- Spoiler: show
- 8 Jan - Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (PS4)
10 Jan - Donut County (Android)
20 Jan - Dark Souls Remastered (Switch)
23 Jan - Bastion (Switch)
30 Jan - Hitman 3 (PS4)
15 Feb - Loco Motive (Itch)
21 Feb - The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt (Switch)
26 Feb - The Witcher III: Hearts of Stone (Switch)
4 Mar - Quarantine Circular (Switch)
6 Mar - Bury Me, My Love (Android)
14 Mar - Dishonored Death of the Outsider (Steam)
15 Mar - The Witcher III: Blood and Wine (Switch)
If The Witcher III main game is Geralt and Chums, then this is Geralt's Big Holiday. And what a brilliant idea. Rather than send the White Wolf to the end of the world or the land of the dead, the final chapter takes place in the sun-drenched duchy of Toussaint, where the wine, cheese and outrageous fashion is plentiful. I had always heard that the second dlc is like another game in the scale of the new explorable region and quests available, and again the hype around The Witcher III steered me correctly. In fact it's been interesting, seeing as CDPR has suffered such a hit to their reputation recently, to be simultaneously playing through one of the main reasons they're known for quality and generosity. This is not only vast, it's brilliant - first rate story, some of the best contracts and side quests, more rewarding POIs with vintner's contracts and vineyard infestations in addition to the usual treasure pickups and caves and suchlike, in fact more of everything that's great in the base game and to a very high standard of quality.
The map feels a lot more inviting than Velen, No Man's Land and even the beautiful and windswept Skellige, despite crawling with high level monsters that sometimes need some new tactics and approaches. The city of Beauclair and the towns you visit are far more genial too. People halloo you as you pass rather than spitting at your feet, and you even get your own vineyard - which I spent a lot of time at, going to spend the night in my own bed rather than on the road, finishing all the renovations and hanging my paintings and displaying my Witcher gear.
There's more top tier writing and voice acting on offer as well, with a gripping detective yarn that includes plenty of twists and turns. Although there aren't characters at quite the level of Gaunter and Olgierd, Regis and Anna Henrietta are both fantastic. The chatty and philosophical Regis is given a really warm, personable performance, and I want his voice actor to narrate my life to be honest, or just turn up to muse once in a while. Meanwhile the Duquessa genuinely sparkles with charm and wit. Depicting a ruler who is well-loved in what is basically a gritty medieval setting for the most part is a tall order, and I think they did a great job with her.
Story spoilers:
- Spoiler: show
- Since the main story has such personal stakes, and Hearts of Stone sees Geralt becoming somewhat ensnared in other people's problems thanks to Gaunter O'Dimm, I liked that the last ride with The Witcher is basically one big contract. A contract that goes incredibly wrong at several points and is constantly threatening to blow up in Geralt's face, at that, but you're in Toussaint to do a job.
I kept that in mind as I RP'd Geralt through several key decisions - I wasn't in the duchy to meddle overmuch in its politics, and when Anna Henrietta put her foot down and said no more helping monsters I thought, fair enough - Regis and Geralt had gone out of their way to avoid direct conflict with Dettlaf already, and with him having sent an army of lesser vampires to slaughter people left right and centre I felt he'd used up his goodwill. Even though Syanna is, in a way, the real Beast of Toussaint, Dettlaf was the one killing innocent folk at that moment.
Against a suitably dramatic backdrop of a nighttime Beauclair in flames as Dettlaf unleashed waves of bloodsucking creatures on the citizenry, I hunted down and eventually killed him in what I thought was a pretty flawed boss fight (suffering from the old chestnut of an attack that just does Too Much Damage that you mostly can't get round, a transformation cutscene you have to watch every time, as well as a weird final phase that looked like a Resi or Onimusha boss fight). Sadly I couldn't save the Duquessa - it is possible, but it's tricky and I'd have had to make different choices. But honestly I thought the tragic ending was quite fitting, bringing the otherwise charmed existence of the duchy into the same realm as most of The Witcher series' inhabitants. It was my ending.
Also getting home and finding Yennefer there at the very end was perfect. Clearly they also didn't want Geralt to be all alone at the end of this amazing saga, and I'm happy that I've left my save file with him next to his Yen at Corvo Bianco. Sentiment ain't I, but that's the effect these characters have on me, damn it!
Reflecting on the entire game, or rather the gestalt of Geralt, from the moment I booted it up and rode into White Orchard with Vesemir, to the ending of Blood and Wine... This game contains so many adventures, so many stories, and honestly a rogue's gallery of many of gaming's most memorable and likeable characters. The settings are immersive, sweeping, so much so that I cleared every ? other than in Skellige. Over 185 hours (40 of which was in Toussaint alone!) I cleared Toussaint, Velen/ Novigrad, White Orchard and Kaer Morhen. Skellige's terrain was a bit too fiddly and annoying to do the same, I might go back but at least on the Switch I didn't fancy that amount of sliding back down mountains I was trying to climb and swimming under ships. But I did do every side quest I found, every contract, a ton of Gwent (which I stayed away from towards the end as I picked up Thronebreaker to go onto soon), and a lot of scavenger hunts.
It's amazing, and although I paid basically full price for the Switch version it's really cheap on most systems now (and I got so much more than my money's worth even for what I paid). Even if the idea of a giant open world puts you off, I implore anyone with at least a faint interest to get it cheap in a sale, and just do Hearts of Stone. The game gives you the option of starting with the main quest done and a sufficiently levelled up Geralt to do just that, it's 8-10 hours, and it's a belter of a story.
