It is a shining example of what RPGs should be: an experience that makes you believe that you’re truly part of a game’s world and that you have a very real stake in it. That’s exactly what Wild Hunt has achieved here. The Witcher 3 is a masterpiece, and in many respects simply one of the bests and most exciting game in recent years. It captivates players with artistic vision, a huge world and an epic story. The developers were not looking for cheap applause - game design is uncompromising, consistent, thoughtful and nuanced. There is no saving the world, here, no great evil force pervading the landscape, or a doomsday clock ticking down to inevitable destruction, with only you to stand in its way. The story of Wild Hunt is a personal one, set in a huge and unrelentingly beautiful world. The game is massive. This is in two ways - one of which is the scale of the map. It’s bigger than Skyrim’s world and after tens of hours you’ll have barely scratched the surface. It’s a beautiful world, too. You stumble in a beggar and a quest with a magnific and well built story starts and then you realize that is just a SIDE quest, thats pretty much the quests in a nutshell: It is one better than another. Not only do you care about the characters and want to see how their stories end, but you want to scour every inch of The Witcher 3's glorious game world. It's a world you want to get lost in, a world where fast travel is an afterthought and a world you want to keep exploring in case there's something you've missed. The variety of quest is outstanding. It has to be given how many there are, but you can find yourself searching for a person of interest one minute, playing cards the next, then starring in a play soon after.

This is the new standard for open world role-playing games. There is no such thing as a perfect game, but The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt come as close to perfect as any RPG to date.

A monumental achievement of staggeringly aching beauty, the Witcher 3 stands proudly as one of the (if not the) greatest video game of all time, regardless of genre. Geralt's final, epic ride, is the high water-mark by which all future games will be judged and found lacking. Indeed, it's only disadvantage is that it completely ruins every other title on the market right now by nailing every single aspect of game design with almost supernatural clarity and perfection. If you play one video game in your life, make sure it's this one.

Quality like this doesn't tend to arrive until way later in a generation, so we doff our caps to the team at CDPR for breaking tradition to deliver one of the best RPGs we've ever played. Make some room on your hard drive and shelf, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt deserves a permanent spot in your gaming library.