Thomas has spent almost 200 hours in The Witcher 3 in 2016. An experience report on whether the next-gen version of CD Projekt”s role-playing game still ignites veterans.
I am actually the worst possible target audience for the next-gen upgrade of The Witcher 3. For one thing, I invested exactly 194 hours and 59 minutes in my first and so far only playthrough of the role-playing masterpiece including both expansions in 2015 and 2016. No side quest remained unsolved, no corner of the gigantic open world unexplored.
On the other hand, I am generally not someone who tackles games a second time, no matter how much freedom they offer. I”d rather experience something really new than the same thing again with more or less slight variations. Accordingly, even remakes and remasters only interest me if I missed out on the original at the time and would like to catch up.
Table of Contents
My requirements
As I mentioned at the beginning, I really took everything CD Projekt”s roleplaying game had to offer in 2015 and 2016 until the last question mark. Yes, including the damn barrel diving between the Skellige islands.
I could still remember the basic storyline with the search for Ciri and the fight against the Wild Hunt, but not many details. For example, I didn”t know who the mysterious witch in Velen was or who was hiding behind the mask of the elf mage.
At the time, I played on the medium difficulty level “The Sword and the Tale”, and my skills were focused on melee and magic.
For my new playthrough, I wanted to court Yennefer instead of Triss this time and just let the other decisions come to me. For the difficulty, I went to the second highest level so I”d have to use more oils and potions.
After a quick test of the ray tracing options, I decided to disable it with my Ryzen 7 5800X complete with RTX 3070. The visual gain wasn”t enough for me to justify 30 to 40 FPS. Instead, I preferred to switch all other graphics options to the new maximum level “Highest+”, which runs at a smooth 60 to 80 FPS on my computer, even in the crowded big city of Novigrad.
What excites me again
The Witcher 3”s most amazing achievement is that from the very first second, at least visually, I feel like I”m experiencing a modern open-world role-playing game rather than rediscovering a seven-year-old classic.
Graphics: Poor ray tracing optimisation or not, The Witcher 3 simply looks scrumptious even without this option with otherwise maximum details. I”m really not someone who tends to linger in Open Worlds or voluntarily ignores the fast travel function, but in The Witcher 3 I suddenly became a relaxed walker again, voluntarily taking on largely uneventful journeys to simply immerse myself in this world with skin and hair.
Which modernisations and mods do exactly what, others can explain to you better than I can.
All I can tell you is that I explored the swamps of Velen, the streets of Novigrad and the islands of Skellige again with as wide eyes as I remember from my first playthrough.
The side quests: I actually thought that I would concentrate mainly on the main story in my new attempt. Far from it! Because what do I care about the search for Ciri when I can instead support an old acquaintance”s quest for revenge or discover the tragic fate of a werewolf?
Even the standard monster hunts tell more interesting stories than many main quests of the modern competition. Maybe that”s why the side quests excite me so much again, because I naturally forgot a lot more details here than in the main story. But that doesn”t change the fact that in terms of variety, stories and inventiveness, they still adventure in a role-playing league of their own.
Attention to detail: Just like in Cyberpunk 2077, the open world of The Witcher 3 is not really a simulated world, but ultimately just a backdrop. But it”s a setting that I can”t get enough of even the second time around, and with my previous knowledge from the first playthrough, I even discover many new details and allusions that remained hidden from me during the first playthrough. I looked at who was sitting opposite me in the prologue inn!
What new excites me
It speaks for itself that I remember some annoying little things from my first 195 hours with Geralt better than some spectacular story twists. And it speaks for CD Projekt that they have improved so many little things about the game that actually make me play The Witcher 3 differently than anno 2015.
The new camera: I would never have thought how much it enhances my immersion in the game world when I get closer to Geralt. In particular, I perceive interiors in much greater detail, especially since I can now switch smoothly from running to slow walking with the analogue stick. Forests seem even denser, swamps even creepier, the alleys of Novigrad even livelier.
In the battles, the overview naturally suffers a little, but they feel more intense and exciting to me because, on the one hand, they put more focus on Geralt”s manoeuvres and, on the other hand, I know less what is happening in my back, which is why I have to think much more about my positioning in the thick of the battle.
Only when riding did I switch back to the old zoomed-out perspective after a short while, because here the spectacular panoramas work just as well, but I miss fewer turn-offs in the heat of the ride.
The dynamic interface: The fewer displays cluttering up my view of Velen, Novigrad and Skellige, the better they can work on me, which is why I deactivated some of them, such as the quest log and the control aid, on my first playthrough.
With the minimap, however, there was only one on or off, and I didn”t want to get lost on a regular basis. For me, it”s therefore a huge gain in atmosphere that the map can now be shown only in the wizard”s view, if desired.
The fact that I can now collect herbs directly without an inventory window diversions may sound like a small thing, but in total it gives me a much better view of the beautiful and much less of the ugly.
The only downer: For the life points and poisoning display, there is still only the “all or nothing” solution, although I really only need them in battles. On the other hand, the battles are now noticeably faster for me, because I can trigger all spells directly with key combinations and without having to go through the ring menu.
Killing immersion killers: Maybe this only affects pedants like me, but hardly anything annoyed me more during the first playthrough than the absurdly wobbling sorcerer medallion around Geralt”s neck. No matter how much emotion the dialogue could convey, I only had eyes for the tremors of the chain.
The same applied to the trees when exploring the world, which even in a light breeze bent as strongly in the wind as if there was a medium hurricane. The fact that both of these things are now a thing of the past finally allows my pedant”s eyes to concentrate on the essential.
What no longer grabs me
Although I fell in love with the story, atmosphere and open world again on my second playthrough, my relationship with The Witcher 3 has cooled noticeably on a few points.
Freedom of choice: Cyberpunk 2077 was a completely new experience on my second playthrough. On the one hand, because my abilities have a massive influence on how many missions develop. Secondly, because most of the decisions turn out to be far less striking, making it easier, at least for me, to choose a different path the second time around.
The Witcher 3 marks the relevant decisions very obviously for the most part, which can definitely be an advantage if you”re able to block out your conscience while playing. I simply can”t bring myself to decide differently in many crass situations, which is why the story plays out for me in large parts just as it did seven years ago.
The skill system wasn”t The Witcher 3”s great strength back in 2015 either, anno 2023 its limitations stand out even more to me. Yes, I now rely a bit more on potions and oils on the higher difficulty level, but at the end of the day, battles and missions play out the same as they did on my first playthrough, with a few exceptions. Which skills I unlock and when is almost irrelevant.
The battle system: The battles have never been the highlight of The Witcher 3 for me, but at least I didn”t actively avoid them in 2015. In 2023, on the other hand, I regularly find myself giving monsters or highwaymen a wide berth in the open world unless they are guarding a valuable treasure.
New action camera or not: the battles feel somehow wooden to me. They also lack dynamics and variety. Yes, every now and then I have to adapt to an opponent”s strategy, but as a rule I reel off my standard programme of applying oil, hitting, dodging and occasionally casting spells.
This is definitely where The Witcher 3 has aged the most for me, when compared to an Elden Ring, Horizon: Zero Dawn, God of War or even Cyberpunk 2077.
The Dungeons: I let out a sigh every time Geralt goes underground. For as much as the open world captivates me with its beauty and atmosphere, the dungeons, sewers and caves don”t tickle my thirst for adventure.
Graphically, the dungeons show their age more clearly than the rest of the world, because vegetation, furnishings and population can logically conceal less. In addition, it is more noticeable here how clumsy Geralt”s controls are when climbing and jumping.
And if I then have to turn on the black and white cat turkey vision due to a lack of light sources, the dungeons finally become the biggest turn-off in my Witcher relationship.
Conclusion: For whom is the return worthwhile?
The fact that I already have over 20 hours on my Witcher clock again, even though I actually wanted to try out new games more than anything else during the Christmas break, speaks volumes.
The numerous built-in mods, graphical optimisations and ray-tracing options (assuming a suitable computer) make The Witcher 3 an absolute feast for the eyes, even by modern standards.
The real star of the next-gen update for me, however, are the many small but really meaningful gameplay improvements, which above all highlight the strengths of the role-playing game because they draw me even deeper into the story, world and atmosphere.
However, you still have to be able to forgive the weaknesses in the character and combat system that were already present in 2015. And anyone hoping for a completely new story experience for the second playthrough will also be disappointed in my opinion. Unless you a) remember exactly how you decided on the individual missions during the first playthrough and b) unlike me, have no qualms about playing Geralt as a real asshole.
But if you “just” want the same fascination and wonder back that you felt during your first adventure with Geralt, then I can really warmly recommend the next-gen update to you. Even though, or perhaps because, I don”t actually belong to the target group.
