Ugh....
I actually LIKE the game. The story is interesting, the things I can do is fun, and I like the exploration part. I've recently finished the first chapter, and I'm pretty sure I did everything there was to do and explored everything there was to explore. This completely contradicts previous statements that "Oh I'm DEFFFFINTELY not going to like this game" and that I need to be playing COD instead (which I actually have no interest in).
HOWEVER, its painfully obvious that is some of these areas they didn't think about level design and questing. This isn't a case of progressing across a map where quests naturally fit into the layout, or even a case where you have 3 main locations and the quests naturally want you move from location A to B to C; the quests constantly throw you left and right to where the majority of the time spent is running between distant locations even for something as simple as "I need to tell him/her what I've learned" and the next OBVIOUS step is going to be running all the way back to kill something else (I'm finally in the town of Vizier, and it seems everything is in a grid layout, so this may be better this time around, unless they try something else that is stupid).
If that is your definition of immersion (run by the same damn house 15 times like it is a marathon) - then you are completely missing what makes this game very interesting. I would look to a story to be the main drive of immersion, I would look to character development as being a driver of immersion, I would look the tone and atmosphere, the believability of the world given what they told me (which they do a great job with; I don't see Geralt deciding that he needs to turn into a magic pixie to escape locations, or deciding to take on 7+ heavily armed guard at once. Even with the world they have built there are still clear limitations that aren't violated) as things to determine how immersed I am in the world.
It isn't a desire to be constantly entertained, it does nothing to add immersion when the quests don't mesh well with level design. That is why I was asking about an auto-run : easily ignore the part of the game that adds 0 value to the experience so I can get some other things done in the background. Doesn't mean I'm not going to explore, open every barrel, talk to every person, etc. etc. Exploration != mundane running.
Anyways it looks like this game doesn't have one at all. I may end up looking to see if I can get some kind of sticky key working for this game...
Facebook
Twitter