So, this is bigger of the two Witcher 3 expansions and it took around 28 hours for me to finish, which is really impressive length for an expansion but it does also cost more than Hearts of Stone but not considerably. I can already say at this point that this expansion is worth the price asked, even when its not on sale but can go around 40% off on sale at the moment. Another good thing to know is that the expansion pass can also go 40% off and as both of the DLCs are excellent, it is worth buying them both and if you dont own Witcher 3 then the GOTY edition is the best choice.

Now as for the content itself, Blood and Wine (BaW) adds a whole new zone to the game called Toussaint for which they have assumedly taken inspiration from French architecture and landscape, and it did remind me quite a bit of southern Europe. Toussaint is overall brighter than areas in main game and I did enjoy strolling around it enough to feel a desire to return as soon as I blasted through the story. The expansion also adds new witcher gear sets, armor dyes and numerous different monsters to fight against that require adapting new fighting styles to propely beat without taking loads of damage. Some of the new monsters I did actually find quite annoying as the fights can take really long and sometimes consist of waiting and having to constantly trot from place to place as the enemies switch positions.

In addition, Blood and Wine adds a whole new skill progression system called mutations that unlocks different kind of fairly massive bonuses but only one can be active at a time from the selection of 12 mutations. By unlocking mutations you can also unlock new skill slots (max 4) that can be used for standard skills but limited by the color (blue, red, green) of the mutation but thankfully there are multicolored mutations. Most of the mutation upgrades are cool but I found that I didnt actually have much use for them as they cost lots of ability points to unlock and I could barely unlock half of them before the story already ended. But then again I did not play all filler content but only the quests that I found interesting...

And speaking of that, the expansion has lots of side content in addition to the story out of which most is really good but there is also quite a bit of boring side quests sadly. By boring I mean such as where you just pretty much run from bandit camp or monster nest to another and to top it off they are almost as far away from each other as possible. I could name at least 3 quests that I completed which were like this out of the top of my head, they were rather time consuming and I experienced a bit of boredom doing them but the end result was still worthwhile despite a lame journey.

The main story itself was fairly interesting and introduces some interesting characters but it was not as good as Hearts of Stone in my opinion but still good enough to call it a must-to-experience for all W3 fans. Where BaW shines is the combination of the main story and the interesting side quests that can both have different outcomes depending on your choices.


Im going to settle for a 9/10 for this one as there was some content that felt like filler and can be a pain for a completionist to chew through.

So, this is bigger of the two Witcher 3 expansions and it took around 28 hours for me to finish, which is really impressive length for an expansion but it does also cost more than Hearts of Stone but not considerably. I can already say at this point that this expansion is worth the price asked, even when its not on sale but can go around 40% off on sale at the moment. Another good thing to know is that the expansion pass can also go 40% off and as both of the DLCs are excellent, it is worth buying them both and if you dont own Witcher 3 then the GOTY edition is the best choice. Now as for the content itself, Blood and Wine (BaW) adds a whole new zone to the game called Toussaint for which they have assumedly taken inspiration from French architecture and landscape, and it did remind me quite a bit of southern Europe. Toussaint is overall brighter than areas in main game and I did enjoy strolling around it enough to feel a desire to return as soon as I blasted through the story. The expansion also adds new witcher gear sets, armor dyes and numerous different monsters to fight against that require adapting new fighting styles to propely beat without taking loads of damage. Some of the new monsters I did actually find quite annoying as the fights can take really long and sometimes consist of waiting and having to constantly trot from place to place as the enemies switch positions. In addition, Blood and Wine adds a whole new skill progression system called mutations that unlocks different kind of fairly massive bonuses but only one can be active at a time from the selection of 12 mutations. By unlocking mutations you can also unlock new skill slots (max 4) that can be used for standard skills but limited by the color (blue, red, green) of the mutation but thankfully there are multicolored mutations. Most of the mutation upgrades are cool but I found that I didnt actually have much use for them as they cost lots of ability points to unlock and I could barely unlock half of them before the story already ended. But then again I did not play all filler content but only the quests that I found interesting... And speaking of that, the expansion has lots of side content in addition to the story out of which most is really good but there is also quite a bit of boring side quests sadly. By boring I mean such as where you just pretty much run from bandit camp or monster nest to another and to top it off they are almost as far away from each other as possible. I could name at least 3 quests that I completed which were like this out of the top of my head, they were rather time consuming and I experienced a bit of boredom doing them but the end result was still worthwhile despite a lame journey. The main story itself was fairly interesting and introduces some interesting characters but it was not as good as Hearts of Stone in my opinion but still good enough to call it a must-to-experience for all W3 fans. Where BaW shines is the combination of the main story and the interesting side quests that can both have different outcomes depending on your choices. [h1]Verdict[/h1] Im going to settle for a 9/10 for this one as there was some content that felt like filler and can be a pain for a completionist to chew through.