The Witcher 3 Remastered: 10 Key Changes — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] CD Projekt Red has just dropped an awesome free remaster for The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. More than a decade after its original 2015 release, this beloved RPG is about to get a whole new lease on life.

[00:12] With a ton of changes coming your way, you'll have a fresh reason to dive back in and experience The Witcher 3 like never before. These changes affect every part of the game, including addressing some real pain points fans have had over the years.

[00:27] Whether this is your first time visiting the continent, or a long-awaited return to the past, this remaster has been created with newcomers and veterans in mind. So here are the 10 biggest changes in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Remastered.

[00:41] Let's start with the one that I'm most excited for, combat improvements. Fans have always felt that The Witcher has struggled a little bit with its combat. The first game plays out like a rhythm action game,

[00:54] where you have to click to the exact beat of a flaming sword to pull off a combo. Hey, at least it was something different. The Witcher 2 locks you into heavy animations that feel like they chase the earth when they hit,

[01:06] but it was slow and unresponsive. Not a great fan experience. The Witcher 3 tried to sneak things out. It gave us more direct control and a quick sidestep, but for me and a lot of other fans, it was floaty.

[01:19] It lacked impact and just couldn't quite deliver on the satisfying swordplay everyone was hoping for. The pacing just wasn't there. But now, combat has been fully reworked thanks to revamped animations, brutal new finishes, and an adaptive camera.

[01:35] This makes all the actions feel more dynamic than ever before. You can really feel the difference going back, especially in player impact and flow of the fights. But it's not just the combat that's been overhauled.

[01:49] Your attacks are quicker, and dodging feels smoother, so enemy behaviours have been reworked to keep up. Now even familiar encounters with wolves and drowners feel faster paced and much more Bard Ballad is a new accessibility feature designed to support players who may benefit from additional assistance

[02:08] The game explicitly says this is for people with attention deficits or cognitive fatigue. It's not a difficulty mode. It modifies selected gameplay elements to better accommodate a range of player needs. For example, by introducing automatic self-healing.

[02:22] When you start a new phase, you'll be prompted to turn it off or on. It can be toggled on or off at any time, and there's a whole list of assists you can find. To access it, simply go into your settings, into accessibility,

[02:34] and toggle the accessibility presets until you find Bards Bowered, Focus and Rest. It's nice. It means a whole new audience gets the chance to experience one of the best RPGs ever made. The mod.io integration in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Remastered is an official in-game system

[02:51] that brings cross-platform mod support to PC, Xbox Series X, S, and PlayStation 5, similar to how it works for Baldur's Gate 3. This means that console and PC players are going to be able to use the same mods.

[03:04] While PC players can still use Nexus mods, console users are going to need to use Mod.io to access and install mods. Definitely worth checking out Mod.io to see what's included when the game launches and which community creations have made the cut.

[03:17] If I can make a request, please? If you haven't noticed in this video yet, there's been just a few changes to the graphics of The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. Oof.

[03:29] Well, this isn't the first update that The Witcher 3 has had. It got a major graphics update with the next gen release in December 2022, and while it was definitely an improvement, some players experienced performance issues, especially

[03:43] on console. The remastered update has a brand new modernized writing engine. From the sun-drenched hills of Beauclair to the snow-capped mountains of Skellige, the continent has never looked so stunning. There are loads of new details everywhere you look Improved environment textures more realistic looking NPCs clearer reflections and crisper shadows just to name a few The trailer confirms support

[04:09] for all three major PC upscaling techs, NVIDIA DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR 4, and Intel XeSS 2.0. Now if your PC is up to the task, you'll also get ray reconstruction and path tracing. These

[04:24] The console plays traditional lighting methods with fully simulated real-time light rays, which makes reflections and shadows way more lifelike. With AI upscaling from NVIDIA's DLSS 4.5, you'll notice incredibly fine details, things

[04:38] like individual strands of hair catching the light as you move. It's absolutely gorgeous, but be warned, it's pretty demanding on your hardware. Oof. Console play got left out.

[04:53] platform gets its own set of unique upgrades. PS5 Pro gets PlayStation's Spectral Super Resolution, otherwise known as its much punchier PSSR. This gives you smoother frame rates and improved visuals, even with ray tracing enabled.

[05:07] Xbox users get Play Anywhere support, letting you play your copy across both Xbox and Windows PC with shared saves and achievements. And there's also motion controls and touchscreens for Nintendo Switch too.

[05:19] Players who own the Nintendo Switch version of the Witcher 3 Wild Hunt can upgrade to remastered on Nintendo Switch 2 for free, but do bear in mind that you're going to need the Switch 2 console to do that. The skill tree has been completely rebuilt. Rather than having the strict point limits

[05:35] and slowly unlocking features in rows like in the 2015 version, CD Projekt Red has reorganised the layout to be similar to the interconnected branch systems that they used in Cyberpunk 2077. This new layout lets you try out advanced build options much earlier, giving you much

[05:51] more flexibility with your playstyle from the opening few hours. Photo mode first introduced in the 2022 update is getting even better in the remaster New tools and options including extra poses camera controls frames filters and character models

[06:07] let you catch a girl and co. in more ways than ever before. It is the perfect pairing with the game's updated visuals, so get snapping! The Witcher Sense is basically the Farcast from Marvel's Wolverine,

[06:21] and can feel just as hand-holding at times. Geralt focuses his superhuman senses to see clues and tracks that no ordinary human can, helping you find your next objective point. Interactive objects are highlighted in red, and things you've already examined are in yellow.

[06:36] In the remaster, it's way less hand-holding, letting you actually figure things out for yourself. New clues are only revealed by focusing on the right things. Geralt used to be painfully slow.

[06:49] Given how much time you spend running around and climbing ladders, These enhancements have made traversal much smoother. Climbing, vaulting and mantling have been totally overhauled to kill that clunky, stuttering navigation when you try to cross simple rocks or fences.

[07:05] And then there's mount movement. Roach's antics have been calmed down. He used to have a bit of a mind of his own, vaulting trees only when he felt like it, no matter what buttons he pressed. Now, smart navigation helps him weave through the dense forest automatically,

[07:19] and you can finally harvest the loot herbs directly from the saddle without dismounting every three seconds. And don't worry, if you like Roach's, uh, unique roost-hop antics,

[07:31] you can puzzle his classic mode on and off. This will keep us busy until the new expansion, Songs of the Past, drops in 2027, but something never changed. Yen is still best girl.

[07:44] If you've been playing, jump into the comments and let me know your thoughts. And if you get stuck, we've got guides for every corner of this massive RPG. Whatever you're looking for, you're in the right place. IGN.