After it took me only a short time from heart of stone to blood and wine ( ok well... 4 years to be exact), I Finally got myself to sit down and play blood and wine, and holy crap I have no idea why it took me so god damn long to play this near perfect expansion! This expansion can easily be considered Witcher 3.5, and it would be hard for me to see you not love this expansion if you also loved the base game as well alongside heart of stone, with many aspects of the game just nailing the same feeling I had with the base game while being set in a much more high fantasy setting.
Story
Very amazing story, while I do think Heart of Stone's story is a tad bit better, it is still a story I will remember down the line with the grey line between vampires and humans, the friendship with Regis, and the connection between the sisters, while trying to consider who is the lesser evil, the vampire who is killing many for one girl, or the girl who is killing many for a personal rivalry. While it starts off as simple as can be with Geralt being contracted to kill a mysterious monster, it quickly turns into a much more complex story that has even Geralt question his moral compass as he further solves the mystery. Even with the best possible ending, it is impossible to have the pure fairy tale ending where everyone's problems are magically solved, someone has to take the noble sacrifice for those they don't even know. There are so many amazing questlines in this game, and even apart from the really amazing main questline like one where you enter a fairy tale, even the side quests are just as amazing as well, with great writing and even more humorous questlines like Geralt trying to deposit from a bank where he is declared dead. I love Heart of Stone, and I do prefer that expansion's main questline, but the one thing it was missing were the amazing sidequests that witcher 3 is easily known for, and blood and wine not only delivers but exceeds with some quests as well. I didn't do ALL the side quests as some were obviously there for power gain and would require more work than I would like, but I did the ones with story content as reward and I loved them all.
Characters
Easily some of my favorite. Base game of course had the best overall characters, Heart of stone had my favorite antagonist, but Blood and Wine had some of my favorite companions alongside Regis and the relation between the Anna and the sister. Regis especially my GOD did I love his character, as while he was a friend to Geralt, he also tried his damn to protect his other friend as well as a way to have a peaceful resolution, but no matter what he did, there are no fairy tale endings in this universe, and what regis did to help those he doesn't even know will forever be burned into my memory. The other characters as well were all just fantastic, and the only real complaint I would have is that I wish the main antagonist vampire would had been a bit more fleshed out, even though he has a fantastic backstory and character development, I feel like maybe a couple more hours with him would had fleshed him out to the same level as Gaunter O'Dimm was in heart of stone. Overall were an amazing addition to blood and wine, and easily had way more memorable characters in comparison, just not THE memorable character antagonist like mentioned. Lastly The story with Anna was just wonderful, and even if the ending splits depending on what you choose, the ending I got was the one I am very much satisfied with. Even her captain, side quest characters, other higher vampires and such were written so well, and I just hope witcher 4 has the same level of writing that witcher 3 and ALL of the expansions had previous.
Gameplay
Blood and Wine adds some new mechanics, mainly the usage of greater mutagens to utilize the new mutation system. The new system does change a ton for the build I was running, mainly when I grinded to get the freezing aard upgrade, which switched up how I played the game a bit. Apart from that the gameplay stayed the same, but of course I always loved more endgame witcher combat as that is when you not only start to utilize the upgrades more, but also utilize the potions, bombs and such which were essential when I played on Death March difficulty. Gameplay is still very strong for me from this game, and blood and wine improved it a ton as well. The new emphasis on vampires as well made the new encounters a ton of fun as well. I know people criticize the combat a ton for saying its too mashy, but I feel like if you play on the much easier difficulties is when you face that problem, but raise the difficulty much higher, you suddenly realize you can't just march head first into battles and actually require pre preparing and proper magic usage to deal with the harder fights in the game. Overall the gameplay is still super fun to play through, with of course some minor gripes I have with it, mainly lock on camera and the INSANE damage scaling of death march (seriously I would get 2 shotted by some rather small enemy mobs even with having quen on).
Music
Blood and Wine's OST is just insanely peak. Battle theme, Blood and Wine theme of course, The Slopes of Blessure, The Beast of Beauclair, On the Champs-Desoles , and ambience as you just explore were all just fantastic.
Last Positives/Nitpicks
- I love how vibrant and much saturation is in the world as you explore, making you realize how dark and dirty the inner plots and politics are in the world even as they try their hardest to mask it all.
-Death March Scaling is... insane at times
-Prayers Witcher 4 holds this bar that Witcher 3 had set (and launches in a proper state unlike cyberpunk)
-Greater Mutagens were a bit annoying to grind for, so I didn't dive too deep into the new mutagen system. Probably easy if I NG+ and found the mutagens naturally.
-I do hope the next game improves on the skill tree to have more unique abilities instead of stat increases.
Conclusion
Blood and Wine is easily one of the best expansions any game as ever had. I have finally finished all the main content from the game I hold so dearly, and after all of these years, can finally rest this game for whenever I do a NG+ run for the witcher 4 hype train or not. While the story was a tad bit lesser compared to heart of stone, having every other aspect just be better makes this my favorite of the 2 expansions. I will look at heart of stone as the best story and antagonist of witcher 3, but blood and wine has the best gameplay and companion of witcher 3.
10/10
Story
Very amazing story, while I do think Heart of Stone's story is a tad bit better, it is still a story I will remember down the line with the grey line between vampires and humans, the friendship with Regis, and the connection between the sisters, while trying to consider who is the lesser evil, the vampire who is killing many for one girl, or the girl who is killing many for a personal rivalry. While it starts off as simple as can be with Geralt being contracted to kill a mysterious monster, it quickly turns into a much more complex story that has even Geralt question his moral compass as he further solves the mystery. Even with the best possible ending, it is impossible to have the pure fairy tale ending where everyone's problems are magically solved, someone has to take the noble sacrifice for those they don't even know. There are so many amazing questlines in this game, and even apart from the really amazing main questline like one where you enter a fairy tale, even the side quests are just as amazing as well, with great writing and even more humorous questlines like Geralt trying to deposit from a bank where he is declared dead. I love Heart of Stone, and I do prefer that expansion's main questline, but the one thing it was missing were the amazing sidequests that witcher 3 is easily known for, and blood and wine not only delivers but exceeds with some quests as well. I didn't do ALL the side quests as some were obviously there for power gain and would require more work than I would like, but I did the ones with story content as reward and I loved them all.
Characters
Easily some of my favorite. Base game of course had the best overall characters, Heart of stone had my favorite antagonist, but Blood and Wine had some of my favorite companions alongside Regis and the relation between the Anna and the sister. Regis especially my GOD did I love his character, as while he was a friend to Geralt, he also tried his damn to protect his other friend as well as a way to have a peaceful resolution, but no matter what he did, there are no fairy tale endings in this universe, and what regis did to help those he doesn't even know will forever be burned into my memory. The other characters as well were all just fantastic, and the only real complaint I would have is that I wish the main antagonist vampire would had been a bit more fleshed out, even though he has a fantastic backstory and character development, I feel like maybe a couple more hours with him would had fleshed him out to the same level as Gaunter O'Dimm was in heart of stone. Overall were an amazing addition to blood and wine, and easily had way more memorable characters in comparison, just not THE memorable character antagonist like mentioned. Lastly The story with Anna was just wonderful, and even if the ending splits depending on what you choose, the ending I got was the one I am very much satisfied with. Even her captain, side quest characters, other higher vampires and such were written so well, and I just hope witcher 4 has the same level of writing that witcher 3 and ALL of the expansions had previous.
Gameplay
Blood and Wine adds some new mechanics, mainly the usage of greater mutagens to utilize the new mutation system. The new system does change a ton for the build I was running, mainly when I grinded to get the freezing aard upgrade, which switched up how I played the game a bit. Apart from that the gameplay stayed the same, but of course I always loved more endgame witcher combat as that is when you not only start to utilize the upgrades more, but also utilize the potions, bombs and such which were essential when I played on Death March difficulty. Gameplay is still very strong for me from this game, and blood and wine improved it a ton as well. The new emphasis on vampires as well made the new encounters a ton of fun as well. I know people criticize the combat a ton for saying its too mashy, but I feel like if you play on the much easier difficulties is when you face that problem, but raise the difficulty much higher, you suddenly realize you can't just march head first into battles and actually require pre preparing and proper magic usage to deal with the harder fights in the game. Overall the gameplay is still super fun to play through, with of course some minor gripes I have with it, mainly lock on camera and the INSANE damage scaling of death march (seriously I would get 2 shotted by some rather small enemy mobs even with having quen on).
Music
Blood and Wine's OST is just insanely peak. Battle theme, Blood and Wine theme of course, The Slopes of Blessure, The Beast of Beauclair, On the Champs-Desoles , and ambience as you just explore were all just fantastic.
Last Positives/Nitpicks
- I love how vibrant and much saturation is in the world as you explore, making you realize how dark and dirty the inner plots and politics are in the world even as they try their hardest to mask it all.
-Death March Scaling is... insane at times
-Prayers Witcher 4 holds this bar that Witcher 3 had set (and launches in a proper state unlike cyberpunk)
-Greater Mutagens were a bit annoying to grind for, so I didn't dive too deep into the new mutagen system. Probably easy if I NG+ and found the mutagens naturally.
-I do hope the next game improves on the skill tree to have more unique abilities instead of stat increases.
Conclusion
Blood and Wine is easily one of the best expansions any game as ever had. I have finally finished all the main content from the game I hold so dearly, and after all of these years, can finally rest this game for whenever I do a NG+ run for the witcher 4 hype train or not. While the story was a tad bit lesser compared to heart of stone, having every other aspect just be better makes this my favorite of the 2 expansions. I will look at heart of stone as the best story and antagonist of witcher 3, but blood and wine has the best gameplay and companion of witcher 3.
10/10