No. 1 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
970 hours. Platinum and about to do my fifth playthrough along with DLCs and platinum it on PS5 all over again with the next gen patch whoch improves on the perfection that is The Witcher 3. It excels in every area, even the minimalistic combat is fun and exceeds most other open world RPG games. The microscopic gameplay from moment to moment within an over arching gameplay loop that is captured within a larger questing structure is just perfect, you're always doing something immediate that is fun and rewarding while goaling towards medium and very long goals. It's the best adventure structure in an RPG game and not to mention the miriad of smaller goals that intertwine like going after gear crafting through master weapon and armour quest lines, gathering stuff for potions along the way given an excuse to buy into the ingame economy with gold and every item actually meaning something to treasure hunts for specific gear sets and with the bonus of Gwent, a phenomenal card game in it's own right placed perfectly in the game. It's all so perfectly woven together and expertly paced in a world that is extremely (even though it's aging graohically) beautiful and full of strong vibes. The next gen patch takes it even further and makes it's age feel less apparent, I can't wait to get on with my playthrough when I can justify the heavy time investment.
Music as if it were made by God for his personal playlist. Characters that are so deep and interesting. Moments that tug on even my jaded heart strings, those moments come often and thunderous. Traversal and exploration so free and fun to engage in with no goals in mind, you'll come across something organically if you wander. A big bad villain in The Wild Hunt and Iridan that is actually scary even though they are only elves in cool armour. Choices at hand that you accept as yours and even if you get a bad branching narrative point that you could save scum you don't feel the need cause it feels as if it was meant to happen, good or bad.
..man I could go on and on. It is a miracle this game exists and a wonder that some people don't vibe with it. I feel bad for the people above who don't understand this game or couldn't get it to gel. It's as close to perfection along with Larian games and Red dead 2 that we could get. Not perfect but close to perfection in enough areas to make it practically earn the phrase A Perfect game.
The greatest of all time and one that will not easily be beaten, the stars aligned with this and it excels is so many areas with little that is flawed, that I have to assume there was luck involved as well as great talent. There is pages and pages of stuff I could write on this game and it wouldn't do it justice to how phenomenal it is.
Last edited by LegitHyperbole - 7 hours ago