9 Video Games Everyone Played Wrong

8. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the perfect entry for this list because it’s not just about playing it on a hard difficulty so you can have bragging rights, there’s entire gameplay systems and features that become easy to ignore if you don’t.

This is a good spot to note that difficulty is relative and accessibility is important, we’re certainly not saying these games are bad on lower difficulties, just pointing out what you might have missed if your skill level is higher than the difficulty you’re playing on.

In The Witcher 3, that’s the entire alchemy system that encompasses potions, oils, bombs, and your incredibly dense suite of items that can give you vital buffs and should be as integral to the combat experience as casting magical signs. I say ‘should be’, because if you’re playing on a lower difficulty you probably won’t need any of this to get by. You might pop a swallow potion to buff your health or slap some enemy-relevant oil on your sword to do extra damage in a boss battle, but largely you’ll get away with setting the system aside, especially if you’re a completionist like me and often find yourself overleveled for quests anyway.

Instead, playing on Death March with no HUD is game changing. You’ll find a whole new requirement to tactically prepare for battles and the world immersion is far better.

Having just wrapped on this one after 190 odd hours playing on Normal, I definitely missed out on the need to optimise my build or learn the best alchemical tactics for big fights. If you’re feeling confident, go on in and up the difficulty to play the game in an entirely new way.