The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Vs Remastered ([2026])

CD Projekt Red is coming in hot with so many modern improvements to the original The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, including ray tracing, improved textures, smoother animations, an expanded photo mode that lets you add NPCs and objects, a revamped skill tree matching today’s RPGs, more detailed characters, realistic environments, and so much more. From the trailer, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered already looks miles ahead of the original.

What is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a single-player, open-world, role-playing game by developer and publisher CD Projekt Red. It launched in 2015 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC platforms, and later on Nintendo Switch, as well as a Complete Edition on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, which has the base game and two expansions, namely Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. 

The story campaign and side quests can take as many as a 100 hours to complete. That’s because of the freedom to go wherever you want and take to whoever you please. While you can explore the open-world on your horse, Roach, you can also sail boats or walk on foot. Fast travel also helps close large distances. The map is really huge, and is filled with lots of points of interest. 

Exploration might lead to stumbling upon hidden secrets and treasures. You might run into beasts, who you’re hired to defeat, or bandits to test your swordsmanship. While chasing a side quest given by an NPC, your path might diverge down unexpected routes when you discover a hidden cave somewhere or get distracted by a monster. You might get into fights with villagers or pursue romantic interests. 

So, even though the main quest is to find your adopted Ciri, who is being chased by the Wild Hunt, you often find lots of side stories and quests that fill your time here with engaging immersion and fulfilment.

What is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered?

Over a decade down the line, CD Projekt Red is planning to launch The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered on September 29, 2026. This version of the original will be a better gaming experience, thanks to improved visuals, gameplay, performance, and many more modern overhauls. For the remaster, CD Projekt Red plans to release it on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. 

Moreover, gamers who already own the original base game will be happy to know that they will receive the remastered version for free. Furthermore, the remaster will come bundled with improved versions of the original base game’s expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. 

It’s a perfect time for a remaster, given the hotly anticipated final season of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on Netflix, slated to launch in early 2027. I, for one, can’t wait to find out how Geralt of Rivia’s journey, along with Ciri and Yennefer ends. Oh, and there’s yet another final expansion of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt called Songs of the Past, which should release in 2027 as well.

Story

Both The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and the remastered version should tell the same story. Nothing much should change in the story of Geralt of Rivia tracking down his adopted daughter Ciri, and saving her from the Wild Hunt. The writing should remain the same as well, the character arcs, and overall story structure. Even the voice acting and performances shouldn’t change much. But hey, that’s the way of remasters, often focusing on improving the visuals and gameplay, instead.

Visuals 

The visuals is perhaps the most significant difference you’ll see in the remastered version. Since the original launched in 2015, so much has changed in the hardware and software capabilities of current-gen consoles. The remaster will, for instance, integrate ray tracing technology to help bring out realism. Things like shadows and reflections should resemble real-life a lot more. The sun should reflect on the grass more naturally, with day/night cycles. Even when inside buildings, the shadows should look and feel more realistic. 

Another major improvement is in the character models, whose facial structures look more sharper and cleaner. Geralt and crew look more lively, as you can see in the trailer. 

In fact, the trailer showcases just how much more stunning the characters and environments, in general, look and feel. Cleaner textures, fewer pop-ins, and stunning visual effects all result in a more breathtaking, dark-fantasy, open-world. 

For those who can’t help snapping static pictures of Geralt’s best moves and moments, there’s an improved Photo Mode, which captures weather effects, spawns NPCs, and allows you to manipulate the time of day.

Movement

Geralt traverses the Continent on foot, horseback, and by boat. These have received overhauls, making movement smoother. You’ll notice the animations for Geralt’s new Witcher magic moves slicker, when he’s climbing and swinging his sword. 

Gameplay

Combat is also greatly enhanced in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered. You’ll make steadier and more accurate sword swings. Your skill tree is revamped, allowing for more flexbility when building the strongest Geralt that fits with your play style. I’ve mentioned new magic abilities, among more additional tweaks to your weapons and gear. 

Further, you have modern adjustments to the camera and animations, such that you’re able to track Geralt’s attacks, and also enjoy responsive inputs. And lastly, enemies have also been revamped, refining their attacks, making them react smarter and more aggressive.

More Improvements

That’s not all. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered will be adding many more changes. Here’s a quick summary as highlighted in the trailer:

• Revamped mount handling
• New finishers
• Cross platform mod support
• Immersive meditation
• Refined animations
• New quest tracking
• UI improvements
• Looting rework
• Refreshed motion blur
• New accessibility features
• Updated textures
• Foliage shading rework
• Tutorial modernization
• HDR improvements
• Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion
• Improved menu navigation
• Ray tracing improvements
• Global lighting rework
• New shading model
• Subsurface scattering
• New tone mapper
• Playstation 5 PRO support
• Xbox Play Anywhere support
• Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive features
• NVIDIA DLSS 4.5
• AMD FSR 4
• INTEL XeSS 2.0
• Path tracing on PC
• Ray reconstruction on PC
• Raytraced hair
• Native DX12
• Rendering parallelization

Verdict: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Vs Remastered

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered is miles ahead of the original version, proposing improved visuals, combat, movement, performance, and many more quality-of-life features and accessibility options. From the trailer, you can already appreciate the cleaner, sharper details, and genuinely stunning environments.

Movement looks smoother, features like ray tracing make all the difference, not to mention that the remaster will integrate PS5 DualSense’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. Oh, and the fact that the remaster is free for owners of the original game is the icing on the cake that you can’t help but give a double thumbs up to CD Project Red once again.