5/5 ★ – Rukey's review of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the Year Edition.

Years behind with this one but I am happy to add my voice to the chorus. On the strength of the world, characters and story it's easily one of the best games I've ever played. Geralt as voiced by Doug Cockle is the perfect lead for this sort of low fantasy, wartorn setting. He's seen it all, done it all and got paid for most of it, and nothing surprises him any more. But for all that there's a seam of real warmth and humour to him that gets more endearing the longer you spend in his company. Many of the supporting cast would be worthy of an inclusion in "greatest video game characters" lists. Ciri, Yennefer, Zoltan Chivay, Dijkstra, Dandelion, Cerys, Hjalmar and many more were so well written and performed. I loved exploring the world, from the Skellige Isles to Novigrad's bustle, where I must have spent 15-20 hours alone questing and meddling in the city's politics. Knowing there were these fascinating, funny or sad short stories waiting under so many of those little exclamation marks meant the map always promised memorable moments rather than just seeming cluttered as many open world games are criticised for. I particularly liked Oxenfurt, which seemed to be more a city of philosophers and academics, largely because it has some of the most beautiful background music. I often put that track on before sleep. The music throughout is amazing, the exploration music always being a highlight but also some of the battle themes for the Wild Hunt and of course the barnstorming jigs for Gwent. Gwent is a brilliant distraction too. I love the fact that Geralt, on the trail of his surrogate daughter or hunting some mythological monstrosity, is just always fiending for a hand of his favourite card game. It being a minigame within this huge open world RPG is a big plus - it can stay as simple fun, never getting complicated enough to become cumbersome, and secondly you build your deck through getting to know NPCs and helping them out (or defeating them). It means there's a really exciting reward for a lot of quests - a new Gwent card might be one of the most valuable items to you. It also got me into deck building games - since starting The Witcher 3 I've played Slay the Spire, Steamworld Quest, Deep Sky Derelicts, the Meteorfall games and more. Without spoiling anything, the ending to this game, or rather its climactic, kinetic final act, is probably the best in any RPG I've played. The way the places you've been and the characters you've spent time with in this vast, free roaming world become the setting and cast for this swashbuckling finale is nothing short of masterful. I did barely any side stuff in this section of the game as I was just gripped. Credits rolled at about 100 hours in, 60 of which was last year when I first got it. I still have the DLCs to do but am finishing up some Witcher contracts and finding some better gear first. Played on Switch the whole way, recently grabbed the complete edition on Steam for the equivalent of about a fiver as well. I am so glad I played it on this platform - especially as we're halfway through two weeks of quarantine in a hotel right now and it's the perfect thing to have on the go. Having this entire world on a handheld device is really something. There are visual compromises, obviously, to get this game onto a cartridge and playing on the Nintendo Switch. The thing is that the narrative, characters, performances, dialogue, music, quest design, game world, lore, systems from alchemy to crafting to builds and so on, all of that is intact. And that's enough for me. But if you are even a little bit precious about graphics and frames then I strongly recommend you read up on how this runs and take a look at YouTube comparisons as you may find it's a deal breaker. Addendum after finishing the DLC: Reflecting on the entire game, or rather the gestalt of Geralt, from the moment I booted it up and rode into White Orchard with Vesemir, to the ending of Blood and Wine... This game contains so many adventures, so many stories, and honestly a rogue's gallery of many of gaming's most memorable and likeable characters. The settings are immersive, sweeping, so much so that I cleared every ? other than in Skellige. Over 185 hours (40 of which was in Toussaint alone!) I cleared Toussaint, Velen/ Novigrad, White Orchard and Kaer Morhen. Skellige's terrain was a bit too fiddly and annoying to do the same, I might go back but at least on the Switch I didn't fancy that amount of sliding back down mountains I was trying to climb and swimming under ships. But I did do every side quest I found, every contract, a ton of Gwent (which I stayed away from towards the end as I picked up Thronebreaker to go onto soon), and a lot of scavenger hunts. It's amazing, and although I paid basically full price for the Switch version it's really cheap on most systems now (and I got so much more than my money's worth even for what I paid). Even if the idea of a giant open world puts you off, I implore anyone with at least a faint interest to get it cheap in a sale, and just do Hearts of Stone. The game gives you the option of starting with the main quest done and a sufficiently levelled up Geralt to do just that, it's 8-10 hours, and it's a belter of a story.