The Witcher 3: Blood & Wine - DLC Review / Critique

Channel:

The Nocturnal Rambler

Subscribers:

13,800

Published on June 13, 2021 2:45:26 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0ma05EIxdE

Game:

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)

Category:

Review

Duration: 1:49:19

21,298 views

626

A review/critique/analysis/retrospective of The Witcher 3's "Blood & Wine" DLC. This expansion has a lot to enjoy, and the farewell send-off to Geralt makes it must-play material for anyone seeking a proper conclusion to the trilogy, but it also has some issues and shortcomings that make it a little less enjoyable to me than Hearts of Stone. While still a solid improvement over the base game in many respects, I can't help but feel it still could've been even better with more development time to flesh out some of its content, and/or by trimming some more of the fat to offer a more potent experience.

The first half of this review is completely spoiler-free and discusses mechanics for things like the new mutagen system, the player home, atmosphere, world design, side quests, characters, and a brief spoiler-free review of the main story and main quest line, while the second half goes into heavy spoiler territory breaking down the main story and main quest line in more detail. For reviews of the base game and Hearts of Stone, follow these links below:

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE-jAu5dZo8
The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U51rqUW_Iw

0:00:00 No Spoilers
0:16:57 Base game spoilers
0:17:43 No Spoilers
0:55:48 Heavy Spoilers
1:43:25 Conclusion

Specific topics:
NO SPOILERS:
- Mutations - 0:02:47
- Corvo Bianco - 0:09:27
- Atmosphere - 0:12:10
- World design - 0:21:10
- Points of Interest - 0:24:22
- Pacing and distribution of side content 0:30:20
- Side quests - 0:33:40
- Story / Characters - 0:46:59
- Conclusion 1:43:25
SPOILERS
- Characters and Backstory - 0:55:48
- Investigating the Beast - 1:08:40
- The climax - 1:12:36
- Branching main quest paths - 1:18:34
- Final Boss - 1:28:49
- Endings - 1:30:46
- Relative story improvements over the base game - 1:41:46

Witcher 1-style hair mod used in this playthrough:
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/4400 (using the "Long Elven" style)

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#TheWitcher3 #BloodandWine

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