The Witcher 3 Hearts of Stone Expansion

We would like to say we quite enjoyed the Witcher 3 expansion the Hearts of Stone, as it gave us a new crafter, additional side quests, Shani, and a storyline that probably is better than some of the plot lines in the original game. For only 10$, less if on sale or in the expansion pass, you will definitely be getting your dollar per hour, as we spent 13 hours ourselves, with some fast travel cheating to get around a bit quicker. If you are the one to only use the hour, maybe add another hour for horseback riding.

Graphics: nVidia Hairworks now has more options compared to just On and Off, allowing you to enjoy the benefits of it without the potential random frame drop as you can change the AA levels finally.

Gameplay: The introduction of the runeswords crafter, who can enchant your weapons and armour to have various permanent bonuses, along with some other tweaks and improvements from patch 1.06 to 1.10 has added and enhanced the player experience as a whole with the inclusion of stashes, better inventory organization options, and additional quick use item slots.

Combat: If it’s not broke, don’t fix it, nothing has changed with respect to combat and we are happy to see/report that.

Side Quests: CDPR continues to having engaging and worthwhile side quests that do not feel like they are trying to bloat or stretch out the play time, something they are masters of.

Story: Who knew that the man who helped you in White Orchard would turn out to be quite a pivotal character in the Hearts of Stone expansion? With the addition of Shani (Witcher 1 love interest and from the novels) along with some interesting locations makes the story reason enough to pick this game up and play it.

Misc/Replayability: A standalone mode is available to those who want to just play the expansion pre-levelled and geared to go. The fact there are different endings make it well worth replaying several times if you are the type of gamer to play different ‘game’ styles based on specific playthrough. Now you may not replay it immediately but it should not be ignored during your game+ or a fresh from scratch game.