In my opinion, there are two main types(ideal) of fantasy stories.
One is the type that doesn't show the seedy side of medieval times, which is the basis of fantasy.
The other is the type that pursues realism and shows the dark side thoroughly.
The Witcher series, of course, falls into the latter category.
The sadly unfinished Berserk also falls into the latter category. (Although its ancestors are completely different.)

My first impression was, "I'm beat!".
"Finally, Western games have come this far. At this rate, the dominance of Japanese game companies will be wiped out in a few years.”

Japanese culture has always had a weakness for realism (both cultural and political). With the exception of a few geniuses, such as Kentaro Miura of Berserk.
This is because the essence of Japanese culture is caricature, deformation.
There is very little cultural soil for realism and realism in expression. In this sense, Kentaro Miura and Hideo Kojima is a rare breed.

I'm hesitant to complain too much about the poor combat action.
Small drawback and Japan’s game culture aside, I think the main attraction of this game is its worldview.
The detail is extraordinary.
The reality of war in a medieval world reminiscent of the Thirty Years' War, the language of the people of a poor village turned into a war zone.
For example, just after the opening scene. When I saw the corpse hanging from the tree, I was reminded of Jacques Callot's painting.
At that moment, I thought: "I've bought a tremendous game!”.
The second thing that struck me was the word of the peasants. I'm not going to write about this because it would be a serious breach of political correctness(laughs).
The funniest line came from a beggar in the city. "Help me! I'm being killed!!!...... To poverty.” Do you ever find yourself laughing when you shouldn't? lol.
I don't know of any game that expresses the world in such detail. And from the point of view of the Poles who made it, it's a dark part of their own past.
By the way, my favorite characters are Lambert, the lovable son of a bitch. And the ruthless and ruthless patriot, Dijkstra.
There are fewer and fewer characters with such strong habits in Japanese manga and games. I miss.

Maybe the negativity towards this game is a repudiation of the reality/facts of their past and present through the game. (It's just a guess.)
However, I applaud the great courage of CDprojektRED in making this expression.

It's a shame that the next cyberpunk had to go down like that, but it doesn't take away from the brilliance of The Witcher 3.

When I read it again, I see that I wrote it as I thought of it, so the sentence development is very messy.
I would like to make an additional correction later.

man if i were to rattle off the shit here that doesn't work you'd think I was gonna hit it with a score so far below sea level it'd resemble a skellige treasure chest

almost the entire mechanical backbone here's a write off: dozy combat that even death march can't wake up, detective bits that require ketchup and mustard vision, randomized loot, level scaled gear, and bogus character progression being but a sample of the bungled and fucked nature of the core experience. save for gwent — which I love with all my heart — there isn't a lot on this end that holds up to scrutiny

if TW1 was about being a witcher and TW2 was about not being a witcher, TW3 positions itself back toward a foggy approximation of the role — broader and less angular, more devoted to a holistic approach than the fine details of witching. rather than have you inhabit geralt through stances, investigations, research, and alchemical prepwork, it hopes its breadth can elevate it; that what's been lost can be made up for with its massive world and shift in storytelling

and it works? not so much with the main quest about supergirl and the dark eldar wild hunt (which is fuckin gunk), but just about everywhere else. turns out you can abstract the entire verbset into soft serve and still end up with a decent game if you got the writing, world building, and quest design to make up for it. the most ancient trick in the rpg book appears to be alive and well

but before that we gotta talk about the real shit: monsters

I love monsters like persona fans love the status quo. I love monsters like nerds love looking like this when they see 2B. ogres, trolls, centipede demons, sirens, kappas, demon walls, materia keepers, the doctors from dead ringers, street sharks, whatever man

I love monsters like jet fuel loves steel beams. I love draculas and werewolves and wanyudos and carly beth's haunted mask and that fucker from the end of onimusha warlords. I love lucy clifford's new mother and the thing and worms that walk and gelatinous cubes and black dogs and a cyclops. TW3 is the most monster ass monster game since TW1 and that's what it's all about. fakers and charlatans will tell you monster hunter takes the prize, but that's a game about killing animals buddy

if you thought I was actually gonna come back and ramble on about the writing and shit like some seventeen hour youtube video, think twice. you all know what the score is and know where you stand by now; you don't need me to tell you man is the monster, the art direction rules, and the attention to detail second to none. if it didn't take me five years to finish TW2 maybe I'd have some real juicy points to make but I know full well the level of discourse surrounding the game and choose to avail myself

I love monsters, I love gwent, I love the way the sidequests squirm and wriggle despite the staid limits of the systems and mechanics that house them. I love the gorgeous outfits and fabrics and the lush colour palette and the bestiary and geralt's bone dry quips and how they managed to make a game so frequently fuckin funny. I love everyone's jacked up teeth

first and last time I'll ever get ubipilled, savour it

The story's honestly pretty inconsistent- certain quests are hallmarks of great worldbuilding and genuinely tough moral dilemmas, while others are forgettable, thinly contextualized busy work. However, what they all have in common is a set of mechanics that end up causing a pretty huge disconnect between the player and the main character. Geralt has to pay attention to environmental storytelling to figure out what exactly he's dealing with during each mission while I don't- I just have to hold "L," tap "A" when I'm next to something that's glowing red, and then listen to what Geralt tells me. Geralt has to evaluate whether or not he's currently strong enough to take on a particular contract while I can just look at what level the game says I should be at before I do it. Geralt has to strategize about the best way to prepare for each monster encounter while I just have to follow the instructions that pop up on my screen. In short, I'm not actually the witcher, I'm just watching him work, and this is a flaw that the game's top-notch presentation doesn't make up for. It's a game that doesn't have much room for player input in general, with the exception of its dialogue choices, which, to be fair, it excels at. The harshest insult that I can throw at The Witcher 3 is that it's basically a Telltale game where your choices actually matter, and there's far, far worse things for a triple-A title this monstrously large to be.

LONG REVIEW (Covers main game + both expansions)
This game is overrated! is probably what your thoughts will be as a person who straight jumped into the 3rd Witcher game, it’s a massive game, and your opinion about it would count after at least 30 hours which is almost the time to play a new game, those who feel overwhelmed by it and found it tedious will probably not wait for ~30 hours to decide. Which is unfortunate, as its only after about 30 hours that this game progresses from something that is tedious/slow/overwhelming to come show itself to be one of the most polished deep video games that's been made to date. And when I say deep I don’t meant it to be very abstract in its writing, or bombarding the player with themes and theories that they couldn’t have up with, in fact there is nothing very deep or unexpected in it. What it has however is a sense of scale that is unsurpassed in any video game I've ever played.
The Witcher 3 continues the story of Geralt of Rivia, a known monster slayer aka Witcher who …you guessed it ..kills monster! After the events of the Witcher 1 & 2 Geralt has restored his memory and now he is searching for his former partner Yennefer of Vengerberg, Geralt with Yennefer have to look for Ciri who is constantly on run and is being chased by the "Wild Hunt"
The story starts slow as Geralt wants to find Ciri his adopted daughter, the game just like its prequels consists of prologue, acts, epilogue, the prologue starts with a tutorial area called White Orchard which teaches the player about the game and introduces them to its basics, it is this part that is slow and tedious because the game didn’t kick in yet, the game continues with act 1 main goal which is to find Ciri, the story may seem very simple as you have to look for a character but inside the journey Geralt will meet very complex characters and the main quests start going branching paths to side quests who are among the greatest side quests ever written in gaming. The game continues with ACT 2 and takes into the epic battle genre this time, in this act the game has lord of the rings vibes, an epic battle, which then continues on its epic scale into ACT 3, until the epilogue which can vary depending on the player decisions in the game. No matter what ending the player gets it always has something great and emotional behind it.
The story doesn’t end there, after the main game CD project RED introduces an expansion (Hearts of Stone) which is a short story expansion that blew my mind at how smartly written and engaging it is, the expansions introduces one of the most cunning and mysterious villains in history of gaming, and another equally amazing character. Unlike the main game in terms of side quests the quantity is very low, as the main focus here was to tell the short story in the main quest. The expansion also added some of the best boss fights in the whole series, boss fights that were a huge step up from the main game, requiring more mechanics to beat and having more advanced pattern.
The story progresses afterwards to reach the second expansion (Blood and Wine) which marks the end of Geralt journey, in my opinion an expansion one of its kind, very huge area that is also very beautiful, contains some of my favorite characters in the series, the expansion starts as a murder mystery then progresses into something fairytale-like that is full of neat references to famous books and finishes with one of the most memorable boss fights I have ever had in gaming.

It has to be noticed I have not mentioned the other aspects of the game, which I will cover in short. The Gameplay itself is very good, and while the combat and controls may feel clunky at first it won't take much time to get used to them, which afterwards Geralt feels like a dancing swordsman which is what he really is (according to the books and the lore). The combat itself is fairly basic and limited (again because of the lore) and contains light/heavy attack and dodge(side-step)/Roll buttons as well as having signs (mini-magic) it has similarities to Batman combat system, however I find the combat to start getting more advanced and having more depth once the players starts going with alchemy (bombs-oils-decoctions-potions) which basically adds new abilities to the gameplay, on higher difficulties the player needs to take advantage of monsters, read about their weakness and use the Witcher tools to overcome the challenge, the gameplay progresses by increasing levels and unlocking more skills to make various builds and especially around the second expansions it adds another layer to it by adding something called mutations. There are a lot of monsters and each has interesting ideas and design behind them. The dialogue choices are impactful and then there is one of my favorite mini games ever made called Gwent, a tactical card game that is really enjoyable, I sunk many hours into it while forgetting about the quests that im doing.

The Music is Slavic inspired and feels folklorish, its simple music most of the time, not an orchestra type of music, its simple and has as Geralt says "Nice Tune" it contains many memorable soundtracks.
The voice acting is greatly done as well, there is a difference in accents between regions which strongly showcase the different cultures the game tries to portray.

The art direction is simply breathtaking, the game is very screenshot worthy, to understand this point simply go to any thread on the internet and check for Witcher 3 shots, preferably on PC high settings and the amount of details and beautiful art design is mindblowing. It looks amazing.

The character cast is among my favorite, they have great distinct personalities, they have good development and backstory counting the previous games as well, some of the most complex and well written characters in gaming are presented in Witcher series, memorable cast with beautiful design and nice personality. You may notice most characters are not really good and not really bad, its shades of gray as in Witcher world there is no absolute evil or good.

In-Conclusion the game is open world story driven rpg, the main draw behind the game is its worldbuilding and writing which has main & side quests and characters. The game has the other good aspects as well, but if you are into open world story driven rpg games I cannot recommend this one enough, it is a must play game and is truly among the greatest games of all time, its recommended that you at least be familiar with the prequels Witcher 1 and Witcher 2 at least, to further understand the story better and enhance your experience and immersion.

Thank you for Reading! If you liked what i wrote give it a heart so it can pump upwards :)

After 150 hours, 100% achievement/trophy completion and far too much Gwent, I’ve finally rolled credits on this masterpiece. Its by no means perfect, but working my way through this over the course of several months has been a truly special experience as someone who is fully invested in the universe, having played both previous entries and read all the books several times.

The Witcher 3 is beautifully written. There are so many layers to its writing. On the surface it has a whole host of engaging and diverse characters, great comedic moments and some engrossing and truly twisted plotlines. However, intermingled with this there is complex political undertones, frequent reminders of racial oppression present throughout the land and of course the ever-present white frost. On top of this, the game pays an incredible reverence to its source material, with countless links to previous games and book. It does an extremely good job of balancing all of the above without overwhelming the player. Moreover, the extremely detailed character and location breakdowns in the menus as well as the books littered throughout the game allow you to dive deeper into elements that are of particular interest. I really appreciated this attention to detail which helped me feel more informed when making the important dialogue decisions in quests. These choices can have huge consequences which completely change the world and what happens to characters. This is a welcome change from the superficial decision-making present in a lot of games.

The main story itself is well told, with some really strong and memorable arcs. It does have pacing issues, with a bloated middle section and some smaller arcs which feel more like busy work, but the high stakes, intriguing cast and constantly evolving relationships make it very engaging. On top of this, there are some sublime side quests such as one where you decide whether you take part in the assassination plot of a king and another where you work with a mage to uncover the secrets of a haunted island. Each area on the continent feels very distinct with its own culture and political landscape (with Skellige being my personal favourite), and the quests that are done in each of these locations do a great job of capturing this uniqueness. That being said, with a game of this size and scope, inevitably there are some weaker, more generic side quests and some forgettable characters.

The Witcher 3’s gameplay is enjoyable, but with scope for improvement. Its gameplay loop consists of traversal, combat and clue hunting. Unfortunately, this loop can get repetitive due to the lack of depth in some of its systems. For example, clue hunting is just a case of using your Witcher vision to find whatever is highlighted in red on your screen. As this system is used so frequently it would’ve been nice if there was more interaction, taking inspiration from the likes of Uncharted’s temples or Arkham Origin’s crime scene reconstructions.

Combat, the second gameplay pillar, is quite a standard affair with light and heavy attacks mixed in with counters and dodges. Potions, oils and signs do elevate the experience by encouraging strategising and enemy weakness exploitation. Moreover, you can read your bestiary to try and plan ahead when taking on the larger monsters. These monsters are some of the highlights of the game as besting them makes you feel most like a Witcher. Contracts where you trawl through a cave taking out a queen spider’s babies to remove any chance of reinforcements before you tackle the queen and another where you lure a monster into a barn with alcohol so that you can prevent it retreating during combat is this game at its peak. Its just a shame that combat feels a bit stiff sometimes and the camera can sometimes be a pain when trying to reposition yourself as you are swarmed by foes. What’s more, even playing this game on death march, there is no consistent difficulty curve. I struggled to fend off even the easiest of foes in my first dozen hours with the game, but I soon out-levelled my foes, making it incredibly easy to brute force my way through encounters rather than these being tense, methodical affairs requiring the use of everything at your disposal. Regardless, I would like to give a special shoutout to the gory combat finishers, which left me completely awestruck on several occasions as limbs were severed and body parts flew across the screen.

The final gameplay pillar, traversal, is really enjoyable primarily because of the world you are traversing through. Visually, it is gorgeous thanks to some exceptional lighting (I could soak in those sunrises and sunsets all day), the environmental variety between locations and the game’s art direction. The sublime soundtrack and sound design only add to this immersion. Though, Ido have some minor gripes with Geralt feeling a bit clunky at times, roach’s uncooperativeness and cliffs that cannot be traversed making for tedious diversions. Regardless, the sheer quantity of random encounter, side quests, loot and monsters lurking about make the continent feel lived in whilst also capturing how bleak times are with the war that ravages through the land.

When I said the Witcher has three gameplay pillars…I lied. Gwent, while not integral to the experience, is one of the best things to come out of this game. It is simple to learn, but true mastery takes lots of practice and card collecting. Gwent is a game within a game as there are so many quests and challenges you can take on to proceed in your quest to complete you deck. What’s more it spawned its own spinoff game Thronebreaker, which I highly recommend, and a standalone competitive multiplayer game. Long story short, Gwent rules.

If you hadn’t gathered by now, I adore this game. It does so much right and truly warrants the many hours required to see this experience through to its end. Yes it has some flaws in its gameplay, but the endless list of things it does right dwarfs its handful of flaws. If you are one of the few people who haven’t dipped your feet into this world yet, I could not recommend it enough. Just be prepared to lose many hours of your life…

2015 Ranked
Ranked Open World Recommendations
Witcher Franchise Ranked

What a game :D I have to admit, the praise this game has received back then was absolutely deserved in my opinion. I liked pretty much everything about this game, especially Gwent was an excellent addition to the game :D
The story and characters really grew on me and the combat was finally somewhat fun. I really loved the free DLC packs and the two add-ons were soooo good, they rounded off the game perfectly. I found the numerous question marks on the map and the rewards hidden behind them, which were mostly useless, a bit silly. I also found it a bit nonsensical which decisions affected the ending and how, but I don't want to spoil too much. Overall, a masterpiece that absolutely deserves its status.

Essa foi a minha PRIMEIRA EXPERIÊNCIA com The Witcher.. e foi INESQUECÍVEL! É difícil escrever sobre um jogo que vai além de ser um jogo, TW3 vai muito além disso, ele toca corações, desperta emoções, enriquece o seu dia. Geralt é um personagem único, que mesmo com um sistema de RPG imersivo e profundo de escolhas, você ainda consegue se sentir na pele do Bruxo, e cria um laço com o personagem para tomar as melhores decisões. Vamos lá, é um jogo extremamente prazeroso de jogar, missões imersivas, divertidas, diferentes, únicas, com histórias interessantes e cativantes. E é um jogo que te surpreende em cada momento/ato/fase do jogo, quando eu pensei que já tinha visto de tudo, ele me joga para uma aventura Nórdica em Skellige (por um momento me senti jogando AC Valhala), com missões secundárias que AFETAM tudo ao seu redor, sidequests tão únicas e intrigantes que te fazem refletir o quão valioso foi "perder" seu tempo deixando as main missions de lado naquele momento. TW3 é um jogo que me fez repensar sobre missões secundárias (e CB2077 também me fez sentir isso, só que BEM MENOS). Como um jogo desse TAMANHO não me fez enjoar em NENHUM momento, ou querer que acabasse logo? BRUXARIA. Ou talvez feitiçaria (Culpa da Yen?).

Enfim, apesar de muitos criticarem eu achei o combate delicioso (adicionei um MOD para o combate, mas somente para ficar mais ágil), a parte de detetive é muito legal, me fez voltar para a série Arkham em alguns momentos, a liberdade e não-linearidade da jogabilidade me fez voltar para Skyrim, a sensação de descoberta em cada canto do mapa me fez voltar para Zelda: BOTW, a importância dos diálogos e minha participação nisso me fez voltar para Mass Effect, o mundo reagindo ao que acontecia me fez voltar para Final Fantasy VII, a imersão no universo e na história me fez voltar para RDR. Mas resumindo, NADA disso importa, TW3 é único e te faz esquecer que já jogou algum jogo antes na vida. Sobre pontos negativos? Sinceramente são irrelevantes, melhor você jogar e tirar suas conclusões.

The Witcher 3 é um dos melhores open worlds já feitos, tudo funciona e se entrelaça; A história é incrível e tem possivelmente o mundo mais vivo e com a melhor ambientação de todos os jogos que já joguei, e muito disso vem de suas missões secundárias, que são um nível muito a cima de outros jogos, tendo histórias e objetivos únicos, que facilmente poderiam ser missões primarias.
Claro que tem alguns mini problemas, como alguns bugs consideráveis e loadings que chegam a durar minutos, mas isso não é NADA perto do quão bom esse game é, simplesmente uma obra prima

In the beginning of the game, it seems to open up with a promising and engaging thesis statement about how history never fixates on the rape, violence, or thoughtless cruelty present throughout war. While this is a topic of serious discussion, and one that should not be taken lightly, dialogue like this is actually used as a deception tactic to trick you into thinking both you and the writer's give a shit about any of it; The writing in this game is more like what a 9-5 employee thinks is good writing.

The Witcher 3 has a description for the succubus that is longer than any of the actually interesting monster designs. That really showed me where this game's priorities lied, all while showcasing shallow sex scenes, which really helped the game communicate what side it was on in the aforementioned thesis statement. Community discussion is no different-- revolving around fighting over a cardboard cutout and a silicone doll. It's also very self-contradictory to act like you care about rape when the camera will still frame a woman's breasts to be viewed as inherently sexual. I've seen tons of artwork and stories where a woman's breasts were just an extension of their body, but this game really knows how to get me going wowzers in my trousers! And if you don't see an inherent issue with that, you're a fucking idiot. Of course, this game is very immersive, using words like strumpet instead of whore, so its very mature and serious.

The gameplay pretty much entirely revolves around mashing. This is implying that the game would be better if I could go into the lab and learn dust loops.

Down the sinews of memory lane again.
You have this spirit caught in a tree in the Whispering Hillock that utters : "A mare, wild and free...In meadow's pasture caught...Dark as a bottomless well...Black as the depths of night...Such a beast, no other." It's one of the best moments of the game. The whole quest smells like putrid devotion, with a love for language old and profane. Instances like these are when you truly understand how enamoured Wild Hunt is with speech and its intricacies, the way it can flood back and forth between rustic tongue twisters and theatricalities. This, to me, is the draw, at all times, in a game such as Wild Hunt.
But words are precious things and a story like this one always has too many of 'em. In the process of playing a videogame, of sitting at the desk for hours on end - consuming swathes of informations even in the most restrained of environments - we tend to fuse with it. A mouse movement becomes a handy one / You learn how to instinctively use the array of systems at your disposal. Ease of play ; you ride through the mechanics, swinging your sword aimlessly before picking up a thousand little materials that you can never grasp anyway. Then you press A to have your horse get you to the next dialogue. Imagine bearings of all places in a fantasy setting - but let's say for a second that it's the point, because it is effectively the point. Speeches of all shapes and sizes are Wild Hunt's way of framing the moments, big and small, that tend to make or break our experience. You don't necessarily remember the time you looted a Witcher's grave but you do remember setting up a stage play with your best friends at the end of the world. Speeches, short and long, are Wild Hunt's way of conveying theme. Of manifesting (and maybe even warping to the extent of our choices) the text. Wild Hunt, as it happens, has a lot of thoughts on human nature. On society. On being a father - every ten hours of gameplay or so.

But in these moments all I really care about is Johnny the Whiterun guard that told me about the arrow once lodged in his knee. What gets me thinking - what got all of us thinking in truth - is just how common of a name Johnny was in Northern Tamriel and how many arrows seemed to be flying, daddyless and unsupervised, around Skyrim's terrain.
This interaction is revelatory to me.

Because the more you play Wild Hunt and the more you realise that its open-world is full of Johnnys. Because what I need to know about Phillipe Strenger is not a façade reproduction of abuse or some kind of temporal puzzle that would allow me to solve the riddle of his humanity.
I don't care about the how, only the why. Why did you take up arms in war ? Why did you choose that woman ? Why did you no longer choose her ? Why why why. And in the absence of answers to this question, a movement then, something to bend me towards the videogame.
It's like, I could never trust someone whose favourite game is The Stanley Parable. It's not about whether The Stanley Parable is good or bad. It's about It being a game of hows and ways. Of metatext for the sake of the metatext - so just a text, then.
Wild Hunt is a game that asks the Skyrim soldier the circumstances of his crippled knee, but rarely why he wanted to venture the wildernesses in the first place. And I think that's preposterous.

One of my favorite lines in the Whispering Hillock goes as follows :

"It is done already...
It cannot be undone.
There are no roads...
To Aard Cerbin."

This is the pIace. Somewhere beneath the veneer. I wish we could go there. Leave the boring social apparatus to the kings and the elves and instead chase a wilder one. Be explorers, adventurers of strange forces beyond Geralt's comprehension. Actually, I'd just wish I could feel his body, his thoughts sometimes incorporated in play or dialogue variances. But I'm always away - away from men, from him - and decidedly following foot-tracks to learn the name of a killer when all I really needed to know was the shape and colour of their favourite dagger.

“You don't need mutations to strip men of their humanity. I've seen plenty of examples.”

I’ve never played a Witcher game before, nor have I journeyed into the world of the novels. Knowing nothing about the world, I was expecting a high fantasy universe of thrilling swordplay, bombastic wizards, and heroes triumphing over evil. The Witcher 3 did indeed have all of those things, but honestly, those were the low-points in my journey as Geralt of Rivia. The meat of the game lies in the “ordinary” NPCs – relationships between peasants and lordship, husbands and wives, fear and shame, and the reconciliation between justice and prejudice. The game deftly weaves these stories in as side-quests that offer more moral conundrum that the standard RPG fetch-this-item and kill-this-monster quests. Which is a little ironic, since the point of being a Witcher is to kill monsters, however CDPR does a fantastic job of making each quest fairly unique – never missing an opportunity for world-building in the process.

I will admit that I was not hooked during the tutorial area of White Orchard, but once I got a greater peek at how the politics, both between nations and neighbors, worked, my interest was officially piqued. The first true area available in the game is Velen, the most beautiful swamp and bog-ridden video game land I have ever seen. The landscape perfectly represents its ruler(s) and people as well – brimming with dingy life, dirty and twisted. It sets up perfectly for the rest of the world. The vistas and areas do become more visually pleasing, but corruption still lurks under the surface. I honestly think Velen is where the game works best, as you’re still trying to figure everything out in the main quest, but you are forced to run Witcher Contracts as well. You are dead broke, trying to understand it all like everyone else. The only difference is that Geralt is a Witcher with his swords.

Novigrad is also a triumph as one of the best medieval cities I have ever seen in a game. The streets really felt alive, and the inclusion of so many different areas like Hierarch Square, the docks, and Far Corners really helps immerse you in this town. The map, twisting and turning on itself through the buildings, also brings Novigrad to life in a way that many RPGs fail to with their miniscule cities.

The main quest, unfortunately, does not live up to the rest of the game. I am sure that a good portion of my distaste is because Witcher 3 is a sequel of a sequel of the books, but everything became much more esoteric the further along I progressed. Not much is offered in way of explanation of the Wild Hunt, and everything becomes over-the-top magic oriented. There are also some pacing issues which arise from the game giving the player false-expectations. Suffice to say, I was a little burnt out after finally finishing the seemingly marathon sprint of the game’s last act.

Part of this burn-out was also a result of the combat and leveling systems. The strength of the Witcher 3 is its stories and characters, and the gameplay/combat is simply a means to experience these events. So when the stories suffer, the other flaws begin to show. Geralt’s leveling system could use a focus on gaining new abilities rather than the generic “gain X damage,” “make X ability more powerful,” and etc. Give me a different way to approach an enemy; maybe a leaping attack, or a disarm move, or even some combos to pull off between the heavy and light attacks. Help me chain the signs and attacks together in some meaningful way. There are different attacks to unlock in the combat tree, but they don’t come until very late.

In the same way, the enemies and world also become static after a while. Higher level enemies are the same as their ordinary counterparts, just with more health. They need different attacks or tactics that differ from dodge-attack. Some of the best enemies in the game are the Rotfiends that require you to back away when you see they are preparing to explode, or the wraiths that require you to use a sign to even deal decent damage to them. They represent a mix-up from the standard, vanilla combat that makes the encounters feel fresh and exciting. Even the world traversal needs more work – more ways to approach an objective other than following a road. Let me climb, let me jump onto more things; let me fall further than 3 feet without dying instantly. Why make a giant world and then not let me play with different ways of traversing it?

These things converge into the main flaw of the game’s design for me – it’s stuck between an RPG and an Action/Adventure game, indecisive as to which way to lean. The combat is a low-light in the experience, and the RPG elements aren’t vast enough to meaningfully change the way the world is experienced. The player is Geralt, and they will always be Geralt. There are different builds within the leveling system through prioritizing signs, combat, or potions, but at the end of the day, you’re still going to be fighting things with your two swords. The ability to unlock companions to travel with would be a wonderful way to deepen the interaction with the world and allow you to indirectly experience different types of combat while still staying true to Geralt.

Overall, the Witcher 3 is with a deep and intricately crafted world of interesting stories, characters, and politics. Sure, the gameplay itself certainly has flaws, but the journey and experience outweighs those issues. The folktale-esque lore of the Witcher universe stands on its own as some of the best in the fantasy RPG genre.

The Witcher games (more concretely than the books) are about being a professional who is competent and in many cases excellent at your chosen profession. It's about work and the fact that working is unfair, often not fun at all, and that the particular job ol' Gerry Rivers has is actively becoming more and more obsolete. As a result, this is why the majority of people who love this game are normie-leaning dudes with stable minds.

Truly rad soundtrack, doesn't get enough cred for how hard it hits at times.

The Witcher 3 is, now that I've played it, officially a part of the Holy Trinity of Western RPG's with Red Dead Redemption 2 and Mass Effect 3 due to its tremendous character writing, unparalleled world building and lore, and overall style. Seriously, there is not one thing about this game that after completion, I felt it needed.

Characters in the Witcher, be it in the games, show, or books, are the definitive strongsuit and most important aspect as set in place by Andrzej Sapkowski way back in the 90's when first creating the story of Geralt that would eventually sweep the world by storm. Everybody in the series matters, nobody is intrinsically good, nobody is faultless. Geralt of Rivia, who is probably the greatest protagonist in video game history is a man of imperfection, a mutated shell of a human whose history is marred with bloodshed and tragedy. Geralt never looks back though, he is a pragmatist with a heart. I've never encountered a character in a series who is as multi-faceted and believable as Geralt. He bows to nobody and adheres to his own code, owes no alleigances to men of state or people of power, loves those who he wants to love, and is confident in his staggering ability in combat. One beautiful aspect of the series is how often you split between fighting and conversation, as the history of the continent and people within are decided by Geralt's words, which he carefully must pick and cater to those he speaks with. He is a sly and cunning man, and always cognizant of the intentions of those around him, he is no fool. He knows his love for Ciri, Yennefer, and Vesimir can lead him astray, but his abilties make up for it.

The protagonist Geralt takes center stage as the player character and decision maker within the story, but every single character within the world crafts what is the greatest low-fantasy adventure and most well fleshed out world in video game history. Secondary characters like Yennefer, Triss, Vesimir, Ciri, Dandelion, Zoltan, Keira, Djikstra, Ehmyr, and many more add an invaluable amount to not only the story, but the passion behind the player's actions. Each character has their own unique motives, their own special relationship to Geralt and the others around, their own piece that fits together for the final puzzle. You spend hours seperately with each of these characters, disputing romance, debating politics, bargaining, and laughing in good faith. The depth that The Witcher 3 goes in to with your supporting cast, without ever overstaying its welcome is only paralleled with one game, Red Dead Redemption 2. I only want to spend MORE hours with the Witchers of Kaer Morhan, with the two beautiful Sorceresses in Triss and Yennefer learning about their world and complicated relationships with Geralt, with the beautiful and evasive Cirilla, and countless others. Few games are like the Witcher 3 and have you smiling when you reunite with characters from previous games or books, when I met with Roche for the first time I jumped with joy, same as with the lovable duo of Dandelion and Zoltan. I can not drive the point home enough, these side characters are some of the most fleshed out peers and comrades of any video game ever. Even the more minor characters, involved in singular quest chains like the Bloody Baron, Cerys, or [REDACTED DUE TO SPOILERS] leave a mark that you shant forget, as their memories and experiences add an extreme amount to the overall journey.

Now, this is clearly evident to anybody who has seen the show or read any of the books, but aside from the characters, the thing that lays the groundwork for the Witcher's success as a game franchise is the beautiful worldbuilding by Andrzej Sapkowski. EVERYTHING from the Eastern-European influenced folklore to the medieval European architecture and setting is meticulously laid out with extreme thought and care. The cities withing the Witcher 3 feel like real Medieval cities reflecting of their culture. The royal castle of Vizima feels like that befitting of a grand emperor, the free city of Novigrad is one of the most impressive and fleshed out cities in any video game in the history of the medium, and the multiple communities within Skellige are a thing of Scandinavian beauty. The towns and world were so beautiful to traverse, many a moment was spent stopping and staring at the colorful countrysides. Disclaimer, I did play this game with a 4K texture pack enabled to make the pretty things more pretty. But man, I could speak for days about how REAL this felt as a fantasy setting. There is a perfect balance of power within the universe of the Witcher, and that is evident in its third entry. Sorceresses are extremely powerful, yet their volatility is too high for excessive power usage. The Wild Hunt are an impressively scary force, however they are kept in check by certain abilities that will be explained. Geralt and the Witchers themself are the strongest of human warriors, however they are the last of a dying breed. The power in the Witcher series is kept in check by wit and chess-like geopolitics, as it would be in an actual medieval setting. Not by a superhero or undefeatable protagonist. The Witcher is a carefuilly crafted universe of lore that has been in motion for nearly thirty years, culminating with the effort that it took to get to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Each narrative empowering, passionate, and given an incredible amount of thought.

The music of the Witcher 3 is something of note as well, and those who have played this game can easily find a common ground in this aspect, whether they liked the other aspects or not. These songs are long and drawn out, borrowing aspects from Medieval instruments and fantasy choruses and sounds. Each song, whether its for a specific zone or character, couples with the mood and settings perfectly without any shadow of a doubt. I paused when I was riding the trusty steed Roach through the winding hills of Skelige as the beautiful soundtrack played and looked at the open ocean. I was in awe, completely lost in the world. I felt like Geralt, wind howling and hitting my face on a horse looking over a familiar crag. It's moments that games like this and RDR2 nail that have the player completely divulged into the immersive nature that they put forth.

The only knocks I can give the Witcher 3 is the combat being far less than stellar in difficult and rigidity, and the ham-fisted relationship with Yennefer that is more of a qualm I have with the series as a whole. The former is excusable with the addition of the points I made above, however the latter irked me to a fairly large degree. I don't like Yennefer, full stop, which is interesting because she is clearly Geralt's canon love interest if you know anything about the series or have played even a few minutes of this game. The topic of whether I like her or not is strictly an opinion of subjective nature and each player is left to their own vices in that regard, however my qualm for this post is moreso how the game deals with that if you pick Triss as your romantic option. The game does a mostly great job in dealing with this, even hiding nuggets of voice lines in conversation about the awkwardness of having Yennefer around when you're romantically involved with the sorceress you spent time with in the last few games. It does get a little awkward sometimes when there are plot elements that pair you with Yennefer and imply that she is your betrothed, but as this review is a five star review, that is clearly not enough to detract any major points away from the game.

I had not played the Witcher 3 until now because I was not a fan of the low-fantasy medieval setting. Once I played the Witcher 2, I became invested and watched the show, read some books, and became completely enthralled in the world of Geralt. With the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt you have a tremendously crafted narrative, flawlessly written memorable and diverse characters, a lively fleshed out world with a cavernous lore and history, and a magnificent soundtrack that thrusts immersion into the the player.

I strongly recommend The Witcher 3 to those who are looking for a narrative video game journey that they will not forget.

I have played this game more times than I can count! The story led me to reading all of the books and I will always be grateful for that. It still has the best DLC of any game I have ever played.

Edit:
After having played the PS5 remaster, this game has truly proven its classic status. Sure the gameplay isn’t perfect (I enjoyed it for the most part) where it shines is it’s beautiful story, it’s rich tapestry and deep fleshed out lore. The sheer attention to the most tiniest detail and the larger than life characters. It truly is one of gamings modern masterpieces!

It feels strange to have finally finished Witcher 3 after 7 years of trying and failing to get into it. After this final attempt, clocking in at ~65h, I will say that despite many bumps in the road, it was worth it.


Before I get into the specifics, expectations are a super important thing when it comes to consuming any media: over the years and even further during my playthrough I've felt a growing resentment and disbelief towards the galactic acclaim this game has gotten.
It's “the best game ever made” - in my humble opinion, it absolutely fucking isn't. I would be lying if I said its reputation didn't influence my opinion.


Diving into the game itself but staying negative, I have a number of gripes with the gameplay of The Witcher 3 - undoubtedly its weakest link. The game's combat is extremely basic, trying and failing to add depth with alchemy, which offers little meaningful gameplay enhancements beyond just making fights end quicker and making the healing system slightly less painful. Signs are a neat magic system but even fully upgraded, they still feel too weak. On top of that, the hit feedback and hitboxes simply don't feel right.
All of this is quite damning but somehow it's still tolerable across so many hours because on some level, it does work and can be mildly enjoyable.

Another part of the gameplay that I found severely lacking - if not more so - was the movement: I could not tell you how many times I got stuck in the environment on foot, on horseback or the goddamn boats, how many times I got frustrated by its slow- and unresponsiveness if any tiny thing is in your way. It saddens me because it really impeded my enjoyment of exploring this game's beautiful world. Though fortunately, it doesn't ruin it, as the art design, physics and ambient soundtrack lift it out of its sticky gameplay depths and into the metaphorical sun. Some of the game's locations (like the Fields of Ard Skellig) are quite stunning.

The main course of an RPG like this is its story of course and overall, I think it really scores in its characters and plots. It's hardly anything mind-blowing or flawlessly paced but for such a long story, it's consistently good. That goes for all of the quests, main and side. Though I do need to stress that certain parts did have me frustrated and bored, through gameplay annoyances combined with unengaging quests - every Elven ruin quest for example. Speaking of Elven ruins, as someone who has only read but loved the first two short story collections, I found the lore and worldbuilding here quite lackluster in comparison. Though I digress, as the game's many side quests still do a great job of fleshing out the people who inhabit the world and Geralt himself, even if some other elements fall short.

The biggest strength of The Witcher 3 alongside its fantastic characters might be its soundtrack, which captures the perfect mood in almost every location and situation - be it the miserable wildlands of Velen, the grimy streets of Novigrad or the beautiful expanses of Skellige.


Let's wrap this gigantic review up: I think it's become clear that my praise for certain aspects of the game stands in sharp contrast to my burning dislikes and that despite me still giving this a respectable score, liking the game and going on to play the expansions, I cannot shake my highly emotional resentment both towards parts of the game itself as well as its reception.

One of my favorite games of all time. Incredible open world with some of the best side quest stories in any video game. The game is full of compelling characters that make the world feel alive and interesting. It's the antithesis of Ubisoft open world games - it's a world you are compelled to explore and learn more about, not a world where you're just ticking boxes. Sometimes the open world is arguably too much. It's a daunting game and difficult to recommend unless you have the time to fully engross yourself in it. The only complaints I ever had was that the combat is a bit clumsy but you get used to it. As a fan of the books, I loved experiencing a real continuation of many of the stories told in the books. Also, Gwent rules.

Disclaimer: These are my brief thoughts based on my memory of playing this 7 years ago:

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt is one of my all-time favorite games. It perfectly balances all of its core elements, all of which combine to form an incredible experience that I will treasure forever. The game looks phenomenal. Its environments are so fully realized and are all distinct to one another, each having its own unique landmarks and breathtaking landscapes. Character models in particular look really great and are integrated into the game world excellently.
The music and overall sound design is definitely one of the game's highlights as well. The way the music is used throughout the entire game, how it matches the mood and tone of every story scene, how it adds to the atmosphere and world building of the game, and how it evokes certain emotions and feelings that the game wants the player to feel made playing the game such an incredible experience.

Gameplay is really great as well. The combat may not be the best combat ever in an RPG, but was still good and felt great to play. Animations as well help accentuate the impact of attacks, specifically the executions, and overall movement throughout the combat encounters. There is also a lot of variety in the way encounters are handled. Mechanics like potions, bombs, and spells elevate the gameplay to new heights and make combat incredibly varied. Enemy variety adds another layer of complexity to combat. All enemies have varying weaknesses that the player can use and exploit in order to win against them. The game is also very rich in content. The game world is huge and the amount of exploration, points of interest and side quests in the game is staggering. It is a game that can easily give around 100+ hours just for the amount of exploration. Exploring the game world is also very rewarding as various crafting materials, recipes, and treasures can be found all over the game world; all of which help in game progression and complexity.

All of these aspects combine perfectly with what I think is the best aspect of the game, the story. The story is phenomenally written and executed. It is a complex, overarching story filled with choices and character decisions, all of which impact the way the story moves forward and branches out, which in turn, further immerses the player in the the game world. On the surface, it may seem like just another tale about monsters and magic. But at its core, it is a story that succeeds in being both an action-packed, mythological epic and a character-driven narrative filled with emotion and conflict. But the most important aspect of any story is without a doubt, the characters. All of the characters in the game bring the story to life. It is through these characters that I got to experience this world and what it has to offer. Throughout the course of the journey, I got to spend a lot of time with them and it is through this time spent that made me connect with them as if they were indeed real. They have their own problems, fears, emotions, and struggles, and the more that I got to know these characters, the more that I got emotionally connected to them. All of this is due to how phenomenally well realized they all are. I cared for, understood, and most of all, loved them. The characters in this game indeed made such a huge impact in my life, and I will forever treasure the game because of this. All of that being said, I do have minor issues in the game like some technical glitches and few repetitive quests, which are normal for vast, open-world RPGs like this one. Yet these issues did not stop me from loving the game any less. The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt is perhaps the best game I have ever played. It's a game that captivated me from start to finish with its breathtaking visuals, incredible sound design, expansive exploration, gameplay depth and variety, and most of all, its remarkable story. Sure, there may not be a so-called "perfect game" out there, but The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt is damn near close. 10/10

Well over a hundred hours of content. Incredible world-building, compelling story, great characters, deep gameplay mechanics, fantastic voice acting, amazingly detailed world design and just overall super immersive, everything you could ever want from a RPG experience and then some. It's no wonder the game is heralded as one of the best of all time, it's certainly one of my favorites.

P.S. Gwent is one of the most fun and addictive mini-games in an RPG since Blitzball, you can easily spend hours just playing it alone.

Incrível simplesmente.

Mundo aberto é outra coisa por causa do Witcher 3. Você se importa com cada missão secundária, cada personagem, cada trama. É muito bem feito tudo. As músicas são ótimas e já fazem dias que estão ecoando pela minha cabeça, o tema de Skellige é BOM PRA CARAMBA.

Não tem um defeito nesse jogo. E se tivesse, eu passaria pano até a morte.

Não tem mais nada o que falar, não há como explicar o quão bom o jogo é. Só tem como experienciar.