Ведьмак 3: Дикая Охота - Издание Игра Года

To sum it up: Witcher 3 GOTY is brilliant. From the 2017 still really good graphics, over the fantastic soundtrack to the story and characters, almost everything is really, really good. I tried to think about a fantasy RPG which I have played and which has the same quality level and I couldn’t remember any… I thought about Dragon Age 1 or maybe Pillars of Eternity but all in all I still liked Witcher 3 better. Why? Well that’s a pretty long story so I try to make it short. Witcher 3 really hits the feeling of the books almost perfectly. If you read the books, you really goanna like this: there are many characters from the books, with their characteristics hit really good and even their looks are close to what you would imagine after reading the books. The character-writing it is also really good: most of the relevant ones are complex enough to sympathizes with them or hate them. Even the side-characters are complex enough and have their own small story-lines, which make almost every quest interesting. The story of the main game is still good but has some pacing problems and some not so gripping moments. BUT: there are some really heavy decisions to make, which made me think about my answer and its consequences twice! The really long end quest hit me emotionally and that’s what even Dark Souls or Skyrim never managed. Gameplay is fun, not as complex as Dark Souls but much better than Skyrim. Sometimes there are still small bugs and balancing problems but all in all it’s still really good playable. The DLCs on the other hand still manage to improve the quality of the really good main game. Much better pacing, really interesting characters which make you curious in the moment you meet them and a again well written plot with twists, turns and heavy consequences. To say the DLCs would be perfect wouldn’t be 100% accurate, but they come really close. The soundtrack than finishes the product: it matches the situations good to perfect and is very diverse. All in all you should definitively buy Witcher 3 GOTY. It’s 100% worth it (even the full price of 50€)!

Seriously, it is. Most video games struggle to do one thing well, whether that be the story or the controls or the game mechanics. This game on the other hand does everything flawlessly. The controls are fluid and aren't overcomplicated like most RPG's. Unlike most open world games, this game is packed full of stuff to do. in addition to the main storyline. One of the greatest acheivements I think is that it perfectly balances the RPG elements to be complex enough for an experienced RPG player to enjoy, but simple enough for a new player to get a hang of. It's not so detailed that it bores the average FPS player, but detailed enough to entice you into using every advantage you can. The characters are, simply put, the best I've seen in any entertainment medium. Each character is written to have so much inividual flare but they still fit their surroundings and situation perfectly. The voice acting and character animation go hand in hand to help ground them even further and you can really feel the emotion flowing from them, sometimes they're more realistic than some of the people I meet at work. I care more for some of the characters than I do for some friends, they're simply that good. The story is simple, but it's so deep and twists in way even the most bing watcher won't expect. Along the way you'll do things that simply shouldn't be fun but somehow are, things like preparing and performing in a play or herding some pigs. on top of this perfection of the medium, they managed to find space to add a simple but fun card game that has you yearning for more, thank god Gwent is now a standalone game. and if you didn't think that was enough, this game is DRM free. You can play it without the need for an account or an online connection. You can do whatever you want with this game. There are countless mods available thanks to the modding tools provided with the game. Thank you CD Projekt Red from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being a developer we can trust.

Looking back I think playing the Witcher series took quite some hours. Too many for me sometimes to be honest. I started Witcher 1 one or two times. But very soon in the game I was bored and stopped playing. As far as I remember also Witcher 2 I had to put aside one or two times. I wanted to play through the whole series then when Witcher 3 was out. All the reviews made me curious. So I started the series from the beginning again - waiting for a reasonable price for the Witcher 3 GOTY - and managed to go through the games. Although from time to time I found myself asking if I have not seen everything already somehow somewhere earlier in the game. Don't get me wrong. The Witcher series is interesting and especially Witcher 3 is great in terms of gameplay and graphics. But is it generally better than games from the Elder Scrolls series or Gothic? Morrowind or Skyrim I consider great games too, spent hours on them, but never managed to go through. At some point I found myself running around aimlessly and decided to stop. Gothic I never really started because I did not like the gameplay. What all these games have in common though for me is the fact that hunting equipment can not cover the continuous "Going there, talking to this person, running there, fighting this monster", and the sheer size and amount of quests making you feel lost sometimes. The big plus with Witcher 3 though is that it seems to me a bit more straight forward. I skipped almost everything concerning Gwint, races or fistfights and ignored most of the question marks located in sea area with still enough things left to do. Maybe I should have stopped after the base game was through because for me there was not so much value added with the extensions, especially not with Heart of Stone. Eventually I do not want to give five stars because for me it's not so much better than e.g. Skyrim. I have invested enough time and don't think that I will ever replay the Witcher series again - don't see a point in doing that.

If you like fantasy RPGs, this is a must own. This is THE essential must-have game, this is the best game ever made. Sure, you can't create your own character, you can't be female or an elf or a dwarf, you role play as Geralt. BUT, the story is amazing and gripping, the characters are well fleshed out, the world is immersive and all too real. THE ELDER SCROLLS created open world RPGs but THE WITCHER 3 perfected it. The two expansions HEART OF STONE and BLOOD AND WINE are must haves, both stories are far better than the original campaign with very interesting characters throughout. The graphics are outstanding and a major point of bringing the world to life. The series has come very far from THE WITCHER 1. Character models look good, the world looks amazing, there is very much detail to the world. The voice actors, are top notch as well. Doug Cockle has voiced Geralt in both preceding epics as well, this is great for continuity, Jo Wyatt from DRAGON AGE 2 voices Ciri, overall the English voice actors are great! The musical score is brilliant too, with Polish folklore group Parcival performing their version of several traditional folk songs in a very fitting and fantastic score. What is truly amazing though are the characters and the the story with choices that have true consequences that can be tragic and morally deep. Often times the consequences are surprising and cannot be foreseen. There is a great variety of monsters and quests, my favorite being the Witcher contracts. These often require preparation and tactics, Diablo-style hack 'n slash does not work in higher difficulty settings and in the DLCs combat has a touch of DARK SOULS to it. I love the preparation, when you have to learn about the monsters' weaknesses, use the proper potions and oils for your swords, it makes combat so much more than simple button mashing. THE WITCHER 3 is the closest you'll ever get to a great fantasy novel: it sucks you in, you feel it, live it and wish it would never end.

This is hands down one of the best games ever made. It is one of the few games where you can truly get lost in all the different the quest and at the atmosphere. The quest are also varied and fun, and the open world setting is amazing, plenty of items to collect and find. CD Projekt Red has created a true masterpiece.