The main storyline is 10-12 hours depending on your play style not including new side quests. There’s new armor, weapons, an introduction to a whole new mechanic called Runes, a whole new culture and populous, and most importantly, more Gwent. More is to be said about the new addition, but that’s the gist of it. It’s still the same game but is an expansion overall, only helping and adding to the vanilla experience.

It starts wherever you personally last left off. Once you start the quest though it throws you right into the mix of things and not even 20 minutes in you’re already meeting new characters, fighting difficult monsters, and crawling through sewers. But that momentum comes to a full stop because the first boss is insanely difficult. Like, I’m talking Demon Souls difficult. First off, The Witcher in general isn’t a fast paced game. So you can’t hack and slash your way through like you would Dragon Age. Granted I was playing on the highest difficulty, but when I finally beat the Toad Prince I wasn’t satisfied, nor did I get a sense of achievement and accomplishment. It was more like, “Fucking FINALLY!”. I even went on the internet because I completely thought I was doing something wrong. Come to find out, I wasn’t, the boss is just hard as fuck. Then if that fight wasn’t enough, CDPR throws you right into another one but this time the odds are stacked against your favor and this fight is almost as difficult as the first one. Thankfully, this guy is a little weaker. It’s the surrounding elements that make it difficult.

But that’s the only complaint. The crazy difficulty spike. I will say it’s almost a perfect intro into what you’re about to embark upon. The game revolves mainly around three characters. Geralt the neutral protagonist, Olgierd von Everec the bandit captain, and the Merchant of Mirrors. Without revealing too much, Geralt is tasked with keeping three promises and to stick to his word, Geralt must put himself through the strangest trials he’s ever gone through.

Hearts of Stone will take you on a rollercoaster ride. Emotionally, gameplay wise, mentally, it hits you where you feel it most. From being in a circus, to attending a wedding and partaking in all of the party favors. From participating in an auction, to planning a heist Grand Theft Auto style (yes, and you get to personally choose who to recruit) and then entering in a lifeless void of a world simply created by someone’s painting.

And no matter how peculiar or out-of-this-world the Witcher gets, it feels so natural because the writing brings it all together perfectly. Hearts of Stone will constantly conflict you and your motives constantly keeping you guessing and speculating the motives of each character. Every line of dialogue is still as precise and specific as ever in delivering the perfect string of words or phrases to perfectly convey the heavy emotion that this game plays at you. It is not for the faint of heart.

But the expansion isn’t all somber. Old flames (if you’ve read the books) return and this new love interest actually ended up being my favorite. Triss still wins all, but this new woman was definitely a close runner-up. She’s like the light in a darkened world. And fret not, The DLC is still as mature and adult as ever still bringing to you the 18+ themes that aren’t meant for children. So, yes, sex and titties.

For (at this time) 20 US Dollars, Hearts of Stone is easily obtainable. I forgot to mention that the DLC is only half that though. I bought the full edition that came with two complete and perfectly detailed physical Gwent decks. So really, this can be picked up for ten bucks. Some people spend 60 bucks for an incomplete game, a day one patch, and microtransactions. But that’s none of my business.

Conclusion: In conclusion, this is an experience where I don’t want to play again because I won’t be able to experience the same feelings as I did the first time through. When you finish Hearts of Stone it will be like finishing a really good TV show. You don’t want it to end and it’s bittersweet. When it did end, I only felt one immediate emotion. Satisfaction. CD has A LOT to live up to if they want to top this one. With all that being said, I can not wait for Blood and Wine.