Witcher 3 - review @ PC Gamer

Well, PC Gamer also likes it: a 92/100. Shaun Prescott writes: 

On my way to the witch I stumbled upon a typically destitute Velen village. I didn’t care about the village at all, [...] But something—maybe the sun setting so amber on the horizon, or the children dashing frantically through the muddy streets—made me stop. I was curious.

It probably goes without saying, but if you’re in a hurry, never get off your horse en route in an open world RPG. This is especially true for The Witcher 3. Several hours later, once I’d cleared out some monsters for a desperate peasant in her far-off stable, and made preliminary moves to slay a beast haunting the town, I forced myself to leave.

I didn’t really want to leave, though. It’s not that I liked the town [...] I was just curious about the villagers’ circumstances. [...] How did they get so poor and wretched? [...]

Straight up, this is the most remarkable thing about The Witcher 3. Its writing isn’t perfect—it still bears some of the familiar trappings of being a video game—but it almost always rewards curiosity, big time. [...] The Witcher 3 achieves something very few video games do: when I’m engaged in a peripheral mini-narrative I’m not necessarily thinking about its game aspects. [...] I’m not grinding. I just really want to know, and understand, what’s going on.

In this game, distractions overwhelm you. For mine, the game’s distractions are where its most engaging stories are found.