Game review: The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone

The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone is well-crafted and carefully thought out.

The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone. Courtesy CD Projekt Red

The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone

Reviewed on Xbox One

Dh36

Five stars

The team at Projekt Red has got good at writing. The seemingly endless story of The Witcher 3 at first wore me down through its length, but the charisma of the title character, Geralt of Rivia, a medieval Clint Eastwood running bad guys and giant monsters out of town, won me over. By its end I felt warmth towards its dry hero who, ripping wholesale from a book of Dirty Harry character notes, could communicate everything he needed to with a “hmm”, a “hrrrgh” and, infrequently, a “nnnngh”.

In Hearts of Stone, Geralt meets Olgierd von Everech, scion of a once-prominent family, who now throws his lot in with layabouts with hipster haircuts. Everech sends Geralt on a monster hunt that goes awry, and leads to the Witcher's capture. To free himself, Geralt makes a pact with a mysterious character named Gaunter O'Dinn. When the balance of power between Everech and O'Dinn shifts, Geralt is caught in the middle.

This expansion pack is a lot of fun. There's a section that unabashedly copies GTAV's robbery missions – which is endearing, given that Witcher 3 is set in the medieval era. Bank vaults require hackers, grafters and fences even in the 13th century. Another mission has as its main objective: go and have fun at a wedding. A third sends you into an artwork drawn by alt-world Van Gogh – replete with starry nights and streaked paint swatches. Projekt Red's writers have got the hang of devising fun situations to think and play your way out of.

The boss battles are worth a special mention. One of the boss battles offered swordplay to rival that of Dishonoured or the Jedi Knight series, both of which defined the standard for duelling in a video game. That's in part because it's tough and forces real tactical ingenuity from the player, even using quite familiar and simple techniques – a bit like real sword fighting. It's also because the animation of boss combat is exemplary – the "spins, pirouettes and feints" are carefully and ­artfully drawn.

At 10 to 15 hours of gameplay, there's plenty of content, too. Expansion packs often feel cynical, unnecessary or just downright exploitative. This is neither: it is a well-written story, crafted with considerable care. For a player who hung up their controller after besting the Wild Hunt, but who hankers to spend more time in a beautifully realised world, this is well worth the purchase.