Let me prephrase this by saying that overall I appreciate the effort put into this expansion and that I enjoyed my time in Toussaint, apart from the Main Quest.
So let's start with the good bits:
Toussaint
Looks great, feels great and is utterly believeable. The sidequests and contracts are almost always very well connected to the landscape and the general feel of Toussaint, most question marks are actually part of several sidequests and contracts so I felt this was a good use of the map. I would really appreciate it, if CDPR could actually spend a couple of hours to redesign the Skellige question marks in that way. Remove all the smuggler cashes, add some monster nests that make sense, add some fishing contracts (the like the wintner contracts). The whole place also feels much more organic. White Orchard felt like that and they managed to put it on a bigger scale which is good. Beauclair looks absolutely stunning and you finally really feel like you have a multitude of vendors that specialize in different things.
Side Quests and Witcher Contracts
Mostly great stuff. Well thought out, a really good mixture of straight up Witchering, being a PI and straight up adventuring. Almost all of them contain little bits of story that you can easily miss, a lot of winks and nods to several other RPGs, films, comics and what not. Because this is the second expansion and they introduce new monsters again you now have a really massive variety of monsters which need all kinds of different strategy, which again makes it fun. The quests are well spread out so they take you to every corner of the map without it feeling like Skyrim, you know, showing off the map for showing off the maps sake. It makes sense. The same goes for abandones places, which finally really team with life once you liberated them. Even the bandit camps are now meaningfully connected and even acknowledge each other and another band that is situated in a different area. The Witcher school gear is finally not such a drag and some dreary rubbish like it was in the main game. The story that is told about the Witchers who left the stuff is better and feels bigger and more rich. The gear itself feels a bit hit and miss to me in terms of looks. Overall I had great fun doing those quests and could have utterly lived without the main quest and instead be given another 20 or so of those kind of quests instead. I think the story could have just been that Anna Henrietta offers Geralt the position of court witcher and that's about it. That would have been fine with me.
Now let's get onto the bad bits:
Corvo Bianco
Well what a waste of space. Not only do you have no input into what exactly you want to do with the place but it's also utterly useless. Why can I renovate a place but not pick the type of furniture I want to use? Why do I only have the chance of using the hill as a herb garden instead of planting wine there, grazing cattle, building a proper green house, what ever really. Why do the servant's quarters still look like rubbish and I have no option of upgrading them and having my workers have a nice place? Why do I have to have a stable for a horse that roams around the whole place anyway? Why can't I open a small wineshop in there or a tavern or, if I decide to plant wine, have women in there stomping grapes? Why don't I get a choice how the inside of my newly renovated house should look? Maybe I don't want a dreary and dark place and would prefer to have some windows punched into it? Or have a winter garden or a proper terrace? Why am I not able to choose furniture? Why is it so feckin dark in there? Why can't I decide where to place what? Why is there no explanation on which trophies I can place? And why isn't there a place in Beauclair to mount my monster trophies so I can put them up instead of paintings? Why are there no painters of other artists in Beauclair from which I can buy painints? Why don't I have the possibility to paint my coat of arms on the front of the house? Give the whole place a new name?
The biggest issue though which I discussed in several other threads: Why oh why am I not able to invite people during the story or at least have a big party at the end of it which I need to prepare? If we don't get that then what is this place for anyway? That is an absolute and utter bummer that is.
Main Quest
Absolute and utter nonse. Parts of it have to do with the characters involved, but I shall go into that later and more specific. In general it's just a bunch of rubbish. A clever and intelligent woman like Syanna gets caught because she steals wine and tries to get an heirloom. Utter bullshit. Besides... how did Orianna even get it and Anna Henrietta didn't arrest her on the spot for having it but not reporting to the court? Anyway. It's just nonsense. So you have an all powerful vampire who can appear anywhere from nowwhere and basically has controll over the whole vampiric population of the word if he wants to put doesn't have a clue where his girl is? This girl that somehow manages with the help of some everyday thugs to deliver messages to him. Instead of tracking them, torturing them to reveal what they know or anything he simply does what he is told because... oh my girl is in danger?
So let's go over the events: you track the beast fairly easily during a court game, meet Regis, brew a potion, talk to a boot black, find the lair, find out where some wine comes from, find the wine missing, go to a party where a dude who has been the main antagonist in name is supposed to be to find out he is dead but never even see him, get told Syanna is involved instead of finding it out yourself to the total surprise of the duchess, capture her, fight some vampires in the street, go down the yellow brick road and solve a "plot" in the end?
Wow... talk about blowing your wad fast and early. It doesn't make sense to begin with, especially since someone as smart as Syanna wouldn't just willy nilly hang around somewhere in Toussaint and reveal her identity to her helpers that easily to begin with. And what was she hoping to accomplish? Kill Anna Henrietta and then what? Does she think that with her 50 guys she, someone banished from the land by ducal decree, can just ride up to the castle and make herself duchess? Or manage to hide for long that all those killings were connected and the only one who gained from them was her? Fight off the 100 or so knights plus probably several hundred in the ducal guard? If you want this to work as a main quest you need to give her something worthwhile to go for. If she wants to be duchess she should go after the functionality of Anna Henrietta's court. Kill her advisors and ministers and maybe even the military leaders. After that launch an invasion Daenery's Targarean style. That would have made sense. That would have also left you with several interesting show downs. Can Regis convince Dettlaff that Syanna is just using him? Who do you side with? If you side with any of them what choices do you make to ensure your party wins? As it is it's just a bunch of hogwash with a thoroughly underwhelming antagonist because she has no real goal, no real agenda and lacks the cunning and intelligence she actually posesses. You wouldn't even need to hint at something strange. Just have Anna Henrietta call Geralt and appoint him court witcher and then gradually uncover the scheming. Maybe even connect it to some sidequests so it depends on which ones you do when what kind of information you have and what choices are open to you.
The only part I absolutely loved what the fairy tale world. That could have had more quests and could have been much longer. It wasn't exactly that it took place when it took place why I liked it but because of their take on the fairly tales. It was amazing. Btw. Did anybody ever think it was odd that Syanna's parents would banish her instead of imprisoning her in the fairly tale? I mean... Anna Henrietta thought of it. So why not them?
Characters
Regis
Don't get me started. I said it before and I said it again: how dare you bring back Regis? How dare you do it in such a stupid fashion? Oh I was a blop but Detlaff came and sprinkled some flour and yeast on me and put me in the fridge and from there I grew back. Obviously that is overexagerating it. Still... utterly stupid. It took him 50 years to grow back his head and we are supposed to believe because his boyfriend is such a cool dude he can revive him from a smear on the wall in 10 years? Furthermore in 10 years Regis has no inclination to go look for Geralt or Dandelion or anybody really? He just hangs around in Beauclair and then shows up out of nowhere? Seriously? I said before this thing came out that it was stupid and I stick to my guns. Stupid. His character was well done, I give him that, he was the Regis I liked from the books but it was just stupid bringing him back, especially because you can't unite him with at least Dandelion or Zoltan or Parceval Schuttenbach. What was the point?
Anna Henrietta
Now there is a character taken straight from the book. The only downside here is that she is far to forgiving of Syanna. This is a woman who handed down a friggin death sentence/banishment to a guy who was considering cheating on her (even though she cheated with him before). So her sister slaughters 4 knights, is the reason for plunging Beauclair into the abyss of vampiric attacks but yeah... I forgive you sis cause I love you so. Jesus... I call malarkey. Besides... no advances on Geralt to get back on Dandelion? That's harsh.
Dettlaf
Didn't get him. Rubbish overall character. Oh he doesn't understand humans, yet he lives in a place thoroughly colonized by humans, goes to the bootblack every two days, hangs around taverns and what not. Oh he accepted her into his clan and he is like an animal when it comes to his pack, yet higher vampires are supposed to be renowned for their reasoning and their intelligence not their savage nature. Hell... they actually developed human husbandry. Nah thx.
Syanna
Thorougly wasted potential. She could have been a much more sophisticated and intelligent Renfri. She could have actually been the exception to the curse of the black sun. Having been put through a lot of shit but not giving into it and simply fighting for her birth right and to show that world that what they did to her was wrong. Instead she took petty vengence and hoped somehow to topply Anna Henrietta through it, used a higher vampire who was bound to find out sooner or later and would have killed her. What the hell was she thinking? Utterly stupid. She should have done it more cleverly. You might have even involved the Scoia'tel (Renfri and the 7 dwarfs) in a deal with Syanna trying to recover some of their lost lands, you could have still had Dettlaf in a deal with Syanna, a place for vampires to live protected. Why not bring the thread of war to Toussaint? You wouldn't even need to actually have battles or show the armies. Have Syanna's arrival as a damocles sword hovering over Beauclair and then you can decide what to do. If you are successfull she arrives either with Anna Henrietta being thoroughly powerful and her Scoia'tel and brigand army marching through the street or have her support melt away and the knight of Toussaint and Anna Henrietta in plate armor await her arrival which turns out to be just her asking for the banishment to be lifted and throwing herself at the mercy of Anna Henrietta.
Orianna
Not sure what all the excitement was about. Thoroughly underwhelming character and why she was even put in there to begin with I will never understand. Could have been replaced by anyone else.
The Knights of Toussaint
Now there are characters I thoroughly enjoyed. All of them. Basically like in the books. I absolutely loved it.
On the strength of the look, the sidequests, the whole connection of it all, the whole feel... I'd probably give a 6 or 7/10. Honestly, this could have been an outstanding piece of work. Outstanding. A great main plot, Geralt in a situation in which he really has a hand in deciding the future of a whole country and in the end a great finish with a massive feast and the Witcher actually settling down in Toussaint. I would have loved it. But to me this misses on too many of the essentials if you decide to go with a proper main quest.
