With two full seasons of The Witcher available on Netflix, I figured now was as good of a time as any to go back and play The Witcher 3 for the first time. Although the game was originally released in 2015, I can honestly say I was surprised by the depth, graphics, and gameplay the title has to offer. Despite it’s age, it’s one of the greatest games I’ve ever played in my lifetime.

What makes The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt worth playing is how seamlessly the story, gameplay, and dialogue blends together. Half the time it feels like you’re watching a movie and the other half it feels like you’re deep in one of your favorite RPGs. There aren’t many games like The Witcher 3 that can truly compete with it in just about any aspect. The only real downside is that there is simply too much game to get through quickly. It’s a slow burn that you’ll want to keep burning. If you need more convincing that you should play it, here are 5 reasons why it’s worth playing in 2022.

1. The Lore Runs Deep

One of my favorite things about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is that you can explore more than just land, you get to explore history. Most game franchises that have been around for a while (The Elder Scrolls games for example) offer a history and lore that has been built up to some degree, but The Witcher 3 takes it further. Every single person you talk to in the game has some sort of additional detail either about the world, a creature, or Geralt himself that you can uncover.

This is largely due to the fact that both the game and the show are inspired by 6 fantasy novels and 15 short stories written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. There is a lot to uncover in The Witcher universe, and the 3rd installment in the series is one of the best ways to do so.

2. The Story Is Fantastic

Like any game, the combat and RPG elements make Wild Hunt worth playing in their own right. However, it’s the plot that really makes it shine like the diamond it is. You play as Geralt, who is working to retrace the steps of Ciri by visiting various leads and battling monsters along the way. The way the main quests tie in with various flashbacks and character dialogue is captivating, and make it harder to get distracted by side quests.

The contents of the plot itself are the core reason the storyline is good, but it’s the cinematic quality of it’s delivery by CD Projekt Red that really bring it to life. Every conversation offers perfectly timed over the shoulder shots that make you feel like your watching and interacting with a film. With the addition of the occasional sex scene, this is only elevated further.

3. Combat Is Difficult But Rewarding

One of the core aspects of Geralt as a main character is that he tends to get in a lot of fights with hideous monsters. So naturally, you are required to do a lot of fighting. And although you can choose to lower the difficulty of your fights at any time, keeping it at a higher difficulty is incredibly rewarding. With a max of swordplay, magic, and dodging, you can take on just about any human or monster with good timing and skill.

If you choose to raise the difficulty of combat, however, you will die a lot — there’s really no getting around it. The monsters you face can be extremely powerful and have very few weaknesses. It is also easy to become outnumbered by lower level creatures and die suddenly.

4. Gwent Is Addictingly Fun

Although the main event of any Witcher game is the main storyline, The Witcher 3 offers a mini-game called Gwent that will have you unwittingly sinking hours into if you aren’t careful. Gwent is a simple card game that you can play against innkeepers, blacksmiths, merchants, and more. Each player has a deck of cards that include soldiers, archers, and artillery cards of varying levels. You also have special cards that can affect the battlefield or opponents cards when played.

The main point of the game is to defeat your opponent in 3 rounds by having a higher score than them. And while it’s a fairly simple concept, the intricacies become apparent when you start factoring in different deck combinations and the amount of cards you use in each round. All in all, it’s a full-fledged game within a game that you wouldn’t necessarily expect from an open-world game.

5. It’s Available on Every Platform

Not only is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt one of the best games you can play right now, it’s also one of the only ones you can play on just about every platform. Whether you own a PC, PlayStation, or Xbox console, you should be able to find a copy of the game. And despite the sheer size of the title, it’s also one of the best games for Nintendo Switch, so you can play it on the go if you have the portable console as well.

If your patient enough, you can also wait for the release of the remastered version of The Witcher 3, which will be arriving at some point in 2022 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X consoles. This refresh will bring the graphics and ray-tracing that will make your eyes water with it’s glory.

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