The Witcher 3 Hearts of Stone Critique

A critique and analysis of the first dlc for The Witcher 3, Hearts of Stone.

Further Watching:
Superbunnyhop's very good video on hearts of stone that details the influence of the polish film pan twardowski.

[pticu]

The worst part of HoS was lack of possibility to challenge Gaunter O'Dim to the game of Gwent in the final battle

[VictorAHunter]

i really loved when Gaunter O'Dimm theme played in blood and wine

[pedromoutadepinho]

I remember finding that moon temple before i even started the HoS quests, and being confused by nothing being there, because that place clearly was important.

[andrewvincent]

I miss the term "Expansion Pack". That's basically what this in a classic sense(aside from being a digital purchase only). The two DLC's of Witcher 3 are pretty much what expansion packs use to be in the 90s and early 2000s. A 20 to 25 hour story that takes place after the main game that added new features, new enemies, and a new storyline and was usually 20 to 30 dollars. Not the bullshit 15 dollar dlc crap that gives you only 5 hours of new content.

[russianhacker]

i love in the time freeze in the bar Gaunter O' Dimm kills a man is a brutal way, but also uses it as an opportunity to put a fly in another mans soup. True chaotic evil

[reflectedpower]

The character development was crazy, I went from "Hell yeah mirror man lets teach this immortal prick some manners" at the beginning to to "Oh fuck this mirror chump is literally the devil lets kick his ass" towards the end.

[edwardnowakowski]

It didn’t happen when I played it, but I love that you can ask O’Dimm about how to find ciri, and he’ll give you hints about how to save her life. It feels like the most geralt-like thing to ask for.

[tl]

This questline of HoS if probably one of the greatest and best questlines ever made in video game history.
O'dimm, Olgierd and Iris and all the other characters around it make it just so good. This is the one thing HoS did way better then BW. Storytelling and characters. And I do agree about the risk thing at the ending of the questline. But nothing is without flaws.

[benl]

I personally really liked the side quest in which you find out what happened to the Order of the Flaming Rose. They were very important in the Witcher 1, and did appear (albeit briefly) in the Witcher 2, so their absense in the base game of the Witcher 3 felt strange to me. I was glad to see the loose end of what happened to them tied up; I was actually surprised to see how far they had fallen. However, for people who hadn't played the Witcher 1, that quest probably wouldn't mean much.

[berniecat]

“Scenes from a marriage” in HoS is by far the best quest line I’ve ever played in a video game. The epic storytelling, character development and visuals is gaming at its absolute best.

[combatwombat]

I can't specifically put my finger on what interests me so about Olgierd. He's not blameless, nor all to blame. He's monstrous in his ways, but his past sheds light on why he became the way he did. Does it justify his actions? The abhorrent way in which he was with Iris or her family? Hardly in it's entirety, but it left me feeling a deep, dark worry that, if presented with the same circumstances, would I not do the same?
Olgierd, thus, is one of the pinnacle characters I've ever interacted with. I adored, and indeed still adore, every moment of his story. This is just my opinion, of course, others find him bland and tedious and don't spare a second wondering on what his fate should be. For me, however, that timer on whether or not to intervene the first time around filled me with genuine panic and quick thinking.
Anything that makes me feel that in any way is worth my interest.

[StarsAndSticks]

Holy hell dude, just found your content and I am BLOWN AWAY. What a thoughtful, well articulated analysis. I've seen a lot of Witcher retrospectives on YouTube, and yours are EASILY the most well developed.


Bravo, and subbed.

[pneumonoultramicroscopicsi]

I chose not to intervene and I chose to not have any reward from him, maybe they shouldn't have gave us that choice, to save or let olgierd die, or maybe they should've made the riddle feel more like you're playing in the hands of gaunter, even if you win, you don't feel like you won against gaunter, instead, you'd feel that you entertained him.

[Corrupted]

I would have LOVED a possible ending where geralt loses to o'dimm and is damned to give over his soul when he dies one day - it doesn't have to be seen in game, but knowing that he is destined to lose his soul to evil incarnate adds a huge weight to everything that happens in B&W and we will never know if he will find a way out of the contract, or if gaunter even goes through with it

[mateuszmazur]

I never understood why they changed lithuanian Witold's name into russian Vlodimir in english version of the game. Olgierd and his family are clearly inspired by polish-lithuanian literature figure - Andrzej Kmicic. They both share passion and lust for a woman they cannot have. They are also ruthless and unruly, so their lives teaches them humbleness.

[DarthFennec]

"We know we can defeat Gaunter somehow because we know this is a game, and games always let us win."
Well, unless the game is by Yoko Taro, anyway. Imagine if the tradeoff to saving Olgierd was that Gaunter deleted all your save data.

[RickeGnool]

I sided with O'dimm. I like his character more and just didn't think it was a good idea to get on his bad side in the long run.

[hathemtarbah]

The Toad fight was undoubtedly the hardest fight in the game. It was probably the only time I struggled in the game (including both DLCs) and I exclusively play on Death March

[Spellweaver]

There are reasons why this dlc is so good. It avoids 2 of main game's mistakes: reliance on the books' material (which leads to subpar plots, since books have already met their conclusion, and overuse of book characters), and reliance on open world, since all its content takes place in a very small region that requires very little traveling, and it's all quests, quests, quests tightly packed together instead of adding new areas.
And this is why I consider the next one to be way, way worse.

[alexanderkentopp]

I will say your big thing about his final riddle being "too easy" is highly subjective - not to say that it wasn't too easy for you. From running D&D I've found that riddles are either extremely easy or extremely difficult with no real way to determine which it will be for you. However I felt like it was very thematically relevant because as you said, Gaunter is an entity more focused on tricking people than anything else to prove his superiority. In this case, it is totally plausible that he made this simply because he knew that people are less likely to get it - that then he can turn it around and say "it's so easy, " and laugh when they die. It is, as you said, an illusion of fairness, but one he underestimated.