This game is a bad sandbox and should be played like Witcher 2, an on the rails tight narrative. The minute you go off the rails your just fighting trash monsters for no reason.
Dude. If there's a traditional RPG problem this game DOESN'T have it's grinding trash mobs.
Out of Context / Not the point I was making but thanks for your opinion.
Then what was your point? Because there are hardly any trash meaningless fights to be found in this game. Which is a HUGE departure from the hallowed RPG tradition.
I suppose If you're bored stiff with the low-fantasy Witcher world, if you miss looking for ancients swords to kill evil wizards trying to take over the world, then I can see how exploration could be fucking annoying.
On the other hand whenever I hear another imbecile high-fantasy pap about dragons and wizards I go vomit in the corner. Witcher world is exactly what I wanted. What I fucking needed. And I just can't get enough of running around and soaking in the atmosphere. Especially Skellige is just oozing with the right vibe. For me W3 being open world is just perfect.
I don't know if I understand Immortal's argument but I have a similar feeling that the story plays out better if you go on the rails. The open world feels somewhat disconnected from the main storyline which I feel tries to give some sense of urgency. There's a massive war going on, the Wild Hunt is on the loose and, well, everything is pretty much heading to hell on the fast lane. And yet, you can spend as much time as you like killing random Drowners and gathering plants without anything happening. The war situation doesn't change, the Hunt goes to mind its own business and so on; you can come back weeks later and everything is the same. Skyrim (since there already is a topic comparing the games) pulls the same shit - Oh no, dragons are burning everything, the eater of worlds is upon us. Feel free to fuck around for a couple of years, we can wait, no pressure.
Since we're already speaking of TES, I think Morrowind managed to do it somewhat right by not forcing that sense of urgency from the beginning of the story. There's some weird shit going on but nothing too alarming in the beginning, the PC is just some random fucker who somewhat meets the vague criterias of a vaguely worded prophecy and the game cleverly tells you to go fuck around for some time while the secret service guys sit on the situation for a bit and decide what is what.
My point was this..
Witcher 3 is a very strong game when you are Questing / Following Objectives. The game is very content rich and has some of the best quests I have seen in a game to date. The problem is when you aren't strictly completing an objective, the world becomes an empty shallow shell.
If an NPC is not important or part of a quest.. You can bet at most they will play a game of Gwent with you and at worse.. ignore your existence completely.
As for exploration..
Try this.
- Find a wide open spot on the map with no question marks to explore or quest markers pointing you there.
- Grab Roach and start running around that area for 10 minutes.
- Done?
What did you find there? Besides tree's and random monsters. Nothing. There is nothing there. No secret dungeons, no hidden quests (usually). Just an empty forest with shit to kill. There's nothing wrong with that but it's in stark contrast to Skyrim where every nook and cranny will have at least some random dungeon or cave you didn't notice before.
I remember saving a Scoi tael agent from some bandits, he told me to find him at his camp for a reward. I followed his ass for 3 miles as he crawled to his camp (it wasn't marked on the map).. Finally I reached the camp and was shocked,
Holy shit.. This camp isn't marked on the map.. Did CDProjekt Red Hide objectives that I can find?!
Wow Potato's went above and beyond I can't bel-- Oh wait... All these elves just stand around and say the exact same shit over and over.
"Greetings White Wolf".. "Greetings White Wolf....." "Greetings White Wolf"..
It was just Copy / Pasted Elf Rebel Camp #43.. The only interaction possible was the merchant I saved and followed..
tl;dr
Is Witcher a Great game? Absolutely.
Is it a strong Sandbox Game? (Imagine you finished all quests.. how much fun would you have running around exploring) No...