Once upon a time, there was a Witcher, whose job it was to kill monsters. And when that job takes him to a brand new world cowering under the fear of a mysterious beast that only he can stop, you get CD Projekt Red’s latest and most likely final expansion to the beloved Witcher: Wild Hunt series. Built as if it fell straight out of a fairy tail, Geralt travels to Toussaint. A map filled to the brim with question marks, monsters, and wine. The Duchess of Toussaint hires Geralt to hunt down “The Beast of Beauclair” a creature who’s on a killing spree among the nobles of the city.
As if Wild Hunt wasn’t big enough, Hearts of Stone adds another 20 hours of gameplay. CDPR then drops this massive expansion on top of it. All roughly taking me 35 hours to complete Blood and Wine’s side quests, main quests, and some treasure hunts with plenty of undiscovered mysteries still to come. I can’t decide if I pity or envy the player who has yet to try The Witcher with well over 250 hours of gameplay in front of him.
If you played and loved the Witcher as I did then, you should already be playing Blood and Wine and if you’ve yet to jump in. Make sure you set aside some time because Toussaint is the last time we will see Geralt for a while. It’s tough to imagine any other open world RPG looking this good. Sure games like Uncharted or Quantum Break look fantastic on their respective platforms, but this is so far beyond what other RPG’s strive for. Hell, it’s farther than 90% of what games strive for. Gameplay and Platforming can be clunky and weird at times, so it’s not a perfect game but it hits so many sweet spots and builds up characters and moments so well that you forgive its shortcomings.
A monster hunter is only as good as his monster. And Vampires make a big stand out in this expansion. Not a huge part of the main game, Toussaint introduces us to the world where vampires are commonplace. So make sure you have Vampire oil for your blade and be ready with that Yrden. The story unfolds well filled with a few twists, and almost everyone is fleshed out far beyond expectations except for the main villain. Obviously, it’s not as simple as a monster terrorizing the city. And while every layer on top of that base is well thought out and capitalized on Detlaff feels like an empty vessel. On many occasions, we are told about how he feels and thinks but we never get to hear his side of things or even have a normal conversation. What made Hearts of Stone, so interesting was the fact that we got to learn about Gaunter O’Dimm and Olgierd. So much so that we had long conversations about life and death. Marriage and failure. Detlaff more or less is angry all the time. And when he is civil for one scene Geralt leaves the room. That being said every other character around him is beautifully portrayed. Without spoiling anything, the twist towards the middle of the main plot introduces another interesting character that once again revolves around old sourpuss; Detlaff.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the massive update that came along with this expansion. It reinvents the entire menu and inventory system ( a problem I had with the main game. ) it’s sorted better and easier to pin crafting items along with comparing weapons and armor. All in all, it’s just simpler. Think about that how many studios would reinvent their entire map system a year after release? Batman Arkham Origins wouldn’t even fix a game breaking bug a few months after release.
Blood and Wine is a goodbye to Geralt and all the characters in this world…For now. But with all this content to sift through you may not be done for a month. Building a vineyard, chasing vampires, doing paperwork at a bank, playing Gwent it’s all there, and it all is written and developed within an inch of its life. CDPR’s latest expansion is well worth your time.
