I have a lot of criticism for The Witcher 3, but one thing I really appreciated was making lore and character background available for reading. It really helped with this newcomer's understanding of the world and story. (And later, with my understanding of the TV series.)
Well, it is now that every game takes so long to develop. That’s the unfortunate part of long dev cycles. Imagine asking people to play morrowind before recommending Skyrim to them. That seems wild but then you remember how long it took to get games like Fallout 4 or breath of the wild. Don’t do that and you end up with a series like Metro which are amazing games but have prerequisites that lead to a more niche following.