ITT: Games that feel like they have barely started 20+ hours in

I've started The Witcher 3 and it feels like that. Just rescued Dandelion and I don't really feel like I've made it halfway through. For all I know, I have, but I still don't feel like I've done much apart from fuck around doing everything but the MQ. Hitting 60hrs now, so hopefully there's still a bunch to do. Haven't touched Skelle yet or the DLC areas.

The main plot quests feel like side-quests, as the threat you are introduced to at the beginning takes a sideline to doing favors for random people. Everything happens in the first and third act which makes the game feel longer than it is. They should not have gone with the non-linear questing desu, you can see vestigial traces of a more streamlined and narrative focused game in the way the Redcliff quest feeds in to the Mage quest and from there to the Sacred Ashes quest if you should choose to play it that way.

Was I the only person who loved the Deep Roads?

Was that the underground place where all the darkspawn came from?
That was my favorite area desu. Seemed really cool and could have been a neat place to explore, but it was all of like one mission.

Skellige is a major and beautifull area with subjectively some of the best sidequests
Hearts of Stone is best expansion if it comes to story
Blood and Wine is kind of a better witcher 1

I really enjoyed them too. It was one of the few parts where it felt like you were doing actual grey warden shit and not trying to resolve other people's personal affairs. I loved the feeling of arriving at the dead trenches, this massive deamonic fortress, and realising that holding the line there is just everyday life for the Dwarves.

I didn't mean to say that I'm avoiding them, I just feel like there's still a shit ton of stuff still to do in Velen/Novi and there's not really a good time to stop and check those places out.
There's not a level cap in this game is there? I'm level 22 and there's still a bunch of shit in the skill trees that I haven't unlocked yet. I'm not expecting to get all of them, but I'm gonna be pissed if it caps at 30 or something.

No level cap, tho it gets harder to progress in time
In Toussaint you will get new ways to progress and option of redoing your build
The only downside is that when you level up and come back to do some quests in Velen you're slaying major bosses like madman

Does the level scaling option help at all for that? I'm playing on hard, and while the early game was kind of difficult to get started, now I'm tearing through enemies since I'm over-leveled for most of the areas in Velen and Novigrad.
Sucks about quests though, 1 or 2 levels over and you get 1xp and 10 gold.

In theory if you want the challenge you should go for contracts as soon as you're in the place,but I honestly enjoyed investigation more than actual fights
Even if you max everything out in Velen and Novigrad you will find challenge later on, don't burn out on question marks tho, Skellige is amazing expierience, music,visuals,folklor all is amazing