The Witcher 3 Hearts of Stone Expansion

Combat

No real changes to report when it comes to the combat functions exactly as it previously was or we’ve severely missed something. As mentioned in gameplay, you have 4 quick slots instead of two, which does make gameplay faster as to not have to go into the inventory to grab more potions or food to place in the quick slots. This is nice to see as we did not have any complaints with the combat system for the most part and tinkering with it now would require a new tutorial for some players who got comfortable with it for 100+ hours playing the Witcher 3 itself.

Side Quests

Hearts of Stone continues the great formula that CDPR came out with when they released the Witcher 3. There are still some side quests that involve treasure hunting, or exploring various locations on the map, sprinkled in with some ‘normal’ quest giver quests. The runewords crafter we mentioned earlier has several side quests in order to allow them to upgrade and improve their equipment, thus unlocking the higher tiers of runewords. The reactions of Geralt to some of the side quests objectives or requests are quite priceless and they alone make it worth doing as in certain we believe a lot of players would be thinking what Geralt says if they themselves were asked that question or to accomplish the same time. We did not feel that the small number (compared to the Witcher 3’s massive amount) of side quests detracted from the game, and it certainly did not bloat the game’s playtime as much as other game’s DLC side quests have when compared to other titles such as Saints Row 4 Gat Outta Hell where the side where the side quests took longer to complete then the story did.

Story

Ideally one would start or play the game either nearing the completion of the Witcher 3 or having beaten it, as the game itself recommends you be at least level 30 to start it. For us, we just merely picked up after having beaten the Witcher 3 where we got the best ending possible (also the most canon in our view too). We won’t spoil story of that game (including the ending) as for the most part it isn’t required in order to play this expansion. You may even play the expansion as a standalone, with the game starting you at level 32 with some equipment and gear to let you jump right into it. Note with this no items or gear is or can be transferred from another save game, nor can you complete any non-Hearts of the Stone quests.

As what we usually do, we won’t give away much about the  story though we will mention that you run into someone from near the beginning of The Witcher, called the Gaunter O’Dimm, who helped you in White Orchard when Geralt was trying to find Yennefer. He is also known as the Man of Glass, who through a series of events saves Geralt and then tasks him to fulfill three wishes for a bandit captain Olgierd von Everec. The catch as you find out is that Olgierd’s wishes end up being nearly impossible, which is why Olgierd came up with them to begin with. This leads the story into quite the interesting trek through various environments, including a spirit/ghost world and well playing as a ghost who inhabits Geralt’s body off and on for a night.  The Man of Glass is not the only returning character, Shani the medic who is now doctor returns as well, running into him near the beginning of the main quest as Geralt picks up a contract to kill a Giant Toad (which is a hell of a boss fight on Dearth March, the hardest difficulty). This is not the only time you run into her, with romantic tensions in the air between the two of them if you had romanced her back in The Witcher 1. This means Shani is a new temporary romance option in the Witcher 3 game (well in Hearts of Stone only) yet she does not affect the outcome of the main romance decision you have to make during the main Witcher 3 game. We won’t spoil that one still though all we can say is threesomes are not a good idea.

Now it may not be nearly as long as the 100+ hours that we played The Witcher 3, but we did burn about 13 hours to complete the game, with what we would guess about 10ish hours of that being the main story itself.

Misc/Replayability

As the game is only an expansion rather than a full standalone there is going to be limited replayability with this, though just like the Witcher 3, you can play through it several times making different choices here and there which will result in different endings. Is it something you’ll do right after beating it the first time in standalone mode? Probably not, but you’d be a fool to not include the expansion in your game+ playthrough or a new playthrough of the Witcher 3.