Witcher 3 was the game of the year 2015 and it’s expansion Hearts of Stone was no less of a game in itself. With 9 hours of single player campaign and an engaging story line, it has been hailed by many as one of the greatest DLCs of all time. As a matter of fact, it scored 89 on the Metacritic score, which surpassed many original titles on the way and almost reached the original title score of 93.
As far as Blood & Wine goes, the developers had initially claimed 20 hours of gameplay, but the latest reveals have increased that time to about 30 hours of gameplay. That is the total amount of time, I think, Witcher 2 took to complete. Considering that the original game, Witcher 3 had 80 hours of gameplay, and many people invested more than 150 hours in it, we can imagine how much time can be squeezed out of this 30 hour stretch into Geralt of Rivia’s final adventure. The latest Developer Diary reveals that the game will have 90 quests in total, including side quests, treasure hunts and main quests. In addition to that there are going to be about 40 new interest points in the new area, that is Toussaint. The game features 14,000 dialogues where the first DLC HoS had 6,000. Apart from that there will be a new class of armor called Master Crafted armor which will obviously have a different craftsman.
The DLC has 2 hours of additional music track and also has a new system of building a Vineyard, something like what Fallout settlement building is. 20 new monsters, 800 pieces of armor (Not sets), new magical abilities and a whole new graphical rebuild makes this game a whole new experience. All in all, this DLC is a game in itself, because rather than adding small changes to the game, the whole game is being remolded into a new one with a whole new map, new music and a graphics rebuild. In my opinion, the only thing that the game has to live up to is the same level of story-telling that the original and the first DLC showcased. If that is done right, I think that this may be the first DLC that actually equals or surpasses the game and goes on to win the Game of the Year in terms of narrative, if not overall.
I do know the fact that DLCs aren’t given GOTY, but this could be a change of trend. Maybe? But the problem with that is, only CD Projekt Red have provided such magnificent DLCs and support. And this is a fact, I mean who gives 16 DLCs for free which include side quests and treasure hunts and two DLCs which have a length of 40 hours combined story mode.
Talking about the GOTY in general, there are some games that could provide it a challenge such as Dark Souls 3, Nier: Automata, Dishonored 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Persona 5 and personally my most anticipated game of the year Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (That game looks damn awesome as well as gorgeous).
The Blood & Wine Expansion pack is releasing on the 31st of this month. Check out it’s various trailers below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZP1W6D6aZA]
OK, the above trailer’s background score is as good as the trailer itself…..
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMSYP1FIffM]What do you think about the Blood & Wine expansion? Are you excited for it? As a DLC what do you expect of it? Let us know that and more in the comments below.
Agreed