5/5 ★ – Bengerman10's review of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

I spent almost ten years waiting to play The Witcher 3. It was one of those things where I wanted to save it for just the right moment - almost a reward to myself or perhaps for a rainy day. At the end of 2025, I just decided to go for it. I love all things Witcher, from what I've read of the books to the clunky original game to Witcher 2 being one of my favorite games of all time. It was inevitable that I'd love this, and something about that felt daunting. Well, now I know why it felt daunting: I have finished everything there is to do in Witcher 3, and the post-game depression has settled in nicely. There is nothing quite like this world - it owns everything it does, from weird Detective Geralt, body-invasion weddings. sex on unicorns, geo-political movements, saving or ending long-term relationships, rescuing a goat, or some dumb imaginary card game that is at the top of the Witcher World Zeitgeist. And, even in the swarm of all of that, everything feels so grounded and tactile. This is, in part, because Geralt is such an identifiable force as a character. I imagine that's true no matter how you play as him, but for me, he was an honest, always methodical friend to the people he cares most about. Someone willing to turn the world over for the right cause. I almost routinely mention this in the small handful of titles I've given 5/5's to, but The Witcher 3 has a litany of small issues (combat just is never very good, even on Death March) that feel sizable in when you're first getting into it. By the time I was finished with the game, I just couldn't get myself to give a shit - it wasn't combat, it was the way Geralt fought and the way people battled in this world. It was no longer good or bad, it just was something that this world owned. More than anything, it'll be the quiet moments that stick with me. Geralt and Ciri having conversations before the fire, a drunken night with old Witcher friends where secrets and hijinks are abound, or even brief moments of contemplation where I'd take Roach out on a ride and figure out how I wanted to approach things next. This is, without a doubt, one of my favorite games of all time. And perhaps that was inevitable. But the kind of experience I got from The Witcher 3, one where I felt so wonderfully drowned in its atmosphere and world, was not quite like I expected. I will deeply miss Geralt's character, the cohort of friends he developed, the world he actively and passively changed one little decision at a time.