Geralt of Rivia has come a long way in eight years. Since his 2007 PC debut the professional monster slayer has returned from the dead, lost his memory, misplaced his beloved, witnessed the fall of a kingdom, been framed for regicide, and hunted a renegade member of his own order. He’s also found time to slay a great many beasts, bed almost as many women and to be presented as a gift by his home nation of Poland to the President of the United States of America. Such is the life of the legendary White Wolf.

Despite Geralt’s achievements to date there’s an undeniable feeling that it’s all been building to this. In a few short months, Geralt and his video game custodians at CD Projekt RED will face the biggest challenge of their respective careers when they present a rich, story-driven, open-world RPG to a global audience across PC, PS4 and Xbox One. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt represents both the culmination of Geralt’s eight-year adventure and a huge standalone experience in its own right, weaving the tale of the Nilfgaardian invasion, Geralt’s search for his lost love, the mysterious white-haired Ciri and the titular Wild Hunt, an implacable force that wreaks havoc from atop spectral steeds and has designs on the White Wolf himself.

In preparation for the biggest day in the company’s history, CD Projekt RED threw open the first three hours of its world to us; a world that will offer up to 40 times that duration to fully explore. As a seasoned Witcher’s apprentice I seized the opportunity to discover what’s new, what’s changed and to spend some quality time with its leading man, as I took a spoiler-free dive into the world of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

A Savage Beauty

Given The Witcher 3’s appearance on both PS4 and Xbox One, not to mention its formidable PC system specs, it should come as no surprise to hear that The Witcher 3 is a beautiful game. An opening sequence set within the walls of the witcher’s stronghold of Kaer Morhen offers the chance for an optional tutorial and an opportunity to admire a stunning mountain view from numerous vantage points around the grounds.

However, it’s soon after, once the game begins proper with Geralt standing atop a hillside with the dawn at his back and his horse nickering nearby that its sheer aesthetic quality really slaps me in the face. The Witcher games have never shied away from depicting scenes of grand scope and detail but here it’s done with aptitude and aplomb that belies the studio's lack of experience in making open-world games. Dense forests give way to verdant fields and in the distance a river shimmers in the early morning sun.

As Geralt engages in his first fight against snarling beasts, there’s a chance to experience the improved combat system in action, where the witcher is all fluid sword strokes and lethal grace as he dances from one foe to the next. Taking cues from the combat systems of both the previous games, The Witcher 3 employs a free-flowing system in which Geralt soft-locks on to the closest enemy but can switch at will to focus on those outside of his immediate strike zone. He can guard but with correct timing there’s also the opportunity to parry incoming attacks to throw an enemy off balance before launching an effective counterattack. Thus, fighting several foes at once is a more engaging and rewarding proposition than in The Witcher 2, while the parry and riposte system that starts or continues a chain of attacks has its roots in the timing-based system of the original game and ensures things stay fast paced but deep enough to avoid hack and slash monotony.

Bolstering his weapon attacks, Geralt also has access to the witcher signs – magical powers that can ensnare, burn, beguile or repel an enemy or be used as a temporary protective shield – and a range of mutagenic potions, the ingredients for which can be gathered from the environment or bought from vendors. The overhauled skill trees see you unlocking abilities from three key disciplines: swordplay, alchemy and signs, with a fourth, smaller category reserved for general skills. These can be grouped together in four lots of three slots that become available as Geralt levels up and if three skills in any one group are of the same type, a bonus is conferred. There’s a slightly odd notion of having active and inactive skills but the focus here is on combining traits and abilities that complement one other and then swapping load-outs to suit a given situation.

I'm on the hunt, I'm after you

This focus on preparation for battle is part of CDPR’s drive to get closer to the roots of the Geralt from Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels, which feature a far greater emphasis on the hunting of monsters in the lead-up to their slaughter. As such, Geralt can employ his Witcher Senses to uncover tracks, spot clues and follow telltale signs to track down his prey. In the case of a griffon that’s terrorising a small village, that means studying it to determine its breed, sex and to understand its motivation for its unusual behaviour before using appropriate bait to lure it to a suitable location for a face-off.

It’s not just the weaknesses of beasts that can be discerned in this way, though, as a side quest unearthed along the road highlights. A merchant in apparent distress leads Geralt to investigate a crash site in a monster-infested swampland, where his keen perception turns up clues of foul play and present him with further options of how to resolve this interaction. CDPR has promised that these optional endeavours will be far from the standard fetch quests that we’re used to partaking in for a few miserly pieces of gold and XP. Many will have a decision point or a knock on effect that sends small ripples through to another part of the game. Certainly, of the several possible outcomes of my quest to recover a merchant’s goods it’s apparent that some courses of action will lead to a swift conclusion to the quest while others will open-up further possibilities down the line.

The notion of choice and consequence is one that the Witcher games have long championed. However, while the 2007 original allowed for a degree of neutrality, its 2011 sequel was far more black and white, forcing Geralt into political binds that the witcher had no business being roped into. Happily, The Witcher 3 offers a return of the notion that even when not making a decision you are still making a choice. A segment of game play concerning a family feud set several hours further into the game highlights how this can affect not only the story but also flavour the game play. Two very different segments play out – one stealthier, the other more combat orientated – depending on your action or inaction and the knock-on effects are both immediate and far reaching.

While you can bumble through dialogue and answer every dispute by taking a sword to that which displeases you, word of your deeds will carry far and wide. We’re used to the world revolving around us and our characters but here this effect makes narrative sense for Geralt is the embodiment of a living legend and most who meet him are keen to gossip, be it with him or behind his back. The local village inn is a fine example of this, serving as it does as a place to relax after some strenuous monster slaying but also a place to gather further work, overhear rumours of the mysterious white-haired Ciri (the game’s second playable character), get into a fist fight with or indulge in a game of Gwent. This last is a card-based battle game that looks engaging enough to form the basis of its own standalone title. Clearly, there’s an awful lot going on and Geralt is often at its centre, with the decisions you take shaping his story and leading to any of the three dozen endings that CDPR has planned to reflect your own personal experience with the White Wolf.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is, we’re told, feature complete and so the remaining few months of development time will be spent polishing everything to a fine sheen. This is welcome news, because there are a number of things that require that attention. Currently, horse riding feels skittish and imprecise, while screen tear and texture draw-in are particularly apparent on console. However, it’s precisely for such reasons that the difficult decision was taken to push back release, first from late 2014 to February this year and then again to May 19. CDPR’s track record proves its willingness to work on releasing the best possible game that it can, as well as supporting its titles and its players with regular (and free) content updates.

It’s an ambitious undertaking that CDPR is attempting and Geralt has come far from his humble video game roots in the surprise cult hit of The Witcher to establish himself as one of gamings most recognisable icons and a bastion for dark, story-rich single-player RPGs. The long wait for his tale to be told in full will soon be at an end and we’ll finally be able to take up the mantle of the legend himself, Geralt of Rivia, the White Wolf, Witcher and professional monster slayer.

Stace Harman is a freelance contributor to IGN and is convinced that zombies will one day inherit the Earth. You can follow him on Twitter.