“You’re Playing It Again!?”

It is a phrase that has become familiar to me recently – along with “You’re still playing that?” in a confused/exasperated tone – as I have begun a fresh play through of The Witcher 3. Regular listeners of Out of The XFire will know that I am a massive fan of CD Projekt Red’s open world extravaganza. They will also know that I have played the main story twice and both DLC packs once so far at a combined total around the 300-hour mark.

So why have I started again? Well I am playing it on the hardest difficulty for the first time. Well, that’s not strictly true, I did try it before and failed miserably.  I’m confident, this time, that I’ve developed the skill set I need to complete the game on Death march. I’m enjoying the challenge it presents while gleaning plenty of satisfaction from each successful encounter. You are dancing with death and any missteps could result in a rather untimely loading screen before you have to try again. It isn’t just the challenge that’s drawing me back in, there’s more to it.

The world of the Witcher 3 feels like no other I’ve experienced in a video game. I truly think that if I could step into that world I could live there. Admittedly it probably wouldn’t be long before a monster or some bandits had taken exception to my sarcastic nature and killed me in a gruesome manner. So, while it wouldn’t be a smart idea to live in that world, I feel like I could.

Geralt of Rivia and Ciri

It makes me immensely sad that for now at least the world of The Witcher 3 is done. There will not be anymore DLC and there’s no Witcher 4 on the horizon. I don’t think they’ll even remake Witcher 1 and 2 in the new engine with the new controls and systems that we now know so well. There’s so much more to come from that world and while Geralt of Rivia is brilliant a story without him as the main protagonist would still be great.

Simply put, I want more games in the Witcher Franchise but it’ll be years before it happens (if it happens at all) which is a shame. So, I’ll make do with playing The Witcher 3 again… and probably again… then, after that you’ll be surprised to hear I might play it again.