Now an immensely popular property that spans video games, board games, television and more,The Witcherstarted as quintessential Polish fantasy reading. Author Andrzej Sapkowski started creating the gritty high-fantasy world ofThe Witcherin the 1990s with several short stories, eventually writing a five-book saga. CD Projekt Red helped skyrocket the popularity of the property when it came out with a video game adaptation of the story with 2007’sThe Witcher.
The success of CD Projekt Red’s video game version ofThe Witcherfurther multiplied withThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which helped push the franchise’stotal lifetime sales to over 50 millionlast year. Players are able to enjoy hundreds of hours of gameplay across the entireWitchervideo game catalogue, and here follows a breakdown of how long each game takes to beat.
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The Witcher
Starting off is not only Geralt’s debut in the world of video games, but the first major project for CD Projekt Red. The studio set out to make anRPG based on the incredibly deep loreof Sapkowski’s novels, and decided to have it take place after the events of the last novel,Lady of the Lake. To help introduce new players to the world of Witchers, Geralt suffers from amnesia at the start of the game. Eventually, players learn a bit more about Geralt’s backstory, coming in contact with friends, acquaintances, and enemies who remember him from before.
The Witcherwasa success for CD Projekt Red, and many praised the game for its narrative choices that could affect players several chapters later, along with its morally gray characters. For gameplay,The Witchercan be played in either a top-down perspective or traditional over-the-shoulder one. While most players took around 35 hours to complete the main contents of the game, others spent upwards of 60 hours completing everything they could.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kingspicks up straight after the end of the first game, seeing Geralt deal with the aftermath of an assassination attempt on a king’s life. Players will have to face off against Witcher-like assassins, and can go down multiple different plot lines depending on what characters they side with in key game moments. The developers also added complexity to the combat system, adding the ability to lay traps and throw ranged weapons, for example.
To help facilitateThe Witcher 2’s multiple storylines and multiple endings,CD Projekt Red developed a new proprietary game engineat the time called REDengine. Players could explore the newly-styled Continent to continue Geralt’s story. Most players spent between 25 to 30 hours to get through the main game. Those that wanted to complete the game fully spent about 50 hours doing so.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
CD Projekt Red was committed to bringing a brand-new, deeply engaging experience withThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Since it was developed after Bethesda’sSkyrim, the developer aimed to have an open world that was even larger than Bethesda’s, and over 30 times bigger than the previousWitcherentry.The Witcher 3was built using CD Projekt Red’s new REDengine 3, which allowed even higher quality and gameplay elements such as a realistic day and night cycle, a dynamic weather system, improved RPG leveling, and more. The game was so well received that it nabbed over 200 Game of the Year awards in 2015, holding a record for most GOTY wins for one game untilThe Last of Us Part 2broke that GOTY recordthis year.
WhileThe Witcher 3: Wild Huntcontinues Geralt’s story, it is also a standalone adventure that new players can hop right into. The Empire of Nilfgaard is an antagonistic body in the game, but so isthe titular Wild Hunt. This otherworldly threat of wraiths and phantoms has to be stopped by Geralt before they can continue their path of destruction. While the main storyline ofThe Witcher 3can be finished in under 50 hours, most players took between 50 and 100 hours to play through the game at a regular pace. Those that wanted to complete every quest and achievement the game had to offer took upwards of 200 hours. However,The Witcher 3: Wild Huntalso got two expansions.
Hearts of Stone Expansion
Blood and Wine Expansion
The first new adventure was in the form of theHearts of Stone expansion forThe Witcher 3, which saw Geralt venture into No Man’s Land and explore Oxenfurt to solve a mystery. Blood and Wine was an even larger expansion that opened up the new region of Toussaint. Geralt again ventures to this new land, and gets involved with local affairs, including a dreadful monster ravaging the lands of Toussaint. Hearts of Stone adds about 10 to 15 hours of new content, while Blood and Wine adds between 15 and 30 hours of story for players to enjoy.
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The Witcher Adventure Game
CD Projekt Red partnered with Fantasy Flight Games to createThe Witcher Adventure Game, which is game experience that combines the world of the video games with an adventure board game. Players are able to choose between four characters fromTheWitcherfranchise: Witcher Geralt of Rivia,sorceress Triss Merigold, dwarven warrior Yarpen Zigrin, and the bard Dandelion. The adventure game lets players complete quests, slay monsters, and use skills to try and win the game. A regular play session can take between six to 10 hours, but is ultimately repeatable.
Gwent: The Witcher Card Game
Gwentis a online card game inspired by the card game of the same name featured inThe Witcher 3, and mentioned in the original books. Afterbuilding decks of cards, players face opponents in best-of-three battles.Gwent: The Witcher Card Gameis also CD Projekt Red’s only esport, as there is an official tournament circuit calledGwentMasters for players who want the chance to be theGwentWorld Champion. Numerous players have spent from dozens to hundreds of hours inGwent, but regular matches can typically be completed in 10 minutes or less.
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Talesoriginally started as a single-player expansion toGwent: The Witcher Card Game, but it is effectively its own game. Set in the world ofThe Witcher, there areplenty of challenging puzzles inThronebreakerfor players to overcome, and there is a uniquely crafted card-battling mechanic that is part of the core gameplay.Thronebreakerfocuses on the character of Meve, the war-veteran Queen of Lyria and Rivia, who has to go to war once again. Players can finish the main game in about 25 to 35 hours, but completionists might spend over 40 hours unlocking everything.
The Witcher: Monster Slayer
While aWitchergame, Spokko’sThe Witcher: Monster Slayeris yet to be released. Therefore, how long it takes to beat this mobile game is still unknown. However,The Witcher: Monster Slayeris an augmented-reality exploration game that can be partially compared to games likePokemon GO. So players could very well spend hundreds of hours playing the AR game over the years. In all likelihood,Monster Slayerwill have plenty of content for players to enjoy, and will find ways to keep players logging in to the game ever so often. In any case, more details will become apparent about the gameplay whenThe Witcher: Monster Slayerreleases July 21.
Overall, it would probably take close to 300 hours just to get through everyWitchergame released so far. WithThe Witcher 4in development, CD Projekt Red will likely aim to have a similar amount of game content that it put inThe Witcher 3. There areplenty of storiesThe Witcher 4could pull from, but players will likely have to wait quite a while for more news.
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