It”s been seven years since The Witcher 3 saw the light of day. With the free Next Gen Update, it gets another proper polish. But how does the role-playing game play in 2022? And what does that mean for our rating?
Much has changed in my life over the past seven years. In 2015, I was still a student and had just completed my year abroad in Japan. Then came my Bachelor”s and Master”s degrees, the move to Munich and now I”ve been part of the GlobalESportNews team for over three years. Why am I telling you this? To illustrate that a hell of a lot can change in seven years.
So the release of The Witcher 3 was quite a while ago. And the world of video games doesn”t stand still either: Graphics are becoming more and more elaborate, the demands of players more and more sophisticated and the flood of new games is unstoppable. Can a role-playing game that is already seven years old still prove itself in the context of today”s games – and is a Next Gen update enough? To answer this question, we returned to the world of The Witcher 3 for a retest.
Find out what the Next Gen Update changes in the PC version, how the role-playing game plays in 2022 and what all this means for the final rating in our test.
Graphics update, ray tracing and implementation of mods
What”s new? Probably the biggest change of the NextGen update immediately jumps into our eyes even without witchcraft sense: The Witcher 3 looks damn fancy. Responsible for this are a number of technical improvements:
- Global lighting and ambient occlusion via ray tracing
- PC Exclusive: Raytracing Reflections and Shadows
- Highly scaled 4K textures for characters and environments
- Fixed clipping errors and improved shadow casts for main characters like Geralt, Triss and Ciri
- New weather effects
- Improvements in vegetation and water
- PC exclusive: Nvidias DLSS 3 is now supported
- PC-Exclusive: New graphics preset
Ultra+
which once again boosts all aspects of the game graphics (shadows, water, terrain, background characters, etc.)
It”s no secret that The Witcher 3 has been fertile ground for numerous creative community mods. Now the crème de la crème also finds its way into the official NextGen update. The implemented mods include:
- World Map Fixes by Terg500
- Nitpicker”s Patch – Various Visual Fixes by chuckcash
- The Witcher 3 HD – Reworked Project by HalkHogan
- FCR3 – Immersion and Gameplay Tweaks – by Andrzej Kwiatkowski
- HDMR – HD Monsters Reworked Mod by Denroth
As the names of the individual mods already reveal, they make minor and major adjustments to the game. The minimap was adjusted and now corresponds more to the game world. Visual bugs have been corrected, the character models and textures have been refined and even the nasty monsters have been given a more modern look.
How does it play?
The world of The Witcher 3 has always been impressive, but with the NextGen update it”s simply – and I”m quoting a well-known actor here – “breathtaking”! The new lighting creates an even denser atmosphere when a room is lit only by a candle or a fire casts distorted shadows on cave walls.
The vegetation is more lush, the waves of the sea and the reflections in puddles of water are now more beautiful to look at, and so even longer journeys on foot are even more enjoyable. The character models, armour textures and small details in the game world have also been adapted and modernised.
We didn”t notice any bugs during testing – the clipping errors in hair and clothing are a thing of the past, as are sudden details popping up on characters or in the game world. Whereas in the past only occasional gwint games and elderly ladies looking for their pans or sons used to keep me from the actually urgent search for Geralt”s foster daughter Ciri, now it”s the landscapes and environmental details that invite me to pause again and again. Because with the Next Gen update, The Witcher 3 is more beautiful than ever before.
Since pictures are known to say more than a thousand words, take a look at This comparison video
Improved operation and convenience features
What”s new? In addition to the major graphics changes, the Next Gen Update also has smaller improvements in tow. These optimise the controls or simply make your life as a wizard a little easier. The following new features have been the most noticeable for me during gameplay:
- The quick casting of characters. You can now change and cast them without having to open the wheel menu.
- Herbs can be collected immediately without opening an additional loot window.
- Bombs, bolts and other items can now be exchanged more dynamically via the wheel menu.
Of course, there are many other little things that you probably won”t notice when rediscovering The Witcher 3, such as the adjusted drop damage or the streamlined world map. (The overview of all patch notes) illustrates how many adjustments CD Projekt has made.
Table of Contents
How does it play?
Of course, individually these may not be earth-shattering changes. But taken together, these adjustments mean that The Witcher 3 now plays more smoothly and enjoyably than ever before – especially with the controller.
I can adjust my walking speed more granularly with the stick, allowing me to stroll through the streets of Novigrad at a snail”s pace to marvel at the graphic splendour. I pick up herbs as I walk by, without confirming in the loot window that I really want to pick up celandine for sure.
I”m also finally experimenting more with bombs now that I can swap them out much faster in the wheel menu without opening the inventory. Even my beloved Igni is allowed to give way to other characters more often.
Especially on the controller, switching is so much easier and allows quick combinations – for example, when I first set my opponents” whiskers on fire with Igni and then send a nice punch straight into their guts with Aard. All I have to do now is hold down the left shoulder button and use the symbols and the right shoulder button to choose which character I want to cast.
But don”t worry: If you don”t like the new control options, you can always deactivate them in the settings and play with the conventional controls.
New camera settings for fighting, riding and exploring
What”s new? In the settings, you can now switch on an alternative camera option for exploring, riding and fighting (and of course switch it off again at any time). The camera is now a little closer to Geralt and reacts more dynamically to movements.
How does it play?
The new camera setting makes for a more immersive gameplay experience, especially during battles. I am no longer an omniscient observer who has the entire overview of the action and can react to dangers in time. Instead, I move much closer to the confrontations. It is also easier for opponents to sneak up on me from a blind spot and surprise me. Especially in close quarters, sword fights seem more realistic and intense.
For exploring and riding, however, I deactivated the camera setting again. Here I simply like having a little more distance to Geralt so that I can soak up the entire environment. Which settings you prefer is, of course, a matter of taste and can be changed quickly – conveniently even separately for the respective game situations.
New quest “In the shadow of the eternal fire “
What”s New? Remember the locked mine gate in the Devil”s Pit? If you”ve been wondering for seven years what could be behind it, the Next Gen update finally provides the answer. The new quest “In the Shadow of Eternal Fire” opens the gate to the cave system and the mystery that has been hiding there for centuries.
As a reward for our sorcerer”s work, there is even a small Easter Egg – we get crafting plans for the armour and swords from the Netflix series. The armour initially has the look from season 1, but can be upgraded to the season 2 get-up.
How does it play?
The new quest fits perfectly into the already existing Witcher quests, but doesn”t particularly stand out among them. In typical Witcher fashion, we are sent into the dark mine by a young priest of the Eternal Fire to investigate mysterious events.
The mine and its enemies are atmospheric and gloomy, the story exciting and fully soundtracked. There are even different endings, depending on what I decide to do in the course of the quest. The whole thing will keep you busy for about 30 minutes, so in terms of effort and scope it”s about halfway between a stand-alone quest and a big story quest.
“In the Shadow of Eternal Fire” is a nicely staged witchcraft quest for in between, which fits in wonderfully with the exploration of Velen. For that alone, however, it”s not worth returning to the role-playing game.
Is The Witcher 3 still a masterpiece in 2022?
The Witcher 3: Game of the Year Edition had to wait a whole six years for an upgrade. Back then there was a point deduction for annoying “pop-ins” in characters and environment details. Now the Next Gen update makes it possible: We upgrade and give the complete edition of The Witcher 3 an overall rating of 94 points.
Night tests of games whose release dates back a while always present us with a challenge: Is the rating still up to date in today”s times and in the context of today”s games? Would we give a similar rating or lower the score if we were to test the game today?
This time, however, the decision was not that difficult for us: The Witcher is still an absolute masterpiece in 2022, a pioneer in its genre and plays better than ever before with the Next Gen update. The radical graphics polish, comfort tweaks and additional settings options actually manage to close the gap between 2016 and 2022.
The Witcher 3 still feels like a modern role-playing game and doesn”t have to hide from its genre colleagues. You all know by now that its content is still among the best that video games have to offer. And if you don”t, you should definitely take advantage of the Next Gen update to finally immerse yourself in Geralt”s fantastic universe, experience the thrilling, poignant or even silly stories, throw yourself into the dynamic battles and simply let off steam in the gigantic game world. The Witcher 3 is not likely to relinquish its role-playing crown any time soon.
Editor”s Verdict
The Witcher 3 is my absolute comfort game. There are few game worlds I enjoy immersing myself in as much as The Witcher”s Slavic-influenced universe. And damn, am I glad I had saved a whole bunch of quests for myself, because now I can experience them with the Next Gen update!
At first, I wasn”t sure if the graphics update changed anything at all on my PC. In my memory, The Witcher 3 has always looked so fantastic. But a direct comparison clearly shows that a lot has changed. The details, the textures, the vegetation, the weather and the water look so fantastic that I”ll probably really play around with the photo mode, which normally doesn”t interest me at all. Unfortunately, this was not yet available in our test version.
But even the small (comfort) improvements make me incredibly happy. Krähenfels finally gets a sensible fast travel point, I am now even more flexible in battles with the controller, collecting herbs has never been so fast and Plötze can now walk backwards! These are only small changes, but they make a big difference to the gameplay. For me, The Witcher 3 is still an exceptional game, even seven years after its release, and is still one of the best the role-playing genre has to offer.
