All the Small Things: The Witcher 3

As I'm merrily playing through my second round of The Witcher 3, I'm taking the time to focus on smaller details.  There are certain aspects of the game that are minor, but that make it more enjoyable. On my second playthrough I have opted to up the difficulty a notch--I'm not quite at "Death March," but I'm finding "Blood and Broken Bones" to be considerably more challenging than the default difficulty.

Imagine the one on the left taking a friendly arrow.  Ha!

With the increased difficulty I feel like there are an increased number of enemies.  Bandit camps that may have had two or three bad guys now have four or five.  Fighting a big group of enemies can be much more challenging than fighting one big baddie.  I'm finding I have to utilize my potions and bombs much more frequently.  One of the sillier things that I enjoy when fighting these larger groups if foes, especially humanoids, is friendly fire.  Archers can be very annoying and require special attention so they don't keep taking potshots at you while you're trying to focus on avoiding melee strikes.  Luckily these archers can sometimes take out one of their own.  The satisfying thump of an arrow as it drops one of your targets is something that makes me laugh without fail.  Stupid bandits.

Poor Geralt has been taking a lot more damage this go round so I've been burning through his supply of food.  As a result I've had to spend an increased amount of time scavenging for food.  Another small thing that feels a little creepy but that has become a necessity is taking every scrap of anything of value from the huts of villagers.  Yeah, you're supposedly starving but I'm taking all your beer and food.  Sorry villagers.  Hanging out in the villages is something that can be entertaining.  The villages are designed with a set schedule revolving around the time of day.  Watching and listening to the peasants as they go about their daily lives feels real and detailed.

I told myself I would make different choices this time, but I'm finding it difficult.  I'm partially through Velen and find myself making many of the same choices over again.  I can't bring myself to kill Keira Metz no matter how much I know she's using Geralt to accomplish her own goals (I did kill her once but then felt guilty about it and re-loaded and let her live).  I did opt for a different world state for this playthrough.  In this second round I chose the following:
1.) Aryan LaValette survived (he seemed like such a minor character in the second game)
2.) Geralt left Flotsam with Vernon Roche and Ves
3.) Geralt sided with the Temerians in Aedirn rather than Saskia and Vergen
4.) At Loc Muinne Geralt saved Anais rather than going after Triss (I don't even remember this--might have to replay the previous games)
5.) Allowed Sile de Tansarville to get blown up by her defective megascope
6.) Killed Letho

One thing I haven't mentioned, but that I have enjoyed, is how similar to Mass Effect some of the story mechanics have been.  Being able to have one conversation to re-establish the world state (or simply import your save files) is pretty cool.  The character development in this game feels much stronger as well and the focus on their stories and backgrounds is particularly nice.