The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Windows) Review

Four years after CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, the third entry in the Witcher video game series, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt released. With its third entry the Witcher series took a large step in terms of scale and ambition. It was also the first entry of the Witcher series to be developed with Xbox and PlayStation systems in mind. This review will judge the game on its own merits.

The gameplay of the Witcher 3 is easily some of the greatest to ever be featured in a RPG. Geralt, the main playable character, controls like a dream. The gameplay is the most realistic of any game ever made, yet it all controls so intuitively. The difficulty is balanced perfectly, with a curve that all future game designers should study if they hope to ever reach this level of greatness. Despite the game’s seemingly endless length, no task or challenge ever feels repetitive. Suffice it to say the gameplay has absolutely no flaws and potential buyers are better off experiencing it first hand than having it be spoiled by a review.

It would be difficult to argue that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt‘s technical aspects are not greater than any other game released as of 2015. The art style is possibly the most tasteful ever featured in a video game. Most of the time it is difficult to say whether you are looking at a video game or through a window into Geralt’s world. An entire game series would be lucky to have as many unique assets as this one game does. Even the console versions run flawlessly, better than anything either Sony or Microsoft could make on their own hardware. The level of optimization simply puts all other games to shame. Still, the game does not let any power of the machine go to waste. Every last bit is used to power the games incredible amount of features that use current technology for more than just graphical fidelity.

Objectively the greatest part of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and the most important aspect of any video game, is the story. Not only does the game perfectly adapt Andrzej Sapkowski’s original book series to a video game, but it also somehow makes it better. No other story in any medium has ever gripped the author this much. It is frankly impossible to put this game down before first completing it fully without dying of anticipation. The branching story paths are a technical marvel and the script is simply perfect. Even if one would have to play on the easiest mode to experience this story, it would still be worth it.

Even if this game lasted 30 minutes it would be worth a full $60 purchase, but the developers went above and beyond to provide a mind-numbing amount of content. No other game created to this point has ever featured a world quite this big with as many unique and quality quests. None of this content is fluff either. Never before has a game respected the time of its players as well as this one has. The experience is so good that it is worth replaying even if one has finished the game completely.

Overall this game easily deserves The Skill Issue’s first perfect 10 out of 10.

If you decide to purchase this game through one of the links below this blog will receive a commission.