CD Projekt RED has finally revealed what The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered will look like in action when compared to how the title used to look. While the studio had showcased a few videos since its announcement, it has now provided a side-by-side comparison between the current version of The Witcher 3 and its upcoming Remastered update.
The comparison video is a short one, showing Geralt taking on a group of Drowners in a swampy area while blasting them with fire from his Ignis sign. There are quite a few notable differences between the two versions of the RPG, with the Remastered release being of higher visual fidelity and using more current graphics technologies like accurate reflections.
However, the comparison has also drawn quite a bit of criticism, with many saying that the Remastered version looks like a downgrade over how The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt currently looks. Social media comments have pointed to a variety of differences between the Remastered version and the current version, including the fact that the water in the swamp doesn’t seem to reflect the fire from the Igni blast.
Others have also pointed out how the fog surrounding the swamp in the older version of the game contributed to the area’s overall atmosphere, while the Remastered version, with its focus on higher fidelity and resolutions, has made the swamp feel less mysterious and dangerous. Interestingly, some have even asked whether CD Projekt RED accidentally mislabeled the two versions in the video.
It is worth noting that CD Projekt RED may have simply gotten unlucky with the in-game timing for recording its Remastered version footage, since the fog in the older version is likely missing in Remastered due to the time of day. In-game weather effects may have also played a role in this. The studio has also noted in the video that it is a “Work in progress” and that it “does not represent the final look of the game.”
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2 as a free update on September 29th. Earlier this month, CD Projekt RED co-CEO Michał Nowakowski said that it never occurred to the studio to charge players for the update.
“We started chatting about what we could do to improve it. It started with small things, and then it turned into this larger project, and we suddenly realized we had a remaster on our hands.
“But coming back to your original commercial question, we never thought about it this way. The commercial bit is the expansion, but with the game, we really felt this is the CDPR way to gift it to the players who already own it. It was just never a question we asked ourselves.”
The Remastered release will also serve as a technical prelude for the third expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, dubbed Songs of the Past. Director of the expansion, Jakub Rokosz of Fool’s Theory, has spoken about how Songs of the Past wouldn’t have been possible without the enhancements coming to the RPG with Remastered.
