New to role playing games.. do I really suck this badly?

[keenan]

I just can not find any games in my normal genre that grab my attention any longer and believe me when I say that I have either tried them myself or did some brief youtube "lets play" watching of many different titles.

I have to say that in recent years the only games I really liked are Dying Light, GTA V, Resident Evil 7, Quantum Break, The Last Of Us, Infamous: Second Son, Until Dawn.

So pretty much all very story driven games with mostly good action. I liked the leveling up systems of both Dying Light and Infamous Second Son, but I do know that it's barely anything to the tune of a role playing game.

I tried getting into Dark Souls 3, but after dying about 200 times at the first boss battle 5 minutes into the game I decided to give it a rest while I still have some self worth left.

So tonight I tried The Wither 3 and while I did like it, I do feel like my "gaming" approach just isn't geared towards games like this. You might call it "hand holding" I guess, but I'll try to give a brief example of things I struggle with..

So I made it to the tavern with my older com padre and after speaking to every person in there (and playing a game of gwyn) I needed to speak to the nilfgaardians. I I exited the tavern and punched the 3 trouble makers outside before heading down the roads of the village speaking to every peasant and nilfgaardian guard I saw to try and speak to the right "nilfgaardians"..

Anywho, after about an hour of doing this I consulted google which quickly made me realize the I need to consult my map and take a horse ride down the shore to a different part of the map.

Ok, spoke to the main guy in the tower which gave me the mission to kill the..mmmm, what's that giant bird creature called again?. Anyway, I made my way to the herbalist, spoke to her and I saw Lena on the bed that needed something called "Swallow", so I go to the potions section and see I need 3 ingredients for making it. Lucky for me, the herbalist woman is selling 2 of these items, so I quickly buy them. Now I think to myself, "Drowner's brain" how would I know where to find that? 20 minutes of running down the river I finally found one and made my potion right there. I now headed back to the herbalist to give Lena her potion and when I entered the house I ran straight to her and started eating all my food, then splashed myself with every single potion I had to try and find the right button to actually give this poor soul this life saving essence.

Yes, I did figure out that I just needed to talk to the herbalist again so she can give the Swallow to Lena.

So, was I wrong in thinking that firstly, the nilfgaardians would be in the village outside the tavern and secondly, that it was my choice in deciding whether or not Lena got the Swallow or not and thus thinking it was I that needed to give it to her?

Did anyone else struggle with these type of thing early in the game?

Am I just not made for this type of game play or is it just a learning curve?

 

[Rasseru]

Not you, I found the beginning of the witcher 2 (only one I've played as yet) a bit unintuitive. And I've been playing rpgs for 20 years.

Numerous times I didn't have a clue what I was supposed to be doing to advance a quest. The journal system is bad too, I noticed a mistake in it quite early on.

Games like baldurs gate which is a bit of Benchmark would still have a quest journal that explained what you have to do clearly, it's basically our characters memory, and not hand holding. We might pause the game and come back to ten quests, you need a good journal

 

[rids57]

As far as Witcher 3 is concerned you were just trying to run before you could walk. White Orchard is basically a rather large tutorial area, which ensures you know what you are doing before venturing out into the big, wide world. Killing the "giant bird creature" is the last thing you do in the area and there is plenty to explore and do in White Orchard before you get there. I managed to pick up the gameplay fairly easily and I haven't played the first two games, so had no idea what I was doing to begin with either. Stick with it and it will just "click" and you'll find yourself playing one of, if not the greatest game ever written.

 

[Hedge]

It does eventually kinda click with you. Believe me I struggled like hell to like the Witcher 3 but once I got into the flow of it I realised it's very good.

Not quite as good as new Zelda but not bad .

Persevere and you will find fun in it eventually.

 

[keenan]

Thanks for the input, I'll give it another whirl today..

 

[Clav]

Fairly sure it tells you on screen what you need to do? Like consult your journal to see missions, look at map markers to know where to go etc

 

[keenan]

Ok, I've played for another 2 hours tonight and completed all the main and side quests in the first section of the game. I feel like I understand things a bit better now.

 

[HabUK]

Ok, I've played for another 2 hours tonight and completed all the main and side quests in the first section of the game. I feel like I understand things a bit better now.

It will click, I played a fair bit on PS4 before I sold it, then bought the GOTY edition on PC. This time around I seriously can't get enough of it. Don't worry about crafting and keep pushing with the main story (try not to get too distracted by side quests). The minute I stopped stressing about crafting and alchemy and all that I really startred to enjoy it!

 

[Amatsubu]

Stick with it, W3 is a simple game. If you feel lost, always check your journal. It'll tell you what exactly you need to do/where to go to advance the story/complete sidequests and you can select active quests from there as well.

 

[redline]

Stick with it, W3 is a simple game.

It kind of is, once you get into the the way it works, but it still can be daunting to start with. W3 was the first Witcher game I played, despite owning W2, which I've never got past the opening due to a hatred of invisible walls... I kid you not. If I can't step off and around a very small incline, rather than take the steps, the game can **** ***!...

Give it time, and it does reward with some involving stories, and a landscape that feels very real... plus, you can play it pretty straight, without having to micromanage stuff if you don't want too... but, its all there if you do.

 

[keenan]

Thanks for all the tips and advice guys. I have taken all of today to explore every single "?" In the first area of the game. I am only level 4 now and just met Yennifer outside to in. Probably 10 hours in so far and really liking it..

I just need to figure out the whole skill points thing, but I did get a blacksmith to make me a new sword with more than 100 damage Slowly but surely...

Looks like a keeper!

 

[queamin]

Witcher 1 got confusing at times at the beginning.

 

[Martini1991]

Witcher 1 was just a bit janky.

 

[arc@css]

I've not been one for these types of RPGs as usually, I struggle to become immersed. However, quite a few years back, I did have a short spell in the first game where I was starting to 'get into it' quite a bit, but at some point, I must have lost interest and moved on to something else. Maybe I'd enjoy the books more...

Regardless of all that, I'll probably have another crack at the first one again at some point further down the road.

 

[Drollic]

There is a learning curve and games like this only normally get really good and hook you in after a few hours. To give you an example, I actually played for around 60 mins and uninstalled the game first time round. Upon the second install and after playing a few hours, I couldn't stop playing and would class it as one of my favorites.

 

[mattyfez]

I just need to figure out the whole skill points thing, but I did get a blacksmith to make me a new sword with more than 100 damage Slowly but surely...

Looks like a keeper!

I'm really liking w3, and I'm not really a massive rpg fan.

The points system confused me too first of all.
Basically you spend them to buy upgrades stuff like attack power, or buffs on your magic spells.
Once you've spent points to develop a skill, you can 'equip it' into one of your empty skill slots, you get more empty slots as you progress in the game so you can equip more skills according to what style you want to play.

You can also un-equip skills once you've bought them to swap them around for what best suits your needs at any time, unless maybe when in combat., I can't recall.

You can also collect or buy mutagens which are similar, but they have special slots of thier own.

You can use this to act as a multiplier, if the mutagen is for a type of spell, say fire, and you've got a couple of fire upgrades in adjacent slots, then it will boost them up.

But if only level 4, I wouldn't worry too much about spending skill points just yet, get more used to the game and figure out what play style you want to go for.

I started out just using the best swords I could get and the odd fire attack, but now I'm using the magic trap a lot, as it slows and weakens enemies that would otherwise be too strong to tackle as long as they are Inside the purple magic circle you cast, and you can upgrade that too with skill points, to make the circle bigger or more intense etc.

 

[keenan]

There is a learning curve and games like this only normally get really good and hook you in after a few hours. To give you an example, I actually played for around 60 mins and uninstalled the game first time round. Upon the second install and after playing a few hours, I couldn't stop playing and would class it as one of my favorites.

I am definitely starting to feel the same

 

[keenan]

Well, I have absolutely fallen in love with this game! I'm still only lv12 and taking my time doing all the side quests etc. What an amazing job they have done!

 

[Paul_cz]

Man, reading that first post was a bit painful
To see people struggling with things that seem completely obvious to me...of course I know there are thousands of things in the world that are obvious to others and I know nothing about them, but still

Glad to see you figuring things out eventually. Remember, this is first and foremost storydriven experience. You don't need to stress about alchemy and crafting etc too much, unless you are playing on hardest.

It kind of is, once you get into the the way it works, but it still can be daunting to start with. W3 was the first Witcher game I played, despite owning W2, which I've never got past the opening due to a hatred of invisible walls... I kid you not. If I can't step off and around a very small incline, rather than take the steps, the game can **** ***!...

This seems like such a...sorry for the word...dumb reason to drop a game..don't get me wrong, I am not a fan of invisible walls, but Witcher 2 is designed pretty well around the issue, it is only a problem very rarely. And TW2 is definitely worth playing for its story, sidequests, beautiful atmosphere..

 

[Omaeka]

I think the Dark Souls thing is largely due to inexperience of the series. It doesn't have any difficult to grasp behind the scenes mechanics like a lot of RPGs do, it is very straight foward as leveling, gear upgrades etc. are very linear. The thing that sets the Souls games apart from other RPGs is that player performance determines success tenfold to that of the character's stats or gear. That is what makes it so satisfying to progress both through the content and as a player.

The problem with Dark Souls for a newcomer it is very punishing on your mistakes and unlike a lot of other action games your defence (be it with shield or rolling) needs to be at a higher level than your ability to be offensive. Granted once you have experience of the way the series plays and the kind of mechanics that From Software like to incorporate into their enemies and bosses it starts to matter less. As easy as the game feels for people who have played it for years, it is very very rough at the beginning because it has a sort of initial difficulty no other game will throw at you until you've been hand-held to a level where you can utilise the mechanics to a competent degree.

Stick with the game, it is very satisfying once you progress to a level personally where old enemies/bosses become a cakewalk, much more so than other games. It's NG+ feature goes hand in hand with this.