Now Playing: Hearts of Stone (DLC)

Hearts of Stone is the first expansion for The Witcher 3. It’s not set at any particular ‘moment’ with regards to the core story, but it’s intended to played at a high character level of 30+, so you’ll likely be tackling this content after completing the main game. You can, however, jump straight into this content with a custom level 30+ character if you wish, which is a nice touch.

Without spoiling too much, the core quest line of Hearts of Stone begins with what appears to be a fairly standard monster contract, but quickly transforms into something far more complex. It’s a decent tale, not quite up to par with the best quest lines of the base game, but it’s a solid and enjoyable adventure nonetheless.

 

You have a series of main quests which will spin off into several related side missions. This is in addition to a few non-related side quests including some new ‘treasure hunts’ and several new points of interest to explore, all neatly incorporated into one of the existing open world maps. There’s also new weapons and armour to buy, craft or loot, including a new system for weapon and armour upgrades. If you complete absolutely everything, Hearts of Stone should offer around 10-15 hours of content, which is fairly reasonable value at its RRP.

Having jumped into Hearts of Stone from Fallout 4, it was refreshing to play some quests which didn’t simply revolve around murdering everything. Hearts of Stone has a good variety of quests to undertake, such as attending a wedding whilst possessed by an amorous ghost, or assembling a skilled crew to take part in a heist. It doesn’t quite hit any emotional notes, but it did make me laugh more than once.

If it’s combat you like, however, Hearts of Stone does offer some new enemy types, including a series of pretty enjoyable boss fights. One of my main criticisms of The Witcher 3 was that it didn’t have many memorable boss style encounters. Hearts of Stone addresses this issue with several boss fights, each of which is unique and enjoyable in their own way, forcing you to use different potions, signs or tactics to prevail. And if you’re playing on a higher difficulty, they will certainly give you a decent challenge.

 

The only real issue I have with Hearts of Stone is that none of it feels particularly ‘essential’. Whilst it’s true that the content is good and offers fairly decent value, it’s also true that you won’t really miss anything important or fantastic if you do decide to skip it. There’s nothing here so outstanding that makes it an essential purchase. It’s good, but it’s really just more Witcher 3.

And that’s okay, as far as I’m concerned. It was nice returning to the game and embarking on a neat little adventure. It’s not a substantial piece of content, and it’s not something I’d say you definitely need to play, but if you’ve finished the core game and would like more to do, you really can’t go wrong with it. Hopefully the second upcoming expansion, which is supposed to be a larger piece of content, can take that extra step and provide an experience that you really won’t want to miss.

7/10