The Witcher 3 next-gen review: Customize one of the greatest RPGs ever

The “next-gen” upgrade for Wild Hunt: The Witcher 3 is almost here, and I’ve spent a few days playing through the first few hours of the game (very leisurely) to see what it’s like. I’ve got good news: It is, in fact, a complete Witcher 3Experience with some minor quality-of-life enhancements and an extensive graphical upgrade. This RPG still stands out as an outstanding example of RPG design and makes others look even more dull.

The update, which I played on PlayStation 5, rests on three major pillars: visual upgrades, several fan mods that have been integrated into the game proper, and some new DLC that integrates aesthetics from Netflix’s The Witcher series to the game.

Visual updates allow you to lock the game at 60 frames per seconds. They’re good frames, and although I know that PC players have been living in this world for a while, the experience of kicking back on the couch and watching Geralt of Rivia pirouette while cutting Drowners in half can’t be beat. It’s great outside of action, too. Watching Geralt’s facial expressions at 60 fps on a big 4K television is mesmerizing. His characteristic “hrmms” and “uh-huhs,” with their attending slight changes of expression, have always been at the core of his character; there is a cleanness to the game’s lines and movements in performance mode that draws those things out, and makes them all the more stylized, with well-defined edges and a slightly softer palette in between.

Image: CD Projekt Red

It also doesn’t hurt that Performance mode never made the fans in my PS5 kick in. My last-gen PS4 playthroughs did not have Geralt ever thinking about talking to the townsfolk or galloping Roach across a swamp full of monster-infested creatures.

I wasn’t nearly as impressed with the update’s 30 fps ray tracing mode, however. I’m not sure if it was an interaction with my TV or an actual frame rate issue, but turning the fidelity-focused mode on seemed to introduce an actual stutter. It also seemed like the early cutscene with Yennefer the sorceress caused audio to be out of sync. I had to stop the cutscene to fix it. Then, switching back to Performance fixed the problem. Other than for the sake of observing how it looked under major lighting changes, I didn’t leave it on too much.

While I replay the game on the newer console, Performance mode will continue. This allows the game’s strengths to shine. Geralt’s world There is no world.The new textures in 4K, which have lush greens as well as churned darks, make Geralt and his crew shine. This light ray tracing, however it is done here, is exactly the right amount without detracting the flow of the action. Velen has always been a swampy area, but it is now in the mountains. The Witcher 3’s 2022 new incarnation, the bogs take on an ethereal look – almost like gobs of vaseline poured across the wilderness. Fantasy vaseline.

Image: CD Projekt Red

You can get better graphics and mods to make map navigation and inventory management a bit easier. But I’m not sure that they are the explosively exciting thing about returning to The Witcher 3 It will be 2022. These are things that might lure you in for a replay or, if you’re lucky, your first foray into the interlocked worlds of commoners, creatures, immortals, and lords that Geralt weaves through. They’re what gets you in the door, maybe, but they’re not the Parties.

The party — by which I mean the massive political and interplanar story that happens within The Witcher 3 — is still incredible, and still manages to make the vast majority of other open-world RPGs (most other SpieleThey really do seem to be lacking in comparison.

White Orchard can be an example. It’s the first area of the game, and it functions as both a catch-up for veterans of the franchise and as a tutorial for new players. Geralt and his pseudo-dad Vesemir are trying to meet their old friend Yennefer in the middle of a warzone, and she wasn’t where she told them she would be. They’re on the lookout, and they’re immediately dragged into things that Witchers do: There’s a gryphon to hunt, there are local politics to maneuver, and the hunters must find a solution that satisfies both. While the White Orchard segment of the game lasts less than 2 hours, it’s packed with valuable information. It is a chance to get to know those who are at war. We get to know their strategies and learn who could gain power should the invaders prevail. We are able to see the inefficiencies of our government and hope for a brighter tomorrow. Old prejudices and preconceptions continue and become new.

Image: CD Projekt Red

Geralt lives in a place as fleshed-out as any game location has ever been, and more than that, he’s weary of it. We learn from him how to become weary and angry at the blindness of its residents. After having watched it for the first time, it was amazing to see how fast I became absorbed into this fantasy world. The upgrades help with this feeling of character alignment and being seated in the fiction — the UI is more unobtrusive now, and there’s a new efficiency to menu-ing that makes the whole thing much quicker to navigate — but that’s not what is going to keep people engaged these next few weeks, or even months. It was all there.

Oddly, my prevailing thought was not the one that I had in mind as I was playing The Witcher 3I was thinking about another game. What was I thinking? Cyberpunk 2077I was a player of, earlier in the year. It didn’t do enough to offset my successes with The Witcher 3. A strength of Geralt’s adventure is how little of it really has to do with him. He’s in some important rooms, and he meets movers and shakers, but warriors live and die without him. Dynasties fall. The weak fall to monsters. The mechanisms of life happen, and he doesn’t have to be there to see it all to unfold — that’s what makes his tale so compelling. He’s a hero when he’s around, and he’ll move or shake as necessary, but his world is not one driven by a protagonist. The world is not a fairy tale, but it does present itself as such. Cyberpunk 2077 was so self-centered on the part of the player that it seemed like people didn’t exist if they weren’t within my field of view. History was made so protagonist V could inherit it. Geralt seems almost inconspicuously by comparison.

The next-gen upgrade is going to make that available for more people, and I’m excited for that. But it did leave me with a melancholy feeling about where we’ve been and, given the future of The Witcher franchise, where a post-Cyberpunk Witcher game might go. I hope CD Projekt Red’s 2015 RPG, rather than the one it released in 2020, is the foundation that’s built upon.

Next-gen Upgrade Wild Hunt: The Witcher 3 On December 16, the game will release on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. CD Projekt RED provided a prerelease code for the game. The review was done on PS5. Vox Media is an affiliate partner. Although these partnerships do not impact editorial content, Vox Media could earn commissions for products sold via affiliate links. Here are some links to help you find. additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.