So I finally completed The Witcher 3, having bought it for the Nintendo Switch back in February. Or at least, I’ve completed the main game – I still have the two DLC packs to play. But I think I’ll take a little break and get to those later.
I know I’ve missed out on a lot of graphical fidelity by playing the Switch version. Though to be honest, I think I’m note as put off by this as some. I grew up on an Amiga 600 with long loading times, inconsistant framerates and the like. Those kinds of flaws are just part of playing a game to me.
I bought the PS4 version ages ago but stopped playing it when I was barely out of the White Orchard tutorial area. I think the learning curve just felt too steep for me at that point. There were lots of things that didn’t click – the janky, momentum based movement; the inventory user interface; the monster weaknesses and so on. I got over (or at least tolerated) these and other minor quibbles, though I still think the inventory user inerface could be improved.
However, overall it’s a great game – certainly the time-sink I needed during lockdown. Not to mention the gameplay of roving around huge vistas of countryside in all kinds of weather, often with gorgeous skies overhead was a decent tonic while stuck inside my flat.
I picked up the Steam version too (it was a tenner) and hope to buy a gaming PC at some point. The cross-save functionality between PC and Switch should mean that I can dip into the game in glorious 1080p or 4K and see what I missed out on graphically.