Witcher 3 Geralt

With the smell of blood in the air and the corpses of monsters littering the ground, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has finally been stabbed, skewered, and sliced in half by critics as they attempt to find out what makes CD Projekt Red's ambitious current-gen project tick. Fortunately for grizzled protagonist Geralt of Rivia, the Gods are smiling upon him and his violent escapades this day, for it looks like the PlayStation 4 has added another glorious fantasy role-playing epic to its library. We'll bringing you our verdict on this, er, wildly anticipated title in the very near future, but until then, scour the scores from around the 'net and let uncontrollable hype consume you.

Gamespot - 10/10

Where the Witcher 2 sputtered to a halt, The Witcher 3 is always in a crescendo, crafting battle scenarios that constantly one-up the last, until you reach the explosive finale and recover in the glow of the game's quiet denouement. But while the grand clashes are captivating, it is the moments between conflicts, when you drink with the local clans and bask in a trobairitz's song, that are truly inspiring.

Game Informer - 9.75/10

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt encompasses what I hope is the future of RPGs. It stands out for its wonderful writing, variety of quests and things to do in the world, and how your choices have impact in interesting ways. Usually something is sacrificed when creating a world this ambitious, but everything felt right on cue. I still think about some of my choices and how intriguing they turned out – for better or worse.

IGN - 9.3/10

Though the straightforward and fetch-quest-heavy main story overstays its welcome, the option of joyfully adventuring through a rich, expansive open world was always there for me when I'd start to burn out. Even if the plot isn't terribly interesting, the many characters who play a part in it are, and along with the excellent combat and RPG gameplay, they elevate The Witcher 3 to a plane few other RPGs inhabit.

Gamereactor - 9/10

Wild Hunt's a game brimming with diverse, involving content. That we don't feel as emotionally connected to Geralt as we would Red Dead's John Marston or Joel and Ellie in Last of Us may be an issue intrinsic to the fantasy genre with its clear separation from the real world, or that this is a character whose personality and relationships comes with two games' worth of baggage. That's not to say playing Witcher 2 is an essential to enjoying the game, far from it. He's still an engaging lead; shame that his inventory and crafting skills are overly convoluted.

Destructoid - 8/10

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a huge step up from its predecessor, mostly because it manages to tell a more compelling and personal tale. At the same time, that intimate feel is juxtaposed against a gigantic, sprawling open-world adventure that may hit some snags along the way but still comes out on top.

Eurogamer - N/A

Ambiguity and the messiness of human life. Games have already proven that they can build and populate open worlds, even worlds as majestic and romantic and wild as this one. But this stuff is a reminder that the Witcher 3 is trying to do something different. It is trying to make an open world feel convincingly inhabited, to give it the warp and weft of narrative history. That's a pretty interesting quest, and CD Projekt is a pretty interesting adventurer, beating a path into strange and bewitching new places. The result is that this Polish studio's first open world is one of the greatest we've ever seen.

Videogamer - N/A

I found myself enjoying a majority of the side quests that appeared along the way, desperate to find out more about each character they introduced. The sub-par combat can be compensated for, the cumbersome world navigation at times forgiven, but the frustrating and ever-present framerate and other performance issues become a hindrance on the overall experience, to the point where it became as big a talking point as any storyline. Still, at only 25 hours in, I remain desperate to discover more, and whatever comes next, I am sure that it'll be thoroughly entertaining. It's just enormously disappointing that, technically, The Witcher 3's reach exceeds its grasp.

Will you be travelling the land as our silver haired saviour in just over a week's time? Follow the trails of blood and guts into the comments section below.