The Witcher 3 - Hearts of Stone Review - Storytelling Excellence

[Steven Bogos]

The Witcher 3 - Hearts of Stone Review - Storytelling Excellence

Hearts of Stone gives us another expertly written bite-sized story in the world of Geralt of Rivia.

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[Dragonlayer]

Not much new stuff you say? Doesn't bother me that much, I'm settled with my Ursine armour - as long as we get something as well written as the Bloody Baron questline, this'll be worth purchasing.

And hey look: they put a black person in it!

That ought to settle those s.o.bs....

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Not much new stuff you say?

There's plenty of new stuff IMO. At least much more than I thought there would be. And for $10 it's a steal. And I'm about halfway through the expansion. So far it's been nothing short of absolutely amazing.

Also, they didn't add black people. Zerrikanians are black. They added Ofiri. They're basically like Arabs. Very interesting culture.

 

[rgrekejin]

Not much new stuff you say?

There's plenty of new stuff IMO. At least much more than I thought there would be. And for $10 it's a steal. And I'm about halfway through the expansion. So far it's been nothing short of absolutely amazing.

Yeah, I'm about four hours into it. I'm really enjoying it so far (and I'm glad that there is finally Viper School Witcher gear), but I can't help but wish that it tied in with the main storyline of the game more than it does. I realize that it's probably impossible to pull back in people who, at the conclusion of the game, went off to their various fates, but man, I really hope Blood and Wine does a better job of integrating the regulars from Geralt's circle into the new content.

 

[The Madman]

Wait, did I miss something? Why review the expansion when The Escapist never actually reviewed the game itself? I'm confused. Not that I'm complaining, but it is a bit strange. I remember when Witcher 3 came out I was looking for Escapists review and it never came. Or did it and I just missed it somehow?

 

[Pickles]

just a really minor nitpick, the change from 2 to 4 hotkey items was in the patch that came out just before this, so it works on the base game as well (as that would be a pretty annoying thing to only put in an expansion).

I haven't picked this up yet but I'm halfway through my second playthrough so I'll definitely have to give it a go in the next few days

 

[Dragonlayer]

Not much new stuff you say?

There's plenty of new stuff IMO. At least much more than I thought there would be. And for $10 it's a steal. And I'm about halfway through the expansion. So far it's been nothing short of absolutely amazing.

Also, they didn't add black people. Zerrikanians are black. They added Ofiri. They're basically like Arabs. Very interesting culture.

Excellent! Not that I needed much convincing to pick up new goodies for this game.

And I figured as much, I was butchering a Simpsons quote to poke fun at people who thought the game was ultra-racist because there weren't any black people in Medieval Dark Fantasy Poland.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I think that's the point with Olgierd though. He's supposed to come off as just another bandit at the beginning. Once you get to know him, he becomes a much deeper character.

Definitely agree with you on O'Dimm. I don't really want to elaborate since it's hard not to go into spoiler territory, but suffice to say, he's one of the best characters I've seen in a video game in quite some time.

One thing that should be mentioned IMO is that the sound track here is probably even better than the base game's and helps sell a much creepier atmosphere. At times, I felt like I was playing a Lovecraftian horror.

Edit: Also, just to compare this quest line to those from the main game, I'd say this is the best one so far. Even beats out the Bloody Baron story IMO.