A Return to Witcher 3

I meant to get the last post up awhile ago but the Witcher 3 expansion bundle went on sale and I am now completely distracted by that. I really wanted to finish KCD before taking on another game but I could not resist reinstalling Witcher 3 and checking out the additional content. Odds are I’ll blow through it much faster than KCD so Henry is on hold right now.

Even with Witcher 3 I had a false start and backtracked. Since KCD I seem much less resistant to doing this. I had forgotten how Witcher 3 works and started Blood and Wine first out of curiosity but regretted that not very far in. I had left Geralt at level 39. He has a full collection of mastercraft witcher gear but not much coin. He’s also over levelled for Hearts of Stone.

Besides relearning game play, I found Witcher 3 overwhelming visually. I contemplated customizing the hud but eventually got used to it. Thinking the screen was too dark I adjusted gamma but the shock of Toussaint’s colourful fairy tale world quickly had me dialing that back down.

Geralt was also levelling up. I suspected Hearts of Stone would not award much XP but it was still worth trying for some. For the first time I was tempted to start a new game plus. The opinion on new game plus seems quite divided on line. Apparently that hard won witcher gear is quickly neutered. I was so confused by the abilities mutagen scheme that Geralt still had many unassigned ability points. I suspect most people go for a combat heavy/ sign light build as I did. New game plus looks like an opportunity to try out alchemy or sign builds.

Witcher 3’s enemies are challenging enough that I was always on a quest for better rated gear. I did pay attention to gear attributes but never really made the connection between witcher gear and abilities. The witcher armor all have the same defense ratings so I assume Geralt was just wearing what I thought looked cool. My thoughts on sigils were about the cost and lack of them. At least I understand now why I had left behind such an excellent game. It played like a story driven action game for me. I didn’t really see the role playing possibilities even in late game.

I’d rather go back to Henry sooner than later though so I reloaded an earlier save and started Hearts of Stone. As expected, the XP rewards are paltry but the quests are great. CD Project Red is a master of cut scenes and unanticipated plot twists.