Skip 1, play 2. The second game opens with the main character having amnesia, so basically everything important from the first game is explained to you. The first game is rough by modern standards, and will almost certainly put you off of playing the rest of the series.
2 is starting to show its age, for what it’s worth. It’s still a great game, but go into it with tempered expectations; It’s missing a lot of the quality of life things you have probably come to expect. Though you can also mod the game, so that may be worth looking into if you enjoy modding.
3 is a great game, but get through the intro area before you actually judge it. The tutorial is a massive slog. The game picks up around the time you reach the Bloody Baron, so at least get to that point before you write it off as boring. The DLC is 100% worth playing. Play the Hearts of Stone DLC before finishing the main story, then the Blood and Wine story after beating the game. And again, there are a few mods that I would install, like an auto-loot mod. The “apply oils when you draw your sword” mod used to be necessary too, but the devs actually ended up adding that into the base game.
Skip 1, play 2. The second game opens with the main character having amnesia, so basically everything important from the first game is explained to you. The first game is rough by modern standards, and will almost certainly put you off of playing the rest of the series.
2 is starting to show its age, for what it’s worth. It’s still a great game, but go into it with tempered expectations; It’s missing a lot of the quality of life things you have probably come to expect. Though you can also mod the game, so that may be worth looking into if you enjoy modding.
3 is a great game, but get through the intro area before you actually judge it. The tutorial is a massive slog. The game picks up around the time you reach the Bloody Baron, so at least get to that point before you write it off as boring. The DLC is 100% worth playing. Play the Hearts of Stone DLC before finishing the main story, then the Blood and Wine story after beating the game. And again, there are a few mods that I would install, like an auto-loot mod. The “apply oils when you draw your sword” mod used to be necessary too, but the devs actually ended up adding that into the base game.