1 place are 20 times stronger then the usual ones.. And would they still be called nekkers in that case? Not like Royal Nekkers or something?).. Look forward to? There's always a different viewpoint. But objectively, this kind of a quest system is something that didn't exist in Witcher 2. As they never gave you something you couldn't handle. Certain quests were more difficult, but it was always doable no matter what. Now you get a quest that you can't do for 15 hours.. Looking forward to it? Well If you know that all that you can look forward to with that specific adventure is killing 10 ghouls from a village.. It becomes significantly less "adventurous". What if you got a quest that said "In the next area there's a treasure hidden". Wouldn't that seem more adventurous? You don't know what awaits you, and because it's in the next area you will not be able to do it even if you wanted to at your low level. That was far better done.
Well at least personally I feel like something is an adventure when I see something and I have the option of going there. In this game.. That isn't possible as that some place may have a wyvern in it that kills me without me having a chance of killing it. For example if CDPR would have changed the high level monsters to "Will recieve 4% of damage from each of your heavy hits" then that would have made it possible to SKILL through those fights and you would still die from a couple of hits, but if you managed to dodge and poke enough, you would be able to see areas that you feel you're not ready for yet.. Wouldn't that make it even BETTER then simply "something to look forward to"?

And if the gear system would be changed from level specific into attribute specific. I mean level requirements for weapons is just silly.. Using a club requires being level 4.. That just seems silly now that we look back at this right?


I personally simply feel like the level system takes far too much away from the experience part .. And it turned from a potential seamless world into a tunnel that keeps pulling me back into reality every single time I look at the levels or level requirements. I mean I am alright with there being levels like "Griffins are lvl 10" so I can decide if I can handle griffins that I will meet further on or not.. Or "Ghouls are level 3~5 usually" so I can most likely take them on but if there's a lot of lvl 5's I might have some difficulties. Not that "These ghouls are level 1, I can take them" and "These ghouls are level 15, there's no way for me to kill even 1 of those".
The thing with this is that they would have needed a bigger variety of mobs for this, but seriously it is currently a bit silly I feel like I see a ghoul and I am pulled back by the reality of seeing a red "??" mark above its head.

I want to enjoy this game, I really do.. The story will keep me playing, but every single time I start feeling like I'm getting into the game, I see one of those unrealistic "gameplay designs" and fall right out.
Hell if they would follow the level categorization that I mentioned before. Then they could add in a "Witcher difficulty mode" where you can't see any of the creatures levels or their health bars for example and maybe you don't see the "?" marks on the map either, without the quick travel mode. You would have to run through the game exploring and meeting challenges.. Wouldn't that shit be engaging?..Especially when you can take a % of a "too high level" monsters health with each hit.. This actually wouldn't change anything other than that the more skillful will be able to get gear that they shouldn't have and the less skillful will need to find another way.

This something they were telling about for a long time. You can't kill it? Grow stronger and come back later. Or, if it is just a few levels above, try the challenge. This is not a bad decision. This just a decision. It boils down to your personal taste and preferences. Personally I love this solution. I always hated Skyrim for their approach and tunnelled RPGs that force you to take on a fixed path. Skyrim has this autolevel feature that kept everything at more less your level. Boy was I surprised to be ganged by thugs in Ebony armor O_o....

That example.. Was really bad.. In the real world you get killed and have absolutely no choice of doing that. And in real world again, even a random thug can kill a Karate master with a pocket knife. That's how the "real world" works. If you cut it, you can kill it. And in terms of realism the leveling system makes no sense.
Keeping enemies to a certain "level" isn't the issue here. The issue is the impossibility of killing monsters or humans even after you cut them with a sword a hundred times. You're mistaking about the "real world" in the real world there's no levels, everything can be killed if you cut them. In this game the logic is that if you are not high enough level then your cuts don't do shit. You, a grown man with a huge history of monster hunting. Can't kill the monster even if you cut it. (I fought a wyvern who has a lot higher level then me and I took like 2% of his health after 4~ strikes.. That is not "real".)
And the person who plays the character is the one whose skill is counted. If you dodge and poke well enough without getting hit the monster WILL die. Strength-wise Geralt is legendary in arm-wrestling, and now he can't even deal any damage to ghouls, the most normal of monsters you see everywhere.

Soo simply what you said isn't realism. This is them changing a system that they had in place from Witcher 2 for an MMORPG system. Since when is an MMORPG system objectively good in an RPG? This "Solution" is something that every single MMORPG does. But MMORPGs usually have areas that are for certain levels so that unless you go out of your way into an high level area, you wouldn't get your ass kicked too bad. Which I see is BETTER in an mmorpg then this game because players will be challenged, but we don't get impossible challenges in MMORPGS.
The level thing is even threatening the games story itself, with certain random nekkers being 20 times stronger than normal ones. And Geralt being unable to use a random club from an enemy cause "he is not high enough level". The other Witcher games were engaging because you could get a weapon and use it.

I can understand that people have different preferences, but look at it this way. It's something you can't do in the moment. And all that is, is killing 1 monster you have killed before hundreds of times to get a certain chest without significant loot. But you can't kill it cause they made it impossible for you. This is a limitation. And personally I see limitations are negatives, and I don't know too many others who enjoy limitations if they are forced like this. Acknowledging that this is "just a game" is taking the way the chances of us gamers being "pulled into the world of the witcher" (Which they advertised.). For example I really got into Witcher 2's world. Now every time I start feeling that I run into a high level ghoul and can't do shit because "high level" even though it is a ghoul like any other.

Geralt of Rivia who has killed ELDER DRAGONS in the previous game with his strength, is now unable to kill a normal ghoul or wraith that he killed 1000 of times in the previous game.. Now he doesn't have any story reasons to get weaker so this system spits on the previous story as well. Lore-wise he is a legendary witcher, who has managed feats that no one did. Nooow he runs into a ghoul and can't even damage it properly. And he has all the memories of his training, so that from the previous games explanations doesn't work this time.

Well it's obvious that people the people thus far who have posted here just like the game and don't have the same annoyances as me.. Well I hope that some GoG employees at least read and understood my point of view for their design choices and why those choices made no sense story-wise.

How is the on screen minimap? does it have a N,E,S,W compess now? I say this because I'm playing TW2 and I'm pulling my hair out, having to look at the full size map to see what direction I'm going in. I don't know how but I made it through the mist!.

I own TW3 [bought last August ] downloading bit by bit on a daily basis.

All the best

Im anoyed by this system too. It breaks immersion. Not only you cant kill monsters that you killed in 1-2 but also it destroys whole roleplay.
Example:
-Please help me. My brother is dying here. Save him.
-ok pal, i will do it right now. Ow, wait. its a 33 lvl quest. I cant do anything. So im going to travel for few months bettween all those kindoms and grind some exp and then i will return and save your brother. Im sure he will stay in that cave alive for years.
At least in 1-2 you ether did quest or progressed to new area. Here you are forced to get so many quest that will hang in your diare for real days. They could make quests hard but still alowe chance to winn it. 0 dmg per hit is stupid.

I'm in level 2 and killed a bear level 8, a water witch level 6, various wolves (and huargos) level 5, etc... I died many times at the beggining but when I learned the combat system, well, still dying but less :P
Try to dodge with side walk (B button in the xbox) instead rolling (A button).

Good luck :)

I kind of agree with OP tbh. I mean... One second im butchering a band of deserters around level 5, the next I get my ass handed to me by a single level 12 bandit simply because I moved to an area a bit further south.
Kind of kills the immersion yknow? Same with wyverns, one is level 6, another level 14...
I don't particularly mind it, tho, since I'm mostly occupied in one area for long enough to level up and face the enemies in another. Still.. forcing me to stick to one place in this way, is somewhat annoying.

Keep bandits for example at a low level, same with drowners etc.

I agree with OP on both the level limits and me losing all gear when loading into #3.

#3 is is a lot of fun... #2 was fun AND way more immersive.

also fall damage is ridiculous.
Mighty Geralt can kill mosters and bandit-packs but is one-shoted falling from ladder.
I bet the final boss will be some giant-evil-ladder