the witcher 3: wild hunt - hearts of stone

It melds well with the overall themes of the core adventure even if it feels wholly detached from it, but sometimes all you need is more Witcher-based antics.Every year the Polygon staff chooses 10 excellent games to award our Game of the Year honors, but that means some games we love don't quite make the cut. It’s a great alternative for those of you who may have come back to the game after a long hiatus and are stuck in a story quest, or for whatever reason, you’ve lost your save file.Īt 10 hours for the main story, Hearts of Stone is rather brief given the sprawling scale of Wild Hunt, but with that brevity, it never overstays its welcome. Whereas many players (myself included) want to jump in with “their Geralt” at the recommended level 30 jumping-off point, newcomers can access Hearts with a pre-made Hearts-ready character if they so choose. CD Projekt Red was genius to add in an “expansion only” option, kicking off right beside the DLC’s entry point. Many patches have been deployed that alleviate a lot of the concerns I had with the launch build, some of which added in delightful quality-of-life changes.Įven then, there’s really no wrong time to replay it. But at this particular point in time, The Witcher has grown overall, which works to the benefit of Stone. In a game where you can find nearly 100 quests that aren’t meaningless throwaway activities, a premium add-on is a bit of a tough sell. The new bosses were fun but didn’t measure up to some of the encounters in Hunt, and the characters sort of pack up and leave at the end (literally or metaphorically) without a whole lot of room to grow.

It’s weird though, because Hearts almost feels unnecessary in a way.

The witcher 3: wild hunt - hearts of stone