Hearts of Stone is a fantastic DLC for the Witcher 3 game. It has an excellent story, engaging characters, and improvements to the gameplay.
The story begins with the introduction of a new character, Olgierd von Everec. Olgierd tasks Geralt with slaying a monster, but there's a catch. The slain monster becomes human, and Geralt is arrested for murder. While on his prisoner ship, Geralt is rescued by a supernatural man called Gaunter O'Dimm. He promises to free Geralt in exchange for Geralt's help with an unspecified task. Geralt is forced to accept and the ship promptly crashes and Geralt escapes.
The story revolves around Geralt helping Gaunter O'Dimm grant Olgierd von Everec three wishes. Olgierd has made a Faustian bargain with O'Dimm and O'Dimm tasks Geralt with granting those wishes. The story is much more interesting than main plot in Witcher 3. Olgierd and O'Dimm are fascinating characters. The game does a great job of showing rather than telling. Instead of just explaining Olgierd's background and motivations, the game reveals it through the three wishes. And despite Olgierd's terrible deeds, by the end you feel sorry for him and his plight. The story also doesn't require you to know the full backstory of Geralt like Witcher 3 did. Hearts of Stone is easily accessible to new players unfamiliar with Witcher lore.
The only weak part of the plot is the romantic subplot. The female character, Shani, feels shoe-horned into the story. She's underdeveloped and only seems to be there to fulfill the romance check box the game requires. It's diametrically opposed to the romance in Witcher 3. In Witcher 3, it was clear that Geralt had a rich backstory and relationship with Yennefer and Triss. Hearts of Stone fails to have that same connection between Geralt and Shani.
The gameplay remains largely the same, with some improvements. New enemies, called Arachnomorphs, add a nice challenge. As opposed to most enemies, Arachnomorphs work together against Geralt. They shoot webs that trap Geralt, allowing the other Arachnomorphs to swarm and attack. Individual Arachnomorphs retreat away from Geralt into the safety of the large pack. These fights forced me to have a better plan than spamming the quick attack button and quen sign.
The bosses are incredibly easy, except for one frustrating boss called The Caretaker. I felt like I'd been transported to Bloodborne. He has a gigantic scythe and a powerful area of effect attack. But that's not the problem. The problem is he heals with every successful attack. And if he's not hitting you, he'll summon corpses and hit them to heal himself. It took a solid ten minutes of fighting to defeat him, which is significantly longer than any other fight in the game.
There's new gear and runes to unlock. The highlight of the new gear is the Viper Witcher Set, which makes you immune to poison. A new merchant will take your runes and combine them into runewords that enhance your weapons or overall sets.
Overall, Hearts of Stone is an excellent DLC. It adds a fantastic story and doesn't deviate too far from the solid gameplay that made Witcher 3 one of the best games of the year.
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Overcoming powerful foes in a big arena is such a thrilling experience in a video game. A good game combines a great music score, sound/graphical effects, and action sequences to create a compelling and memorable fight. Here are the 10 best video game boss fights.
10. Grigori – Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen
9. General Radahn, Scourge of the Stars – Elden Ring
8. Akira Nishikiyama – Yakuza Kiwami
7. Jetstream Sam – Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
6. Mr. Freeze – Batman: Arkham City
5. Knight Artorias – Dark Souls
4. Isshin, the Sword Saint – Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
3. Olgierd von Everec – The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone
2. Caranthir – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
1. Baldur – God of War
Andrew M writes: "The last decade has resulted in some truley amazing boss fights in video games. Here are the 10 best encounters we have compiled from the last 10 years."
Without Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising Revengeance this list is just 10 bosses fighting for second place. That whole boss fight is a journey in insanity. By the time I got to the end I was felt like I had just dropped acid and ran a marathon.
That god of war stranger fight was, to me, one of the best openers to a game that I can remember. That whole game just rocked so damn hard. Little off topic but I used to get drunk and fight with my wife, it always felt like a boss fight to me, and epic boss fight that Always ended with me “beating” the game..... by myself
Sekiro,God of war ,spiderman all had boss fights that leave my jaw on the floor
I agree with your review for the most part. Heart of Stone was one of the best DLC's ever and made the full price purchase of the season pass worth it, just for this.
I found the caretaker boss battle great. It took a bit more strategy than some others and you needed patience. It was different but in a good way.
The runes did not make as big of an impact on gameplay as I thought they would and I decided not to even use them.
Totaly agree with you review