Now Playing: Blood and Wine (DLC)

The second and final expansion to The Witcher 3, Blood & Wine takes Geralt on an adventure to an entirely new region – Toussaint. With a new map to explore, a substantial core quest chain, dozens of side quests, new monsters and new weapons and armour, Blood & Wine offers excellent value, with an abundance and variety of content that would put many fully priced titles to shame.

And yet, though I hate to admit it, I found myself feeling a little disappointed by Blood & Wine. In terms of content, I certainly can’t complain, with 10-20 hours of play if you complete all of the core and side quests. Include the treasure hunting, points of interest, crafting and home decoration (seriously) and you could probably get a good 30 hours out of this expansion.

No, it’s not the content that disappoints me, but rather the presentation. Compared to the first expansion – Hearts of Stone – Blood & Wine isn’t quite as polished or perfectly paced. The core quest chain of Blood & Wine is a somewhat uneven tale, with a slow and tedious beginning, a clumsy middle and a (thankfully) fantastic end. As with my Hearts of Stone review, I won’t get into specifics of the story as I’d rather not spoil anything.

But like HoS, Blood & Wine begins with the offer of a monster contract which quickly reveals itself to be part of a much larger puzzle. Unfortunately, the core story quests vary in terms of quality from one to the next. The pacing also feels off when, after a slow start, things suddenly feel very rushed. Fortunately, the conclusion to the main story makes it all worth it, with a nice variety of possible outcomes based on your unique decisions.

In fact, there are entire chunks of gameplay that you will miss depending on your chosen path. And this is then followed by a lovely ‘epilogue’ scene that varies depending on choices you made during the main game. It’s a nice way to bring a little closure to The Witcher 3 experience as a whole.

But the core story certainly doesn’t feel as polished as that in Hearts of Stone, and that’s really the unfortunate thing about this expansion as a whole. And although it’s a matter of personal taste, I felt more engaged by the story of HoS as opposed to Blood & Wine. It’s still a fine tale and an enjoyable new adventure, but that lack of polish and uneven pacing certainly doesn’t help.

In terms of side content, although I enjoyed many of the side quests from a narrative perspective, few were particularly engaging or memorable from a gameplay perspective. There’s little complexity on offer, with many quests being fairly simplistic in nature and easy to complete.

There’s also, unlike HoS, no truly memorable fights or encounters. But I did enjoy the new monster types, as well as the new weapons and armour on offer. This expansion also overhauls the game’s UI and menu system into something a little less troublesome to navigate.

I hate to sound too negative about Blood & Wine, because what’s here is actually really good, but I can’t say I agree with all the praise I’ve seen lavished upon it either. I found the entire expansion to be too rough around the edges and hastily put together, with none of the quality or polish of the previous expansion. Whereas HoS felt more quality over quantity, Blood & Wine feels more like the opposite.

But if you loved The Witcher 3 I’d certainly recommend Blood & Wine. The conclusion to the core story and the final epilogue scenes make it a wonderful way to wrap up The Witcher 3 as a whole, making it an essential purchase if you’re a fan.

7/10