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 final chapter of Geralt’s adventures begins a short time after the ending of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Nilfgaard has successfully conquered Temeria and plans to bring the rest of the North under its control. 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. Get ready for a game world full of adventure, a brilliant story, an excellent combat system, stunning graphics, nonlinearity, multiple endings, and the cozy atmosphere of Slavic medieval fantasy.

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 game area in Witcher 3 is 30 times larger than in Witcher 2. Players can travel on horseback, using Geralt’s horse, Roach.

The world is divided into regions with different landscapes and levels of development, and is home to many different peoples. There are 15 full-fledged states and more than 20 principalities and free cities, which will unite to resist or be conquered, depending on the player’s actions. The settlements are designed to resemble 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 “cursed places” where monsters usually live. The Witcher 3 bestiary is extremely varied. The player will encounter not only bandits and wild animals, but also vampires, ghosts, ogres, earth elementals, griffins, succubi, and other monsters.

The game world is filled with many events, both random and planned. It is designed to be 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, who is willing to open a portal at any cost. To do so, he kidnaps 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 political order of the game world. Meanwhile, Emperor Emhyr orders Geralt to find and rescue Ciri.

Unlike other role-playing games, The Witcher 3 lets players turn down optional quests. Events will unfold whether or not Geralt takes part in them. Each main quest offers several possible paths, which 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 developed and very different from the usual open-world “kill” and “fetch” quests. The main story can be completed in about 40 hours, or the expected 50. Exploring the game world and completing side quests will take about the same amount of time.

The combat system has been completely redesigned so Geralt can fight larger groups of enemies at once. There are no chains or combos of attacks. Players simply need to strike at the right moment, defend and counterattack, dodge, and take cover. The silver and steel swords work as before, but bombs and a crossbow have been added as alternatives.

The five magical Signs have been improved and can now be used both in combat and in everyday situations. Quests often require players to use Witcher Senses and interact with the game world. Monsters and creatures have strengths and weaknesses, which players need to know to defeat them quickly.

Alchemy is more complex, but potions give Geralt special abilities, improve his attributes, or increase 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 skills.

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 includes 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 by default.

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