Developer CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been reworked and released for the next generation of consoles. Is the new version worthy of a replay, or should you leave the game to nostalgia?
Read on to find out
The Witcher series was first brought to life in 1985 when author Andrzej Sapkowski entered a short story into a writing contest in his home country of Poland for a fantasy magazine called Fantastyka. He didn’t win the competition (took 3rd place), but a fan base was born that asked for more stories about the protagonist Geralt of Rivia, and The Witcher series took off. Fast forward to 2003 and we find that developer CD Projekt Red purchased the rights to the series, and Geralt started making his way into the gaming world.
The Witcher was first released on PCs in 2007 and received critical praise across Europe and North America. The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings followed in 2011 and was released on the XBOX as well as PCs. 2015 saw the multi-platform release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and is arguably one of the best role playing video games ever developed. The game was released for the PlayStation 4, the XBOX One, and the PC. Our only real complaint from when we reviewed the game back then was the inventory system and the size of the description text. Not a problem now, though, as the system got some much needed visual upgrades.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition Review – Everything’s Included
For those of you that played the original release back in 2015, you may have missed out on the two expansions that were later added on to the game: Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. This alone makes this latest release worthy of another purchase as both expansions add quite a bit of story and gameplay to what was already a long and deep storyline. The next-gen update also includes new outfits and a quest inspired by the Netflix-Series, improved visuals and performance and bug fixes as well as all previously released downloadable content. There’s enough content there to keep a Geralt of Rivia busy for a very long time.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition Review – Greatness Remastered
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt wasn’t a bad looking game when it was first released in 2015. Both the PS4 and XBOX One were pretty powerful machines and allowed for 1080p graphics on HDTVs. This remaster, though, has really taken the game to the next level with 4K graphics and smooth framerates. What we thought was impressive before (and it was at the time), is now even better with the current advances in GPU and CPU power. Reworked textures, improved 3D modeling, and improved animations of characters has truly brought the game into the next generation of gaming. The game doesn’t look and feel like a remaster at all, and that is probably the greatest compliment we can give. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition looks and feels like it was developed from the ground up for the PlayStation 5 and the XBOX Series X.
From lightning fast loading times, which lead to an almost instant fast travel, to the improved graphics, animations, and textures The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition is by far the best RPG to grace the gaming world.
10
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition review code provided by publisher and reviewed on a PS5. For more information on scoring, please read What our review scores really mean.
