"The swordplay never clicks. The side quests never leave."
About
You play as Geralt of Rivia, a professional monster hunter navigating a war-ravaged fantasy continent in search of Ciri, a woman with reality-warping powers. You accept contracts to slay creatures and gather information through exploration, dialogue, and investigation, with your choices throughout conversations and quests shaping which of multiple endings you reach. The open world branches into numerous side stories and monster hunts alongside the main narrative about locating Ciri before she falls into the hands of the game's primary antagonists.
Verdict
The Witcher 3 buries its mediocre combat under the best quest writing in the genre, where a throwaway side contract turns into a small tragedy you remember for years. The world respects your choices and pays them off twenty hours later in ways you forgot you set in motion. The swordplay never quite clicks, but it's the price of admission to everything around it.
You'll like it if …
- +you come for writing and let the story pull you into side stories for hours
- +you want choices that resurface much later and reward replays
- +you enjoy preparing monster hunts with oils and signs over fast reflexes
You'll dislike it if …
- −responsive, satisfying swordplay is what you want from combat
- −you prefer tight, focused stories over sprawling hundred-hour worlds
Breakdown
- −Combat feels janky and never fully satisfies, a common sticking point
- −Swordplay lacks responsiveness despite signs and alchemy offering tactical levers
- +Side quests written better than most games' main stories, with consequences that resurface much later
- +Branching quest design where choices ripple across the narrative, prompting replays years later to see different threads
- +Two expansions that function as full games, exceptional value at this price point
- −Loot scaling falls apart past level 30
- +Morally grey contracts and characters you invest in within minutes
- +A Slavic-flavoured world that feels lived-in, from NPC dialogue to environmental detail
- +The search for Ciri interweaves with personal side stories in ways that deepen the main arc
- +Visually stunning in 2026, especially with next-gen update and ray tracing, holding up against current releases
- +Soundtrack carries the dark-fantasy mood as much as the visuals, compelling enough to loop in the background
- +Densely populated open world remains largely smooth with next-gen update sharpening performance
- −Recent patches introduced crashes and worse frame rates for some players
score
