The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine

The Witcher has always been a slightly overrated series that has solid gameplay and a decent story with its fair share of issues, such as its weak combat system and a somewhat discombobulated storyline. With the Blood and Wine DLC however, everything has changed. This masterfully created piece of art has taken The Witcher to a transcendent level reached by only a few titles in the past decade. It's the very best combination of magnificent moods, spectacular stories, fantastic voice acting, and a grandiose soundtrack all set in a wondrous new locale. In the modern day of freemium games, CDPR has created a gem of a DLC that the world may never see its equal for a very long time. Don't let the DLC part fool you, this game can, and should stand plenty on its own. Witcher 3 - 7.5/10 Hearts of Stone - 8.3/10 Blood and Wine - 10/10

A great expansion and a great ending for a wonderful game. Story and quests are excellent as usual, new powers and ability are very interesting, and Toussaint is the most beatiful place I've ever seen in a game. Thank you again CDProjekt Red.

I've only once before been sad, truly sad, after completing a game. The first time was with The Witcher 3. And now again with Blood and Wine. I felt really sad when Geralt was having a conversation with Emil and he was saying that he needed to take a break from witchering and adventuring and he looked straight into the camera, at me, the gamer. He wasn't taking his farewall with Emil, he was rather telling me "This is the end of my story, and I need to go now". And then we had the perfect ending scene -- Triss (I picked Triss as my love interest) reclining and drinking wine leisurely with Geralt standing by. It felt like the end of a saga. And what an ending! Toussaint is so beautiful, the colors so vivid, nature so peaceful, so even when you come across a monster to kill, and there are plenty of them, you don't feel like in the main story when everything breathes despair, destruction, and death; instead you're quick to dispose of the monster as it doesn't belong in this tranquility, in this paradise of a place. And what about the tournament! Oh man, I loved that mission. Well, I loved all of them, and I wish the Witcher had the ability to replay missions you like after completing the game, so I can do this one over and over. What a game! And what a spectacular way to finish the trilogy. Even though I had a feeling that in that last conversation between Geralt and Emil, Geralt hinted at further adventures. I hope I'm right and in a few years we have another Witcher. But I would also understand and respect the developers' decision to end the series now with dignity rather than turn it into a "franchise" and milk it for as long as possible. Sometimes it takes more courage to stop than it does to continue. And I trust CDPR to make the right decision. 30 years from now, your grandkids will ask you "What was it like playing the Witcher?" and you won't have an excuse if you replied "I did not." Go play it now!

Let's put aside the amazing mechanics of the graphical fidelity{current year 2016} and artistic creativity and color of the beautiful and striking world this game is set in, and take a moment to appreciate the maturity and complexity that is the writing for this game. This game will make you laugh out loud, and cry out loud, and it will force you into situations where you must think complexly about the characters with whom you are dealing. It confronts you with the realities of violence and the short and long term consequences of tough decisions. It examines ideas of how much impact and responsibilty one can have in a flawed and war-torn world, and does so so casually that you hardly notice you are in the presence of the great philosophical debates during dialogue choices that can affect both the overarching plot of the world and individual characters' lives and well-being. This game has choices that have real impact, and ones that don't. Just like real life, you can affect someone in a way that changes their life without even realizing it at first. This game will surprise you and shock you, and if you become invested in the characters(if you're not a hard-hearted cave-troll) then it will even move you. This game is mature--it doesn't shy away from violence or sex and tells its story completely fearlessly. No political sensitivities seem to make their way into the narrative, as story is prioritized over what is safe, though it also doesn't make any attempt to be 'edgy' or offensive on purpose. It simply tells a fantastic story, and that's it. All in all I enjoyed every hour of my experience with this game, and appreciated the themes and ideas explored as much as the gameplay and beautiful scenery I am certain you can find many others laud in other reviews. Furthermore, the story added to the game in Blood and Wine is extremely refreshing given that Toussaint is not a war torn nation, and paints even more color and a little more light into the game's world.

But Blood & Wine is different. There's about 20 to 30-hours of playtime added by this expansion alone. And in many ways it's more than a mere expansion. Where Hearts of Stone delivered the best story of The Witcher 3, Blood & Wine gives us the best region. Toussaint uses a new lightning system which looks absolutely gorgeous. At times it feels like you're walking into a fairy tale world (one time literally). New Witcher mutations are added for further build variety. New monsters. New Witcher equipment. New quests. New parodies on old medieval folktales. The most beautiful city in an RPG yet. Blood & Wine genuinely feels like a sequel with the way it improves the base game. It even added a new, better UI that now applies to the base game. And of course it's accompanied by CD Projekt's top notch side quest design. The only downside I can think of is the main quest doesn't quite realize its full potential. It presents some political commentary on feudal politics (much like the base game), but that stuff withers away by the end. Story's still decent, but not on par with Hearts of Stone. An absolute high point of what was already one of the best RPGs of its generation. Everyone who loved the base game should play Blood & Wine.