For me it’s Deus Ex Mankind Divided. I played the original when it was new but barely remember it and I owned shadow war and never got into it.
However Human revolution blew me away. I loved that game so much. I still think about it and actually am making this post because I finally started cyberpunk last night and got human revolution vibes like crazy.
However I bought mankind divided on my birthday when it released. Happened to be right around the same day. I turned it on, walked a few steps and turned it off. For whatever reason I’ve never turned it on again.
I totally know what you mean. The beginnings of both games are really tough to get used to, especially if you’re coming off W3.
After trying many times over the years, I eventually found easier W1 to get into, once I got used to the fact the combat is essentially a rhythm-clicking game.
Also the beginning area isn’t very compelling but once you start helping people on quests the story really opens up and pulls you in, especially after you beat the first big boss – which unfortunately is one of the tougher boss fights you’ll encounter because you’re so weak in terms of weapons and skills. Once I managed to kill it, I felt a real high, and I started to really enjoy the game.
Like you, I also read the books, so that also helped to keep my attention in the game.
I don’t know why, but while W2 is a way less janky game than W1, I just found the interface and combat really awkward on the PC, even if using a controller. You can tell it was really designed for consoles. You can’t remap some of the commands (maybe with the mod you can), and it took a long time for me to get comfortable with how the game works. I actually started to miss the rhythm combat of W1.
Both games are definitely worth playing if you big Witcher fan, but for some reason I think I may slightly prefer W1 over W2. It has a certain charm that I liked and I liked the more compact size of the game.