Over the weekend, I decided to give Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt another go after I Platinum-ed it a year ago. It remains one of my all-time favorite games, thanks to its gripping dark-fantasy story and meaningful choices that actually matter. But while its presentation and narrative have always been top-notch, the combat system is... well, abysmally bad.
It was a realization that had been circling in my mind every time I replayed the game. I just forget about it, though, because The Witcher 3’s open world is so riveting that I get completely lost in its sheer fantasy as well as a few rounds of Gwent. It was only after a decade that I remembered how atrocious it all was.
Witcher 3’s Combat Was Never Good
So there I was, booting up my old Death March save, breaking Geralt free from his retirement in Toussaint to slay a few ghouls and check what Witcher build I was using. Casting signs was still pretty cool. I always love spamming Igni and Aard over enemies, and it never fails to be effective. Then I tried its sword combat again... and that’s when everything started to make sense again.
Witcher 3’s combat was just so clunky that it rarely felt right. One moment, my Geralt is imbibing 50 different potions, the next, I’m spinning my steel sword through a group of bandits using my Adrenaline points. I don’t really know what was going on most of the time. Was I hitting the target right, or did that just bounce off his shield? I felt like that none of that mattered as long as the enemies are dropped dead to the ground.
It felt like a mishmash of multiple systems that never fully meshed with each other. The skill-tree system was so underdeveloped that it barely needed to exist unless you were going for the Death March difficulty. It was like CDPR forgot to work on its combat and poured everything into its story instead. I'm not even going to talk about its crossbow system, which is hilariously more useful underwater than in actual combat.
There’s a clear lack of depth in its melee combat. It’s not like the Batman: Arkham games, where you can seamlessly flow between multiple enemies and parry with precision. Geralt is not Batman, but he is a Witcher. This superhuman was meant to do cool things with his sword and magic, but no matter how hard CDPR tried to polish its combat with multiple updates and DLCs, that potential was never realized.
How Witcher 3’s Upcoming DLC Could Fix Its Combat
CD Projekt Red isn’t the kind of studio to back down. They’ve rebuilt Cyberpunk 2077 from a hilarious bugfest to the type of game it was meant to be. While the Witcher 3’s awkward combat wasn’t really a major issue, it still needs a major upgrade.
The rumored Witcher 3 DLC, likely set in Zerrikania, could benefit from improved combat mechanics. These are never-before-seen lands that not even book readers have ever set foot on. Zerrikania is far less civilized than Temeria or Nilfgaard, meaning Geralt will need to rely on his combat skills to survive.
If the rumors prove true that CD Projekt Red has been working on this DLC for a long time, then we should likely expect that combat might be enhanced. If the upcoming DLC was meant to be a teaser for Witcher 4, then that means we’re bound to see some cool new Witcher tricks.
CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is still a fantastic game, no doubt about it. Its combat has always been its weakest point, and let’s not pretend it was good. That doesn’t mean it’s doomed to stay that way. With the upcoming DLC on the horizon, this could be CDPR’s chance to prove nitpickers (like me) and give Geralt the combat system he truly deserves.
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