The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the final chapter in the trilogy of adventures featuring Geralt of Rivia. In 2022, all owners of the game received a free next-gen upgrade to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Complete Edition — the most complete edition of The Witcher 3, including all expansions, add-ons The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine and The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone, as well as numerous graphical improvements.

The events of the third game begin a short time after the ending of the second. Nilfgaard has successfully conquered Temeria and plans to bring the other northern lands under its control. Meanwhile, the famous witcher Geralt and his wise mentor Vesemir pick up the trail of the missing sorceress Yennefer, the White Wolf’s longtime love. You can look forward to an adventure-filled game world, a brilliant story, an excellent combat system, stunning graphics, nonlinearity, multiple endings, and the cozy atmosphere of the Slavic Middle Ages.

This role-playing game set in the vast fantasy world of Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released for PC, PS4, and Xbox One on May 19, 2015. It is the sequel to The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings , and concludes the trilogy about Geralt of Rivia.

With the release of Witcher 3, CD Project set new standards for the genre and won worldwide acclaim and the love of fans. Andrzej Sapkowski, author of The Witcher book series, advised the developers during the game’s creation.

The studio’s REDengine 3 delivers high-quality multiplatform graphics and dynamic weather changes. For the first time in the series, the main characters were created as high-polygon models, and the monsters received detailed models and animations. Nvidia technologies were used to create grass, object shadows, hair, fur, and fabric.

Witcher 3 is the first game in the series with a fully open world. It takes place in the Northern Kingdoms during the Nilfgaardian Empire’s third invasion. The game world in Witcher 3 is 30 times larger than in Witcher 2, and players can travel on horseback using Geralt’s horse, Roach.

The world is divided into regions with different landscapes and levels of development, inhabited by various peoples. There are 15 fully-fledged states and more than 20 principalities and free cities, which, depending on the player’s actions, will unite to defend themselves or be conquered. The settlements’ design is reminiscent of medieval Eastern Europe, though some buildings are Scandinavian in style.

The rest of the game world offers entire mountains and valleys, fields and forests, rivers and lakes, caves and underground chambers to explore. There are also swamps and “blighted places,” where monsters usually dwell. The Witcher 3’s bestiary is extremely diverse: players will encounter not only bandits and wild animals, but also vampires, ghosts, ogres, earth elementals, griffins, succubi, and other monsters.

The game world is filled with many events, both random and scripted, and is designed to be as close to reality as possible, making it interesting to travel through.

The Wild Hunt is not just mentioned in the game’s title—it is a band of elite spectral riders from another dimension, a dying world of elves, who are trying to move to the world of humans. Led by the elven king Eredin, the Wild Hunt is ready to open a portal at any cost. To do so, he kidnaps people who can lead him to Ciri. The antagonist has no idea that Geralt is his equal in strength and cunning.

At the same time, the Nilfgaardian Empire is swallowing up the Northern Kingdoms one by one. Players can choose a side in the conflict and take part in battles and sieges to help shape the game world’s politics. Meanwhile, Emperor Emhyr orders Geralt to find and rescue Ciri.

Unlike in other role-playing games, The Witcher 3 lets players turn down side quests. Events will unfold whether Geralt takes part in them or not. Each main quest offers several possible paths, all of which affect the game’s ending. The writers took great care in crafting the story and dialogue, and added many cutscenes.

The side quests set a high standard: most are well crafted and very different from the usual open-world “kill” and “fetch” quests. You can rush through the story in 40 hours, though 50 is more typical. Exploring the game world and completing side quests takes about the same amount of time.

The combat system has been completely redesigned so Geralt can fight many enemies at once. There are no attack chains or combos; players simply need to strike at the right moment, block and counterattack, dodge, and take cover. The mechanics of the silver and steel swords have not changed, but bombs and a crossbow have been added as alternatives.

The five magical Signs have been improved and can now be used both in combat and in everyday life. Quests often require Geralt to use his Witcher senses and interact with the game world. Monsters have strengths and weaknesses, and knowing the latter helps Geralt defeat them quickly.

Alchemy is more complex, but drinking potions grants Geralt special abilities, boosts his stats, or increases the damage he deals to certain enemies. The maximum character level is 70, but it varies depending on the difficulty level. As before, Geralt can improve his talents by choosing a specialization and the corresponding abilities.