Part 1 - The Witcher 3 - 2nd playthrough - Death March

The Witcher 3 is aging like a good wine as someone on YouTube said. It is two years old but videos created in its honor and new playthroughs are still being uploaded.

I played through the base game and the Blood and Wine expansion after they came out, and I am super excited to go back to this magical world. This time, I am attempting the Death March difficulty. This should be funny. :) Already the first pack of ghouls presented me with a challenge. But playing on a higher difficulty means I will rely more on potions, oils and food, so I get to experience more of the world of The Witcher 3.



And I crave to experience it again so much. This world is so masterfully crafted that it feels real and I cannot wait to go back and relive the experiences I had there, the utter loneliness in the gloomy swamps of Velen, the awe seeing the snowy mountaintops of Skellige, the sad peacefulness of White Orchard... I know every fan of this game understands. I am not sure yet whether I want to go back to Toussaint though. As much as I love summer in real life, I did not feel Geralt belonged there and I did not like the oversaturated colors of that country. Also giant centipedes give me nightmares. :)

One reason why The Witcher 3 is amazing is explained in the below video which I first saw a few months ago. It is about how dialogue systems in video games work, and it gave me another level of appreciation for the creators of The Witcher 3. Watch the whole video if you have not seen it. The part about The Witcher 3 starts at 8:50.



This is what happened in my current playthrough so far: After killing the ghouls, I immediately started collecting ingredients for the basic oils, potions and bombs for which we have the recipes by default. I was very proud of myself when I managed to kill two level 4 drowners while being level 1 on Death March. I wanted their brains, of course, but they dropped no loot at all! After the encounter with the griffin, I looked for ways to get food without spending money on it. I decided to kill some chickens with Igni which belonged to Nilfgaardian soldiers. They got upset and threatened to attack me but not before I could loot some eggs and chicken legs and run away with them. Whew. :) After that I followed Vesemir and we did our thing at the inn where I met this glitching cat capable of passing through furniture and levitating...

Then I won my first game of Gwent easily, even though I set the difficulty level to "Hard", because I found "Normal" to be too easy on my first playthrough. So far, so good.

Finally, let me link to a superb critique video of The Witcher 3 which explains everything about this game. It is worth a watch whether you have completed the game multiple times or spent the last two years under a rock and have never heard about it. :)