Sad it is over but excited to move on to new games, all in all the entire trilogy took me about 200 hours to beat. Overall, while the third game in the series gets hailed as one of the greats (rightfully so) I actually think I slightly preferred the second game the most. Here are some brief thoughts about the games:

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Played this a couple years ago and had some obvious jank associated with it. The combat was the weakest in the series, the graphics could be... awkward, and many of the quests were dull and repetitive, especially the side quests and one full detective-like chapter of the game. That being said, there was never a point when I felt like putting it down. The over-arching story was pretty good, enough to keep me interested, and had a great climax that made much of the jank worth it. It is very apparent this was a learning experience for CD Project, but it made for a pretty good mature RPG experience for the rest of us as well.

The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings My favorite in the series. Why? Minimal fat attached the experience. The linearity lends itself very well to a more concentrated story, a very engrossing story at that. In this game CD Project Red hammered home the fact that choices matter. In particular, one choice in the first chapter of the game which completely changes the whole second chapter. The combat was still the weakest part of the game, but much improved from the first. This can be said for essentially every aspect of this game; improvement. Practically the whole time I was engaged, wanting to see what happens next. This was one of the few games were after beating it I immediately started up a new game, making a point to deviant from the decisions I made on the first playthrough and, like I mentioned earlier, I was blown away by how many critical plot points were different the second time through. The whole series has become one of my favorite gaming endeavors, but this game will always hold a special place in my gaming heart.

The Witcher 3, plus expansions Now this is a game, a big fucking game. Over 50% of my time with the whole series was spent on this game, and it was great. I won't spend too much time gushing over it as my thoughts mostly align with what many people think, but I will elaborate a little as to why it isn't my favorite in the series. There was just too much fluff. Don't get me wrong the main quest was great, along with many of the side quests, but the game most definitely suffers from the open-world "bazillion things on the mini-map" syndrome. I did love how some of the questions marks or innocent looking witcher contracts ended up being huge and engrossing side-quests that were completely missable, but many were not and I couldn't help but feel they were simply filler. Both the expansions were great being of equal, if not better in some regards, to the main quests; I think this could be due to them being a little less bloaty as well. After about 60 hours with the game it ended up being played in a linear fashion anyways because I was just interested in the story and any of the conflicts or plot points that the main story and side-quests arcs brought. It can be argued that this isn't a bad way to play the game, in fact that might be part of the beauty of it, being able to play any way you want to; I still couldn't escape the feeling that the game was better off being semi-open world in a similar vein to the second one.

Now that the credits have rolled I am getting that void of feeling you get when you complete something great and aren't quite sure what to play next; probably a few short and mindless games. Regardless, what an epic adventure and a great way to close off Geralt's saga. I know many hope for new Witcher games, but I think the series has seen a fitting conclusion to Geralt's quest and anything after this might be leaning into "cash-grab" territory. That is not to say something in the Witcher universe wouldn't be cool. Regardless, great series, I am excited to see what CD Project does with Cyberpunk