Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Review

On May 19^th, a wonderful and very exciting game was released. Donning two swords, one of Silver and the other made of Steel your quest as a Witcher begins once again but this time you’re at first hunting down your first lover and technically canon lover, Yennefer of Vengerberg. Now one thing I do wish to start off with is a shout out thank you to CD Projekt Red for the lovely DLCs they are bringing out for free. I personally loved the Alternate Outfit for Yen, very detailed and elegant.

One thing I certainly enjoyed about the Witcher was that once I was set to my own devices I was running around doing small contracts, jobs and just killing monsters to get look; some good, some bad. The graphics are actually very good, though still not as splendid as on the PC version I’m sure but the game plays very well and luckily I did not run into a bug that some others were dealing with on the Xbox and PC versions where they couldn’t save.

Speaking of graphics, the fact that the creators took the time to even put environmental changes, wind blowing physics and other aspects makes me appreciate the time and effort they put into it. I for one enjoyed the Qwent Card game, literally I was addicted and began running all over trying to win every card or just buy them. In Qwent the first card you get is Yennefer, she’s the first hero card you get and then you have others like Triss, Geralt, Ciri, and more coming into the mix. Being I’m a strategy type player, I found this game to be a perfect way to relax after killing a contract monster. Sure perhaps some thought it was a waste of time but it was merely an escape put in to get away from hacking off limbs or slicing bandits in two.

I felt it was nice to have returning characters though some I wished didn’t because my previous thoughts on them lingered heavily from Witcher 2. Speaking of previous games one thing I realized was the outstanding graphic scale that made it from bland and a bit boxy in from the first game to being detailed to a point the brows moved, expressions weighted heavily as a factor in this game and despite them saying Witchers don’t have emotions it’s clear to see Geralt still has some humanity in his bones.

Now for a long time I heard people saying the game felt padded and focused too much on ‘Find Ciri’, well perhaps that is true but that’s why you have all the side activities so not to get bored. You wanna branch from the story? Go ahead because some if not all side missions will somehow tie in, like when you’re playing the mission the main one to find Ciri’s trail you have no direct place to go to or follow you pretty much are set to just go explore and find what you want to not immediately be told you must go here, you have no choice. No that mission gives you a choice by letting you see the expansive world before being locked into a mission. 

The Massive map shows how much there is to do in the Witcher.

There is a lot to do here but one thing I couldn’t get off the top of my head was why was leveling up so difficult? The side quests gave me little to near no experience points so it took me forever to get to level 21 which I’m on when I was currently writing this, but I’m getting level 30 missions and armors shoved into my lap unable to use them until I get to a certain level. Oh what a lovely crossbow! Oops that’s level 35 weapon and you’re only level 16, guess you better save that coin and run around like mad to get to that level chap. The leveling system felt entirely more of a burden than anything hindering me from using the better weapons and armor, took forever to get ability points (or were they skill points).

Which the creators had tried to be solved with those ‘Places of Power’; yes let me kneel before a rock for one skill point. And another thing: Why was it so difficult to find certain herbs among the wild that forced me to have to buy it from an expensive herbalist? I wanted to make a potion that required some rarely found herb then had to go pay like 200 coin for it. I felt like I was being cheated there because I wanted coins for a few other things and yes one was the Qwent Cards but the other was to ensure I could always repair my weapons or get new ones, craft armor and swords yet when I’m forced to spend money on an herb which should be found in the wild it makes me scratch my head a bit.

Just saying: Sorceresses Cat fight over Geralt...

But in the end I felt the story was very well done, also another thing I didn’t get. Geralt falls two feet from the ground and loses like a chuck of health, a monster hit him? Tiny dent of health gone; what has Monster hunting made Geralt intolerable to tripping? I feel much safer with a Witcher looking like Peter Griffin with a scuffed knee. I also certainly wanted more Ciri time and felt her parts were a bit short for my liking but they were a nice cut away from Geralt and we got to experience her travels from being chased by the Wild Hunt, and how her bloodline is really not a blessing but a big curse because everyone except Geralt and his friends treat her like nothing more than a weapon or piece of treasure. Perhaps if she had more parts in the game we’d really get the understanding of how her travels made her feel.

From playing this game I certainly say it outshines other RPGs I’ve played recently to a point I’ll probably be playing this over and over until either my Xbox One dies or the CD itself bursts into flames. Though I did appreciate that CD Projekt Red gave us the sound track, map and stickers though the stickers were cheaply made and the wolf image came off in the first hour of me having it. Yikes. I thought the map they gave was very colorful and a delight to put on my wall but what topped it off was the letter each player who bought the game got from them thanking us for buying it and they have every right to thank the people who buy their games because without us they wouldn’t have jobs.

There’s no micro transaction bullcrap, which in my opinion was an outstanding bonus because it’s become some trend with other companies. Yet every game has its issues, and with all honesty being the game was that massive in scale I was expecting a lot of glitches and bugs but really I got none and it played smoothly for me. If I were to rate it I’d say a 9/10 only because the story needed more Ciri to make me understand her side better. I felt a little blocked from her. We see her as a kid then poof, young woman on the run. I didn’t feel very much connected to her until she found Geralt. But I won’t spoil anything for you, go out and get the Witcher 3 Wild Hunt then enjoy killing monsters, romancing hot Sorceresses, and exploring a big open world.