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The Witcher 3: Masterpiece or No?

After three attempts to play the game, each time not finding it worth putting in the time necessary to finish the game, I finally found the time and patience to sit through the game on my fourth attempt. After ~120 hours playing through all available quests in the main story (that I could find, not including Gwent), as well as the Free DLC content, and the 'Heart of Stone' and 'Blood and Wine' expansions, I can finally say I have experienced one of Gaming's most notable marvels. With that said, does The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt live up to the endless praise as being "A True Masterpiece" and "One of the Greatest Games ever made"? The answer might not be quite what you expect, but we will get to that.
The Story - 8.5/10
I find one of the most common areas of praise for CDPR's magnum opus revolves around its story, so I thought it best to start here. Long and rewarding, the narrative of The Witcher 3 is truly a sight to behold with many moments of pure greatness. Playing as Geralt, you find yourself spending the first two thirds of the story searching for his lost daughter figure Ciri in order to save her from the Wild Hunt, meeting many friends and foes along the way. One of the great aspects of this story, and the game as a whole, is the way in which your decisions influence how your journey will end and it is up to the player to find their desired ending. However, the reason I do not rate the story higher is that how well one enjoys the story will, in my opinion, depend highly on how much of the side content they decide to pursue. That is to say, if players were only to do the 'Main Quests' I feel as though a fair chunk of the story would be a bit cumbersome and uninteresting.
Side Content - 10/10
Character-Driven Primary Side Quests
These are the best of the bests, stories that enhance the quality of the primary story by a country mile. You will not find better side quests in any other game and in some cases, I would argue the side quests are as good, if not better, than the main story itself, if for no other reason than that they are able to stand on their own. I would highly suggest following the storylines of The Bloody Baron, Keira Metz, and Dandelion in particular.
Other Typical Side Quests
These vary greatly, some are almost able to stand up to some of the Primary Side Quests, others are more just filler to pad playtime and give the player more resources.
Witcher Contracts
The overall quality of Contracts in general is a step above the standard side quest in the game, giving player a lot more xp, resources, money, and simply the thrill of hunting monsters.
Treasure Hunts
For 95% of these, they are the worst quests in the game, offering tiresome 2 minute searches which add nothing except an easy way to give the player money.
The other 5% are Witcher Gear Scavenger Hunts which are much better and far more rewarding
Gameplay - 6.5/10
Some people will likely berate this rating but I will stand by it. The gameplay is unrefined, and has no weight. It does not flow that well, is too easy, and can be irritating. Combat mode is limiting, the crossbow is a pointless addition, walking speed it too quick, running is too slow, etc. Additionally, traversal is... weird. Geralt can fall 6 feet and dies of fall damage (unless you do a parkour roll but my point still stands). Meanwhile a plethora of unrefined features, i.e. horse-riding, poor terrain, etc. will give mixed feelings about other areas of gameplay.
Additionally, most of the Boss Fights in the game were too easy and underwhelming. The Best, more challenging bosses only arrive in the expansions
With that said, the game is saved by the well-done and highly enjoyable RPG and Preparation mechanic. Being able to prepare for each fight with particular Oils, Potions, and decoctions immersed me greatly in the life of a Witcher and made monster fighting more satisfying. Moreover, while some of the Skill Trees could have been done better (Looking at you Sign tree), the ways in which they enhanced your abilities were extremely useful and enjoyable (though they could have done more). Also, the massive and wide variety of monsters to fight is wonderful.
Overall, while there is a some good elements in the core game design, it is simply too unrefined for me to rate it any higher.
Characters 9/10
There is a lot to like about the characters in the Witcher 3. Each of the Main and Supporting casts adds huge amounts of nuance and quality to the story you create. With many standouts which, in their own right, put entire sections of the game on their shoulders and make for unforgettable experiences. I again draw attention the characters of Ciri and The Bloody Baron as highlights. Geralt is harder to describe. He is very nuanced and monotone for a large chunk of the game, which is fairly in character, but also at times feels limited and held back by choice-based dialogue. I almost felt like he was an underwhelming, voice-acting in particular could have maybe been done better. That is, until I reached one of the stories turning points. I will not say which moment this is, but this moment and a couple others truly allow Geralt to shine as a great character.
Graphics/Optimisation - 9/10
Exceptionally well done for the time, still holds up well to this day.
Soundtrack - 9/10
A Marvelous sountrack that is truly befitting of the world, story, and characters that CD Projekt Red created.
Audio Design - 7/10
Audio design was not bad, but it was not at all memorable either

DLC Content - 10/10

I would like to briefly cover the DLCs as they will highly influence my recommendation.
Firstly, the Free DLC gets massive praise, though I do have one gripe. Specifically, every free DLC is perfect and adds a lot of amazing little details and side quests. However, they feel less like DLC and more like content that was meant to be in the game in the first place. In other words, I am extremely happy that CDPR added them, but I feel as though they should have already been in the game.
Secondly, the Heart of Stone Expansion was exceptional, adding about 10 hours of new content, and an enjoyable story that expands the world of the Witcher in so many fascinating and enjoyable ways. One Quest in particular is better than ~95% of the quests in the main game.
Lastly, the Blood and Wine Expansion is a timeless masterpiece that fixes almost all of the issues I had with the main game. Adding many new gameplay elements which gives the player so many new options and variety, a Fantastic Main storyline which features what is easily the most enjoyable Boss Fight in the entire game, a new Open World Region which makes the Base Game regions forgettable, many fantastic side quests, and so much more. If you play The Witcher 3 without playing Blood and Wine, you are making a mistake.


Recommendation

Overall, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an amazing game in its own right, with so many elements done to near perfection. However, I cannot call the base game alone a masterpiece, simply because it does not have the polish necessary for a game to reach that level. With this and Cyberpunk 2077, I can easily say that CD Projekt Red are easily the 'Grandmaster' of Content, but far from being even a 'Journeyman' of Polish.
HOWEVER , The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt WITH the DLC, Blood and Wine especially, is a masterpiece that I hope every player will be able to experience. Thus, these are my final recommendations:
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - 8.25/10
The Witcher 3 w/ Free DLC - 8.5/10
The Witcher 3 w/ Free DLC + HOS - 9/10
The Witcher 3 w/ B+W Alone - 10/10
The Withcer 3 w/ All DLC - 10/10
Replayability - 10/10 (Easily several playthroughs can be done without boredom)