Should You Replay The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?

With CD Projekt RED having finally released the next-gen updates for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, I decided to spend a few hours with the game in order to determine one thing; is this update worth coming back for a complete replay of the campaign and its DLC?

First let's discuss what you get in the next-gen update. CD Projekt RED have added in a new quest (located at the Devil’s Pit in Velen) that introduces players to Geralt's outfits and swords from season one and two of the adapted Netflix series. For my part, I enjoyed this quest as it felt like it was truly a part of the game from the beginning rather than added on. I also liked how Geralt addresses the difference in appearance between his school of the wolf medallion and that of the new armours. Along with this quest you also get access to two more new armour sets and two more sets of swords, these come in the form of account rewards and are just waiting for you in a chest. While the Netflix gear can be upgraded to grandmaster level (making it endgame content), the other armour and swords you get are meant to be used early to mid game at the latest.

Several gameplay features have had additional options added to them. Players can now choose if they want the camera at the default distance or a closer field of view when horseback riding, in combat, or exploring the world. An alternative method of managing your Witcher casting signs has also been created for those that use gamepads. Where once you needed to open the radial menu to switch active signs, now you can hold down the right trigger (RT) to make your gamepad’s action buttons cast a sign. This opened up a whole new world for me. I normally focus on Geralt's skill with a blade when I level up, I stack everything into it and apply bleed effects to both my steel and silver swords. As such, the only sign I ever really need is Quen (the shield one). But with this new system for casting, I can throw an Igni (fire) or Aard (push back) sign into my combat routine without missing a heartbeat.

Some other minor additions have also been added. This includes the ability for Roach (your horse) to back up instead of needing to turn fully around. I know it's the little things in life isn't it? CD Projekt RED also included a photo mode in the new game version. However, this photo mode lacks some of the bells and whistles that you may expect. For example, you cannot change Geralt's stances or expressions (some say he doesn’t have any). Still, it is nice for people like myself who love taking screenshots.

The environment and textures of The Witcher 3 have never looked better. The next-gen update has redesigned and rescaled several in-game assets to bring them up to scratch. The weather and lighting effects look amazing even without ray tracing (now an option) turned on. When the next-gen update first dropped several people were complaining online about performance issues, even when using powerful graphics cards like the Nvidia 3080. I never experienced any frame-drops myself but I decided to use the DirectX 11 version of the game rather than the DirectX 12 version with the new ray tracing. On the 19th and 22nd of December 2022, CD Projekt RED implemented performance patches for PC aiming to correct these issues. No major problems have been reported for console versions. A great many of the complaints on PC also seem to be from mod users who are finding the new game version to have broken many popular mods in the community. In some cases older mods are completely incompatible and as a result the game will refuse to start if they are installed. To be honest, I had to remove seven mods from my list before being able to launch the new game version. Though, I was not all that bothered as much of what I removed had been integrated by CD Projekt RED right into the game — such as the ability to fall more than a foot without dying.

So is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s next-gen upgrade worth another complete playthrough? In all honesty, I am afraid the answer is no. I absolutely love this game and presently own it on PC and Xbox Series X, but unless you’ve only ever played it on last-gen consoles or never played the game at all then I would not recommend giving this a go. For those people however, this is absolutely a gem and something you will enjoy. For veterans of the path, who have conquered every monster, and saved the innocent time and again; there really is not much to draw you back for very long, other than a love for the series that is. The life of a Witcher is a hard one but those are the facts.