“One of the best games I have ever played.”
I will start off by saying The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has completely consumed my life. Well at least the life I once had, a life that didn’t consist of sitting in front of my TV playing my Xbox One all day. Sadly that life is gone and I probably wont be seeing it again for a long time considering just how big the world of The Witcher 3 is and how much things there are to do in this world. I just can’t seem to get enough of playing it.
This isn’t the first time this has happened to me. I remember in 2011 when I first played The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a game I spent well over 400 hours playing, The Witcher 3 has many of the same qualities that made me so addicted to Skyrim and it is so different in so many ways that the experience is one of a kind. A little over 85 hours in and I can tell that I will be playing Wild Hunt for a very long time to come.
Graphically the game is fantastic despite it not looking as good as previews would have you believe it is certainly some of the best I have ever seen on a console and with beautiful visuals around every corner of this huge world it is hard to not be in awe of the games graphical presents.
In Wild Hunt story is king and that is evident when playing. Despite a few pointless missions that get you from point A to point B the game has a near flawless story with great acting and enough push behind the characters to keep you invested for as long as you play, and that will likely be a very, very long time. Without giving up any spoilers the search for your long-lost love Yennefer is going full force and finding her will be one tough task.
Gameplay is still the single most important thing in the gaming world and The Witcher does not fail in that area either. Overall the gameplay is much more fast paced and smoother compared to the highly regarded Witcher 2 and what I loved most was the more effective way of using magic. Honestly I went almost entirely without the use of magic abilities in the second installment of The Witcher series, but in Wild Hunt I find it much more effective and quite frankly much more important. Sword combat is much more crisp as well making the overall combat experience much more enjoyable this time around.
Travel and exploration is also huge. Riding a horse, walking, or traveling by boat makes for many interesting things to see along the way should it be new monsters to fight, places to go, or people to meet I could never get bord to traveling this beautiful opened world. Stopping to take in the amazing visuals or traveling to new-found towns make it easy to enjoy and is just another part of the game that has improved greatly from The Witcher 2.
Overall it is hard to say anything bad about this game. At this point it is easily the front-runner for game of the year and without a doubt has a strong chance of staying in that position until the end of the year. Beautiful graphics put together with a fantastic story and an upgraded combat system makes The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt one of the best games I have ever played.
Verdict – Instant Classic
5 out of 5 Stars
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