CD Projekt RED has released a remaster of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2, bringing visual upgrades alongside a rework of player skills. While the studio aimed to modernize the 2015 role-playing game with enhanced textures, ray tracing, and quality-of-life updates, players quickly encountered technical hurdles that prompted immediate hotfixes, according to INDIAN – Game show.
New graphics use HD textures and path tracing
The remaster introduces significant graphical overhauls using the existing REDengine framework. Developers integrated improved models, higher-resolution textures from the community-driven HD Reworked Project, revamped lighting, and enhanced vegetation rendering, as detailed by IGN Czech Republic and Slovakia. PC players gain access to full path tracing, alongside support for NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 with Ray Reconstruction, AMD FSR 4 with Frame Generation, and Intel XeSS 2.0. Console versions on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S require roughly 45 GB of free space, while the Nintendo Switch 2 version takes up about 50 GB and introduces motion controls and touchscreen support, as reported by List of News.
Despite these technological leaps, the transition has not been entirely smooth. INDIAN – Game show reported that technical issues surfaced immediately following launch, forcing CD Projekt RED to rush out initial patches to stabilize performance. Meanwhile, reviewing the technical state of the platform ports, Jan “DD” Stach noted on DDWorld.cz that while the developer extracted impressive performance out of the aging engine, certain high-end ray tracing implementations look visually awkward from an artistic perspective.
Restructured skill tree resets existing player points
Beyond graphics, CD Projekt RED restructured core gameplay systems. The character progression system now features a traditional skill tree where each ability has three tiers, requiring players to unlock prerequisite nodes before advancing. Because of this structural shift, all existing skill points are reset upon loading the updated game, giving players a clean slate to redistribute their points, according to List of News. Combat animations, enemy behaviors, and movement mechanics have also been refined, allowing Geralt to climb and vault more fluidly, while a new Reforge system lets players alter the visual appearance of their equipment without changing its underlying stats.
Quality-of-life improvements extend to map navigation, a revamped photo mode with first-person camera options, and a new accessibility preset called “Bard’s Ballad” designed to reduce friction by offering features like infinite underwater breathing and unbreakable gear. Cross-platform modding support is now integrated directly via mod.io, letting users install community creations without leaving the game. Amid these extensive modernizations, one notorious quirk remains entirely intentional: Geralt’s horse, Roach, will still occasionally spawn on rooftops and in other bizarre locations, preserving a running joke from the original 2015 release, as noted by List of News.
Original game owners get remaster for free
Do owners of the original game have to pay for the remaster?
No. CD Projekt RED provides the remastered version completely free of charge to anyone who already owns the original game on the corresponding platform, including both major expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, as reported by DDWorld.cz.
How much storage space is required to install the update?
The download size varies slightly by platform, requiring approximately 45 GB on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and around 50 GB on the Nintendo Switch 2, while PC installations vary based on language pack selections, according to List of News.
What happens to existing character progression after the update?
All previously earned skill points are completely reset upon launching the remastered version, requiring players to redistribute them across the newly redesigned tiered skill tree, as detailed by List of News and IGN Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Related reading