The last line of dialog is the best, lol, hope you get to hear it. Steam says I spent 98 hours, I'm surprised it isn't more. Every day I'd find myself mentally planning the things I wanted to investigate that evening. Sometimes I'd spend 2 or 3 hours building components, just to test a theory. Those sessions often ended in success, though sometimes with a plot twist. And just about the time that I thought that I finally had things figured out, I'd come across the next area of investigation. Building things expands your horizons. Discovery is rewarded. Plot twists, plot expansion. Tons of fun. I don't give out many 9's. This game fully deserves one; it doesn't get a 10 for one reason. One main plot point is way too subtle, and I ended up reluctantly Googling the solution. I had just finished the last big task of the game and... I'm left sitting there wondering why I didn't get the payoff. I had successfully discovered the "what", and I had finished the "how", but in that one instance the game left me hanging. Once you play the game I bet you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I spent an hour or two struggling. But that is fairly only a 1 out of 10 downgrade. The playground is wide and varied. You have a lot of interesting decisions to make. You have a great deal of effort to apply, and many rewards to collect. These guys have created a fine game.
I believe that GameSpot said that Witcher 3 is possibly the best role-playing video game ever. I am inclined to agree. I think Witcher 3 is possibly the best combination of game and story that I've ever played. I just want to add that I disagree specifically with GameSpot's Blood and Wine opinion that the main characters in this expansion aren't "that interesting". GameSpot editorializes that the new characters can't match "Yennefer’s lusty spark or The Bloody Baron’s brutal sorrow." I just completely disagree with that analysis. On the contrary, I found the new characters very deep, and I think that their relationship with Geralt grew and changed over the course of the story, often based on my choices during the story. I don't want to add spoilers here, but I just want to rebut the notion that somehow the Blood and Wine add-on doesn't add new and interesting people into Geralt's life. I believe that Blood and Wine is a 9+ add-on, and is well worth the expense.
been working since the steam release... calling in sick again tomorrow, there's really no need for reality anymore... everything is absolutely perfect here... go ahead, buy it. it's really good... there is so much depth... every quest is thoughtful... affects my reputation, adds to the atmosphere... i must be turning into a rl witcher... i need to go make some more potions, kill some more drowners... it was very nice talking but please don't stand too close i really dont want one of my blades to accidentally amputate anything for you.
Good: Though I didn't finish the game, the plot seemed pretty well written. Bad: Tactics and saving. It's turn-based combat, but flanking or other combat tactics are not supported. Strat is, try to hide behind something, and blast away. The result is that the frustration of the random number generator builds with every enemy turn. Worse though, is the restricted saves that ruin the experience. I don't want to spend an hour getting 80% through a level only to die and have to start over. Sorry, fail. I put up with it for quite a while, 17 hours according to Steam, but in the end, too much frustration to "restart level" once more.
Portal spooky humor. Not quite as strong a value as Portal, but there are a lot of very good games that fall into that category. Like Portal, it has that 10 minutes of fooling around, followed by "ah HA!", which hooks me into running for the next one. Like Portal, almost every puzzle is like that. After a dozen puzzles or so, I'd get brain fatigue and have to go play Civ 5 for awhile. But the next day, I'd be back... It's fun, go buy it.
