Can The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine Top the Main Game? One Developer Says “Yes.”
In case you didn’t hear, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was one of the biggest hit video games of 2015. Not only that, CD Projekt RED’s dark fantasy RPG game took home Game of the Year and RPG of the Year at The Game Awards 2015. Not only that, CD Projekt RED took home the coveted prize of Developer of the Year for the company’s collective work on the game. It was a huge coup and a long-time coming for CD Projekt RED. However, the tidal wave for The Witcher 3 still hasn’t ended. CD Projekt RED still has one more DLC expansion for the game to release in Blood and Wine. The first expansion content for the game, Hearts of Stone, has already received rave reviews. But according to one developer for Blood and Wine, the new expansion doesn’t just top Hearts of Stone, it also tops the main game.
Speaking to Eurogamer Italy (translation via OnlySP), Blood and Wine senior writer, Jakub Szamalek made the claim that the new expansion is in fact “better than the main game.” Szamalek stated: “Blood and Wine is an independent history, not tied in particularly closely with the main plot of the Wild Hunt. With our experience and feedback received since the game is on sale, we believe we have achieved something even better than the main game.”
It’s a bold claim to be sure, but Hearts of Stone was a fantastic piece of work and has a lot of great moments as a piece of story DLC. But why does Szamalek think this expansion will be better? Well, apparently there will be a great, charismatic villain. One critique for the main game was that the leader of the Wild Hunt, Eredin, was a fairly nondescript who didn’t have much in the way of dialogue or overall involvement in the plot. Apparently, feedback from the main game was taken into account to improve on the villain for Blood and wine. Szamalek added: “For example, we believe that they failed in Wild Hunt to create a charismatic enemy with which to beat us, and then we worked to make unique and memorable opponent of this expansion. We also created a rather complex story that we believe players will appreciate. We are quite satisfied with the work, but we know that we can do even better.”
Not many details have been released for Blood and Wine. However, it is set to offer about 20 hours of new content. The adventure takes Geralt of Rivia to an all-new, in-game region called Toussaint. It’s a land that has been untainted by war, but the atmosphere of carefree indulgence and knightly ritual masks an ancient and bloody secret.
After Blood and Wine, Szamalek will be hard at work at CD Projekt RED’s next major project: Cyberpunk 2077. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine expansion is slated to arrive in the first half of 2016.
