ive never played any of the witchers before this but
I might pick this up anyway unless it's really just a linear game and you get your hand held throughout
its exactly the opposite. its an open world rpg with a ridiculous number of side quests

you cant pick your character but everything else is very customizable, create your own armor/ swords, add effects to them, potions, bombs, ect. and all the equipment looks different on your character

there's a lot of dialogue the first couple hours but once you get that out of the way you can pretty much do whatever and go wherever you want