A few hours inside The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt it is clear: I am already trapped. It’s not that I don’t know where to go or how to get there, I just have insufficient power. Leveling up in this game, such as with so many action adventure and AAA adventure titles, is exhausting, an endless parade of side missions and enemy battles. Meanwhile, I am a chronic leveler, I always want to operate at one or two scales above the level suggested for a given task. To Witcher 3 this has led to the inevitable: getting stuck in the mill.
Grinding to level up is not new. And thankfully, it’s a little less monotonous than it used to be. In the past, it just meant throwing yourself into battle after battle, trying to accumulate those precious points (hello, everyone Final Fantasy game). Now, games usually offer you more ways to do it beyond direct combat. But that doesn’t mean it’s not monotonous, especially when you’ve just started making buttons on something new.
In other words, grinding is a big, stupid task. Not only that, it’s a big, stupid task that often comes during those precious first hours of a game when you’re just trying to get your role and master the mechanics of the game. And when they drop you in a sequel and you haven’t played the previous quotas (Wild hunting is my first foray into the Wizard franchise; demand me), these first moments are even more integral to grasp what is happening. Spending them on grinding can be a good thing.
Unfortunately, with Witcher 3, is inevitable. As soon as I completed the first main mission, I reached a different area of the World Map very low level. He had not completed enough side missions at the beginning of the game (many of which expired after completing the first mission; go), and now I was facing an upward battle.
I admit it: there are times when grinding to level up can be helpful. These side missions allow players to figure out new combat mechanics and try new low-risk combat tricks. And it can be a lot of fun exploring the map, which can add experience points. I would even argue that this is fundamental in the game; if you play an open world game without straying from the beaten path, what sense does it make?
This isn’t complaining about having to do things that aren’t the main goal (and make it clear, yes absolutely complaining here). It’s about being obligatory do these things. The amazing The Wizard 3 it is how great it is; the world is massive and there is something new tucked away in every corner of the map. The advantage of such a great game is that it can seem overwhelming. Staying focused on the main mission at the beginning is necessary to become familiar with the game, and excessive grinding distracts you. It is very possible that this is a planned game mechanic: it is possible that the developers have decided to encourage shy gamers to explore the wider world of Witcher 3 before continuing his search. It’s fair and it’s good to challenge yourself in some way while playing. But that doesn’t change the fact that I hate it. I want to play this title the way it is Jo I want not to venture into invisible realms against my will. Grinding may be a necessary evil, but it should not be a tedious fact.
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