CD Projekt RED announced today that Hearts of Stone, the first expansion of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, will release on October 13.
Here's what you can expect to do in this expansion:
Step again into the shoes of Geralt of Rivia, a professional monster slayer, this time hired to defeat a ruthless bandit captain, Olgierd von Everec, a man who possesses the power of immortality. The expansion lets you choose your own way through an adventure that includes recruiting a crew of break-in artists, spending a night partying with a ghost and outsmarting the most bizarre creatures Geralt has ever faced.
According to CD Projekt RED, Hearts of Stone packs over 10 hours of content. It will introduce new characters, monsters, a unique romance and a dedicated storyline which will be impacted by the player's choices. Moreover, the Polish studio has added a new system of Runewords which affects gameplay significantly: each Runeword will impact a different aspect of in-game mechanics and will allow the players to experiment with various strategies and tactics.
There's also a special and limited physical edition of Hearts of Stone, only available at select retailers worldwide. This will cost you $/€ 19.99, with the box containing a digital download code for the expansion, two masterfully crafted physical decks of Gwent, the card game set in the world of The Witcher, and a detailed manual explaining the rules. If you've wanted to play Gwent in real life, now you will be able to.
Owners of the digital Expansion Pass will have a chance to get the cards separately, just check out this website for more information. As for the expansion itself, CD Projekt RED also released the following three screenshots and teaser trailer; just a few weeks ago, they've announced that the base game sold six million copies.
Another DLC titled Blood & Wine is scheduled to release in Q1 2016 and it should be even bigger, adding roughly 20 additional hours of gameplay.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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