| Mummelmann said: Seems like a really dividing topic. I can see how a lot of people would be put off by it, it's not like Skyrim or Fallout, certainly not Mass Effect. I disagree with the notion that it is so heavily mainstream though, certainly more so than the first two but still miles behind ME, Skyrim and Dragon Age, with Gothic being the main influence, this should be clear, one would be hard-pressed to call Gothic the series mainstream (as mentioned, Gothic 3 is my second favorite open world RPG). I'm surprised that quite a few found such gaping flaws and issues in TW3 and then use games Skyrim and Fallout 3 as examples of better productions; these two titles (and others) certainly have their fair share of gaping flaws. |
Yeah, it definitely not as mainstreamed as those games, perhaps that's why some people find it difficult to get into - IMO, it happens often when (what are usually more of a niche) genres get into mainstream and have as much hype as W3 had.
On the other side, as a fellow Gothic fan, I'm sure you can see how much it pales in certain design desicions compared to Gothics, land design vs quests for me being worst offender - honestly, even Skellige, that is way better designed than Velen, has its fair share of problems - I feel like they've really tried to make big world just for the sake of it and went too horizontal. But even compared to Witcher 2, specially Flotsam, a lot of places in W3 tend to be dull.
But, you're right, finding flaws in W3 and then pitting it against Skyrim as example of excellent open-world WRPG is quite silly, given how much latter was mutilated compared to Morrowind in order to catter to mainstream.
