Finally got around to finish it the other day. Started playing for the first time around summer and made it all the way to the final camp, but then looking at decisions walkthrough so I made the 'negative' choice in the lab so decided to back track to correct it and just never got around to it. It's funny because for the most part of a game I hate any sort of hand holding and prefer the challenge of figuring it out on my own, when it comes to these 'big impact story decisions' in games like the Witcher series I'm a total munchkin. Part of it is I'm only going to play through the game once and I tend to get so engrossed in the story I become paralyzed with indecision if I don't know how this is going to turn out, so in this regard I'm always hitting the 'story' guides.
For my general opinion on The Witcher 3 though, as amazing as it is there's still some flaws I have issues with around design and pacing - haven't gotten through the expansions yet though so some things may adjust there:
- The open world in Velen/Novigrad is great, but as it encourages you to explore if you do so you quickly over level so that when you get back to the main story it's all a cake walk. This is just poor game balance.
- At the start it's almost a Diablo-like looting system always finding new swords and equipment, but then at around level 15 you get witcher equipment diagrams and once you put those together they're far superior so from that point the rest of the loot is just junk you collect.
- some balancing issues with upgrading potions/oils, where some specific ones fall behind because you just can't one or two damn regents. Like I scoured the map pretty thoroughly yet never had any damn Bryona, I think it was
- just a general overall unnecessary system bloat. The idea is your a Witcher and you're supposed to prepare for battles, but you have so many skills/equipment/runes/oils/potions/decoctions that just becomes an unused overload because you can just settle into a basic build that tends to work with everything. All I do is slap on the appropriate oil for the enemies in front of me and whether small groups or large single encounters it all just starts feeling the same.
Still an amazing game overall, but while it obviously had the worst 'gameplay' it's my opinion that the first Witcher game had the best overall 'Witcher' system balance and design.