The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered

The most complete edition of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, including all expansions and add-ons, The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine and The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone, as well as numerous graphical improvements. Owners of the original game on consoles and PC received the Complete Edition as a free update. The upgrade is available whether or not you own the add-ons, but your account must have the original game.

The events of the final chapter of Geralt’s adventures begin a short time after the end of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Nilfgaard has successfully conquered Temeria and plans to take over the rest of the Northern Kingdoms. Meanwhile, the famous witcher Geralt and his wise mentor Vesemir pick up the trail of the missing sorceress Yennefer, the White Wolf’s longtime love. You can look forward to an adventure-filled game world, a brilliant story, an excellent combat system, stunning graphics, a non-linear narrative, multiple endings, and the cozy atmosphere of Slavic medieval fantasy.

The Witcher 3 is the first game in the series with a fully open world. It takes place in the Northern Kingdoms during the Nilfgaardian Empire’s third invasion. The Witcher 3’s game world is 30 times larger than The Witcher 2’s, and players can travel on horseback using Roach.

The world is divided into regions with different landscapes and levels of development, inhabited by various peoples. There are 15 full-fledged states and more than 20 principalities and free cities, which may unite to fight back or be conquered, depending on the player’s actions. The settlements’ design is reminiscent of medieval Eastern Europe, though some buildings are Scandinavian in style.

The rest of the game world offers mountains and valleys, fields and forests, rivers and lakes, caves and underground chambers to explore. There are also swamps and “blighted places,” where monsters usually dwell. The Witcher 3’s bestiary is very diverse. Along the way, players will encounter not only bandits and wild animals, but also vampires, ghosts, ogres, earth elementals, griffins, succubi, and other monsters.

The game world is full of events, both random and planned, and is designed to feel as realistic as possible, making it interesting to travel through.

The Wild Hunt is not just in the game’s title—it is a band of elite ghostly riders from another dimension, a dying world of elves, who are trying to move to the world of humans. Led by the elven king Eredin, they are willing to open a portal at any cost, kidnapping people who can lead him to Ciri. The antagonist has no idea that Geralt is his equal in strength and cunning.

At the same time, the Nilfgaardian Empire is swallowing up the Northern Kingdoms one by one. The player can choose a side in the conflict and take part in battles and sieges, helping shape the game world’s politics. Meanwhile, Emperor Emhyr orders Geralt to find and rescue Ciri.

Unlike in other role-playing games, The Witcher 3 lets players decline side quests. Events will unfold whether or not Geralt takes part in them. Each main quest offers several possible outcomes that affect the game’s ending. The writers carefully crafted the story and dialogue, and added many cutscenes.

The side quests set a high standard: most are well-crafted and stand out from the usual open-world “kill” and “fetch” quests. You can rush through the story in 40 hours, though 50 is more typical. Exploring the game world and completing side quests will take about the same amount of time.

The combat system was completely redesigned so Geralt could fight several enemies at once. There are no attack chains or combos; players simply need to strike at the right time, defend and counterattack, dodge, and take cover. The mechanics of the silver and steel swords remain unchanged, but bombs and a crossbow have been added as alternatives.

The system of five magical Signs has been improved, and they can now be used both in combat and in everyday situations. Completing quests often requires using Witcher Senses and interacting with the game world. Monsters and creatures have strengths and weaknesses, which you need to know to defeat them quickly.

Alchemy is more complex, but drinking potions grants Geralt special abilities, boosts his attributes, or increases his damage against certain enemies. The maximum character level is 70, but it varies depending on the game’s difficulty. As before, Geralt can improve his talents by choosing a specialization and the corresponding abilities.

Years after its release, Wild Hunt has gained hundreds of fan-made mods, most of which have also made their way into the updated version. What’s more, it comes with The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project, HD Monsters Reworked, Immersive Real-time Cutscenes, Nitpicker's Patch, World Map Fixes, and many components of the FCR Mod built in by default.

CD Projekt also released a new version of the Modkit, a toolset for modders, with improvements and additions that will keep the project alive for decades to come.