The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Review

After spending a week with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, playing day and night, we’re left questioning just how this game is even possible. It’s not without a few rough spots, but it consistently impresses with complex branching stories, challenging combat and wondrous creature designs, all in a stunning and enormous world that feels as if every corner has had a close, personal touch.

Story has always been one of The Witcher’s strongest areas, and it doesn’t disappoint in its third installment. More than ever, the tale feels intimately intertwined with the original books as Geralt follows the trails of two women who have been lost to him for years, his lover Yennefer and his Ward Ciri who is being chased by the otherworldly Wild Hunt. While newcomers may feel hesitant to jump into a series with such a long history, The Witcher 3 does an excellent job of initiating anyone new to the franchise. You are immediately introduced to Geralt’s closest relationships, and past stories are recapped in several ways throughout. There’s even a moment when you can confirm key decisions from the previous game so you can see the effect of those choices even without a save file.

The tone of the story feels mature and grounded. It’s not about saving the world it’s about finding your loved ones. Monsters are just an everyday part of life, and helping get rid of them involves negotiations as if you’re removing an old tree stump. You’re introduced to a rich array of characters with different personalities and complicated relationships. Old enemies might put their grudges aside, and you’re often left questioning each person’s motives. Much of this interaction connects strongly thanks to the expressive facial animation, speaking volumes through eye contact, furrowed brows, and gestures.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper Witcher story without choice, and you are constantly splitting hairs about the right thing to do, at times having to choose your words carefully in order to avoid a fight. While Geralt is tasked with killing monsters, even they make you question whether you should kill a sylvan posing as a village’s god or a succubus who claims to have acted in self-defense. Often you may find that your good deeds go unwanted, clash with local culture, or carry deep, unexpected consequences. While there are many times when you can simply reload a checkpoint and try another option, the results of some decisions aren’t revealed until hours later.

This sense of choice and consequence carries into the quest design, making nearly all of them feel meaningful, whether you’re simply helping an old woman get back her frying pan or spending hours to track down a baron’s missing family. It’s even worthwhile to invest in the local collectible card game, Gwent, as rounds make their way into other quests as well. The most significant quests expand on characters that you encounter in the course of the central plot, deepening your understanding of who they are, while others such as monster contracts can be gathered from notice boards, but even many of these seemingly simple tasks have many great stories to tell.

Interacting with these bulletin boards also places local points of interest on your map, but doesn’t reveal what they may be until you approach. So you have to be prepared for anything as it could be a simple monster nest or bandit camp or it could be a large high-level beast guarding a hidden treasure. Yet thankfully, the Witcher 3 wisely doesn’t reveal it all so easily. Many quests only become available when you cross paths with someone in need on the road, and some of our favorite moments happen as we’re simply trekking through the woods and run across some huge creature we’ve never seen before. There’s an incredible emphasis on the sense of discovery.

To facilitate all this exploration, Geralt is more mobile than in any previous game, climbing rock walls, swimming through underwater caves, taking to horseback, and hopping in boats. These offer a more tangible sense of connection to the world, but controls in these situations can feel a bit off at times. Diving and returning to the surface can be a bit unintuitive, and while riding across the countryside works well, your horse seems more likely to get hung up when it matters most during races and chase sequences.