The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine
By Marc Saltzman,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Violent, mature expansion has loads of bonus content.
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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine
Community Reviews
Based on 3 parent reviews
Most epic game expansion ever
Sex Scenes are Terrible
What’s It About?
THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT - BLOOD AND WINE once again lets gamers slip into the boots of Geralt of Rivia, a professional monster slayer, who, on his final mission, explores Toussaint, a remote fairy tale-like kingdom untouched by war, but he soon discovers a horrifying secret that threatens the land. Sold as an expansion to The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, this final adventure in the role-playing game (RPG) series adds more than 30 hours between its more than 90 new quests and other additions. Through character interaction, third-person combat, and exploration, Geralt attempts to solve the mystery and survive the evil lurking behind every corner. Without giving too much away, the main storyline involves a pair of sisters and some vampires, but the assortment of side quests introduces many other characters and missions, many of which weave in plot elements from previous games. But you don't need to be familiar with past events to play this expansion.
Is It Any Good?
Delivering about 30 hours of new content as an expansion to the main game, this adventure goes above and beyond the call of duty with its depth and gameplay. If you liked The Witcher III: Wild Hunt and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: Hearts of Stone, you'll no doubt appreciate the quality and quantity of Geralt's final adventure. Along with a new story, plot twists, quests, and a huge new location (Toussaint is as big as No Man's Land in the main game, by the way), this expansion adds extra features to the existing game. These features include a dynamic "Point of Interest" system, which lets you alter the scene based on decisions you make and actions you take (killing bandits in a castle hideout, for example, will affect the number of enemies in a surrounding camp), an interesting mutation character system (a color-coded strategy that requires ability points and mutagens), a new Gwent deck for the popular card game, and enhanced visuals and sounds to help make the game even more engaging.
But it's not just the new features -- or impressive length of the new quests -- that make this expansion so worthwhile. The entire package fuses a fun combat mechanic, RPG upgrades and customization, memorable characters and well-paced quests, smartly-written dialogue (with plenty of humor), scary elements to keep you on your toes, and absolutely stunning visuals and special effects that help lose you in this vast fantasy world. In other words, it's not merely the sum of its parts but an overall magical game that's well worth exploring from tip to tail, but for mature players only. Whether you've already purchased the main game or if you're new to this series but like RPGs, the Blood and Wine finale is a must-own adventure.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in video games. Is there a way the developer CD Projekt Red could make Blood and Wine "Teen"-rated instead of "Mature"-rated, without taking away from the overall experience? Would it sell more because it was open to a larger audience?
Discuss sexuality in games. Should we supervise children playing games the same way we might when physical romance is depicted in live-action entertainment?
Game Details
- Platforms: PlayStation 4 , Windows , Xbox One
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: CD PROJEKT RED
- Release date: June 6, 2016
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More , Adventures , Brothers and Sisters , Friendship , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- ESRB rating: M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Alcohol
- Last updated: August 11, 2021
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