The Witcher 3: Blood & Wine : : Review

“What was this I just played?”, was my first thought at having finished this expansion, part teary eyed, a part smile on my face, part bewilderment and all in all a big salute to CD Projekt Red for finishing off the Quadrology on such a high note. Being a DLC, even though Hearts of Stone was almost as good as the game itself, I was a bit nervous about this expansion, that the expansion may tumble on it’s own hype. But almost quarter-way through the game, I realized I would enjoy this game as much I enjoyed the main game & the first expansion and by the time I had finished the game, I was every bit impressed and overjoyed by what I saw. With a whole new area, new monsters, new soundtrack, new characters and new abilities added, it did feel like a whole new game of it’s own.

(Note: The below review contains light spoilers)

(+) The Long & Short of the Story

As far as story goes, all you have to know is that there has been a series of monster attacks in the far away land of Toussaint, and the duchess of the place has invited you to deal with the monster. At first the adventure may seem like a simple sequence of over the top Witcher sense investigations, but some time into the main quest, you’ll realize that it is a plot too interwoven and complicated to comprehend by just having a scrape off at the surface. The introduction of one old friend and a whole new roster of fleshed out characters just enhances the experience. Again, just like Hearts of Stone, the game is more about exploring the depths of Geralt as a character.

The strongest point of the Witcher franchise has been story-telling. Witcher 1 did a decent job with it. Witcher 2 gave a bit of a linear experience but with high adrenaline doses. Witcher 3 took it to another level with inter-weaving quests and multiple choices, that led to different outcomes and the best part about it was that you didn’t know whether you will get a bad ending or not. This game is a finale to Geralt and I think CD Projekt Red thought of playing it safe and going for the happy ending irrespective of what outcome you get. They might have played it safe, but that doesn’t ruin anything. Also CD Projekt Red has become the benchmark for making meaningful open worlds, because the points of interests on the map are not always about getting better equipment, it may very well turn out to be an emotional ride which you will enjoy.

Coming to the story, I’ll not spoil much, but this expansion’s theme is based a lot around Knightly virtues and you will always find people who have molded the values according to what they find comfortable which is very much human nature. You may once be in agreement with a person, but simultaneously be conflicted as well. Another virtue that the story talks about is how petty humans are. But this only happens if you select one paths of the two near the end. As a story I found the game pretty intriguing and exciting except one part where the time is fast forwarded to three days without us being able to do anything. That was a bit of a bummer, but the story that unfolds after that is nonetheless superb.

(+) The Beauty of Toussaint

As an area Toussaint is beautiful, with some astonishingly beautiful locales and truly some of the most breath taking scenarios. It is pretty different from No Man’s Land, Velen (Both war stricken places) and Novigrad (A city). It feels like the village next to a major city, complete with wine trading and all the stuff that people who live in a rural area do. One surprising thing though, is that most of them have lots of coin and you actually wouldn’t expect. The map as a whole gives you a very tropical feel with the bright blue water and greenery everywhere.There are some very dark secrets hidden though and like many people say, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’. I don’t think this gen can see a more beautiful game than the whole Witcher 3 combined with the DLC.

(+) Wolveralt

The gameplay has some welcome additions in the form of mutations and new abilities. Those who have played the base game and the Hearts of Stone expansion may find this expansion a tad bit easier, because there are some abilities which render you almost invincible, one ability in particular is that it let’s you heal till 20 minutes after eating anything. Like I said a little OP.

If you are the sort of person who loves collectibles however, you are in luck. Entering the expansion, I had 36 raw meats, some dry fruits, some honeycombs and tons of other consumables which would have been enough for the whole play through, and I got another 100 potatoes from one quest that had me talking with Roach, and it truly was hilarious.

It is surprising to see a developer address it’s own technical problems through a quest in the game (The closest thing to 4th wall breaking), which happens a lot during the afore mentioned mission with Roach. The quest seemed very unconventional and felt analogous to the movie Deadpool, where every conventional ‘non-said’ rule was broken. Just like this particular mission, every side quests is different and provide an insight into the otherwise stoic Geralt.

Also the game is filled with Easter Eggs throughout from games like Deus Ex, Assassin’s Creed and TV shows like Game of Thrones, on which I cannot comment much, but it really is amazing. Geralt’s astonishment and amusement at seeing Roach talk and his arrogance at being asked to be respectful to a random Noble, all show us that the level of detailing has not fallen from the base game.

Graphically, the whole game has gone through a change of palette and it looks pretty good. The foliage interaction has been increased to quite some degree. As far as the overall build goes, the game’s texture popping remains a problem and Roach, as always, is the mad horse. The texture pop in is not much of an issue on a PC, if the visible foliage is dialed to high and the antics of Roach have become more adorable than annoying. The interaction with foliage is much more prominent in the expansion and environment overall has a change of shade.

(+) Fairy Tail

Gwent, again remains an important, although not crucial part of the game and just when you thought CD Projekt Red could not have given us more beautiful open worlds than they already have, they give you another one, that too much more vibrant than even Toussaint and you just can’t help but marvel at what they have acheived. I’ll not spoil the story bits of the game, but some of these screenshots below will show you why the game is absolutely the most beautiful of all.

Again it is the micro detailing of quests that stand out the most here. Even in an expansion, it doesn’t seem like they have run out of the ‘detailing’ fuel, though a common occurrence with all quests is that they elaborate everything, but that makes the game better than the competition. After playing the main game and the first expansion, the amount of micro-detailing that they have been able to maintain is impressive and definitely exceeds any game I have played till date. Had this not been a so called ‘expansion’, it could have easily been in the run for game of the year for me, but well, other games have to be given a chance.

VERDICT