Watcha Playin’? Falling Back in Love with The Witcher 3

A few weeks ago, I rebooted my save of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to get reacquainted with that world for a long-form piece I’m working on. I originally finished the game on a friend’s PC in 2016, also completing the “Hearts of Stone” DLC and seeing a bit of “Blood and Wine”. After my first playthrough, I was totally in love, so much so that I bought the complete edition when I finally got my PS4. But playing it again felt like too much at that point. With all the catching up I had to do, jumping back into The Witcher just didn’t seem appealing.

But as I started getting re-familiarized with the world and characters, it felt like coming home and I found myself being consumed again. In about a week and a half, I went from the early parts of Triss’ loyalty mission in Novigrad to the Final Preparations quest. And that’s including taking extra time to focus on side quests and Witcher contracts, something I didn’t spend much time on in my first run.

I’m not entirely sure why I’ve fallen so hard for this game again. Maybe it’s because I’ve been in a bit of a slump when it comes to bigger, non-indie titles. I’ve found myself with more free time while job hunting, and I thought that would mean devoting myself to cranking through my 2017 backlog *cough* Nier: Automata *cough*, but that hasn’t been the case. Despite my best efforts, I haven’t been able to dive into any of the bigger games I’ve been meaning to get to, even though I’ve been hungry for a meatier experience.

Don’t get me wrong, I love playing and covering indie games. I wouldn’t if I didn’t. But I’ve been wanting something I can lose myself in for a while. Thinking about it that way, I guess it makes sense that The Witcher is what scratched that itch.

Normally, I’m not much of a completionist. I don’t usually do side quests unless they seem interesting or I really need to level up, but after one completely floored me with its quality in my first playthrough, I decided that I wanted to see what other gems I could uncover this time around. And it’s been really fun. I did a new-to-me fetch quest that ended up being fairly sad in an earned way. I accidentally saved up all my Leshen side quests, and had to do them all at once (thank you for your overly long status effect, Leshen decotion). I’ve started actually paying attention to crafting and alchemy, and it’s given me some rad gear and interesting ways to tackle big fights.

All this side-questing has had the additional benefit of boosting my levels. My first time through the “Hearts of Stone” expansion, I had to play as a new Geralt because mine wasn’t high enough level yet. After I realized I had a whole bunch of ability points to spend, that was fine. But for this round, I want everything to me mine, including Geralt. And I’m getting pretty close. As of writing this, I’m level 31, only one level away from the recommended for “Hearts of Stone”. By the time I finish that, I’ll probably be well over the recommended 34 for “Blood and Wine”, which I’m more excited for as I’ve only seen bits and pieces of it.

Granted, what I did see of “Blood and Wine” didn’t do much to impress me. But I am excited to run around in that new area and experience the storybook mission. And who knows? Maybe it’ll surprise me. If I’m being honest with myself, I’m mostly looking forward to it because it’s 30 more hours of being in the world I’ve come to love all over again.

Ever come back to a game and fall in love all over again? Has an older game ever scratched an itch that your newer backlog just couldn’t seem to? Let me know in the comments, or hit me up on Twitter @yourgeekygalpal