I tested the controls thoroughly on PC to ensure smooth gameplay.
I tested the controls thoroughly on PC to ensure smooth gameplay.
Or imagine launching an opponent from a horse while attempting to walk smoothly. You'd be forced to leap over obstacles like fences or hedges along the way. When you combine all your movement options, other features become difficult to reach. Plus, the game doesn't allow using the joystick on the G13 controller/keyboard. It's a frustrating design choice. Releasing such a game with tightly restricted controls seems unreasonable. I believe they had more than a week to fix this issue... am I correct? I understand they patched the restricted keys, but it was fundamentally flawed. This isn't just patchwork—it's basic functionality. The improvements are minimal, and the problems remain significant.
The default key bindings are atrocious, multiple things are bound to the same key, as would most console ports. That wouldn't be much of a problem if in the options these things were listed together, but they're not. If you rebind the keys you can't bind things to the same key. For example, I was used to Witcher 2's "E" to block. Unfortunately "E" is also shared by Interact, so essentially if you want to change block to E, you'll have to rebind Interact to something else. Also Alt is such a terrible button for dodge. The game also has that typical console movement where you stumble around if you stop holding walk suddenly, which makes it awkward to move around with WASD. And then you get the opposite problem where the menu is stupid to use with a controller. Anyway, I used controller mostly, since you spend a freakishly high amount of time moving around so...
The kb+M setup was mostly satisfactory, though the key bindings were off according to others. Most of them were adjusted a few minutes after starting. After about 40 hours of playtime, everything seems fine. Movement isn’t too slow for me with kb+M, though it can feel a bit laggy at times. I haven’t used the controller yet since I think kb+M works well enough to finish the game. I’ve added three extra mouse buttons and assigned them strong attack, secondary weapon, and strafing functions—performance is solid.
They perform significantly better compared to Dragon Age's. The only minor drawback is horseback riding, which feels a bit better but still isn't outstanding. I use 100% standard bindings and don’t see any major issues with them.
The intense assault on shift and witcher abilities in RMB really caught my attention. I switched to sprint on L-SHIFT. Activated Block-Witcher sense during L-CTRL Walk-Run on R-CTRL Heavy attack on RMB Steel Sword F1 Silver Sword F2 using 1-5 buttons.