I spent years forcing myself to finish The Witcher 3—don't repeat my mistake

Consensus and genre labels aren’t reliable predictors of what you’ll enjoy. I don’t like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt . I know it’s confusing, and I hope you will still respect me.

I had to say that a lot back in 2015. When the game first came out, the community of critics and enthusiasts I was a part of went bananas for it, much in the same way the current crop of journalists and influencers rallied around Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 in 2025—another game that didn’t really work for me, if I’m being honest. The Witcher 3 was showered in accolades and awards, and it seemed like every Twitter conversation was about it. There were memes all over Reddit about how no other game could live up to it, plus lengthy essays from games journalists about just why it was so incredible. “Game of the Year” awards rained from the proverbial sky. Meanwhile, I tried it and found it a slog. It took me years to finish it, because I kept losing interest, but I felt like I had to force myself to keep going in order not to be out of the loop. Those who knew me found this baffling. “You love RPGs like this,” they’d say. “Two of your favorite recent games are Skyrim and Mass Effect . This is like the best of both of those. What’s the problem?” (I’m paraphrasing, but I got several versions of basically this.) The thing is, games are so diverse in focus these days that “I love open world RPGs” can mean a lot of different things.

Key points

• I had to say that a lot back in 2015.
• When the game first came out, the community of critics and enthusiasts I was a part of went bananas for it, much in the same way the current crop of journalists and influencers rallied around Clair…
• The Witcher 3 was showered in accolades and awards, and it seemed like every Twitter conversation was about it.
• There were memes all over Reddit about how no other game could live up to it, plus lengthy essays from games journalists about just why it was so incredible.
• “Game of the Year” awards rained from the proverbial sky.