PC the Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Game of the Year Edition £9.99 at CDKEYS

Geralt is a witcher, or monster hunter, and the star of all the Witcher games. In this incarnation, we are introduced to his adoptive daughter Cirilla (Ciri for short), who fled many years before to evade the Wild Hunt, a spectral band of ghostly hunters who haunt certain regions. Ciri is a Source, possessing innate – and therefore potentially enormous – magical powers and the Wild Hunt are hungry to see just how vast these powers might be.

The Emperor – who is Ciri’s biological father, albeit unbeknownst to her – has summoned Geralt and sent him off in pursuit of the girl, following several rumours of her sighting in several different places. Geralt sets off, battling monsters along the way and aiding NPCs (non-playing characters) by aiding them with quests and missions to earn food, shelter and random power ups to help him on his way.

Geralt is joined by several NPCs along the way, including a couple of lovers, both former and current, who help to fill in the backstory as well as providing useful aid to Geralt on occasion and sending him in the right direction whenever necessary.

This game ends up with a map size some thirty times the size of that in previous games from the series. This means that there is plenty of sandbox play to be had, and plenty of exploring to do in between completing missions and following the story arc through to its conclusion.

Set aside a good chunk of time to play this game: it can take over fifty hours just to complete the main story arc, with about the same again in side missions and quests.

Even if you have played the other games in the series, make sure you spend some time putting Geralt through his paces. He has new powers and skills in this game, including a ‘witcher sense’ that helps him to track monsters, find important waystations and sniff out useful weapons and treasures.

You can play as Ciri – the first time in the series that the player is given a choice of playing character aside from Geralt. In a way this makes sense as Geralt is The Witcher, which is the name of the game. Fortunately, Ciri is being trained as a witcher herself, so playing as her remains true to the game’s premise.

There are a number of endings some of which depend on choices the player makes in the ending moments just prior to the end, while others depend on choices made earlier in the game. They include:

If Geralt helps to win the war and then takes Ciri to meet the emperor, as ordered, Ciri become the empress

If Geralt does not take Ciri to the emperor, Geralt helps to fake her death and she continues her training to become a witcher in her own right

If Ciri is unsuccessful fighting the White Frost, and dies, Geralt goes to avenge her – or find proof of her death. He finds her medallion, but the game ends there, with Geralt surrounded by monsters and with a fairly bleak prognosis