The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt PC Review

'There's nothing behind me. I'm a Witcher, I'd have heard it. Just like I can hear your heart. Which is pounding... like a liar's.'

Geralt of Rivia

'The Witcher III – Wild Hunt‘ has won so many awards and has been praised by so many people that it’s kind of impossible to miss or ignore this game. It’s the third part in the videogame series based on the Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski and marks the end of the famous videogame trilogy of Geralt of Rivia, a.k.a the White Wolf or the Butcher of Blaviken. And to cut a long story short: The game lived up to every expectation I had and even exceeded them with ease. Even the games‘ minigames are better than many full-price titles – yeah exactly, I’m talking about you Gwent, you awful little drug that I can’t get enough of…

The main story connects to the events of the second Witcher game 'Assassins of Kings‘ and brings the overall story started in the first part to an end. Witchers are infamous monster hunters, magically improved mutants that are simultanesously feared and needed in a world threatened by dark creatures, evil spirits and living nightmares. Geralt of Rivia is a famous specimen of this kind and thought that his former friend and love, the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg, would be dead since a long time. However during the recent events in Loc Muinne he learned that this was not true and so he decides to start a new journey to finally find answers to his questions.

A huge world with fascinating lore and characters awaits the White Wolf - the quantity of places you can visit, persons you can talk to and monsters that have to be slain could be enough to easily fit in several 'ordinary‘ games.

Not only is this world crowded with interesting stories, dialogues and quests, fearsome monsters and an insane amount of details behind every corner moreover it is convincing and far away from all the happy fantasy clichés. There is neither black nor white, just many shades of dark grey. Elves are neither the glorious archers nor the kind tree people, humans not the friendly guys that accept every race the same and dwarfes are no gentle stone-loving miners. In this world you have to make choices that you won’t like and to live with the consequences. Morally ambiguous is the description you’re looking for.

Regarding the technical aspects this game conquers Mount Olympus easily (despite the much complained 'technical downgrade‘) as it is one of if not the most beautiful RPG I’ve ever seen, with amazing sunsets/sunrises, spooky nights and gorgeous views over detailled landscapes full of nature and terror - this game is definitely a beauty. In addition there is also brilliant music and fantastic voice acting that will catch you during dialogues or pumps you up during the fights. Together with the exquisite characters, the superb dialogues and all the deep little stories the game suceeds even more in creating a credible fantasy world.

So now the question: Are there negative points at all? Yeah... some minor flaws. Talking to every person and looting every stash is kind of unsatisfying as there is no wide variety of things that you may accomplish or find this way, so after some time you will visit mostly the important places and persons while ignoring the rest. Furthermore if everything else may be a 10/10 for me, the fighting mechanic is not as fantastic as the rest. It has definitely improved since the second part but it’s still somewhat 'special' as it lacks unique aspects, a good feedback for the hits and suffers every now and then from targeting problems, camera angles or some questionable hitboxes. That may sound worse than it actually is - from my point of view it's 'only'/'still' an 8 out of 10. In addition I encountered some small visual glitches and sound errors during cutscenes but they were small and disappeared after reloading, so I don’t even care about this at all. Compared to the games‘ size and content there are nearly no problems at all and everything runs more than just smoothly for me.

To be honest there is only only real downside that I have with the game: My journey with Geralt will end some day and it kind of set new standards regrading characters, lore and dialogues that will make many future RPGs look 'worse' for me...

So in the end, would I recommend the game? Yes – and no.

It’s a fantastic RPG with an amazing amount of content, exquisite characters, dialogues and interesting stories, so I’d recommend it for everyone who has even the slightest positive attitude towards RPGs or the fantasy genre in general.

However at the same time I wouldn’t recommend the game for anyone who has only little time to spare, doesn’t want to be immersed in a massive world full of lore or just wants to rush the story - this game needs time. A lot of it. However it pays off by providing a brilliant experience, if you’re willing to spend this much time it will take you on a journey that you’ll never regret or forget...

…or to be more precise let's call it 'a journey you’d like to forget'. Just to experience this masterpiece again from the start and to get these great feelings again (damn I even ignored the fast-travel option and turned off the minimap and the quest hints willingly for many hours (I’ve been lost so many time) to enjoy the world and the quests even more/longer - so great is this game). I'd rate it gladly 9.5 out of 10 points.

Let's end this review with another badass quote of the White Wolf:

'I'm a Witcher. Heard you wondering about my swords. Well, one's for monsters, the other - for humans.'

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS OF THE WITCHER III WILD HUNT:

OS: 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1) or 64-bit Windows 10

Processor: Intel CPU Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz / AMD CPU Phenom II X4 940

Memory: 6 GB RAM

Graphics: Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 660 / AMD GPU Radeon HD 7870

Storage: 35 GB available space

RECOMMENDED REQUIREMENTS OF THE WITCHER III WILD HUNT:

OS: 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1) or 64-bit Windows 10

Processor: Intel CPU Core i7 3770 3.4 GHz / AMD CPU AMD FX-8350 4 GHz

Memory: 8 GB RAM