Playing The Witcher 3 for the first time

Hello everyone! While looking at the latest sales on the PS store I came across The Witcher 3, which is a game that I heard only great things about. The only thing I heard negative-ish about is the combat and how it starts rather slow at first. I know of this game for many years now but never got around to buy it or watch any gameplay of it. So I decided to get it and now I’m about to start playing it for the first time. I know next to nothing about this franchise, the books or the previous games, and I worry I might not understand the story or the lore very much. For reference, the only RPGs I mostly played is Fallout and Assassin’s Creed. So if you could give me any gameplay tips or useful things to know before diving in, I would greatly appreciate it! 😊