The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

a lot of hours of immersive game play. beautiful landscapes, nice story. But at some point, one realizes, the player doesnt have any impact on the world, he/she is just there to witness the changing world. NPC deaths are predestined and cannot be avoided. apparent decision making on side quests do not have impact on the story and the world. weird gameplay balancing leads to quests where some douchebags in an backyard alley have no sweat roughing up the witcher who killed countless monsters just before this particular quest that threatened the safety of the world and stuff. Why dont these backyard bullies fight those dragons? They are apparently more equipped, if they are able to kill the witcher with one blow! ;) A lot of bugs make this sometimes hard to be immersed in the game. graphical bugs, accidental initiation of adventure paths because the player missteps and falls into an open hole in the street and lands in the sewer system, ladders that do not work, doors do not open even with a key, stuff like that. 90% of the time everything is fine. i got my moneys worth out of it, but i would call it flawless.

+ I can't really add too much to the best reviews, this game is almost a perfect story-driven adventure RPG, with a ton of lore, not to mention the great writting and great voice-acting. Play at least the Witcher 2 before and keep the saves, they feed into this one! - That being said, you can only play Geralt, who is a close combat sword-master with some basic spells and tons of alchemy (potions and poisons). Although many games give you much more variety in game styles, this game takes this game style to perfection. So don't expect to play a ranger, or sneak around too much. - I wish they would update the in-game Gwent to the actual contemporary game, that is very confusing. * Tips for a better experience - Turn off the map markers for random encounters (get suprised!) and the path indicator (dots), this adds to immersion! So get it, Play it and Enjoy!

The Witcher series, especially wild hunt, does for me what other sandbox RPG's generally fail to do - get me invested in the characters and story. Some developers feel that it's enough to fill their sandbox with toys/attractions and fun just happens. Unless I'm really into the setting or said attractions/gameplay scratches a certain itch it just feels pointless to me at worst and a minor diversion at best. Doing a replay of wild hunt after seeing the first trailer for 2077. <3

The Witcher 3 is now my favourite game. No kidding. I have been playing this game on Saturday for straight 12 hours and I could not notice that I was playing for so until after I was done and needed to sleep. First things first: The graphics... simply amazing. Away with those that claim this to be heavily downgraded from the trailer we saw in 2013. Let's face it: No one would be able to run it. And while the game may have some spots which are weak, the overall look and feel of the game is simply mind blowing. Oh and the weather... the weather is implemented in such a way that the first time I was going through a forest in a storm my jaw dropped. The soundtrack is amazing as well. Combination of folk songs from Polish band "Percival" and original soundtrack, and even mixes of these two, blend well with the world, the setting and situation you are currently in. Now, before I will talk about main storyline quests, I would like to tell you how The Witcher 3 handles side quests. You will not find the RPG classics "Go there, kill 10 bandits" or "Bring me 10 swine husks, I need them for [insert generic reason]". Each side quest has a story of it's own and each of them is amazing, very well written, sometimes funny, sometimes serious but what is most important: worth going through. Now to the main storyline. Without spoiling anything, the story is immersive, each decision is difficult and has really unknown outcome and you will find yourself thinking about what should you do. There is no black and white, good and wrong here. Everything is grey and has consequences. The dialogues are very well written and Geralt's sarcasm is a nice touch (hell, some of the puns I heard here I used at work and was always successful). You can really notice that you are are starting to care about the characters and want to know more and do more for them. There are also some minor issues here and there (ie. inventory) but overally this game is: AMAZING! Go buy it, go buy it now!

I loved the combination of great story and game-play. Played it for a long time because of lengthy interruptions, and each time I picked up where I left off I still loved the game. I've left many games and movies behind this way. Not this one.