Since we are comparing HZD and Witcher 3, I picked up HZD right after finishing up whatever was left off in Blood and Wine (Witcher 3). Initially it was slow trek but it picked up pace as I progressed ahead of the starting 3-4 hours. At points I did compare it with Witcher 3 as I had been playing the game for months literally!* Right from the start the gameplay/combat felt simple compared to the complex combat of Witcher 3, even though HZD has a variety of enemy types but the encounter plays out the same once you level up you can lay down all the types of enemies using only the hard-point arrows, keep hitting those yellow glowing areas, I liked using the fire arrows mostly though.
I found myself to be using other elemental arrows on a very few occasions unlike Witcher where you had to deal with different enemies with different weapons/elements and potions. Now potions/oils, in Witcher 3 potions were just as useful as the swords and spells which added further depth to the combat but in HZD I never really found myself using anything else other than the health potions, even though there were some other types of it but I never really did bother with it as I never felt the need for it.
Coming on to the weapons and armors, it doesn't even come close to the variety we had in Witcher 3, the charms and enchantments made them even more diverse, don't understand why GG didn't put any variety in the weapons and armor sets. With so many machine parts and components that could have been used for upgrades and crafting, this for was a definitely a missed opportunity, kinda hard to understand how can they not think of such a simple mechanic which could add a ton of variety to the weapons. For Witcher 3 my gameplay involved using multiple spells, potions,oils and weapon/armor types to successfully take down monsters, but in HZD you can just spam fire arrows and be done with it only for a few machines you would need to use some elements to take'em out before they take you out such machines were usually the large ones such as the Rockbreakers, Thunderjaws and Strombirds as they can inflict heavy damage so you usually want to end the fight quickly. 90% of the time I was using Fire/Hard point arrows, never really used tripcasters and ropecasters not even used the traps much often.
Lack of depth in combat and a limited amount of armor sets and weapons are my biggest disappointments from this game. Come'on man this is a huge ass game and people are gonna put hours upon hours playing it, variety of weapons and armor sets should be on the top of the list ...which GG presumably put on last. Now don't even get me started on the lackluster rewards you get from completing the collectibles quests (just some purple mods...ah fuck me)
Besides that I did really enjoy the game, with its variety of machines but the encounters were unexciting due to the lack of depth in the combat. The visuals were stunning and the story/narration were riveting as you were ..just like Aloy.. kept growing eager to learn more and more about the days of the past also the side-quests were good. I loved the game (finished it last weekend) but wish the devs had put more depth in the combat.