The Witcher III: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine

I've rated this, the Hearts of Stone expansion, and of course, the original Witcher III game all as 5 stars. They are indeed, masterpieces, after all.

As for Blood and Wine specifically, it is arguably the most visually impressive setting ever in a video game. In the original game, the region of Skellige is certainly the most beautiful. It resembles a dark, cold, beauty, similar to the landscapes that can be seen in Scandinavia, especially Norway. As for the Duchy of Toussaint, it mimics the rolling vineyards of a region like southern France and northwestern Italy, with a warm, vibrant beauty. It is difficult for me to choose between Toussaint and Skellige as the most beautiful of the game's regions -- I admire both greatly -- but for now, I'll give the nod to Toussaint.

As for the quests, Toussaint meets the high standards set by the Witcher series in general. All of the quests feel important, all of the choices impactful, and even after you've made your decisions, you look back thinking, "Maybe there was a better way to do this all along". That's what I love about the Witcher series -- it's never clear if you've made the best possible decision, and the game does not lend itself to a good guys vs. bad guys interpretation whatsoever. It resembles reality, where difficult, unclear decisions abound, and where every action and inaction comes with significant trade-offs, many of which are unpredictable and only greet us long after it's too late.

While the Blood and Wine main story is perhaps weaker than the main stories from the original game and the Hearts of Stone expansion, it is not by much. Hearts of Stone sets a high standard -- it is perhaps the greatest story ever employed in a game's DLC. Even though I believe Hearts of Stone to have a better story, I still rank Blood and Wine's story amongst the best ever in a game's DLC, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who would consider it better than Hearts of Stone.

Anyway, there is no need to read all of this; If you haven't played The Witcher III and both of its expansions, you have simply missed out. The game and its expansions will be perennially recognized amongst the greatest ever, and have forever set a standard for masterpieces to come.

The second and final expansion to Witcher 3 takes place in Touissant – a small duchy famous for its wines and defended by Knight errands. You'd think that it's a perfect place for a Witcher expansion and you'd be absolutely right!

The story is fun, the main antagonist is interesting and his motivations are understandable. Generally characters are behaving in believable way (maybe beside Anna Henrietta, she's an idiot) and their stories are interesting. I also love how Touissaint looks, it's beautiful. I like the story, maybe it's not on the Hearts of Stone level, but it's definitely better than what was presented it the main game. Quests are clever and nicely done and fights are challenging, but not too hard.

Unfortunately there are also some things that I don't like about Blood and Wine. Most sidequests are really basic and uninteresting. Also for such a nice duchy they have a lot of troubles with monsters attacking vineyards. It's a detail and it doesn't bother me much, but still, it's a little stupid.

I like the new alchemy and mutations systems, they are making the game more interesting. The good thing is that you can use them, but you don't need to do it to complete Witcher 3 or expansions. The difficulty level is reasonable, although I think that the final fight is too easy - it's long, but not hard. Blood and Wine is a good ending of the story of Geralt of Rivia.

Projeckt Red are really the new Squaresoft/BioWare in that they now go the extra mile to make sure their games are immersive experiences that includes tons of content and when they do give you a DLC, it isn't just a quick cash grab that should have been included in the core game, but an entirely new story that is set in a different part of the map with tons of new content. Blood and Wine is an excellent DLC and possibly the greatest DLC put out for a single game in a long time. Blood and Wine clocks in at almost 20 hours long with the side content, and that makes it around 1/3 the length of the main game. This game takes you to an entirely different area, that is a lot more colorful than the main game and feels like it has its own lore and personality. It has a story that I thought was almost on par with that of the main game's story. Like the past DLC, this is a tad difficult, even if you are high level, but it wasn't as difficult for me as the last DLC. Blood and Wine is just a great DLC and adds extra closure to the series, it is a fun little side story that offers a good amount of content and side content with interesting new characters and lore. This along with the main Witcher game and Hearts of Stone make Witcher III one of the greatest gaming experiences to come out in the past few years and give you many more hours of the great atmosphere the series has to offer. By the time I finished this I had put probably around 80 hours into Witcher III and it took around 2 weeks, and few games have given me so much content without growing stale, and I will remember fondly my first playthrough of this game with all its DLC.