10 Open-World Games That Punish You For 100%

10. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

There's a fundamental disconnect between the sheer amount of Awesome Things The Witcher 3 allows you to do, and how thoroughly they undermine the natural flow and cadence of the main questline.

The game's side quests are among the most acclaimed in gaming, enough that many even consider them superior to the main ones, so you couldn't really be blamed for tackling a ton of them as soon as they're made available, right?

Except, doing so will ensure you're hilariously overpowered throughout the bulk of the story. If you complete a large number of side content before reaching Skellige, you'll absolutely breeze through the rest of the main quests.

As incredible a game as it is, due to the lack of difficulty scaling and over-generous doling-out of XP - especially in main story missions - you're basically given an easier, less-rewarding experience if you plow through all the side quests early.

It might be unfulfilling enough to actively encourage you to ignore side content on your first playthrough and focus on a more challenging main questline, while saving some of the extra stuff for another go-around.