The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone

Masterpiece

While often overshadowed by *Blood & Wine* due to its smaller territorial expansion (the northeast of the original map), *Hearts of Stone* offers a highly original adventure and introduces a truly enigmatic character, Gaunter O’Dimm, whom players will come to know—and even fear. The storyline is a masterful work of art, both profound and emotionally gripping. This isn’t an ordinary quest; it’s a multifaceted struggle, including a battle of emotions. Action is present in this DLC but takes a backseat, with some quests demanding genuine emotional investment from the player. For Geralt, the goal isn’t to change *the* world but to transform *one* world—that of the tormented Olgierd von Everec. While *Hearts of Stone* isn’t strictly necessary to continue Geralt’s adventures (it can be played before, but preferably after, the main story), skipping it would be a shame. Its narrative quality surpasses even the base game’s, and it holds a special surprise for fans of the earlier games. 😉

History in the DLC is better than in the original game! :O

I loved it. I think it's even better than the base game, it completes it perfectly. As I said in my "The Witcher 3" review, the trilogy shows a fantastic evolution of the game and the developer, "Hearts of Stone" keeps this evolution even in the few hours it takes to complete. I've read some people saying that HoS was not that good and I played it with that in my mind; they lied, in my humble opinion. I'll leave you with my points: ♛ The story, short indeed, is amazing! Amazing! I loved it. ♛ The villain is one of the best I've met. Maybe a concept a little cliché, but very well developed to make you tremble. See, the Hunt... was not a bad villain, but I think they could have developed it a little more, I think the hags were even better villains. In HoS the baddie is someone worth to fear. ♛ Different from Blood and Wine, this DLC won't take you to other region, but compensates that within the main line of the story. ♛ The music is crazy! The theme of the villain is one of my favorites, if not, my favorite of the whole game, base and DLCs. ♛ More cool monsters to battle. ♛ A heartbreaking story. If you are up for some drama, let me open the door for you. ♛ Iris... oh, Iris... such a sweet woman. ♛ There is a cat and a dog. Both of them talk. ♛ Sex scene with a past love of Geralt. Yum, yum... ☠ It's too short. ☠ I can't pet neither the dog or the cat. Shame on you CDPR. I really loved Hearts of Stone, it was money well spent. I would have enjoyed it to be a little longer. Get it, play it, enjoy it.

This dlc presents a good story, but i don't like some gameplay choice that developer take. Some boss-fight are artificially harder, an we have boss with massive HP, sboss abilities that can one-shot you and some boss abilities that can restore their HP. In this way i can't use efficienlty my build and i was forced to use always Queen and Aard signs, because the other signs are useless during the primary quest. I was at level 36 when i start this dlc and i finish the main quest and some secondary quest at level 38, but despite the suggested level for the main quest was 34-36, i feel much weaker during my playthrough. In some part story is good, but in other part is boring and an excuse for extends the duration of the primary quest. In someway CDProjekt try to experiments something new, but the result is not always good. The base gameplay has not changed. There are some new weapons, armors and new locations but nothing that is a "game changer". Overall is solid but it could be better. Vote: 7/10