The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt - Complete Edition

About:

The Witcher 3 is the last game in the series released, which comes with the proposal to clarify events from the old games and continue the saga of Geralt of Rivia, the wizard, who makes his living through wizards contracts while looking for Ciri, a species from an adopted daughter who is fleeing the Wild Hunt, an organization that is after the mysterious powers of the charismatic “Lady of the Lake”.

Plot:

The game starts when Geralt meets Yennefer when he finds out that he and Cirila are being chased by the Wild Hunt, and that's where the game begins and unfolds. Clearly like any good RPG game, the tale does not unfold through this single challenge, it will also review old friends and argue rivals. The game's storyline is surprising, full of twists and with that “bittersweet taste” in the course of each different tale, which is narrated by the bard Dandelion.

Gameplay:

Perhaps this is a great challenge for any casual gamer or who is not used to games from CD Projekt Red, From Software, Bioware or other companies involved in the creation of important games with the Role-Playing Game theme. Following on from many of the main gameplay features of the previous games in the series, the game has some complex controls with freedom of movement and really impressive action for a game of the genre. The character attacks, jumps, dodges, defends, runs, walks, selects magic, changes equipment and accessories in real time, selects and attacks with different spells, varieties of attack combos, defense and counter attacks, mixing elements from Hack n 'Slash in the game. During the game's plot, you will notice that it has an extremely simple and intuitive “natural tutorial system”, which will greatly facilitate the understanding of its gameplay system, and everything works very well, even the camera against large monsters considerable, a major problem in games of the same genre. And of course, no problem that is not solved with a few hours of gameplay hahahahaha. By the way, the game has a very basic system of customization and creation of items and equipment, in addition to much to be explored through dialogues with the game's NPCs and exploration of the game map (huge by the way). The game has, approximately, a time of about 30 ~ 40 hours finishing the main story without counting the side quests and DLC’s of the game, which greatly increase this time of easy play to more than 100 hours. The game also features Gwent, a card game within The Witcher universe, which can be played with other NPCs in the game besides tournaments. Gwent has its own system of decks, rules, and rare cards as if it were really another game within The Witcher. The great thing about the game is perhaps due to the game's diversity in solving its puzzles and game problems. You don't necessarily need to engage in combat with anyone in many game situations, and you can solve even more complex quests through dialogue or solving logical thinking puzzles. And of course, every choice in the game has its consequences that certainly change the game's plot. Perhaps a complaint of the game is its ease in combating against mobs, which greatly improves the experience increasing the difficulty of the game.

Graphics:

Now we can talk about something that I have the least ownership of in the subject hahahaha. The game was made by CD Projekt Red through REDengine, the same licensed by games from Bioware and used in The Witcher 2, but EXTREMELY POLISHED for the current generation at the time the game was released, incredible by 2k15 standards. I, in particular, played the game on the PC through Steam, on a high performance machine in the highest graphic quality possible in 1080p resolution at 60fps. The game has a very average textures default even for its time, and even though I have the experience of playing it stored on an SSD, it can be well observed the delay in rendering textures and a little poorly worked, which even in a way is justified, given the size of the game map. Nothing that a Mod Texture HD Rework Project does not solve HAHAHAHAHA. The game has an AMAZING Ambiental Occlusion system in the facial expression of the characters and NPCs and ambience of the game, which SURELY was inspiration for many consecutive games, I can easily quote: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order and several other games. A good anti-aliasing, post-processing system and the key point of the game: HairWorks. Even using an AMD GPU, the HairWorks system implemented in the game is simply WONDERFUL. Geralt's hair, from NPCs, coat of monsters is simply very well worked, moving according to the dynamic ambience of the game and with a very high resolution of detail, really dispensing with any defects as it happens in many current games, such as Resident Evil 2 for example, which has an excess of blur and aliasing around the hair of the characters that, at least in my opinion, hinder the game experience a lot.

Soundtrack and dubbing:

The game was played by me in Portuguese (Brazilian) dubbing, which is disappointing in some aspects, both in the synchronization of voices, and when compared to the original dubbing of the game. However, in contrast, the game's soundtracks are all original, made and thought for the same, they are simply EPIC. The songs played by bards in caves, (even dubbed in Portuguese) background songs against mobs and bosses, thematic songs from certain parts of the map are simply “breathtaking”, as the acclaimed Keanu Reeves would say hahahahahaha.

Is it worth it or not?

It's definitely worth it! even for those who, like me, had never played any game in the series before, it becomes a unique and incredible experience to live. With a very mature and thematic gameplay aimed at a much more adult audience, the game goes beyond many expectations, making you really get stuck, laugh, cry, get angry in many moments in history, it is really an extremely complete game. Certainly one of the best made games of all time!

Outstanding gameplay and outstanding story. Glad that I finally got to play the Witcher 3 on the Switch. Others complained about the graphics, but honestly, what do you expect? If you want the game to look its best, play it on a PC. No argument can be made against having the Witcher 3 on a portable console that you can literally play anywhere.

*SPOILERS*
Beyond that - the main story was great, I loved the consequences of your decisions and how they played out at the battle of Kaer Morhen - there were definitely a few things I wish I could have gone back and changed - mainly saving Keira Metz. Side quests were pretty standard - ranging from the mundane to challenging, particularly some of the monster hunting early on in the game. Collecting the various witcher armor sets provided another opportunity for game completion, and there were what felt like a million different points of interest to checkout. Most areas were fine, but good god they took forever in Skellige (particularly when your boat only lasted for a handful of them after harpies savaged your boat so much it sank).

I'm glad this version bundled both DLCs - Hearts of Stone was a pretty good addition, but Blood and Wine honestly felt like another smaller Witcher game in itself. Toussaint was by far my favorite area of the game - gorgeous backdrops and filled with a host of interesting quests, and people.

This was truly an exceptional game, and if Cyberpunk 2077 is anything like Witcher 3, it will go down as another classic RPG from CD Projekt Red.