I downloaded Witcher 3 over the holidays and hang on - I just need to cut off this bandit's arms - boy it has taken over every waking hour.
There is a somewhat dark undercurrent and interesting long term decision fallout: I can be noble and free a tree demon to save children from cannibalistic witches, or I can take the easy way and kill the tree demon for the witches for reward. In the first case, if I free the tree demon it saves the children but the angry witches destroy the whole village and kill everybody within... or else the witches eat the children but the village survives.
I also killed a sexy blonde sorceress whom I fucked then I killed her to stop the sale of plague research to a king who may weaponize the plague... except if I hadn't killed her she later finds a cure for the plague. Whoops.
The general exploration controls may sometimes be finicky but on whole the game is great fun and the combat is well balanced to fuck you up if you don't attempt at least some grade of dodge and parry defense. I love this game.
After maybe... 30 or 40 hours I'm at level 13 because you gain experience points only for completed tasks and quests, not spending five hours killing wild dogs.
Note: repairs your swords or they'll break!
