The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is really, really amazing. I would say it’s the best game on the new-gen systems, and it really hits my buttons. It’s got cool crafting that actually makes a difference, an amazing in-game card game, cool characters, great atmosphere, the works. But it ain’t perfect. The most immediate comparison for The Witcher 3 is, of course, Skyrim, another incredible open world game. I think The Witcher 3 is probably the better game, but they have their differences… and of course, Skyrim does some things better. Here are those.

The Witcher 3 Vs Skyrim: Not Always Clear Cut

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Magic

Witchers are warriors. Geralt of Rivia is a fighter first and foremost. He knows five spells, all of which are cool. But it’s just five spells. Skyrim has a fully-fledged magic system, since your character can be a mage. There are more schools of magic than there are spells in The Witcher. And that’s OK—The Witcher is much more about the hand-to-hand combat.

Thieves

Same deal: Since you could play as a rogue in Skyrim, it was fully built out, with tons of options and versatility. Witcher 3 only barely has a legal system, and there’s no pickpocketing or anything like that. Like the magic thing, it’s simply because Witcher 3 is a more focused game, telling one particular story rather than a multitude of possibilities. But it’s still something Skyrim did better… Witcher 3 just didn’t try, because it was doing other things.

Movement

Alright, here’s a big one. Witcher 3 does not have great controls except in combat. Your mileage may vary on this one, but I find that I end up standing on top of crates, not being able to target something I want to target, getting stuck in some corner, talking to the same person four times in a row by accident, et cetera far more often in Witcher 3 than in Skyrim. Witcher has great pathfinding outdoors when you’re on your horse, but in a village or a dungeon… it feels pretty choppy. Or maybe I just suck.

Factions and Guilds

Because Skyrim was a wildly open world game, with a main quest you never particularly had to bother with, it had other structures and incentives to get you going. Wizard? Join the College of Winterhold and rise up through the ranks. Fighter? Join the Companions. Thief? Thieves’ Guild. Killer? Dark Brotherhood. Jack of all trades? Join ‘em all. Sure, Witcher 3 has political groups that you can align yourself with. I’m not far enough to know if it’s on the same scale as the Skyrim civil war, or even a larger scale.

But there aren’t fun ancillary organizations with lots of quests you can join, at least not that I’ve found so far. The focus of Witcher 3 is more on exploration, hunting, and witcher contracts. Geralt of Rivia is a loner and an outcast. His friends are other loners and outcasts. No guild would have him.

Dragons

So I’m not done with Witcher 3 yet. With 15 or 20 hours to my name, I’ve really barely started. But so far it doesn’t have dragons. It may very well at some point. It certainly doesn’t have dragons flying around randomly in the sky and descending to attack. Of course it doesn’t: That was Skyrim’s signature feature, and Witcher 3 does its own things. In many ways, its combat is better. It’s more epic, and it feels more real. But dammit if I don’t miss dragons.

What do you think? Obviously Witcher 3 is incredible, but what else do you miss about Skyrim?