Review Of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's Next-Gen Update
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has set a game industry standard for storyline and aesthetics since its debut in 2015. From its deep narrative loaded with adult themes and difficult decisions to its intriguing gameplay demanding exact opponent knowledge and strategic strategy, The Witcher 3 remains a classic in many gamers' libraries.
Despite CD Projekt Red's success in converting Andrzej Sapkowski's novels to video game format over a decade, the business has recently endured a tumultuous couple of years.
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| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on next-generation platforms is the greatest way to discover or rediscover one of the previous decade's most acclaimed RPGs. |
Publication of Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020
The publication of Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020 put quite a stain on CD Projekt Red's otherwise immaculate record, one that the firm has worked hard to repair over the previous two years. 2022 has served as a sort of redemption narrative for the Polish firm, as Cyberpunk 2077 has returned to the good graces of players with the release of its anime adaptation and multiple updates that have addressed the game's most glaring flaws. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's next-gen update arrives towards the close of CD Projekt Red's year of redemption, delivering ray tracing, 60 FPS, and a plethora of changes to the seven-year-old title.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition for PS5 looks and plays excellent, and seems like a fitting end to CD Projekt Red's turnaround year, as well as a victory lap for The Witcher 3's reign as one of the finest role-playing games on last-gen and now current-gen hardware.
Most Notable Advance in Graphical Fidelity
The most notable advance in graphical fidelity for this console generation is the use of real-time ray tracing to provide realistic lighting in landscapes that already look amazing in terms of polygon counts and environmental meshes. The Witcher 3's next-gen update for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S adds ray-traced global illumination (RTGI) and ray-traced ambient occlusion (RTAO) to consoles via the "Ray Tracing Mode" option in the game's graphics menu. Simultaneously, the PC version includes ray-traced reflections and shadows, as well as Nvidia DLSS. Despite only having half the ray tracing efforts of the PC version, The Witcher 3 on PS5 still manages to deliver a magnificent and greatly improved vision when compared to the last-gen edition.
To summarize what ray tracing accomplishes, it generates bounce lighting and guarantees that all light-casting objects appropriately illuminate onto adjacent surfaces. Meanwhile, ray-traced ambient occlusion guarantees that whenever two objects overlap, the shadows created at those intersections are correct and provide depth to the picture. In actuality, RTGI provides the majority of the heavy lifting in The Witcher 3 outdoor scenes, as sunlight bounces off the ground and onto wagons, humans, and animals, generating shadows that are realistic of their original source. RTAO, on the other hand, looks best in densely packed inside scenes, such as within huts or houses, where the item density must be adequately lighted and occluded.
The Witcher 3 appears noticeably better in both indoor and outdoor settings when compared to the default PS4 version, due to these improved ray-tracing technologies. Instead of the game's previous blocky, pixelated, and incomplete shadows, shadows now precisely depict their source and totally shade like they should. In some areas, such as woods or interiors, the scene composition radically alters, resulting in a darker image that simply accounts for where the light really comes from rather than the dynamic lighting solution from the previous-generation version. Kaer Morhen, in particular, looks great owing to the incorporation of ray tracing and a few ambient mesh enhancements included in this bundle from CD Projekt Red.
Witcher 3 on PS5 and Xbox
The Witcher 3 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S joins a growing number of titles that have included AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.1 (FSR) into their graphics toolkits, and it appears far superior to the anti-aliasing solutions used in the original 2015 version. It's a little different, but the odd shimmering that existed in the previous-generation version of the game appears to have vanished. Images and video comparisons don't do The Witcher 3's next-gen update justice when features like better anti-aliasing if done right, pass under the radar for many gamers. A lot of these upgrades must be experienced by the player to realize how the game has improved, but once seen, it's difficult to go back to the last-gen version.
CD Projekt Red did not complete all of the work on this upgrade in-house. Instead, the developer used pre-existing modifications and graphical tweaks to make this version of The Witcher 3 seem better by using tried-and-true graphics mods from the community. The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project by HalkHoge and HD Monsters Reworked Mod by Denroth are this game's 4K texture and upgrade solutions, and they are an incredible improvement over the basic textures, albeit a little subtle at times. These texture changes appear best on surfaces like wood and rock rather than character models and pieces of gear, although they're appreciated when they're recognized.
The Witcher 3's final two important aesthetic upgrades are enhanced water reflections using a better implementation of screen space reflections and a complete rewrite of the game's flora and ambient models. The vegetation, in particular, appears much nicer than before, with fuller leaves and flora and a greater responsiveness to Geralt's interactions with it. The combination of all of these graphical upgrades looks terrific in motion.
The final two significant visual improvements in The Witcher 3 are improved water reflections employing a better implementation of screen space reflections and a thorough rework of the game's flora and ambient models. The vegetation, in particular, looks to be much prettier than before, with bigger leaves and flora, as well as a higher reaction to Geralt's interactions with it. In motion, the combination of all of these graphical enhancements looks fantastic.
The Witcher 3's ray tracing features and integrated graphical enhancements make The Witcher's high-fantasy world shine while also taking it to a more gritty place, as the new lighting effects build a darker atmosphere at times with less focus on the previous version's brighter post-processing effects. These improvements, however, are not without drawbacks.
The Witcher 3's speed isn't always consistent while utilizing the high-quality "Ray Tracing" preset. Frequent hitches and hangs in the framerate occur frequently, and it appears like the frame rate struggles to maintain a steady 30. In several cases, the game runs somewhat lower than the original PS4 version. Even with FSR 2.1, delivering 4K images with ray-traced global lighting and ambient occlusion is no easy work, so it's not unexpected to see The Witcher 3 struggle a little, given how graphically demanding the original edition is. This is when the performance mode comes into play.
Witcher 3's "Performance" Option
The Witcher 3's "Performance" option preserves the majority of the big updates from this update, including improved foliage, textures, and environmental models, and does so at a consistent 60 frames per second. The only compromises players must make while switching to performance mode are the ray tracing advancements, which many may consider a good exchange given how much better The Witcher 3 feels at 60 frames per second. Thankfully, the option to return to the higher quality level is always available, and the game can switch between 60 FPS and ray tracing on the fly, so players can always rapidly get the experience they want out of the game whenever they want.
Aside from graphical improvements, The Witcher 3 Complete Edition considerably improves the game's quality of life to create a better gaming experience. The default world map is now significantly less crowded because question marks and boat symbols are disabled by default. The user interface is now easily customizable, allowing players to see only the minimap and quest objectives during battle. The immediate herb looting feature, which removes the loot window while collecting herbs and plants, is one of the better quality-of-life enhancements provided here. At higher difficulty levels, where potion brewing becomes a more important aspect of The Witcher 3's battle system, the immediate harvesting of all flora is a godsend.
This edition of The Witcher 3 also has a toggleable over-the-shoulder camera that may be used for fighting, wandering, and horseback riding. It provides a different perspective on The Witcher 3 in a more modern third-person perspective, but the option to disable it and return to the old camera is always available. Similarly, the game introduces a new method for casting signs, requiring players to hold down the left trigger and click a face button that matches the sign they want to employ.
It takes some getting accustomed to, but the new approach to signals makes sense and keeps the action moving rather than pausing and entering a menu every time players wish to employ a new spell. The ability to enable or disable any of these two new aspects, on the other hand, gets to the heart of what makes this next-gen upgrade to The Witcher 3 so vital.
It takes some getting used to, but the new approach to signals makes sense and keeps the action moving instead of halting and going into a menu every time players wish to employ a new spell. The ability to enable or disable any of these two new components, though, gets to the heart of what makes this next-gen upgrade to The Witcher 3 so significant. CD Projekt Red has also joined the increasing tide of developers making games as customizable for as many different types of gamers as possible.
In this aspect, The Witcher 3: The Full Edition actually feels like the game's most complete edition to date.
Witcher 3's next-gen update prioritizes customization
The Witcher 3's next-gen update prioritizes customization, accessibility, and player choice. Almost everything mentioned here that isn't a graphical upgrade is fully optional, and the tools are there to customize this game whatever anyone wants. The gameplay settings menu alone contains a slew of buttons that may drastically alter how one player wants to play this game in comparison to another. Aside from substantial graphics changes and gameplay elements appropriate for the contemporary gaming scene,
Few would dispute that the first edition of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was a bad-looking, difficult-to-play game. In many respects, it's still one of the finest games in both categories. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition, on the other hand, is now a step above what it was before by simply including ray tracing, and the smaller improvements that CD Projekt Red has created in-house and in collaboration with the community all add up 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 are anxiously awaiting the next installment in the franchise, as well as new players who want to see the game at its best.
The Witcher 3 Availability
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is now available for PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One. The PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions will be available on December 14. For the sake of this review, Game Rant was given a PS5 code.
