Anyone expecting nothing more than beautiful graphics and crisp textures from the upcoming The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt remaster will be in for a surprise. As developer CD Projekt Red revealed in an interview with industry magazine Kotaku, the team is very determined to revamp the classic role-playing game. CD Projekt Red deputy game director Paweł Sasko said that the studio internally considers the project to be almost a comprehensive “2.0 overhaul” – similar to the comprehensive system overhaul of “Cyberpunk 2077”. The developers are using their design experience from the past few years to specifically address the base game’s weaknesses. In particular, the oft-criticized combat system, Geralt’s control and exploration of the game world are being thoroughly modernized.
Paweł Sasko emphasized in the interview that from today’s perspective, gameplay is the oldest element of The Witcher 3. A clear conclusion was drawn from feedback from the fan community and industry media. When revising RedEngine 3, the studio now fully applies the principles it already used when developing the groundbreaking Cyberpunk Update 2.0.
The goal is to completely eliminate the proverbial frustration. In addition to noticeably smoother movement controls for both the wizard and the horse cockroach, the program also includes more precise striking and aiming mechanics and a variety of new, brutal Terminator animations.
A core pillar of this reform involves the protagonist’s talent system. In the original game, many character builds were based on a plethora of passive abilities that barely felt dynamic in the actual game. The remake replaces many of the passive bonuses with active abilities, new combo options, and greater synergy between magic symbols and swordplay.
A special highlight for fans of the lore is the new weapon tool: the Iron Chain. This iconic instrument has already appeared in the famous CGI introduction of the first series spin-off, and now it enters the game as an offensive weapon that can allow you to keep opponents at a distance in combat, or disarm them in shocking ways.
Even outside of combat, the creators meddle deeply with game mechanics. Artificial intelligence programming for non-player characters in towns and villages has been greatly improved to more realistically simulate the daily lives of residents. The overall remastered experience will be released on September 29, 2026, as a free update for all former players of the game on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. Therefore, the overhauled version also forms the basic framework of the story expansion pack “Song of the Past”, which will be released in 2027.
