Since its release in 2015, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has become a benchmark for storytelling and graphics in gaming. From its dense narrative filled with mature themes and tough decisions to its compelling gameplay requiring precise knowledge of the enemy and proper planning, The Witcher 3 remains a staple in the library of many gamers. However, despite CD Projekt Red's success in adapting Andrzej Sapkowski's novels to a video game format over the course of a decade, lately, the company has had a turbulent couple of years.
Cyberpunk 2077’s release in 2020 left quite a mark on CD Projekt Red’s then-spotless record and one that the company has taken a great deal of effort to fix over the past two years. 2022 has been a redemption story of sorts for the Polish studio as Cyberpunk 2077 entered the good graces of gamers once again following the release of its anime adaptation and several patches fixing the game’s most egregious problems. Coming in at the end of CD Projekt Red’s year of redemption is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s next-gen update bringing ray tracing, 60 FPS, and a slew of improvements to the seven-year-old title. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on PS5 looks great, plays well, and feels like a fitting conclusion to CD Projekt Red’s turnaround year while also acting as a victory lap for The Witcher 3’s tenure as one of the best role-playing games on last-gen and now current-gen hardware.
This console generation's most significant leap in graphical fidelity lies in using real-time ray tracing to create realistic lighting in worlds that already look great in terms of polygon counts and environmental meshes. The Witcher 3’s next-gen update on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S brings ray-traced global illumination (RTGI) and ray-traced ambient occlusion (RTAO) to consoles under the “Ray Tracing Mode” in the game’s graphics menu. At the same time, the PC version features ray-traced reflections and shadows along with Nvidia DLSS. However, despite only containing half the full suite of ray tracing efforts present in the PC version, The Witcher 3 on PS5 still pulls off a stunning and significantly enhanced image when directly compared to the last-gen version.
As a basic rundown of what ray tracing does, ray-traced global illumination creates bounce lighting and ensures that all light-casting objects accurately glow onto other surfaces. Meanwhile, ray-traced ambient occlusion ensures that whenever two objects intersect, the shadows cast at those intersections look accurate and give the scene a sense of depth. In practice, RTGI does most of the heavy lifting in outdoor scenarios for The Witcher 3, as light from the sun bounces off the terrain and onto wagons, characters, and animals while also casting shadows representative of their original source. On the other side of the spectrum, RTAO looks best in densely packed indoor scenes like inside huts or buildings, where the object density needs to be appropriately lit and occluded.
Compared to the base PS4 version, The Witcher 3 looks remarkably enhanced in both indoor and outdoor scenes thanks to these new ray-tracing features. Instead of the blocky, pixelated, and incomplete shadows the game had before, shadows now accurately represent their source and completely shade how they are supposed to. The scene composition drastically changes in some regards, like in forests or interiors, providing a darker image that only accounts for where the light actually comes from and not the dynamic lighting solution from the last-gen version. Kaer Morhen, in particular, looks stunning thanks to the inclusion of ray tracing and a few environmental mesh upgrades that CD Projekt Red included in this package.
The Witcher 3 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S joins a growing list of titles including AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.1 (FSR) into their graphical tool sets, and it looks much better than the anti-aliasing methods deployed by the original 2015 release. It’s a subtle difference, but the occasional shimmering present in the last-gen version of the game seems almost completely gone now. Images and video comparisons don't do The Witcher 3's next-gen update much justice when things like enhanced anti-aliasing fly under the radar for many players if it's doing its job correctly. A lot of these improvements need to be experienced by the player to see how the game has changed for the better, but when noticed, it's hard to go back to the last-gen version.
Not all the work done by CD Projekt Red on this update was in-house. Instead, the developer took already existing mods and graphical enhancements to make this version of The Witcher 3 look better using the community's tested and beloved graphics mods. The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project by HalkHoge and HD Monsters Reworked Mod by Denroth are this game’s solution for 4K textures and upgrades, and they are an absolute enhancement over the base textures if a bit subtle at times. These texture mods look best on surfaces like wood and rock rather than character models and pieces of gear, but like many upgrades here, when they're noticed, they're appreciated.
The last two significant visual improvements to The Witcher 3 come from improved water reflections using a better implementation of screen space reflections and a ground-up rework of the game’s vegetation and environmental meshes. The vegetation, in particular, looks far better than before, being both denser in leaves and flora and more reactive to Geralt as he interacts with it. In motion, the combination of all these graphical enhancements looks fantastic. The Witcher 3's ray tracing features and included graphical updates make the high-fantasy world of The Witcher pop while also bringing it to a more gritty place, as the new lighting effects construct a darker scene at times with less emphasis on the brighter post-processing effects of the previous version. Although, these upgrades are not without their downsides.
The Witcher 3’s performance using the high-quality “Ray Tracing” setting isn’t always stable. Frequent hitches and hangs in the framerate happen quite regularly, and at times it seems like the frame rate struggles to keep a solid 30. In some instances, the game even performs a little bit worse than the original PS4 version. Delivering 4K visuals with ray-traced global illumination and ambient occlusion is no small task, even with FSR 2.1, so it’s not entirely surprising to see The Witcher 3 struggle a bit, given how graphically demanding even the original version is. However, this is where performance mode comes into play.
Witcher 3’s “Performance” mode retains most of the significant enhancements of this update, including better foliage, enhanced textures, and better environmental meshes, and delivers it all at a solid 60 frames per second. The only concessions players have to make when toggling the performance mode are the ray tracing enhancements, which many may find to be a good tradeoff when considering how much better The Witcher 3 feels at 60 FPS. Thankfully the option is always there to switch back to the higher quality setting, and the game can shift between 60 FPS and ray tracing on the fly, so players can always quickly get the experience they want out of the game whenever they want.
Graphical upgrades aside, The Witcher 3 Complete Edition significantly boosts the game’s quality of life to construct a better gameplay experience. The default world map is now considerably less cluttered as question marks, and boat symbols are turned off by default. The UI is now easily tweakable, allowing players only to show the minimap and quest objectives during combat. However, one of the best quality-of-life improvements included here is the instant herb looting enhancement, which removes the loot window when picking herbs and plants. The instant harvesting of all flora is a boon at the higher difficulty levels, where potion crafting becomes a more significant part of The Witcher 3's combat system.
This version of The Witcher 3 also includes a toggleable over-the-shoulder camera with the option to enable it for combat, roaming, and horseback riding. It serves as a new way to look at The Witcher 3 in a more modern third-person view, but the option is always there to disable it and go back to the classic camera. Similarly, the game includes a new way to cast signs, requiring players to hold down the left trigger and press a face button that corresponds with the sign they would like to use. It takes a bit of getting used to, but the new approach to signs makes sense and keeps the action going instead of stopping and going into a menu every time players want to use a new spell. The option to enable or disable either of these two new elements, however, strikes at the core of what is important about this next-gen update to The Witcher 3.
Customizability, accessibility, and player choice are at the forefront of The Witcher 3's next-gen update. Almost everything detailed here that isn't a graphical update is entirely optional, and the tools are there to tailor this game to however anyone would like. The gameplay settings menu alone has a laundry list of buttons that could significantly change how one player wants to experience this game compared to another. On top of enhancing The Witcher 3 with notable graphical updates and gameplay features fitting of the current gaming landscape, CD Projekt Red has also joined the rising tide of developers making games as customizable for as many types of gamers as possible. In this regard, The Witcher 3: The Complete Edition truly does feel like the most complete edition of the game so far.
Few would argue that the original version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was a bad-looking game that was rough to play. In many ways, it's still among the best games in both departments. However, by simply including ray tracing, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition is now a step above what it already was, and beyond that, the smaller improvements that CD Projekt Red has created in-house and in collaboration with the community all amount to this update being a significantly enhanced version of an already great game. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition is worth revisiting for series veterans who eagerly await the next entry in the franchise or new players who want to see the game in its best light.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is available now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. The PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions launch on December 14. The Best War Games was provided a PS5 code for the purposes of this review.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Released
- May 19, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
You are Geralt of Rivia, mercenary monster slayer. Before you stands a war-torn, monster-infested continent you can explore at will. Your current contract? Tracking down Ciri — the Child of Prophecy, a living weapon that can alter the shape of the world.
PLAY AS A HIGHLY TRAINED MONSTER SLAYER FOR HIRE
Trained from early childhood and mutated to gain superhuman skills, strength, and reflexes, witchers are a counterbalance to the monster-infested world in which they live.
Gruesomely destroy foes as a professional monster hunter armed with a range of upgradeable weapons, mutating potions, and combat magic. Hunt down a wide variety of exotic monsters, from savage beasts prowling mountain passes to cunning supernatural predators lurking in the shadowy back alleys of densely populated cities. Invest your rewards to upgrade your weaponry and buy custom armor, or spend them on horse races, card games, fist fighting, and other pleasures life brings.
EXPLORE A MORALLY AMBIGUOUS FANTASY OPEN WORLD
Built for endless adventure, the massive open world of The Witcher sets new standards in terms of size, depth, and complexity. Traverse a fantastical open world: explore forgotten ruins, caves, and shipwrecks, trade with merchants and dwarven smiths in cities, and hunt across the open plains, mountains, and seas. Deal with treasonous generals, devious witches, and corrupt royalty to provide dark and dangerous services. Make choices that go beyond good & evil, and face their far-reaching consequences.