Title: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone
Developers: CD Projekt Red
Publisher: Warner Brothers Interactive
Genre: Action Role-Playing-Game
Platforms: PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One
Reviewed On: PC
Price: $9.99 ($7.99 on GOG.com, once again, for you PC people)
NOTE: Hearts of Stone Requires The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to Run. Do not buy it if you don't own The Witcher 3.
It's not very often I find DLC for games very satisifying, nevermind worth writing a review for. This year has been especially true for this. Not to say it's all bad, there just really isn't a lot to say about it. Once again, I get to ramble on about how great The Witcher 3 is (seriously, if you own a strong PC or one of the new consoles, pick up The Witcher 3, you won't regret it) with this new DLC, Hearts of Stone. It has everything in it that made The Witcher 3 great, and as always, CD Projekt Red doesn't feel the need to gouge you for that hard earned cash in your wallet.
As always, the writing in Hearts of Stone is top notch. None of the major characters are as they seem, and have some mystery or hidden past to them. Some I somewhat expected, some not so much. One main character has a bit of a generic storied past to him, but it's fleshed out in so much delicious detail that I feel a bit bad for saying that. It's difficult to talk about without spoilers, but at the end of it, he feels like one of the most detailed and fleshed out characters in the entire video game. For all the 2 of you Witcher veterans reading this, a certain red-headed medic makes a return, and plays an important part in the plot.
I rambled about the characters, but I should also ramble about the storyline, and how much enjoyment I had going through it. It starts out somewhat slow, with a fairly basic monster contract, but gains momentum and doesn't stop. You get a little bit of everything, from weddings to heists, each with it's own little Witcher twists. The wedding in particular had laughing from start to end, and is a highlight of the DLC.
I could ramble on about the story forever, but this is a game, and we need to talk about the gameplay. There aren't a ton of new base mechanics or anything like that to relearn, much of the gameplay is just more content for you to talk and slice your way through. Several new enemy types are introduced, and even better, they are actual new types, instead of reworked old versions of monsters. There's two new types, one are spiders, who will poke in and out of darkness to bite you, and only fully attack when you they are in a group. They are incredibly annoying, and are a blast to fight. The other is a massive toad, and those of you familiar with older Fantasy tales might see where that is going.
The biggest new addition though, is the Runewright. Using upgrade runes from the base game, you can create new upgrades for your weapons, which allow you to alter the ways your weapons and abilities behave, allowing more player customization than the base game. The runes in the base game kinda failed in this regard, and were mostly for small base stat upgrades, the Runewright remedies this however.
But what about the problems? Everything has some flaws or missteps, and Hearts of Stone is no different. The story takes a bit to really get rolling, and it seems the health of some enemies, or the damage they take is a bit off. This made the toad boss fight pretty rough, as it seems that all I could do was grind away at it's massive health pool, and it got old pretty quick. The same goes for some human enemies, though not nearly as bad, yet it's still noticeable. While these are annoying, they don't ruin the storyline or the characterization, which are top notch.
Once again, CD Projekt Red shows that they are willing to treat their customers with respect. For the price of a Subway footlong, you get a great piece of additional content that gels perfectly with the rest of the game. While it has it flaws, they don't make this any less worthy of your cash. With it's 10ish hours of high quality content, it's definitely worth the cash, and if you are even a remote fan of the base game, you will enjoy this.
The Pros:
- Fantastic Characters
- Improved Customization
- Thrilling Storyline
The Cons:
- Slow Start
- Some Wonky Difficulty
Final Score: 9.5 out of 10
