The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine Reviews
CD Projekt Red has released three masterpieces within the space of a year. Alongside Hearts of Stone, Blood and Wine ensures that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is, without question, the role-playing game to beat going forward. Toussaint provides a gorgeous new location that's a joy to explore, and the sun-soaked land houses enough engrossing content to put many fully priced retail releases to shame. Geralt's last hurrah is a pleasure to experience; a fitting end to a stunning achievement.
The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine is a nearly flawless sendoff for Geralt of Rivia, and the world of The Witcher.
Blood and Wine, The Witcher 3’s final piece of DLC, could not have given such a remarkable game a more fitting send off. With a beautiful new world to explore, Toussaint is brimming with hours of content, stories, monsters to slay, great characters and a whole new bloody Gwent faction. The best of all is how the writers have been allowed to write some genuinely hilarious little stories -- you can tell that their having a ball and it had me in hysterics on several occasions.
Blood and Wine feels like a fitting end to Geralt’s story.
Though there are a few wrinkles in the fabric of Blood and Wine, it delivers a final chapter unlike any you’ve seen before.
I'm not even done with this new content, and there’s that enticing New Game + option, along with the 100 level cap, and plenty of decisions and a different ending I never experienced in the vanilla game, but even so it saddens me to know this is it, for now, with the adventures of Geralt of Rivia, the White Wolf.
This is a real treasure and a tribute to all-things Witcher, perfectly captured in the final moment before the credits roll: a close-up of Geralt, who turns to look directly at the player through the screen with a subtle grin, as if giving thanks for the chance to tell one last Witcher story.
If Blood and Wine is to be The Witcher series’ finale, then it’s going out on a high note that befits the high standards that have been set over the years. If you’ve enjoyed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, then this expansion is essential.
In Blood and Wine, things are quite different. Rather than a war ravaged wasteland, or an archipelago on the brink of civil war, famed monster hunter Geralt of Rivia travels to the southern region of Toussaint - a gorgeous unspoilt stretch of countryside. It truly is a wonderful place to be, lush with colour and an ever present orange sun that bathes the landscape in a warm glow. Its vineyards - famed world-over for their iconic wines - dot the landscape, while its beautiful capital of Beauclair sits visible from almost every point in the land, perched atop an elven ruin on a huge hill. After visiting Toussaint, the rest of the Witcher’s world feels unnecessarily depressing - you won’t want to leave.
The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine is a great sendoff, not only to Geralt, but to the Witcher franchise as well. CD Projekt Red have crafted a masterpiece in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and have changed how additional content should be presented with Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. At $20 you are already getting a better deal than most full priced games. If you are fan of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Blood and Wine is a can’t-miss.
Blood and Wine takes The Witcher 3 and expands, evolves, and turns conventions on their heads for a fantastic adventure that not only is a must-buy as DLC, but makes The Witcher 3 even more of a must-own game for those that don’t already.
An excellent conclusion to the series that will undoubtedly please every fan. A really massive expansion that works like a standalone game and shows the middle finger to the short DLCs for other games. Huge props to CDPR.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
A beautiful, fantastically enjoyable adventure, and a bittersweet goodbye to Geralt of Rivia.
The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine is a fitting farewell for Geralt. We do not know when we will see him again, if he returns to video games. But as a letter for his goodbye he left us a story in the most classic style of his adventures. Because, in the end, it is much more than video games. Although, without a doubt, it is thanks to them that we have been able to discover a story full of magic and class.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
If you are a fan of the original Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and feel the need to embark on a new journey, there is certainly a lot here to offer with Blood and Wine. The large-sized new area, dying armor, and the incorporation of mutations present a sufficient amount of new gameplay elements to play around with. However, it is the thirty hours of new adventures tied in with the amount of new quests and point of interests that will get players back into the game. Blood and Wine even offers a dynamic point of interest system that will affect the number of enemies in a certain area based on your actions. With the game being standalone, it could sell by itself. Being able to import a previous character, however, will certainly bring a lot to the table for fans of the series as The Witcher 3’s core gameplay is still in tact.
If Hearts of Stone was an uncomfortable, dark, challenging and powerful crescendo, Blood and Wine takes up the feeling of comfort and beauty of high fantasy, transporting us to a world that, however, is as corrupted as ours. The saga that showed that another fantasy was possible in video games concludes on an elegant and comfortable note. CD Projekt RED returns to the noble tradition of expansions: more than DLC, Blood and Wine is a complete game. You can't go wrong with The Witcher 3; while we wait for the next step, it only remains to say: something ends, something begins.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Blood and Wine is every bit as good as you would want Geralt’s final adventure to be.
In the end, The Witcher 3 Blood and Wine is a worthy addition to this franchise that once again makes you appreciate what an amazing game CD Projekt has created. Unlike many games that feature a static world or those that use smoke and mirrors, The Witcher 3 is quite dynamic and it feels like a living breathing universe and Blood and Wine really expands on this.
Blood and Wine feels like it was made as a loving goodbye to both Geralt and the Witcher series in general, as there’s so much attention to detail that it’s impossible not to regularly be in awe of it all. It’s the perfect bow on a game that has been nothing short of a gift that keeps on giving, and I expect it will continuing doing just that for all who fancy an adventure with a certain Witcher.
Blood & Wine is a fantastic goodbye to Geralt. I loved every minute of it and can’t wait to see what CD Projekt Red have in store for the future. I’m hopeful if there’s more in The Witcher series it comes with a refined combat system. Regardless of what they do, I’m confident it will be fantastic. But as for Blood & Wine, I’m glad I was able to see Geralt’s story finish up.