The Witcher 3 Remastered brings multiple changes to the game, but how big of a difference does it make? And most importantly, is it worth playing in 2026?
The Witcher 3 Remastered is just a few hours away from launch! The people at CD PROJEKT RED allowed us to play the game before the official release so we could provide our first impressions and experiences after combining roughly 39 hours of playtime between me (15 hours on Steam, PC) and Vulkk (24 hours on GoG, PC).
What is The Witcher 3 Remastered?
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered is a free update to everyone who owns The Witcher 3 on any platform where the game is currently available and supported.
This is a massive overhaul of numerous game systems, menus, and visuals that stays true to the original and doesn’t change the core gameplay and experience you may remember even from way back in 2015.
The Remaster is yet another upgrade to the game, following the NextGen update from 2023, which was also free.
Among some new features, the Remastered edition introduces changes and features that were previously available thanks to the modding community, but now they are officially integrating them by working closely with these talented modders.
For example, if you previously installed the HDRP mod by HalkHogan, you know what to expect in terms of visuals and who is responsible for it.
The Witcher 3 Remastered makes the first 2 expansion FREEVideo Review
Stunning new visuals with a major inconvenience
The Witcher 3 visuals are one of the things that have been praised since its release. Beautiful landscapes, castles that appear to be alive, and some of the most terrifyingly memorable enemies you could encounter in a game.
Many years after its release, The Witcher 3 got the Next-Gen update, which added Ray Tracing, DLSS, and Ultra + Settings for anyone who wanted to take it to the next level.
Well, The Witcher 3 Remastered takes it to a whole new level by adding Path Tracing (PC only) and other visual improvements. Everything looks so vibrant: monsters, NPCs, water, grass, sunlight reflections, textures, tree foliage.
Some things are more evident than others, but if you’re an avid fan of The Witcher 3, you’ll definitely notice the changes.
Unfortunately, these incredible visuals came with a very present and annoying issue. The early access version of The Witcher 3 Remastered came with an absurd amount of stuttering. It doesn’t matter if you are in the middle of combat, riding Roach, or doing something as simple as looking to the opposite side.
This is a very common occurrence and not something that happens once every hour. It happens no matter your graphics settings, but it’s more common when playing with Ray Tracing. I had to turn it off because it was simply too annoying.
While some of these issues are expected in pre-launch versions of the game, I can’t simply ignore or pretend it didn’t happen. Hopefully, this will be solved by release day, and none of you will experience it.
A stuttering issue plagued the NextGen edition when it released, so it is likely that the Remastered will arrive with it as well and we will wait for modders and official patches to attempt to resolve it.
A modernized combat style that might not be for everyone
The Witcher 3 Remastered comes with a new combat system that features new finishers, animations, and an adaptive camera that attempts to recreate the combat of more modern games.
n my opinion, they got as close as they could to replicating something modern. In fact, it felt incredibly close to playing as Coen in The Blood of Dawnwalker.
However, I have to be honest and mention that it felt fantastic when using a controller but horrible with mouse and keyboard. I prefer a controller, so when Vulkk first mentioned this to me, I was skeptical, but decided to give it a try since I can play both ways. My experience was the same as his – the Modern Combat feels weird on keyboard and mouse and may take some time getting used to.
Vulkk ended up playing with the Standard Combat Style while I switched back to the controller. It took me a decent number of hours to get used to it, but once I put the practice in, almost everything fell into place and felt fairly smooth.
It’s important to emphasize that this modern combat system is not an overhaul of The Witcher 3’s combat. The game’s combat has always been viewed as one of its weakest points by many players, and that will likely not change with Remastered.
If you played The Witcher 3 before and don’t have any major issues with its combat system, you’ll be happy with these changes.
On the other hand, if the combat is what kept you from enjoying The Witcher 3, it’s unlikely that your sentiment will change.
This is just my subjective opinion; I’d suggest that you take it with a grain of salt. Give it a try and decide for yourself whether or not this new combat system suits you.
Now that’s some QOL changes
A ton of quality-of-life features, some previously available through mods, have been added to the Remastered edition. Some of them exceptionally useful, others with a more questionable benefit. You have a great level of control what to turn on or off, so everyone should be happy. We certainly are.
Witcher Senses
Your Witcher Senses are now easier to see and also require you to actually focus on the right spot. The clue you’re missing might be in your vision range, but you must focus on it for it to be revealed.
This increases the immersion and actually forces you to investigate thoroughly to get all the required information.
New menu UI
We now have a brand new UI that makes navigating the menu a lot easier and quicker. With the old one, we had to go one by one. As someone who sucks memorizing the order of things that don’t have any visual indicators, trying to find what I wanted was a pain in the butt.
It only took a few extra seconds, but multiply that by a thousand times, and you get a number that is absurdly high for something as easy as navigating the menu.
With the new UI, I know where to find everything and will eventually memorize the order of all things.
Transmog
Transmog is a feature that allows you to keep the stats of the best equipment while being able to maintain the appearance of your favorite set. This feature is a must in gear-intensive games. Thankfully, we finally got it in The Witcher 3 without having to use any mods.
However, I must say that the Transmog feature can be quite confusing at the beginning of the game since you need access to specific characters. Nonetheless, it’s a nice feature that many of us have been expecting for way too long.
Improved Enemy Behavior
When they revealed this feature, I was not expecting something too intense. Maybe enemies having more erratic movements at best. Well, you’d imagine my surprise when a mere Drowner successfully dodged my attacks.
Not once or twice but three times in a row. If you are familiar with Evo Moment #37, you can tell exactly how I felt. Don’t get me wrong, it was humiliating, but it also proved that the improved behavior is very real.
These creatures are not the same pushovers that can be killed without much effort. This experience made me experience firsthand the improved behaviour and definitely made me more careful and wary about foes that I didn’t take too seriously in previous playthroughs.
New Skill Tree
The Skill Tree has been rebuilt from scratch. Not only does it have new abilities, but the way it’s organized makes it easier to understand how all abilities synergize and relate (or not) to each other.
Best Photo Mode Ever?
As someone who actively makes guides for multiple games, Photo Mode has become my best friend due to how much easier it makes it for me to create a featured image (what you see at the very top of this guide). It’s also a way in which devs can engage with their communities, most commonly with photo contests open to everyone.
Sadly, Photo Mode isn’t always given the proper amount of attention. Even recent titles that include Photo Mode don’t give us enough features. Until now, the Photo Mode from Cyberpunk 2077 beats games like Assassin’s Creed Shadows/BF Resynced, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, or Star Wars Outlaws.
While I still need to test a few more things, I can already tell that the expanded Photo Mode from Remastered can contend with what we have in Cyberpunk 2077. Not that it’s a huge surprise, considering that it’s from the same people.
My only criticism is that the number of NPCs we can add is very limited and placing props is very awkward, but nothing too outrageous.
Should you try The Witcher 3 Remastered?
Well, the answer is quite simple. If you are already a fan of the game, then absolutely. Not only because these updates give it a very refreshing take, but also because it will help you prepare for the upcoming expansion “Songs of the Past”, which is set to release next year.
If you have never played The Witcher 3 but love RPGs and dark fantasy, then you should absolutely give it a try. It’s one of the best games ever made and an experience that I believe any fan of the genre should experience at least once in their life.
As I mentioned before, these updates don’t change the core mechanics or identity of the game. They simply improve the overall experience. It continues to be the exact game that so many people love.
If you already played the game and decided that it’s not for you, I doubt that these updates change your opinion. Although if you already own the game, maybe giving it one last chance isn’t the worst idea. Especially because this update is completely free.
