I'm skipping posts to avoid potential spoilers.
But I just wanted to comment on something, one aspect of the game that I really have to get off my chest. I LOVE the game so far, almost everything about it screams dedication and passion from the devs. You can definitely tell, see and feel their work. It truly is, overall, a masterpiece. I just wanted to make it absolutely crystal clear that I adore this game, and it even managed to be better than some of my highest expectations I had for it.
Now, with this said...
I really have to pause a moment and wonder why do developers bother doing that in RPGs to this day. And I'll finally say what this is all about. It's about merely being able to not only 1) enter stranger's homes to start with, but 2) essentially ransacking every villages and towns' worth of inhabitant's belongings and goods... only to walk away without a single hint of care and slight trace of reactions on their part. I know, guards will react, will even attack you on sight if they themselves spot you. I suppose that's fine (at least, there's that). But when I walk in the fragile old wooden "home" of a peasant and start looting every bags and book shelves I can interact with without a single word sent my way about it... I mean I do have my limits when it comes to suspension of disbelief. Am I supposed to imagine that it's simply not happening at all and just do it for the sake of accumulating resources "just because it's a game"? What if I feel like immersing myself in the game's world and setting? You know... I don't know... something along the lines of role-playing as Geralt?
So, I can't help myself but wonder why did CDPR actually bothered to even include interactive objects, interactive anything in homes? I guess that NOT allowing us to enter homes to start with would have resulted in people (maybe including myself) complaining about how NOT "open world" the game would have been then, because we'd have cried about not being able to enter homes as we'd see fit because every time we'd try to, the door would be locked, or the peasant would take the nearest shovel and welcome us with it, or would alert the nearest guards in doing so. The other solution might have been to allow us to enter homes... but that's it. We'd be able to enter, maybe to chat with a peasant or two, heck might have been able to play Gwent with some of them, but would simply have nothing to click on and no loot to find in there (in their homes). Then... even if that would have been done, I suppose that most people would have cried about how not "open world" the game would have been then, because even though we'd be able to enter most homes then there would have been no point in doing so since nothing could be looted from them, right?
Well then, we're back to square one. Let's allow us the players to enter homes just like that BUT... let's make sure that outside their 24 hours schedules all existing NPCs in a town or a village, excluding guards, essentially have no A.I. whatsoever. I mean, sure, let's give A.I. to the guards, but let's forget about the villagers, 'coz you know, it's THEIR homes we're getting into, not the guard's, right? The best part? It's when it's getting late and they go home to sleep. You enter, door is not even locked to start with and no one wakes up or stands up. Sometimes I see family's kids sitting next to their parents beds (as their parents sleep), and as they seem to whisper some things to themselves, fully awake, I just walk by "Oh, sorry, hey there, I'm Geralt of Rivia, mind if I steal everything you poor fellas managed to accumulate over the past 10 years in a matter of a few seconds? It's for a good cause, I kill monsters, so you guys can survive the next day, kthxbai".
Ok, sure I could just ignore it and refrain myself from doing it. But then I'd walk past all those homes, unattended, with that back-thought in mind about how I'm missing all that potential loot that I could later dismantle to craft more and better items without the need to go buy said mats at merchants. Not to mention that I'm a completionist. I HAVE to walk on, see, interact with every pixel, nooks and crannies that such games have to offer. So of course I'm gonna enter homes if you let me to. The only thing I would expect in return is SOME reaction from the owner, at LEAST let them SAY something. Not sure if some people realize it but as much as Witcher 3 is "current gen" (fully so), stealing stuff on sight of people in their homes back in games likes Morrowind and Oblivion resulted in actual reactions, 'ya know. How many times in Oblivion didn't I end up being chased by a store's clerk from inside as I stole something to outside as the clerk also chased me out along with the guards. And that was many years ago, from a much inferior engine, for a much inferior generation of hardware too.
Seriously, that gameplay "mechanic" of nonchalantly entering people's homes without a single NPC reaction (even as you steal goods on sight) needs to stop. It's very old and it has no place in a game like Witcher 3. And I want to be clear, what has "no place" isn't the fact that you can enter people's homes. What has no place is only how NPCs do NOT react to it at all... THAT has no place in Witcher 3. I don't care if the peasant if physically as weak as a dying leaf and I could one-shot him if he'd "dared" attacking me ('coz how dated I entered his home to start with, right?). I also don't care if some woman decides to order her pigs to charge at me if she has nothing else than her pickaxe to let me know she doesn't want me in her field stealing her onions. I just want SOME reaction on their part other than just standing there doing literally nothing.
I'm typing all this, but right now in my current game I'm in the process of essentially ransacking Novigrad (without the "doing a lot of infrastructure damage" part that a real ransacking would do, obviously). It's gonna take me a couple more hours but so far I've managed to steal enough mats that even once dismantled I'm about 60% full on my weight capacity. I mean sure, thanks CDPR but it really wasn't a challenge.
This is really the only real gripe I have with this game so far. I do have to remind myself that I'm talking 'bout The Witcher 3 here.