The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone Expansion

[Perkel]

I dont think the mainplot of Blood and Wine was weak, it was just not as good as Hearts of Stone. CDProjekt set the bar very high with their first addon, so the second one was somehow bound to dissapoint some people.

I think problem here is that it feels kind of forced many times like TW3 main quest. Especially ending fights.

 

[HoboForEternity]

I dont think the mainplot of Blood and Wine was weak, it was just not as good as Hearts of Stone. CDProjekt set the bar very high with their first addon, so the second one was somehow bound to dissapoint some people.

I think problem here is that it feels kind of forced many times like TW3 main quest. Especially ending fights.

there are alot of plot retardation to get stuff going. like if everyone we'rent lying, immature, or simply being an ass those would not have happpened.

 

[Paul_cz]

I dont think the mainplot of Blood and Wine was weak, it was just not as good as Hearts of Stone. CDProjekt set the bar very high with their first addon, so the second one was somehow bound to dissapoint some people.

I think problem here is that it feels kind of forced many times like TW3 main quest. Especially ending fights.

there are alot of plot retardation to get stuff going. like if everyone we'rent lying, immature, or simply being an ass those would not have happpened.

Welcome to humanity and the basis for most great stories.

 

[Azalin]

I dont think the mainplot of Blood and Wine was weak, it was just not as good as Hearts of Stone. CDProjekt set the bar very high with their first addon, so the second one was somehow bound to dissapoint some people.

I think problem here is that it feels kind of forced many times like TW3 main quest. Especially ending fights.

My main problem with B&W was the the main male antagonist was boring and just

.

 

[Sodafish]

HoS has Shani also

 

[Carrion]

I loved how much detail they put into each individual quest in HoS. I felt that TW3 was a bit too fast-paced at times, and HoS gave me some nice TW1 vibes. The overall story was nice, but I found the little subplots more interesting, as the main story has already been told before in other forms.

B&W wasn't bad, but it was a bit of a shame how they didn't continue on the path set by HoS but instead took a step or two backwards, being closer to the main game than the first expansion. The story was way too heavily on rails for my liking, cutscene-teleporting you around at a ridiculous pace, and it also had some fairly convoluted parts like they weren't sure how to glue all their cool ideas together. Toussaint did look absolutely gorgeous, though.

 

[Sodafish]

B&W is still good, it just couldn't reach the very high bar set by HoS.

I think part of the problem is that assuming they are played and completed in the intended order (TW3 > HoS > B&W), then by the mid-end of B&W sheer gaming fatigue is likely setting in (what is the playtime by then? 150-200 hours?).

Anyway, B&W has its moments too. The fairytale land comes to mind. I also enjoyed assaulting the Flaming Rose camps and bandit strongholds. Bruxae and Alp fights are good too.

 

[Cadmus]

B&W is still good, it just couldn't reach the very high bar set by HoS.

I think part of the problem is that assuming they are played and completed in the intended order (TW3 > HoS > B&W), then by the mid-end of B&W sheer gaming fatigue is likely setting in (what is the playtime by then? 150-200 hours?).

Anyway, B&W has its moments too. The fairytale land comes to mind. I also enjoyed assaulting the Flaming Rose camps and bandit strongholds. Bruxae and Alp fights are good too.

In my save it says cca 61 Hours that's with the main game completed and first quests in both expansions. Seems a bit too short, I guess I should have taken my time a bit more.

The problem...well it's not really a problem, but the trouble with the game is that it's so goddamn huge and while every single thing I found interested me, I never seemed to progress anywhere until I dove deep into one questline but by then I outlevel other stuff and when I want to switch to some other activity, I get discouraged by a new setup, new quest instructions, new bestiary and journal readings before the meat of the activity, be it quest or crafting or whatever, really starts. This makes it tiresome for me to be exploring the breadth of the game. I mean, I can't fault the game for that, I think it's a great strength that it's so big and almost everything in it is great, I just wish maybe the leveling system wasn't so insanely retarded so that I do get some rewards for finishing lower level stuff because it's all interesting.

I usually play in focused sessions, today I spent 2-3 hours crafting ursine armor and doing some shopping, lol and I'm not even finished. This is completely insane, that's half the time it takes you to finish D00M 2016.

Basically, the game requires an enormous amount of time to enjoy it as fully as you can (and I do mean enjoy, not "tick all the quest boxes because I'm bored") but by then you kinda need to do something else, play something else for a bit because, at least me, I can't spend a full month playing the same game every day, especially one as slow going and erratic as this. Of course I could rephrase it to say "this game provides hundreds of hours of interesting content" but it's not the same as playing retarded Skyrim where you follow your retard arrow and click on things to die and put buckets on horses heads. If you want to get the experience from TW3, you need to read most of the stuff presented to you, pay attention to the dialogues, explore with your EYES not with your fucking quest compass (at least that's what I do, again I strongly urge you guys to remove the minimap and markers and everything else!!).

My friend played TW3 in small sessions for a year to get the full proper experience, without playing anything else inbetween. Jesus, I can't do that.

 

[HoboForEternity]

i would place HoS in the most well written games ever like torment, MoTb, etc.

 

[Israfael]

When Olgierd sat down I kind of expected that he'd get his torban and start singing



Surprisingly good DLC so far, it even seems to have some sort of branching and it reminds me of the books I've read when I was a youngster. It was probably a bold move for CDP, as only the potatoes and other slavs would understand and appreciate this (although I'm not sure if the young generation ever read 'Ogniem i mieczem', or 'Potop', or heard of pan Tvardovsky. Western audience would probably feel robbed if they knew (looking at the reviews though, no one had the idea)