Playstation Official Magazine UK
A big one, yes. A beautiful one. But not open, and certainly not a sandbox in the way Skyrim’s environment operated. As Dragonborn, you could disappear for months ascending the ranks of various guilds, getting married, buying property and clearing dungeons while everyone waited patiently for you to save the realm. As Geralt though, you’re rarely able to shake off the grip of the developer’s hand as it guides you from point to point.
This doesn't dovetail with any of the other reviews. We know the world comprises two large open map areas which can be explored freely and where you can go off mission and undertake local contracts, explore caves, underwater areas and dungeons. The White Orchard starting area is an example of this, I've read you can be on your way into the full game after a couple of hours or you can spend 10 of more hours there mopping up side missions not central to the main quest, but which may affect the outcome of the game.
This doesn't sound like the "grip of developers hand" guiding you, this is giving you a choice. There obviously has to be pointer to the next stage in the main quest line but I've seen the quest log being accessed while people having played it and it's split between main and side quests and you can focus on any of them at any time.
But it sounds like the reviewer doesn't "get" The Witcher. Naturally there are no equivalents to the guild progression quests because Gerald isn't going to become a thief or an assassin, he is a witcher. And it's not a sandbox in that you can steal all the cheese wheels or kill all the men. Because he's a witcher and he doesn't do that.
What separates The Witcher 3 from Skyrim, and which as somebody who loves Skyrim knows it's one of it's majority weaknesses, is the populace have no dynamic awareness of who you are of what you've done. I'm the Dragonborn and Head of the Dark Brotherhood and as you're exploring you'll get random hails of "welcome Dragonborn" or "thank you, Dragonborn" then you talk to somebody and they want you to find some book they lost like you're some schmuck with nothing better to do.
The people in the The Witcher 3 know and react to you dynamically, depending on what you have done. You actions change the world and the people's reactions to you in that world. This is a void missing from Skyrim, where you are playing an RPG but outside of the main quest lines (where your role has a specific context), nobody else will play along because your role is immaterial. You you be a nobody, the Dragonborn, head of any of the guilds or just a maniac so they treat you as nobody in particular. It's jarring.
