The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine Expansion

[Paul_cz]

Why don't they just disable those things instead of blurring them out?

It's 2016, the number one rule of HUDs is to have as much clutter on the screen as possible. Even hints that tell you which button to press if you want to sprint, in case you happened to forget about it after playing the game for 100+ hours.

They just show these screens as most people will play, but the nice thing is, unlike many other devs, here you have an option to disable every UI element separately based on your own preference.

 

[Talby]

This expansion looks like someone tried to make a World of Warcraft zone in a photorealistic style.

 

[Gerrard]

Yeah, and the majority of dumbfucks on the official forum like it and CDP dindu nuffin wrong.

 

[Merlkir]

It looks fine. Don't like it? Use ReShade.

 

[WhiteGuts]

The region (Toussaint) is supposed to look like something out of a fairly tale. Which is why they are going for the cartoonish look and feel.

 

[NullFlow]

 

[Starwars]

That music... why?

 

[Tytus]

That music... why?

Because of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5abtM6PaVo



CDPR is just trying to be the next Bioware.

 

[janior]

Because of this

naah

 

[Sam Ecorners]

Ohhhhh, is this the new shit?

 

[Space Insect]

At least they don't insert that musial trash into the game. If they do that to Cyberpunk, well...

 

[moraes]

That music... why?

Because of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5abtM6PaVo



CDPR is just trying to be the next Bioware.

 

[bonescraper]

Tell me this is the American trailer.

Spoiler

If they do that to Cyberpunk, well...

Synthwave or bust!

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Perkel]

They seem to use licensed music for launch trailers. Both TW3 and HoS had those launch trailers with licensed music.

 

[Infinitron]

Reviews are coming in.

Eurogamer

The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine review
A knight on the town

Blood and Wine is a fitting end to an exceptional video game.

The most endearing thing about the knights of old is not their chivalry, their boldness or their devotion to beauty. Rather, it's how enthusiastically they use those three qualities to justify behaving like total idiots. Take Sir Lancelot in Chrétien De Troyes' The Knight of the Cart, for instance. In one passage, Lancelot watches from the highest window of a tower as the queen rides past, gazing "attentively and with pleasure at her." Then, "when he could no longer see her, he wanted to throw himself from the window and shatter his body on the ground below." He tries it too, just like that; the anguish of having a pretty lady break his line of sight is enough for this valiant knight to throw a whopping, potentially fatal tantrum. It delights me to say that the knights of Toussaint, the new region on offer in The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine, are no less sincere. Or stupid.

In the second and final expansion for The Witcher 3, Geralt is whisked off to an opulent region of bold knights and boastful deeds; one that might just be the most beautiful open world ever seen in a video game. The Temeria of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was often a grave and unforgiving place where pockets of colour fought for their place in the world. Toussaint, meanwhile, is all bravado; a rich colour palette bursts from every corner, the armour is frilly and pompous, and the city guards issue warnings in rhyming couplets for crying out loud.

The vibrant, almost garish campness of Toussaint forms a pleasing contrast with Temeria that's only improved by the addition of the surly, unkempt Geralt of Rivia. From the moment the first dandyish knights sashay into view, it's clear CD Projekt Red is determined to have a bit of fun in its final outing with The Witcher - indeed, Geralt is such a predictably salty counterpoint to all this pomp and bluster that Blood and Wine's opening section feels like one long, knowing wink. One of the first things Geralt does in this new adventure is find a handkerchief monogrammed DLC, and that's just the beginning; he kills a giant, attends a gladiatorial battle in a tournament arena and is gifted his very own vineyard, all in little over an hour.

I frequently found myself pausing just to look around.

But, while Blood and Wine's setting is rich and playful and more than a little silly (the most popular expletive in the region appears to be 'bumbotch', if you were wondering), that's not to say it's all a frippery. Blood and Wine's main story is a bloody, foreboding yarn to rival the most memorable questlines of Wild Hunt. A very large, very important contract has Geralt doing some of his best sleuthing, even if the mechanics comprising said detective work are nothing new. It's possible to go on a frankly bizarre tangent in the latter portions of the main questline - something I predict will prove divisive among fans - but all in all the core story is exceptionally well paced, keeping clear of the drudgery that weighed down certain aspects of the base game.

A few of the side quests, meanwhile, are fripperies, and they're all the better for it. While Wild Hunt certainly had its moments of levity, most of its side quests were grim cautionary tales of one stripe or another. Blood and Wine's secondary missions strike an altogether lighter tone, with frequent forays into the ridiculous. The business of Witching can still prove every bit as grisly in Beauclair as in Novigrad, but it can also send one off to find the stolen testicles of a famous statue. The sheer unpredictability of these quests helps make Blood and Wine feel as much like a holiday for Geralt as the next chapter in a long and harrowing career.

Pinched coinpurses aside, Blood and Wine is an impressive expansion because it manages to innovate despite having the unenviable task of closing out a game that's already over a hundred hours long. A lot of that sense of innovation stems from sticking Geralt in such a different setting, naturally, but it also stems from some welcome gameplay additions - of which the extended mutations system is the star.

Aimed specifically at high level players with character points to burn, Geralt can pour extra points (and mutagens) into researching a fistful of enhanced mutations, each lending a different - and devastating - edge in combat. These abilities are very deliberately bombastic, verging on the absurd: one gives you a sky-high damage bonus based on how many enemies you're facing at the start of a fight, for instance, but then hobbles your damage stats based on how many of those enemies are still standing thirty seconds later. Another - my personal favourite - turns the Aard sign into a blast that freezes any enemy it doesn't knock over while exploding any it does. It's effective enough against groups of smaller enemies to feel borderline overpowered, but making bandits explode with a flick of the wrist is too much fun to consider passing up.

Blood and Wine boasts some memorable encounters with larger enemies.

As with runesmithing in Hearts of Stone, Blood and Wine is very keen to offer up these new abilities straight away. A quest leading to the new mutations is available from the very start, with the same going for the new sets of witcher gear. Witcher gear can now be dyed, by the way, but don't go in expecting to have Geralt dressed head-to-toe in hot pink. All of the colours are quite tastefully chosen, so you'll have a hard time making Geralt look completely ridiculous. Believe me, I tried.

New mutations and tastefully dyed witcher gear can both be tested on the new additions (or reintroductions) to the bestiary; a lineup of about twenty monsters including scurvers, archespores and barghests. CD Projekt Red has made no secret of its intent to disrupt player habits in Blood and Wine and, for the most part, these new enemies do just that. Quite a few fights forced me to break from my traditional method of quen-roll-aard-slash-hack-repeat which, again, is quite impressive after hundreds of fights in the main game. Hanses also do a good job of bringing something new to non-monster encounters; these are large, fortified bandit camps swarming with enemies. Each Hanse is a fun challenge if only thanks to the sheer number of combatants. They may not be the most groundbreaking addition to feature in Blood and Wine, but they're welcome all the same.

One of the stranger additions - and sadly Blood and Wine's most disappointing aspect - is Geralt's vineyard, which is meant to form a base of operations for Sir of Rivia during his time in Toussaint. As the apologetic (and excellently named) majordomo Barnabas Basil-Foulty explains on arrival, Corvo Bianco is in need of a little sprucing up. Unfortunately, while they do provide a perk or two - increased stamina for Roach from the stables, a vitality boost from buying a new bed - the renovations made available to Geralt are pretty few in number. Affording each and every one right off the bat isn't likely to be an issue for anyone who's finished the main game, making short work of an otherwise promising mechanic. Even getting the game to roll you a new character specifically for Blood and Wine nets you more than enough cash to bankroll the entire renovation.

The lack of upgrades on offer may be disappointing, but the vineyard is nonetheless a great tone setter for Blood and Wine. It creates the sense that Geralt's time as a Witcher (and our time with Geralt) is drawing to a close; that there may soon come a time when he puts down the sword and adopts a quieter lifestyle. It's a tone that resonates throughout the expansion, maintaining a sense of poignancy and reflection in a region of pomp and excess. All in all, Blood and Wine is a fitting swansong for The Witcher 3. It's a playful goodbye, but also a testament to what made the series so good in the first place. It brings a vibrant new perspective to the world of The Witcher while remaining true to the gritty, medieval P.I gameplay that made it great in the first place. It's an emotional yet mirthful fairytale; one every Witcher fan ought to experience.

 

[Infinitron]

Rock Paper Shotgun

Wot I Think: The Witcher 3: Blood And Wine
Richard Cobbett on May 25th, 2016 at 2:00 pm.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt [official site] is one of the best RPGs ever made, and the first DLC, Hearts of Stone, certainly didn’t let the side down. Now, Geralt’s final adventure comes to an end in a terrorised land. Is it a fitting finale? Here’s Wot I Think.


There’s always been an element of finality to The Witcher. Geralt is a man out of time, figuratively, but increasingly aware that the end isn’t going to be far off. At some point he won’t be strong enough to ply his trade. At some point, he’ll be just a little too slow to dodge out of the way of the incoming griffin, and his reward for a lifetime of heroism, compassion and saving the world will be a painful, lonely, and likely little-mourned death on some cold hill somewhere. Mostly, he seems okay with that. But CD Projekt RED, which has ridden this series from obscurity to the top-tier of RPG developers, clearly aren’t. Blood And Wine is their parting gift – not to us, but to Geralt himself. A big ‘thank you’ present wrapped in a bow and slipped with love between universes.

Of course, it’s also another huge DLC pack full of everything that The Witcher III does so well, including offering the power to surprise. The mechanics are well-worn now, there aren’t really any changes to the core systems, and I could happily go a year or so without the words “Use your Witcher senses to-” trying to burn their way into my screen. In terms of quest design though, it’s surprises around every corner, from dealing with a wight with a spoon obsession to trying to track down a statue’s magical testicles. I’d love to see some of the stuff that CDP has rejected over the years for being too silly or time consuming, because as ever, they’re all implemented with the kind of love most RPGs restrict to their big critical path set-pieces.

In raw terms, I finished this DLC in about 15 hours, but that’s not even close to a complete run. There’s a whole new map full of points of interest, treasure troves, Witcher contracts and more, and I still had great swathes of map left unexplored. As with Hearts of Stone, you can continue your existing save into Blood and Wine, or be given a brand new Geralt at Level 35 to customise with what you want. Other smaller additions include dyes that can be used to customise Witcher gear, a new Skellige Gwent deck, and a tweak to the mutation system that I unfortunately wasn’t able to try due to a bug – not being able to slide down a rope into the new area and get the gear. The gist though is that you can unlock new mutations that do more than just boost damage, like freezing people with Aard or landing critical hits with other signs.

The story is standalone, but you’ll want to have finished the main game. There aren’t any truly bastard-hard enemies like the Caretaker from Hearts of Stone, though the final one gives it a good shot, but Geralt does have to handle some seriously big brawls. I said ‘brawls’. Though that said, this is a Witcher game…

Unlike the last DLC, Hearts of Stone, Blood and Wine also takes place in a brand new region – Toussaint. Unlike most of The Witcher series so far, it’s an idyllic place untouched by war or even that many problems. Knights ride around in search of adventure or glorious battles to win the hearts of their lady-loves, peasants go mostly unmolested by soldiers or invaders, and most people are said to be slightly drunk all the time. Which would explain some of the dodgy, not-quite-French accents.

Of course, that’s during the day. At night… ah… well, actually, at night things are pretty much the same. Almost creepily so. I was expecting the place to be on the lines of Mordavia from Quest For Glory IV, where beautiful days give way to terrifying nights and the people hide in terror of vampires and their minions. Instead, while there are monsters like everywhere else in the Witcher universe, relatively speaking it’s a place with few concerns and no real reason to be afraid of the dark. Heck, this is a holiday destination. Geralt even spends most of the adventure teamed up with an old friend who happens to be a higher vampire (not a spoiler, he’s completely open about it), and one of the most sociable and pleasant companions a Witcher could have.

On top of that, Geralt has never been so warmly welcomed on a contract. The Duchess is an old friend, most of the citizens aren’t particularly bothered about having a Witcher in their ranks, there isn’t the constantly hanging prejudice towards non-humans, and where he goes, he’s typically and openly given the respect of titles like ‘master witcher’ and thanked for his efforts instead of paid a pittance and told to piss off.

The result has an odd flavour to it. In and of itself, Toussaint isn’t that exciting a location. Oh, don’t take that as too big of a criticism. It’s a gorgeous, intricately designed place. The palaces and streets of its main city, Beauclair, are wonderful, and there’s some fantastically dark and beautiful stuff later on that I’m not going to spoil, but would advocate kneecapping anyone who does. However, for the most part it’s notthat different to the scenery we’ve now spent so long riding around in The Witcher III, and I wouldn’t have minded a trip somewhere a little further afield to see something other than fields and grasslands and European city designs, even if Toussaint’s are more French. I kept waiting for it to reveal some dark and twisted side, but it simply doesn’t, give or take a little dickishness from some of its less chivalric knights.

But as I said at the start, that’s not what Blood and Wine is about, not really. It’s a story about a man who has already had his last big adventure, and is more interested in giving him something hitherto impossible – a place to happily retire, if he chooses. Brick for brick, Toussaint is Geralt’s perfect resting place – wine, women, respect, beasts for if he gets bored, and the political stability to be able to just sit back and let the world worry about itself for a while. CD Projekt even gives him… and I think ‘him’ rather than ‘the player’ is more apt… a vineyard, complete with staff and loyal majordomo (I won’t spoil his name, but ouch, guys, ouch) and you have to love his cautious excitement at the idea of finally having owning a comfy bed and at least having the choice to hang up his swords. Whether or not he does is just detail.

Mechanically though, the vineyard doesn’t offer a lot. You repair it with the loose change in Geralt’s pocket at this point in the adventure and then it more or less just sits there, offering an alchemist’s table, useful tools like a grindstone and herb garden and a bed with a vitality buff, and a touchpoint for a couple of stories. You don’t really run it, and can’t customise it very much, except hanging a few paintings on the wall and loading up weapons, armour and trophy stands with the spoils of past adventure. Its role in the story makes it more than a token gesture, with a couple of touching scenes, but it’s a gold sink rather than a home, right down to the people working there just having generic peasant barks instead of acknowledging that you’re their boss. It’s fine. Just don’t expect much, and certainly not a Stardew Valley type thing.

None of this however has anything to do with the main plot, so don’t worry that this is spoilerville. It’s really not. The actual plot is however hard to talk about in detail withoutruining things, because it wouldn’t be The Witcher if “Come to our land and kill a monster” wasn’t as twisty and turny as a maze of tiny passages, all alike. Making it harder is that I liked it a lot more when it was over than during most of its run, largely due to some very odd pacing decisions and time-jumps and moments where key plot elements seemed to have been forgotten, only to return five hours later with the kind of dramatic “Oh yeah!” normally reserved for the Kool-Aid Man.

It’s not CD Projekt’s best work, but it’s worthy enough. It’s good story, a well told story, but simply nowhere near the excellent craft of Hearts of Stone, which used the increased space but tighter focus of its DLC for a character piece. Here, a relatively basic plot is padded out to the point of losing much of its power, with what’s left typically pulling its punches. In the opening couple of hours for instance, the Beast of Beauclair that you’re sent to take out racks up one hell of a body-count, with the story then having to justify… poorly… why Geralt can then spend the next 10 hours riding around on Roach and doing odd-jobs for people. Later, there’s just no getting past the problem that when things go wrong, it’s usually because characters have been ridiculously obstinate or refused to just talk things out, with no option as Geralt to clang their stupid heads together instead of waiting around for the next big plot twist.

But, that said, its big moments hit some impressive highs, especially one that dives full-on into fairy-tale instead of just borrowing from them, and character moments that spread sympathy and character development thickly. There’s a certain element of Once Upon A Time to it in terms of exploring the origin of evil, though thankfully that’s where the comparison ends with that ridiculous show that I still somehow keep watching only to scream at. The Witcher is always at its best when decisions aren’t easy and killing a monster has a sense of tragedy to it. Blood and Wine respects that, whether it’s in Geralt’s look of sheer disgust at knights crippling a monster just for a showy battle in the arena, or his willingness to put life and dignity on the line to help someone break a curse instead. Even more than usual, breaking out the silver sword feels like a failure.

It’s fitting that while his adventure in Toussaint isn’t the most exciting, risky or honestly even important part of his life, it’s a place where his acts of kindness and compassion are finally recognised. Occasionally to the point that I had to check that this was still a Witcher game, yes, especially when a divine entity apparently steps in from a bit of fan-fiction to confirm that yes, he is objectively a Good Person. Never however to the point that I begrudged Geralt finally being somewhere he could finally make a life.

Had Blood and Wine been the first expansion, I think it would have left me slightly cold. That’s cold by CD Projekt RED standards though, so nothing to be ashamed of. It would still have been 15+ hours of funny quests, gorgeous scenery, surprises and moments of both chilling darkness and wonderful warmth. It just doesn’t have the same grit as the main game, and the first DLC needed the overhanging threat of someone like Master Mirrors to compensate for the lack of the Wild Hunt. As a finale though, it does everything it needs and made the right choices. CD Projekt has talked about doing more Witcher games at some point, but with Witcher III being the end of Geralt’s story. There isn’t really anywhere to go with it now. With Ciri, he’s passed the torch or given up the chance to. In Hearts of Stone, he faced the greatest enemy he realistically can – the devil, the ultimate monster who can never be beaten in a fight, save one of wits.

Nothing that follows has any chance of living up to those moments, and never mind the fact that he started the series dead. What can top that? Only an ending.

Much like Mass Effect III’s wonderful Citadel expansion, this last outing is as much a victory lap, to remind us of the good times and end in the right spirit. There’s a moment in both games, where the characters seem to step out of themselves, just briefly – Shepard to look at the Normandy and state that it’s been one hell of a ride, even if chronologically she hasn’t fought the final boss yet. She’s talking to her crew, and we’re included because we’re part of it. In Blood and Wine, it’s a more understated moment. A simple glance through the screen from an old man who’s literally seen everything – a look of respect, of gratitude, of recognition. Something ends, something begins.

I like to think that it’ll be happier than most of what’s come before.

The Witcher III: Blood and Wine is due out on May 31st. It requires the base game.

 

[Infinitron]

PC Gamer 94/100

THE WITCHER 3: BLOOD AND WINE REVIEW

Have you ever wanted to get drunk with a vampire? The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine expansion gives you that opportunity, and lets you ask all the important questions. What's it like to die and come back? What's it like to live for centuries in a world that mostly wants you dead? How does the bat thing work? The brooding, complicated undead are just one aspect of an excellent add-on that every Witcher fan should play.

Though you ostensibly play a monster hunter for hire, Geralt has a habit of getting sucked into local politics. Such is the case in Toussaint, the huge, gorgeous new region added by The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine expansion. You arrive on an invitation from the Duchess, who wants you to slay 'The Beast', a vicious creature that's targeting elite knights in her retinue. A twisting detective story follows as Geralt investigates the murder scenes, and begins to hack his way through a series of interlocking plots that, naturally, come to threaten the entire realm.

The Witcher 3 is at its best when dealing with small dramas—a haunted house, a local curse, a baron's broken marriage. Blood and Wine's central story weaves a series of local short stories into an escalating threat. The plot has superb pace and variety throughout. Geralt awkwardly picks his way through an artists' soiree, storms a castle or two and has a creepy, memorable encounter with a spotted wight. Vivid characterisation and some great voice work—particularly from Geralt's main ally—sells the world beautifully.

The story takes roughly ten hours to finish if you slavishly blast through the missions in order, but sidequests are an essential part of The Witcher 3 experience, and there are many to enjoy in Toussaint. You can seek out grandmaster gear for multiple witcher schools, collect armour dyes, take on a number of monster hunts, join a tourney and compete in Gwent competitions to take on the expansion's new Nilfgaard deck. Pursue these and you'll easily reach the advertised 30 hour play time.

Early in the expansion, you get your own vineyard, which can be upgraded—slowly, and at great cost—to give you access to useful adventurer amenities, including a grindstone, an armour bench and an alchemy table. Once you've taken a particular opening quest you can start working towards the expansion's new mutations, which let you put ability points into powerful ability-modifiers. Depending on the one you choose to install, these can cause sign spells to land critical hits, blowing up Igni victims and freezing Aard victims. Other mutations improve Geralt's swordsmanship and make him more resilient.

The extra combat effects don't revolutionise the combat system, but mutations serve as a productive place to put your points as you move to level 40 and beyond. I found more worth in the new armour sets and the magical bonuses they confer. In a green flash I now absorb enemy life force with every killing blow thanks to a suave set of ancient black gear. I always found The Witcher 3's combat to be passable, with its large enemy health pools, stagger inducing enemy guard stances and sluggish spell switching, but Blood and Wine is the most fun I've had with it. There are some decent boss fights and the extra abilities Geralt has access to at high levels generate more interesting options. When you stagger bandits with Geralt's Aard wind blast, and follow up with his high-level spinning fast attack flurry, limbs literally start to fly. It's the best realisation of Geralt's superhuman style that the series has managed.

Of course, if you've made it far enough into the main game to access Blood and Wine, you will already be familiar with the Witcher 3's combat, and the game's other quirks. Horse movement is still an issue. Roach still catches on scenery all the time and he has particular trouble with the narrow wood bridges that span Toussaint's brooks. Blood and Wine adds nothing to core game's suite of storytelling devices, either. Geralt's magic detective vision is still a major crutch, but these investigation sections are well shuffled into quests that use combat, conversation, cut scenes and exploration in measured doses. I'd only ask for a few more important choices across the campaign.

These devices may be familiar, but Toussaint itself lends this adventure a different flavour. It's a stunning, sun-drenched land of relative opulence. The Duchess' castle, and the azure-and-terracotta town of Beaclair at its foot, are a postcard-perfect centrepiece for the area. As you ride around Toussaint's outskirts, you can almost always see the shining white spires of the palace. The region's outskirts are rich with shimmering foliage, and the area's winding trails reliably offer stunning vistas, cleverly arranged by CD Projekt's environment artists. Yet, where required, the landscape can hide an ancient dungeon or a foggy graveyard, or the site of a bloody massacre. The blood and wine duality runs through both the plot and the design of the zone itself. In The Witcher universe glamourous appearances always come with a catch.

Frankly if one of these expansions came out every year I'd still be playing The Witcher 3 in 2020. However, this is a fine end. Fantasy RPGs like this offer us the chance to walk through the pages of pulp fantasy fiction, to stand opposite the witches, wizards and wights of those stories. Even if we can't form our own words, or ultimately greatly affect the stories they tell, the semblance is powerful enough. Even in its immutable, heavily cutscene-driven form, The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine is an accomplished piece of genre fiction with some characters I'll come to miss. Pour a goblet of the red stuff and join them, you won't be disappointed.

 

[Infinitron]

PCGamesN 9/10

The Witcher 3: Blood & Wine PC review

In the grim deep of a damp cave, Geralt performs an autopsy on the latest victim of a brutal serial killer. Torn into three grisly pieces, it's certainly not the worst thing he's seen, pretty typical Witcher fare. But for the people of Toussaint, the fairytale-like kingdom the White Wolf finds himself in now, it's a travesty; the most heinous thing they've seen for years.

The Witcher 3 undoubtedly deserves its spot on our list of the best RPGs on PC.

Blood & Wine, the second and final expansion pack for The Witcher 3, is a world of two sides. Much like the title itself, it features death and celebration side-by-side in a world that's a complete contrast to the dour lands of Velen and Skellige. This is a story that, for all its eventual dark twists, is far lighter, joyful, and even comedic than its parent.

Toussaint, as the name suggests, feels directly inspired by southern France, with a little Tuscany thrown in. Beautiful sunsets cast gold glows over fields of dancing sunflowers and grapevines. An Elven palace crowns a mountain. The population is pompous and excitable; noble knights of virtue who have not been torn apart by war, but are instead preparing for a huge medieval-style tournament. A tourney that Geralt himself can find himself wound up in.

Yes, Blood & Wine actively encourages you to get involved with the fickle affairs of these people. The tourney itself is one of the larger side quests in the Witcher journal, and has you competing in three tasks to prove your worth in front of crowds of shrieking and chanting onlookers. It’s genuinely exciting, involving a mounted dual and the biggest Game of Thrones homage any fantasy RPG has offered.

For Geralt this Disney-like world of knights in shining armour is an amusing aside from his regular ventures. Characters ask for help, and he listens with a wry smile as they explain their trivial problems. Having just averted the apocalypse, he's now being asked to help a knight woo a lady who he's fallen madly in love with despite only having seen her once. It’s a striking contrast.

If that all sounds far too frivolous for you, fear not. The core of Blood & Wine revolves around the aforementioned serial killer, and while it’s not exactly the biggest bad The Witcher has ever featured, there’s still danger. The region's ruler, Duchess Anna Henrietta, has requested Geralt's skills to bring the murderer to justice. And so that becomes your task: to work out the killer’s pattern you must put on the deerstalker and become Sherlock of Rivia.

It's worth noting the effort that's gone into Anna Henrietta. While the main game's Emperor Emhyr var Emreis was a lofty, hands-off employer who only turned up to offer a few minutes of Charles Dance-flavoured gravitas, Anna is the complete opposite. She'll be at your side during many stages of the hunt, essentially taking the place of the likes of Triss or Yennifer. Toussaint may be miles from familiar ground for Geralt, but thankfully he can still rely on a collection of strongly-written, engaging allies.

The hunt for Toussaint's ripper is a fun way of repackaging the Witcher style. You'll be doing all the familiar things - sensing footsteps and scents, rifling through rooms for evidence, and analysing victims - but the crime wrapper gives the whole thing a very different atmosphere. This is no mere monster hunt; this is tracking down a dangerous attacker with a specific MO and motive, and as you thread together the evidence you feel like the closest this world has ever come to a master detective.

Typical of what we've come to expect of The Witcher, not all is what it seems, and you'll soon discover the well goes a lot deeper than a standard murder enquiry. Mysterious figures pull the strings on various puppets, and the narrative descends into wonderfully gothic territory as it builds.

And as soon as the darkness encroaches, you can be sure that Blood & Wine will offer up something that will have you laughing. A soirée held for the region’s elite creatives, the setting for a lead investigation, features a public canvas at which you can hurl balls of dye. As you throw them with random carelessness, art critics coo and bicker about how the work is representative of the artist's soul (he clearly has intimacy problems).

After a life on the road as a permanent nomad, Geralt finally has somewhere to put his feet up in Blood & Wine. As part of his payment for taking on the murder inquiry Geralt is given the Corvo Bianco vineyard: acres of fertile land and a large, dusty house manned by your own butler (Barnabas Basil Foulty, a knowing nod to the infamous Torquay hotelier). It's a base that you can improve through the hefty investment of gold. Should your pockets be brimming with coin (and I do mean brimming) you'll be able to upgrade and redecorate. Aside from making the place look grander, many of these upgrades confer bonuses. New stables increase Roach's stamina, while a garden will grow herbs for use in potion brewing.

While the vineyard isn't player housing in quite the same manner as Skyrim's The Sims-like Hearthfire DLC, having a place to call your own allows you a sense of progression perhaps unexpected from a chapter you can play when at max level. It's also thematically relevant; with CD Projekt closing their doors on at the White Wolf, this is clearly Geralt's retirement plan.

If that's not quite the form of progression you were hoping for, then one of Blood & Wine's other side-quests may interest you. Urged on by Yennifer, Geralt can investigate the works of Moreau: a professor experimenting with Witcher mutations. The result of this quest line is a new ability tree for Geralt, made up of significant new buffs that are unlocked by spending mutagens and experience points. On offer are fancy new magic sign modifiers than can cause enemies to explode upon casting, and the ability to build attack damage with each subsequent blow. You can only have one of these new abilities equipped at any one time, but progressing through the tree provides up to four additional slots for Geralt's regular skills. A fully-upgraded Witcher will be able to equip 20 skills and one mutation ability.

A little extra power will certainly help you out in battle, which frequently feels more intelligent. While there are plenty of 'normal' encounters that require you to be proficient with blade and side-step (notably a superb set-piece where a room is flooded with enemies), the majority of one-on-one counters need a more thoughtful approach. An early beast is blind and heavily armoured, demanding clever use of sound and the environment to slay. Often you'll be flicking through the Bestiary to work out how to bring your foe down, with the use of oils and potions being practically mandatory on anything above the easy difficulty setting.

If the idea of having to keep jumping back into your inventory for potions strikes you with horror, then perhaps you can be reassured by CD Projekt’s overhaul of the character sheets. Inventories are now separated into logical columns that can be swiftly navigated between. It’s a small improvement that genuinely makes life a little easier, and it’s nice to know that even this late in the game CDP are willing to refine even the most fundamental elements.

Blood & Wine is the most interesting The Witcher has been in its entire lifetime. It’s a brave move from CD Projekt to make its final chapter in the game so tonally different. But by being lower-key and set in a world that is almost certainly home to a man called Prince Charming, the game provides its most memorable and enjoyable stories. The fairytale nature happily goes the Grimm route when things need to get ugly, but this is an expansion unafraid of throwing players into a much lighter arena.

It was inevitable that The Witcher 3 would close on a high, but few will have expected what they’ll find in Blood & Wine. While unrequited love, barrels of red with a blackberry aroma, and excessive amounts of pomp may not be what you think you want from The Witcher, it won’t be long until you’ve changed your mind.

9/10

 

[Infinitron]

More reviews:

Destructoid 9/10
Gamereactor 9/10
Gamepressure 10/10
VideoGamer 9/10
GamesRadar 4.5/5
Twinfinite 5/5

GameSpot
USGamer

 

[Perkel]

Dis gonna be gud.

Can't wait to finally do proper see everything playtrough.

 

[Gerrard]

 

[Infinitron]

It's optional:

Blood and Wine Will Introduce Enemy Scaling to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Due to the prevalence of this Reddit thread and various European previews of The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine expansion, we're learning that CD Projekt RED has added an option to introduce "feinde skalieren" or enemy scaling to the RPG with the accompanying patch. The thread contains a screenshot of the option in question, and level designer Miles Tost apparently does not refute it at the 19:50 mark during this 27-minute preview (I know zero German, unfortunately):



There was already a mod for this, but I suppose having it officially incorporated into the game allows console gamers to take advantage of it, as well.

 

[Perkel]

Oh boi decline incoming for CB2077

 

[Carrion]

It's admirable that they keep trying to fix all the broken things in their game, but unfortunately they seem to be doing it in the most fucked-up ways.