Good luck , mate . A small advice is to take your time at the beginning to master the combat and use of signs , oils and potions. Learn them well at the start and don't rush things up. Take your time .
I did my first play-through on the hardest difficulty. I'm now just getting into Hearts of Stone, with Blood & Wine to come. You will die a lot, early on. Groups of Drowners are a pain. Lots of dodging and a counter-attack style of play worked for me. General rule-of-thumb is to block & counter humans and dodge monsters & beasts.
Ah, maybe. I just remember that someone (on here, I think) gave me that advice when I was starting out.
It's generally fun though, makes you actually use all the elements of the game (signs and alchemy on top of swordfighting alone).
Keeping your Quen sign active helps. I've seen people play it slow and hold block all the time between slashes and dodges. Personally I like to duck and weave between blows slashing when the chance arrives. Getting hit in the back can often be a one hit kill which Quen can sometimes save you from, it becomes even more useful when upgraded. Samun and Northern Wind bombs are great for crowd control too.
Yeah, the first two games aren't very consistent with the events of the books. Like you said more inspiration than anything else. They replaced Ciri and Yen with Alvin (who?) and Triss, and gave amnesia to Geralt in order to have a clean start. Then they made the things right in the third game.Now do you see how peripheral Triss is/was?
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The official line of reasoning is that they didn't think 'they were ready to deal with' her or Ciri. The real reason is basically the use of amnesia as a plot device to incorporate as much (or as little) of the main plot as they pleased for the first two games.
You can see this in the W1. It makes very little sense in a linear fashion - it's not aimed to be congruent with the story of Sapkowski's saga; it's just simply CDPR taking inspiration from The Witcher saga in a blank canvas sort of way. (Alvin is the equivalent to Ciri, Triss sort of for Yen).
W2 continues with the whole amnesiac thing, Geralt is reminded by Triss (just a tidbit too late, Triss) of Ciri's and Yen's existence. He vaguely recalls that Ciri was between worlds, whilst he realised he can - and will - track down Yen. Then that's where TW3 picks up from.
I think these things you mentioned are the main criticisms levied towards what is otherwise pretty fantastic in terms of the plot of TW3: the emphasis on the White Frost/Eredin/Wild Hunt as the denouement, only for him to be so two dimensional in a game that has incredibly multi-faceted characters, and the side-stepping over the war/disappointing quests in relation - particularly in Novigrad.
True, but in Yen's defence, she actively worked against the Lodge/defied them. Nobody else in the group has the stones to do that. I think the book does better to humanise her and her motivations. All she really cares about in her world is Geralt and Ciri, and the ends will justify the means in saving them.
It shouldn't happen and it will be a total overkill. I played Hearts of Stone in thirties/early forties and Blood and Wine in the forties level. Being 62 would make the game piss easy.
You're at around 60% or so of the story. If you don't do much side quests, you need around 15-20 hours to finish it.
How cute!
