izigame.me

Both Witcher III DLC are worth playing; they are the perfect editions to an already perfect game, though I would say Hearts of Stone is the weakest of the two. As I previously stated, this isn’t to say Hearts of Stone is particularly bad, Blood and Wine simply exceeds its own expectations, and the scope out does that of its predecessor. However, in all honesty I disliked Hearts of Stone on my first run through, but that was probably because I was burnt out after playing the Witcher III for like 90 hours over the span of the month of December; likewise, on my second run through I enjoyed it far more than the first, yet was still disappointed when it came to Blood and Wine.
So without further adieu, Hearts of Stone is a flawed, yet brilliant addition to the Witcher III and here’s why:
I don’t quite know how to describe my feelings towards Hearts of Stone as even when I revisited both DLC’s, I was still disappointed. This was mainly because I wasn’t able to enjoy it to the degree other people were, especially after completing all of the content it provides. I greatly appreciate the lore that was introduced, characters, the world, and likewise the writing. Though the story to me felt under-baked and suffers from much of the tedium present in the base game. I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t criticise the base game for this, as these issues can be frustrating to deal with. At any rate, the story of HoS concerns a man who dealt with the devil, telling a tale of impudence and foolishness for the sake of pettiness. The story telling about Gaunter O’Dimm, the Master Mirror, the Man of Glass, and a familiar face if you paid attention…or just have a good enough memory (I do not have a good enough memory). His tale is intriguing and I feel like it could have been far more interesting if the story concerned him more as opposed to focusing on Olgierd Von Everec. He genuinely is an interesting character, but in all honesty I just didn’t care as much as I wanted to, nor as much as other people did. The Ofieri were an interesting faction to introduce, however they were completely irrelevant after the first two hours of the DLC, only present in the north-east of the map for crafting and integrating runes, but more on that later.
The reason I disliked the story is because it felt like there could have been more to it, as I previously stated the Ofieri were only relevant (and seemingly vital) in the story for the first two hours, fizzling into irrelevance after the ‘great escape’ and you can just interact them as though nothing ever happened. Especially considering the magnitude of Geralt’s crime, and the power the Ofieri can project for this reason. So whilst they were a great faction, I wish they were intertwined with the story more as it would have added an additional layer of complexity - but perhaps it was too far out the scope. Likewise, I found some of the missions to be quite tedious, repetitive and lacking substance. This is a criticism of the base game, though it never bothered me, or at least not to the degree it did in HoS. That being said, I still enjoyed much of the content in the main questline of this DLC, and the side content as it still contains the brilliance in writing as present in the base game, with morally compelling decisions and insight into human nature. But as I previously stated, the story only focuses on von Everec which to me seemed very questionable as O’Dimm is the far more interesting character, with his development intertwined in the story, but not significant enough to the point of actually learning who he is. This could be a consequence of the fact that he wasn’t a book character, instead created by CDPR and thus they weren’t confident in creating a lore-abiding character to the degree they could do with less complicated ones. But other than that, I have no real criticisms of the story / writing, as it was done to utter perfection outside of these exceptions.
Olgierd is a very well written character, though as I previously stated I still believe O’Dimm should be the main focus of the story, as opposed to Olgierd’s ‘curse’. At any rate, it can be attained very quickly that Olgierd sold his soul to the devil and in exchange had three wishes to be executed by a third party (this is where Geralt comes in). He gives you the first mission of the DLC which has a few…hiccups but eventually you return with a brand on your face where the intrigue accelerates exponentially. Furthermore, this is where more of his character is revealed; he is undoubtedly a foul and vile man, with what happens to him during the DLC a reflection on all he has done. Likewise, it reflects the consequences of dealing with the devil; no matter how much trickery you try, the devil will always win. This dynamic felt especially prevalent at the end of the game, and I appreciate the decision you are presented with - and the one you aren’t. Anyway, I did genuinely enjoy experiencing his story, even though I feel as though it shouldn’t have been the main focus of the DLC, or at least not the sole story that was presented. Yes, Gaunter's was highly interesting and equally prevalent, but it only unravels through the main questline (which is only about Olgierd) as opposed to him having his own missions after the first few.
Now my absolute favourite character of the DLC - Gaunter O’Dimm. His character’s lore is fascinating, yet is shrouded in total mystery to the point where I was constantly engaged and actively seeking answers to my questions. He almost reminds me of Pennywise from IT, except he fights with words and contracts. I know he was a character created by CDPR, and I think they did a very good job, I just wish his story was expanded on more, and more detrimental with his own storyline. Alas, this is not the case. This being said, I still think the mystery surrounding his character is very well written and perfect for what CDPR was going for with his character so all in all I’m happy with the direction his character and story was taken. Moving on, I feel like Shani should’ve been in the story more, as it currently stands she is detrimental in one mission, and then there for a little bit at the start and end. Yeah she has a romance, and it is very well written, but it nonetheless could have been something more, where she was intertwined in the story and lore more than she was, but as it currently stands it’s fine.
So now for the environment…it’s just the main world. All they did was expand on the right side of the map and add a few new side quests. Now I don’t necessarily have a problem with this, except they jerked you around in the beginning, making you think you were going to end up in Ofier. Now, for the story they wanted to tell, it’s mostly fine, but I still feel like this could have been 1000x more interesting if it were set in Ofier. They did this with Blood and Wine so it’s not like they were unable to do this, whether or not it was ever in the scope, I don’t know, but alas it doesn’t matter now. Anyway, on the newly renovated right side of the map, there is an Ofieri camp, with an Ofieri merchant, who sells runes; he’s called - the runewright. He’s lame. It costs 30,000 to fully renew his store because he has super ‘rare and custom tools’ that are ‘one of a kind’. For reference, Foltest pays you I think 8,000, maybe 3,000, either way it doesn’t even break 10,00 from the fricking king for an extremely high profile case - it just doesn’t make sense and it’s not even worth it after the second upgrade, and in new game plus he is reset so after two hours it’s obsolete.
So all in all, Hearts of Stone is disappointing, but still a very good expansion, with an interesting narrative and characters. I do wish the Ofieri were in the story more, like I said you are jerked around at the start as though they are going to be absolutely integral to the DLC, but they are quite literally irrelevant with no repercussions for your deeds in the beginning.
8.7/10