The Witcher 3 Game of the Year Edition (Xbox One)

Having played the Assisns Creed games this game is not quite so technically advanced. Eg you cannot jump your horse over obstacles but rather you have to find an alternative route. Good content though.

Absolutely love this game, played through it on my PS4 so I had to get it for my new Xbox series X. I recommend this game 100%, well worth the money considering how much content you get.

Quality game. Spent a lot of hours completing this. Definitely buy the game with the DLC.

Fantastic game plenty to do and a great story line well worth buying

Once in a while a game arrives, which changes the scope of what a game can be. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt is one such game. I never played the earlier games in the series, but I’ve read a bit about them and seen in game footage of others playing them. They look good, but I get the impression they are fairly linear games, with a strong central narrative and few if any opportunities to stray from that.

This is completely different. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt gives you unprecedented freedom for a game of this genre. The first thing you should know is that the rich setting, intriguing character and deep and detailed lore are somewhat borrowed. The games are actually based on a series of novels by a Polish author called Andrej Sarpowski. The first book is called ‘The Last Wish’ the second is ‘The Sword of Destiny’ and the third is ‘The Blood of Elves’ (I accidentally skipped The Sword of Destiny – I need to go back and read it!) Reading the novels isn’t critical to playing the game. However, if you DO, it will enrich the experience. In this game you play a mutated monster hunting warrior called a Witcher. In fact you play a particularly famous and skilled Witcher called Geralt of Rivia. The story takes place long after the novels I’ve read, and centres around your search for your ‘surprise child’ Cirrilla. (Princess Cirilla, or Ciri as she’s often called in the game was claimed by Geralt under the law of surprise in the novels because he saved someone’s life) As well as having a strong bond to Ciri and wanting to find her because he cares for her – Ciri plays in instrumental part in defending the world against something called ‘The White Frost’ The quest is made more perilous by the fact that a band of dimension-jumping elves led by an Erodin called ‘The Wild Hunt’ are also looking for Ciri. She’s special, in that she’s ‘of the Elder Blood’ and has certain powers, some of which she struggles to control. The most interesting power she has is the ability to slip between dimensions and thereby essentially teleport herself around the battlefield in the middle of a fight. This is actually great fun to do on the few occasions where you’re allowed to control Ciri rather than Geralt.

Thankfully, there are cast of supporting characters all keen on helping you to find Ciri, including several potential love interests. I’m not sure, but I suspect the sex is the element that earned this game an 18+ rating. Geralt can visit brothels all over the game-world and sleep with countless women. He can also sleep with three sorceresses (Yennefer of Vengerberg, Triss Merigold and Keira Metz) all in the same play through. He can also sleep with this warrior girl who challenges men to defeat with a similar promise to that of Red Sonja from the Robert E. Howard Conan the Cimmerian novels, and he can sleep with a medic called Shani from his past whom he runs into during the ‘Heart of Stone’ expansion. I’ve got a feeling there’s another love interest in ‘Blood & Wine)’ but I lose track. Basically, you can play Geralt as a womanizing whore who travels over around the world initiating softly pornographic cut scenes every five minutes. One word of warning though, you will be offered the opportunity to declare your undying love for TWO of these characters (Triss and Yen) and you should probably choose. If you try and romance BOTH of them at the same time, you will be punished. Which one should you end up with? That’s a matter of speculation. Geralt used his last wish from a Djinn to bind Yennefer’s fate to his, they have a long and contemptuous, almost stormy at times relationship. There comes a point during this game where you can undo the magic that ties them together. Then it’s up to YOU to decide whether Geralt really loves Yen or it was the magic. Yen is like a mother figure to Cirilla and has a different relationship to her Triss, although both know her well from the books. Triss, seems like a younger character, though I’m not sure is she is. She’s also a member of the Lodge of Sorceresses like Yen and a friend of Yen. However, in a previous game when Geralt had escaped the Wild Hunt but lost his memory – Triss tricked him into thinking he was in love with HER and NOT Yen! Has she matured since then? Maybe, she makes some big sacrifices for Geralt and Ciri in this game, including allowing herself to be brutally tortured so Geralt can gain information. She acts more like a big sister to Ciri, than a mother figure. In the end there are solid arguments for ending the game with either of them.

Okay, that was a lot of talk for romance, but that’s a big aspect of this game. The thing is though, what I’m trying to convey is just how much there is to do in this game. Want to do horse racing? W3 has you covered. Want to spend hours and hours whilst you’re supposed to be urgently looking for Ciri playing a card game called Gwent? No problem! More than any other non-MMORPG I’ve played W3 effectively allows you to live a life inside a game. It’s the perfect escapism. The writing and voice-acting are excellent, the graphics are achingly beautiful at times. The music is atmospheric and varied. I’m going to stick my neck out and tell you this game has probably my favourite in game music of all time. The world itself is vast, with towns, cities, forests, mountains, swamps, caves, islands… You can climb to the top of the tallest mountain or dive down to loot treasure from ancient shipwrecks.

Gameplay wise, the core elements depend partly on what difficulty mode you setting. On ‘Story Only’ mode you effectively play a hack n’ slash RPG with an element of decision making through dialogue. As you go up the difficulty levels though, the importance of keeping Geralt in top fighting form through augmenting his equipment with oils, weakening his opponents through concoctions and enhancing his abilities with mutations and potions becomes more and more important. If you play on the hardest setting ‘Death March’ mastering the complex system of enhancements and fight preparation will become critical.

The decision making of course plays a part whichever difficulty you play on. It’s particularly interesting in this game too, and for two reasons. Firstly, the consequences of your choices are often delayed. I mean REALLY delayed. I swear there are times when you’re near the end of the game and some bad choice you made in the starter area over a hundred hours ago comes back to haunt you. This mechanic is particularly important in your interactions with Ciri. Late on in the game she’ll go through a portal to face the White Frost alone. You can’t go with her, you can’t help her. However, all your interactions with Ciri up to that point decide whether she’ll defeat the White Frost or disappear forever. The secret? You need to encourage Ciri to be self-confident and independent. Basically you need to be a good father to her.

Hopefully, I’ve given you a flavour of the game and I’ve got you wanting to play it now. If I haven’t, then read on. Because I even touched on the expansions yet!

The GOTY edition comes with two expansions, ‘Heart of Stone’ and ‘Blood & Wine’. I believe you can do these at any time, but I went for the expansions after the main quest and I’d recommend you do the same. In ‘Hearts of Stone’ you meet an immortal, cursed by a strange entity calling himself Gaunter O’Dimm or Master Mirror. Whilst you were on a sinking ship, Gaunter appeared and did a deal with Geralt, offering to save his life in exchange for Geralt completing certain tasks. This turns out to be a Faustian contract in the truest sense. Olgeard Von Evereck, the immortal did a deal with Gaunter in the past and now Gaunter is back to collect payment in the form of Olgeard’s soul. However, in order to collect the contract Geralt has to complete three seemingly impossible tasks. This quest takes you to some truly memorable locations and is a fascinating if tragic story in itself. You learn more about Master Mirror throughout the course, but it’s debatable as to whether that’s a good thing. Who is Gaunter? Well, it appears that aside from certain limitations, such as the fact that he has to follow rules he sets himself, he is arguably the most powerful character in the world of the Witcher 3, surpassing the teleporting dark lord Erodin from the main quest, the incredibly dark and sinister Crones from Velen, and even the unseen Elder from Bloo d& Wine. There’s one scene in which Gaunter is able to stop time for everyone in the world except for him and Geralt. He can appear everywhere and anywhere and seems to wield unlimited power. The eagle-eyed among you might even recall sitting to talk with in White Orchard at the very start of the main quest, before you even knew who he was. Then he’ll crop up again in the Spoon Wight quest in Blood & Wine. At the end of Heart of Stone you’ll be offered a choice, save Olgeard or allow Gaunter to take his soul. Some of the best rewards in the game can be won by allowing Olgeard to be taken. However, doing so will mean you miss out on one of the most interesting mini-quests in the game, where you’ll stake your own soul double-or-nothing on solving a riddle which involves exploring a hellish dreamscape looking for the answer.

Finally there’s the Blood & Wine expansion, where Geralt can finally win himself something like a ‘Happily Ever After’ in this story you’ll travel to brightly lit and colourful Toussaint where knights and chivalry rule. You’ll be employed by princess Henrietta to deal with her sister and a higher vampire called Detlaff, who has fallen in love with her. Of course, being the Witcher 3 you can CHOOSE how you deal with this. You’ll have the help of another vampire called Regis. One thing you should note is that in the world of the Witcher there are many types of vampire. The most common ones being Bruxa which are quite a tough kill as they are fast, strong and can make themselves invisible. A higher vampire is on another level completely though. They are highly intelligent, fast, strong and wield god-like powers. It’s inferred that most Witchers wouldn’t even accept a contract on a higher vampire, so dangerous they are thought to be. Even more dangerous, if you make the right (or wrong if you want to consider it that way) decisions, you can run into the unseen Elder, an ancient vampire of unspeakable power. Even mildly offending him is a death-sentence, even for a fully levelled up, perfectly equipped Geralt of Rivia. So yeah, the vampires make Blood & Wine a really great story to play through, but the highlight is probably the part where you travel into a magical book of fairy stories where the fairy stories have gone wrong. That part is a perfect example of the imaginative interpretation of the source material by CD Projekt Red and the subversive nature of Sarpowski’s writing. It give you a chance to battle your way through may classic children’s fairytales, battling wicked witch, a Rapunzel inspired ‘Long Locks’ and a giant quite reminiscent of the one mentioned in ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and many more. When you get to this part, make sure you explore everywhere!

So – to sum up. Amazing game, with fantastic aesthetics, writing, voice-acting. There’s more to do in this game than you’d believe.

Downsides? Well the game is so vast, taking on a 2nd and 3rd playthrough to try different options is a daunting tasks. There are also a few annoying quibbles. One is some Xbox achievements can be a bit glitchy. Another is that Geralt dies far to easily to falling off things. Seriously if you play this, pay close to attention to where you walk as a fall of even as little as 10 feet seems sufficient to end Geralt’s life. Also load times can be a bit annoying at times. When getting into the game AND when fast-travelling. In reality that’s nit-picking though, all in this is a brilliant game and will be remembered as such for a long time.

Its so easy to get lost in this game for hours and hours as I have done on a regular basis in the last few months, brilliant graphics, storyline and gameplay