Forums > Contributor Zone > Witcher III: Hearts of Stone (PS4)

The first of two expansions! 4/5 for me.

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When releasing their expansions to Witcher III: Wild Hunt, CD Projekt Red followed the same formula of those Elder Scrolls games that ate up so much of my time with the previous generation of systems. Like both Oblivion and Skyrim, there were two major ones released, with the larger taking place in its own land, giving players a new area to explore with its own story and variety of optional activities. Meanwhile, the smaller expansion is essentially an added quest chain attached to the main world, delivering one more collection of tasks in somewhat familiar confines.

One side effect of this strategy is that, for me, the shorter of those two expansions always seems to be less memorable. When it comes to Oblivion, I loved the quirky nature of Shivering Isles and its collection of wacky characters under the rule of an insane demigod. Conversely, I can scarcely remember Knights of the Nine. With Skyrim, I found Dawnguard to be an improved "short" expansion, as it contained a few memorable moments and a couple enjoyably vast areas to explore, but it still fell short of Dragonborn's more fleshed out campaign in a land featuring a mostly new bestiary.

And I won't deny that Hearts of Stone, the smaller of Witcher III's expansions, suffers from that same fate. The vast majority of it is confined to the northeastern part of the Velen/Novigrad region, with the city of Oxenfurt being the primary "familiar confines" you'll be visiting. At least if you're smart, that will be the only area you're familiar with, as notice boards in a couple villages will scatter a number of additional points of interest through that section of the map. Since both expansions are designed to be played after the main storyline has been completed, this means trouble for the adventurous chap who saw how vast this entire area is and thought it'd be a great idea to stroll around the world seeing what sort of trouble he could find. Nothing like reaching level 10 with Geralt only to immediately blunder into several level 31 knights and getting one-shot before the disparity in power even registered in my brain!

And so I waited until finishing the main quest to revisit that section of the map and get revenge, since those knights no longer proved deadly by this time. After wiping out a few collections of enemies, I decided to sink my teeth in the expansion's main quest.

One of those notice boards tells about a nobleman needing help with a particular monster that is causing problems for the citizens of Oxenfurt. While the meeting with Olgierd von Everec is a bit on the weird side, a contract is a contract and he'll head to that city. Where fans of the first game will possibly rejoice, as he'll run into one of its romance options, Shani the healer. More importantly, he'll also run into his quarry — a gigantic frog-like demon who proves quite tough to take down. Even more importantly, that frog demon was actually a cursed prince and his countrymen were also in the sewers attempting to remove the curse. Being decidedly unhappy with the unexpected demise of their royalty, they abduct Geralt to take him back to their homeland for execution.

However, you'll have an unexpected savior. In the very beginning of the main game when you first visit White Orchard's inn, you'll have a conversation with a "seems to know more than he should" guy named Gaunter O'Dimm, who then isn't seen again…until now. While Gaunter claims to be nothing more than a random, inconspicuous traveler, it won't take long to discover he's far more. Let's see…enjoys holding nocturnal meetings at crossroads, loves making deals that inevitably backfire on whomever he's dealing with, looks at souls as prize currency AND possesses reality-bending powers. Yeah, Gaunter is the sort of bad news that guys like Faust could talk about at length, but after playing a big role in getting Geralt out of his predicament, the Witcher feels compelled to at least hear him out.

And so, you'll find out that Olgierd previously had a meeting with him, but has no intention of surrendering his soul due to his deal bestowing a sort of immortality. Geralt is recruited to be Gaunter's assistant in claiming it, but it won't be easy, as he'll have to fulfill three of Olgierd's wishes to simply make the whole soul-claiming possible. And the wily noble understands this game very well, so his wishes are going to range from merely super-duper-tough to likely impossible to successfully grant.

Overall, I might have to place the actual wish-granting as among the best quests Geralt takes on during Witcher III's entirety — each for a different reason. The first results in him being possessed by a ghost who needs to be shown the time of his life, leading to a lengthy collection of shenanigans at a wedding where the gruff, stoic Witcher's body is commandeered by a boisterous, fun-loving rogue. It's times like this when a person can truly appreciate the amount of work that goes into designing aspects of a game, as Geralt's voice actor delivers his lines in a completely different way from his norm, while his character's body language and facial expressions are animated to be completely different from how you're used to seeing him carry himself.

After that, you'll participate in a Witcher-meets-GTA heist where you have to collect a couple allies to steal a well-guarded artifact. And then, for the final wish, you'll travel to the seemingly-abandoned von Everec property to travel through one very haunted house — a place dominated not only by the negative emotions of its past residents, but also enough demons and ghostly presences to provide three different boss fights, each with the potential to offer a good amount of challenge.

The climax of the expansion doesn't quite reach those levels. As you explore the history of Olgierd's life and learn more about the events that led him to deal with Gaunter, you'll find yourself having to decide to either side with the amoral noble or the devilish dealmaker. Pick the latter and the expansion's final quest is quite anti-climactic. Choose to help Olgierd and you'll at least take an atmospheric detour on your way to the final meeting spot, before being forced into a riddle taking the form of a timed scavenger hunt — with the souls of both Olgierd and Geralt at stake. Sure, that was a pretty tense affair for me where I found what I was looking for mere moments before my time had expired, but winning a bet against a powerful force is not quite the same as actually defeating it in battle.

But that might just be me, as Geralt's potential method of defeating Gaunter is more consistent with old folk tales of people outwitting devils than whipping out his silver sword and hewing limbs would be. Far more problematic were glitches. Now, I think all of us who've played a few Western RPGs know that glitches are part of the experience. We've all had unexpected crashes, seen quest markers refuse to disappear and so on. In the main game, I particularly remember a time when I had to reload a previous save because I was starting a horse race, the screen froze and went grey for a couple moments and then returned to normal with me having lost the race. The sort of thing where if you're not digging the game, you'll be one step closer to abandoning it; but if you do love it, you'll swallow that annoyance and try again, hoping for a better result.

Of the two glitches I encountered, one was more weird than bothersome. Near the end of the heist, I was in a fight that had the potential to be pretty fun, as one of my comrades switched sides, turning things into a four-on-two battle that wasn't in my favor. I got in a bit of trouble and was trying to regenerate some health via dodging and letting food take its course. And, suddenly, the fight ended with my side having won. Maybe my ally killed the main enemy and that triggered a cutscene, maybe not…but it's really weird to be in the middle of a big fight and have it end for seemingly no reason, with the game's encyclopedia of characters saying both named characters fighting against me had perished in the battle.

More seriously, while most of the side-quests are little more than quick diversions, one of them is a surprisingly meaty treasure hunt where you hunt down those knights, kill them and find a collection of equipment diagrams that you can deliver to a merchant. Except in one particular cave, if you have a PS4, it's very likely that one of those diagrams will not appear in its chest, leaving you with a quest that's impossible to finish. When an expansion is based heavily around its main plot and most of the optional stuff is short and simple, having one of the best side-quests ruined by a goof-up that never was patched really annoys me.

But, overall, Hearts of Stone was a pretty great experience that was able to extend my Witcher III time a number of extra hours, which is a win in itself. Glitches were a bit annoying and I thought the end felt somewhat lackluster after the awesome quests I did getting to that point, but the parts I liked deserve to stand along the best moments of the game. It might not quite reach the level of the main game in my mind, but it also is far from a forgettable add-on to be played once and then discarded.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

Did you... Did you just post your review on the wrong forum?

Oh, Rob. You make it too easy for me sometimes.

For us. For them. For you.

Damn...someone was a bit distracted when they were doing this. Not that it showed or anything...

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

I figured I'd be the first one to do this. Phew...

The only thing my milkshake brings to the yard is a subpoena.