The yellow skill have 5 new ones that i have never seen before!!
one for +60 carry, 1 to fire two bolts without recharging the crossbow
Ii i could say one thing only about HoS would be that they made an amazing job with the new monsters AI(the spiders seem to work together to kill you).
The boss fights are AMAZING!Far better than the original game(they seem to have more moves and change in their patterns while the fight is progressing).
That should really stop the comments that I've read in some reviews that the combat is simplified and easy.On Death March and even on Blood and Broken Bones they fights are quite challenging.
Great job CDPR and i hope BaW will be of the same quality if not better!!
The boss fights are AMAZING!Far better than the original game(they seem to have more moves and change in their patterns while the fight is progressing).
That should really stop the comments that I've read in some reviews that the combat is simplified and easy.On Death March and even on Blood and Broken Bones they fights are quite challenging.
Great job CDPR and i hope BaW will be of the same quality if not better!!
Some of the new creatures types are quite well designed, like - crazy backpeddling/spitting spiders and pack of charging wild boars. Wedding bit was too slow for my taste, but that's probably just me. Everything else was really good, especially whole Everec's manor. Caretaker is my new favorite boss fight in the game now. Perhaps he should have higher life leech to punish mistakes more, but difficulty can be adjusted with mods. Final zone was really cool, too bad you could just run past every creature, beside the hymn guarding viper sword. I hoped to fight Gaunter at the end, but it's fine how it ended anyway.
Overall it was amazing experience, can't wait for Blood and Wine.
Overall it was amazing experience, can't wait for Blood and Wine.
Absolutely amazing expansion, enjoyed every second of it, loved the new characters and locations. Story was everything CDPR promised will be, I laughed at the wedding and I teared up when Geralt took the rose from Iris. Main quest had a vibe of Family Matters and A Towerful of Mice quests which was the best part of the main game for me. Thank you CDPR for this! :unworthy:
Last edited:
I adore the main quest line. Character and dialogue writing are on point (the wedding plot line and ghost shenanigans are FANTASTIC). I love new monsters, especially spiders, which require you to dance around a bit. Boss fights were pretty cool too, had to break some sweat to beat them on Death March. Enchanting mechanics are ok, cool that you're introducing completely new stuff to the game.
I've got one bone to pick with the devs though, which is putting new items (Viper) in places where you can't return (vault, auction house, final O'Dim stage). I usually try to be thorough with my exploration but sometimes you just want to chill and play the game without looting every single cupboard. I wish they would avoid putting meaningful items in such places in future content releases.
Also, I would pay for a separate Gwent focused DLC
I've got one bone to pick with the devs though, which is putting new items (Viper) in places where you can't return (vault, auction house, final O'Dim stage). I usually try to be thorough with my exploration but sometimes you just want to chill and play the game without looting every single cupboard. I wish they would avoid putting meaningful items in such places in future content releases.
Also, I would pay for a separate Gwent focused DLC
All I have to say is that this DLC was absolutely breathtaking! CDPR are my favorite developers hands down. The wedding quest made me laugh out loud (which is something I very rarely do) more than once, made me feel so many emotions with the interactions between Geralt and Shani, and I just loved all the fun little things I got to do, a nice break from all the fighting. The heist quest was great, I love when they throw Geralt into situations he'd normally never be in and seeing how he reacts...also made me laugh during the negotiations. Then the last third of the expansion creeped me out so much and literally made my hair stand up....like holy crap every time I think about it it gives me the creeps. Every character was brilliantly written, and animations and facial expressions are SO well done, it always amazes me how they can make me feel so connected to 3D objects, but that's the genius of CDPR. Love the new enemies and the boss fights were fantastic. You can really see how they are evolving with the combat system, continuously making it better. Runewords and enchanting are really interesting to use and I can't wait to start a new playthrough with them. MY ONLY COMPLAINTS: 1. I was kinda dissappointed with the Viper armor being a reskin of the first armor you get. It's a great looking armor, but I would have liked to see something new. And 2. Where is the Shani medic gwent card?? I mean hello, that would have been perfect!
All in all, it was a brilliant, fantastic addition to the game and CDPR should be extremely proud of themselves that they have created the best RPG I have ever played, perhaps the best game I've ever played. I bow to you....
All in all, it was a brilliant, fantastic addition to the game and CDPR should be extremely proud of themselves that they have created the best RPG I have ever played, perhaps the best game I've ever played. I bow to you....
review of hearts of stone expansion i wrote this for people on fb so there might be some redundant information
storywise: superior than the main game, understandably since the authors had more time to write something 'ten hours long' and weren't limited in any way to Sapkowski's work. the narrative is surprising in a number of ways and i found myself questioning what the fuck was going on like punctuation in a grammatically correct paragraph -- surprises and intrigue are necessities in games like these. dialogue is witty, geralt's amazingly flexible character becomes even more flexible and still believable. cockle's voice acting a TOP KEK as always < 3 there's plenty of side quests for what is supposed to be ten hours (easily more than ten if you're not a FOOL) and they're all of that deliciously morally ambiguous quality that we all know and love~
gameplay: combat has improved exponentially and I kinda wish the main game's antagonists were /this/ interesting to fight to begin with. ;~; i didn't use the new mechanic 'runewords' all that much but I see potential in it and I'm considering going ahead in another playthrough of the main game to use them earlier on. i feel like the expansion was too short to experiment but was a reasonable introduction. OH! and one thing that REALLY lacked in the main game -- but you could sense they were itching to see through properly -- was doing puzzles. They really go all out in this expansion and while they aren't [insert your favourite puzzle game here] comparable, they are enough to pay tribute to Jerry the Riveman's intellectual witchering to some degree, which i feel was missed in the main game.
sex scenes: OH VLOD YES. ngl better than the main romances by far (EXCUSING YENNEFER x GERALT x UNICORN) and i guess this is a matter of not rushing and trying rly hard to be true to the books (kek at main game yen x geralt and some wolves chasing a deer metaphor??? ilu cdpr u tried < 3). but yessssssssssssss~~~~~. also shani is a bit weird at first but just pretend that the witcher 1 made sense and then she's great. tw3 shani > tw1 shani. i'd honestly go there full homo. *~* i wanna read the books again aaaaaahhhh
cost:$15~~ aud. FUCK. you /do/ have to own the main game (which you all know my opinion on that flawed MASTERPIECE ;~; ) which is around $60 -70 depending where you buy it. but to people thinking about xpacs and witcher -- this expansion could win game of the year on it's own tbh. actually winning game of the year /isn't/ that hard these days, but i feel like if a '10' hour expansion pack is in my mind a viable option for game of the year, that's shitting all over most $60 twenty - thirty hours games now isnt it.
DO IT.
NO REGRETS.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
i wrote this for people on fb so there might be some redundant informationstorywise: superior than the main game, understandably since the authors had more time to write something 'ten hours long' and weren't limited in any way to Sapkowski's work. the narrative is surprising in a number of ways and i found myself questioning what the fuck was going on like punctuation in a grammatically correct paragraph -- surprises and intrigue are necessities in games like these. dialogue is witty, geralt's amazingly flexible character becomes even more flexible and still believable. cockle's voice acting a TOP KEK as always < 3 there's plenty of side quests for what is supposed to be ten hours (easily more than ten if you're not a FOOL) and they're all of that deliciously morally ambiguous quality that we all know and love~
gameplay: combat has improved exponentially and I kinda wish the main game's antagonists were /this/ interesting to fight to begin with. ;~; i didn't use the new mechanic 'runewords' all that much but I see potential in it and I'm considering going ahead in another playthrough of the main game to use them earlier on. i feel like the expansion was too short to experiment but was a reasonable introduction. OH! and one thing that REALLY lacked in the main game -- but you could sense they were itching to see through properly -- was doing puzzles. They really go all out in this expansion and while they aren't [insert your favourite puzzle game here] comparable, they are enough to pay tribute to Jerry the Riveman's intellectual witchering to some degree, which i feel was missed in the main game.
sex scenes: OH VLOD YES. ngl better than the main romances by far (EXCUSING YENNEFER x GERALT x UNICORN) and i guess this is a matter of not rushing and trying rly hard to be true to the books (kek at main game yen x geralt and some wolves chasing a deer metaphor??? ilu cdpr u tried < 3). but yessssssssssssss~~~~~. also shani is a bit weird at first but just pretend that the witcher 1 made sense and then she's great. tw3 shani > tw1 shani. i'd honestly go there full homo. *~* i wanna read the books again aaaaaahhhh
cost:$15~~ aud. FUCK. you /do/ have to own the main game (which you all know my opinion on that flawed MASTERPIECE ;~; ) which is around $60 -70 depending where you buy it. but to people thinking about xpacs and witcher -- this expansion could win game of the year on it's own tbh. actually winning game of the year /isn't/ that hard these days, but i feel like if a '10' hour expansion pack is in my mind a viable option for game of the year, that's shitting all over most $60 twenty - thirty hours games now isnt it.
DO IT.
NO REGRETS.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
It's freakin' fantastic, is what it is. Everything is at least on par quality-wise with the main game - dialogue, cutscenes, environments, all polished to perfection. Some of the environments are the best-looking in the game so far. Like everyone's already said, combat seems better because the enemies are more interesting.
I think the one thing I didn't like much was the "puzzle" at the end if you go the route that has you solve a riddle. I won't spoil anything, but while I thought the answer to the riddle was pretty clever, I'm pretty sure that's... not, uh... how you solve riddles. But otherwise the story was excellent. Poetic, I'd say.
I think the one thing I didn't like much was the "puzzle" at the end if you go the route that has you solve a riddle. I won't spoil anything, but while I thought the answer to the riddle was pretty clever, I'm pretty sure that's... not, uh... how you solve riddles. But otherwise the story was excellent. Poetic, I'd say.
Excellent. I would like more boss fight similar to Dark souls and more different spells. I'm now making in Blender concept of the new spells for the suggestions.
Wish I could give an opinion. I'm on console playing NG+ with dlc items, so I'm screwed. Thanks CDPR
Really enjoyed HOS, but even though we got plenty of content for such a reasonable price, I was left thinking,
It could of done with at least one new monster contract.
Most if not all the new locations were derelict/abandoned sites (referring to the actual buildings, not the ?)
Not a fan of the new boss fights. I completed the main story and all the side quests of the main game on deathmarch, but had to turn it down to normal for all the boss fights in HOS. This would please the hardcore players, but that toad difficulty really supprised me. Playing on the PS4 feels really sluggish so that might be part of the problem.
Things that I was surprised about.
Oxenfurt university, what a waste.
Temple isle, again wasted space.
shani in my endgame is in her clinic, if she is not considered to be a main romance character why is she hanging around but yen/triss not ?
All in all a very good expansion. a few bugs, ofieri (sp) armour trophy not obtainable, and some imho not very clever placing of collectable items and a particular trophy.
To get said trophy and item warrants a second playthrough, it aint gonna happen anytime soon
It could of done with at least one new monster contract.
Most if not all the new locations were derelict/abandoned sites (referring to the actual buildings, not the ?)
Not a fan of the new boss fights. I completed the main story and all the side quests of the main game on deathmarch, but had to turn it down to normal for all the boss fights in HOS. This would please the hardcore players, but that toad difficulty really supprised me. Playing on the PS4 feels really sluggish so that might be part of the problem.
Things that I was surprised about.
Oxenfurt university, what a waste.
Temple isle, again wasted space.
shani in my endgame is in her clinic, if she is not considered to be a main romance character why is she hanging around but yen/triss not ?
All in all a very good expansion. a few bugs, ofieri (sp) armour trophy not obtainable, and some imho not very clever placing of collectable items and a particular trophy.
To get said trophy and item warrants a second playthrough, it aint gonna happen anytime soon
Honestly, I think Shani hanging around is something they did because of player feedback to the main game. Everyone hated the fact that all the main supporting characters are gone post-endgame, so they gave Shani an excuse to stick around and a way to interact with her. It's nice, I guess, but the logic's a bit shaky.
Yeah I kinda figured it might have something to do with that, but its the inconsistency between the main game and now this.
Amazing expansion, it really touched me in all emotional levels, there was comedy, drama, terror, thriller and what not.
Only 5 things i would like to be added to it at some point:
* Mention of Alvin during conversation with Shani.
* Mention of possible current relationship with Triss/Yennefer during conversation with Shani.
* Main characters from the main game maybe pointing out/asking about Geralt disappearance/absence during HoS quest.
* Ending sliders added to the main game about some of the character from HoS.
* A final goodbye dialog with Shani where we can tell her how things ended with Olgierd, O'Din, etc, etc(last time we talk to her, she actually tells Geralt to visit her once more before she leaves, but sadly there is currently no new dialog)
Only 5 things i would like to be added to it at some point:
* Mention of Alvin during conversation with Shani.
* Mention of possible current relationship with Triss/Yennefer during conversation with Shani.
* Main characters from the main game maybe pointing out/asking about Geralt disappearance/absence during HoS quest.
* Ending sliders added to the main game about some of the character from HoS.
* A final goodbye dialog with Shani where we can tell her how things ended with Olgierd, O'Din, etc, etc(last time we talk to her, she actually tells Geralt to visit her once more before she leaves, but sadly there is currently no new dialog)
Last edited:
Just finished Hearts of stone.
OK first expansion pack is really amazing, really like more challeging boss fight especially when playing NG+ with Deathmarch.
However, there are some thing that make no sense story wise. Why does everyone act like war is still going. After finishing vanilla main quest, in my case Nilfgardians won and Radovid is dead too.
Also why is level requirement for the new viper gear so high. After I finished all quests I was level 68 almost 69 but the level requirement is 69. So when will I use the new gear in action? Should I wait for next expansion? :/ And killing monsters for xp takes forever. Also during last quest I was dissapointed to find new viper silver which was level 34, but this is probably a bug.
All in all very good expansion pack, can't wain for the next one
OK first expansion pack is really amazing, really like more challeging boss fight especially when playing NG+ with Deathmarch.
However, there are some thing that make no sense story wise. Why does everyone act like war is still going. After finishing vanilla main quest, in my case Nilfgardians won and Radovid is dead too.
Also why is level requirement for the new viper gear so high. After I finished all quests I was level 68 almost 69 but the level requirement is 69. So when will I use the new gear in action? Should I wait for next expansion? :/ And killing monsters for xp takes forever. Also during last quest I was dissapointed to find new viper silver which was level 34, but this is probably a bug.
All in all very good expansion pack, can't wain for the next one
I would seriously piss off if they don't win at least an award for the soundtrack.
---------- Updated at 08:07 PM ----------
This, absolutely.
But just to make it feel more organic to the main quest about Ciri.
---------- Updated at 08:10 PM ----------
Yeah, I had the same thought when I was playing the vanilla game. There are a lot of places in Novigrad and Oxenfurt with a really interesting design...but they are not properly developed from a quest design standpoint.
Feedback for the devs : thanks so much for this brilliant expansion ! Clearly a 10/10 for me.
Pros :
-Pinacle of narrative art in the wake of, but not equal to, the Bloody Baron quest line ( which in my opinion is one of the best written, directed and designed RPG quests I have ever played )
-Complex, slowly unveiling moraly grey characters in pure CD Projekt fashion
-Runewords-glyphwords is a great addition
-New zone to explore integrates seamlessly to the Novigrad map
-The Wedding event is pure brilliance and one of the more funniest quests I've done in an RPG
-The "painting" segment is, again, a testominy of the creative talent of CD Projekt where bold choices in aesthetics serves the purpose of a marvelously well written classic ghost story
-Always incredible world design and art
-Shani is there although the expansion was over, yay !
- Always that self-mocking 2nd degree, I really laughed at the moment in the "Vault" where geralt says : "Who put candles there !"
Regrets (not flaws in itself)
-Expansion has no real impact on Geralt's life/view of the world, it is typically a side aventure a bit like some short stories fromr Sapkowski. Would like the next expansion(s) to be more engaging character-wise
- In a manner of paradox, the quests are so well written that the relationship to the characters of the game like yennefer, triss or ciri look shalow in comparaison. The complexity of a personality like the Bloody Baron or Olgried go way beyond the above mentionned whom's personality equation are fairly simple and do not evolve during the game by a significant amont. I have already found weird that the game left me with a feeling of having more empathy (or disdain) for someone like the Bloody Baron and his family, Olgried and Iris or even Crach and his children than with Yen, Ciri or Triss. Especially Triss ! Hope we can go more complex stories for the main characters in future expansions.
Pros :
-Pinacle of narrative art in the wake of, but not equal to, the Bloody Baron quest line ( which in my opinion is one of the best written, directed and designed RPG quests I have ever played )
-Complex, slowly unveiling moraly grey characters in pure CD Projekt fashion
-Runewords-glyphwords is a great addition
-New zone to explore integrates seamlessly to the Novigrad map
-The Wedding event is pure brilliance and one of the more funniest quests I've done in an RPG
-The "painting" segment is, again, a testominy of the creative talent of CD Projekt where bold choices in aesthetics serves the purpose of a marvelously well written classic ghost story
-Always incredible world design and art
-Shani is there although the expansion was over, yay !
- Always that self-mocking 2nd degree, I really laughed at the moment in the "Vault" where geralt says : "Who put candles there !"
Regrets (not flaws in itself)
-Expansion has no real impact on Geralt's life/view of the world, it is typically a side aventure a bit like some short stories fromr Sapkowski. Would like the next expansion(s) to be more engaging character-wise
- In a manner of paradox, the quests are so well written that the relationship to the characters of the game like yennefer, triss or ciri look shalow in comparaison. The complexity of a personality like the Bloody Baron or Olgried go way beyond the above mentionned whom's personality equation are fairly simple and do not evolve during the game by a significant amont. I have already found weird that the game left me with a feeling of having more empathy (or disdain) for someone like the Bloody Baron and his family, Olgried and Iris or even Crach and his children than with Yen, Ciri or Triss. Especially Triss ! Hope we can go more complex stories for the main characters in future expansions.
Last edited:
When you get to the new looking menu, you see Geralt kneeling down in a new and tough looking piece of armor. Has anyone found that armor? Cause it's not the Viper armor.