Witcher 3: Blood and Wine Expansion Review - Beautiful views with a glass of red.

By Sam Coles:

The Witcher series has to be one of my favourite franchises from the books to the games they’re beautifully crafted with great stories, worlds and characters. The Witcher 3 was my favourite game of 2015 and when I was done with it I was hungry for more! It wasn’t too long until CD Projekt Red were talking about their expansions and they bragged that they’re like their own standalone games, which they’re right and you get more than your money’s worth with this expansion. So let’s dive into the region of Toussaint.

Blood and Wine takes place in the southern region of Toussaint where it is untouched by the war between Nilfgaurd and the Northern Kingdoms. It’s a beautiful place it’s a mixed between southern France and Mediterranean Italy with vineyards and olive fields that stretch across the hills. Geralt has been summoned to Toussaint by the Duchess herself as there have been several grisly murders of her knights by a vampire creature which Geralt has find out who this vampire is. The story is great it’s a mixture of light hearted moments where you’re taking part in a tourney as a knight which is a lot of fun, to the more dark and emotional moments when plot twists unfold. The main story quest will take you over 10 hours to finish which is the same length of the Doom campaign, CD Projekt Red have out done themselves and actually give you substantial content with an add on because they understand that expansions are meant to add longevity to your favourite games.

If you get bored of the main quest there are lots of side quests to do which will grant you new weapons and armour to build up Geralt and one of the secondary quests as I mentioned earlier sees you taking part of a Knight’s tourney which is a lot of fun.

So let’s talk about the region of Toussaint itself. It’s a beautiful place to explore; when I first arrived in the region my mouth was open in awe because I was absolutely stunned by the sheer beauty of the region with the teal blue skies and the vineyards stretching for miles and miles over the hills. The towns and villages are great to walk around in as you listen to the new soundtrack which was again provided by the polish folk band Percival. I’ve wasted countless hours just looking around and not achieving anything because the landscape is just so nice to look at where I just soak in the peaceful atmosphere.   

Blood and Wine is a wonderful expansion which is the gold standard for add on content as it gives you over 20 hours of extra content. So if you’ve been looking for an excuse to jump back into the Witcher 3 then pick this up and venture into Toussaint, then grab yourself a glass of the local wine.