The Witcher 3 Remastered is the perfect excuse to get back on the Path, even if it looks a bit too colorful

Lauren Bergin News Editor
Lauren spends most of her time dead in League of Legends, or equally as dead in Valorant. Don't ask her about Vampire: The Masquerade.
Published: September 28, 2026

The Witcher 3 is easily one of the greatest games of all time. 11 years on, it's still an apex-tier RPG; one whose moral dilemmas have sparked many a debate at my Vampire: The Masquerade table, and whose story lives on in the hearts of so many. You could argue, then, that it doesn't need a remaster: a fresh coat of paint always helps jazz things up a bit, but it's not essential to a good experience. It's the old 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' moment: it begs the question: did we need The Witcher 3 Remastered?

I'll note straight off the bat that this is a free upgrade for anyone who owns the base game. While you can buy the remaster itself for $50 (which includes twin DLCs Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine), I get the sense that CD Projekt Red isn't trying to milk the nostalgia-tinged masses here. In many ways, it reads as more of a thank you than anything else, and perhaps provides some of the visual and quality-of-life adjustments that are required ahead of Songs of the Past.

After a few hours retreading age-old paths, I've decided that the remaster does a lot right, which I'm sure you're happy to hear. But I'd also argue that it perhaps loses some of the grit of the original.

For the purpose of this mini review, my partner was playing base The Witcher 3 on his PC, while I was playing the remaster on mine. We both started back at the beginning, with the same graphics settings - ultra, with a few bells and whistles removed. I was immediately struck by how colorful my version of the game was - White Orchard is in full bloom, with bright green grass, glittering lakes, and vibrant flowers. As the sun began to rise on the horizon, the remaster's enhanced lighting blew me away; it looked absolutely spectacular.

As Roach and I galloped through rolling green fields and farmland, the plants around me looked more realistic, parting more organically. My equine friend felt more reactive, too, feeling somewhat stubborn and untamable in his own way. I'd argue that these changes are all relatively subtle, but they make the world feel more alive, especially in these more foliage-heavy areas.

I do, however, feel like everything was perhaps a little too colorful. While there are zones in The Witcher 3 that are more reminiscent of the traditional Polish countryside (White Orchard is a great example), it felt like the vibrancy had been ramped up to a hundred. It made things more readable, but I think it takes away from the gritty feel of The Witcher - at the end of the day, this is a game about war and killing monsters. The cartoon-esque, sometimes slightly blocky colors don't quite fit here.
After killing a pack of wolves, for example, the blood splatters were almost pillar-box red - think Marilyn Monroe's lipstick. On Ross's screen, by contrast, it looked darker red; more syrupy, as blood should be.

This is enhanced by how generally 'warm' the game feels. During the ever-iconic bath scene and my first interaction with Yennefer (well, kind of interaction), the warmth of the candles felt like they somewhat softened Geralt and Yennefer's features. Those twisting back scars felt a little more obscured, but in this situation, the lighting works because the scene takes place in a candlelit setting.

Outside, while the sunsets look spectacular and the water sparkles and refracts the light, that warmth gives the game a reddish tone, making reds and browns really stand out over grays and blacks. You can really see this in Geralt's base armor, where the reds and browns feel more in your face than the silver of his chainmail and blue/gray of his breastplate. The overall feel is a softer experience, which works in some settings, but doesn't quite feel Witcher in others.

It all reminds me of the conversations around Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced. While the enhanced lighting and colors really brought the Caribbean to life, it loses a bit of that griminess and muddiness. Don't get me wrong: the spirit of The Witcher is still in this game, but I prefer the moodier aesthetic.

Combat has a few visual improvements too, with your various Witcher Signs now actively displaying their associated symbols when you use them, which I thought was a nice touch. It links the lore in more directly, and Signs like Yrden feel infinitely more readable.

That vast majority of the changes here have gone into making things feel more fluid, however. Your lock-on is smoother thanks to the improved camera, and slashes are more dynamic versus slash, pause, slash, pause. Finishers are brutal but look amazing, and enemies are actively more aggressive and reactive - an early run-in with a group of wolves that I had somewhat written off as 'whatever' proved a lot more difficult than I expected, forcing me to actually think versus hacking away and running off.

Then there's the improved skill tree. Where previously everything was bundled into the ability 'buckets' of Combat, Signs, Alchemy, and General, they're now ordered into branching trees, similar to the versions we've seen in other fantasy RPGs. You'll have to unlock skills in order and choose your branches wisely, meaning that you can't immediately pick up all of the best abilities from the onset. I imagine this will cause some avid buildsmiths a bit of a headache, but it's easier to read for newer players, even if you still have to place them into slots, which everyone forgets to do on their first playthrough.

More generally, the main menu UI has also been simplified slightly, operating as more of a standard 'buttons at the top, info on the main screen,' rather than a full-screen, rotating carousel that you have to scroll through then click to get the information. It's a small change, but it saves a little bit of faff.

I'd also be remiss not to mention the transmog system. As someone who feels like Geralt doesn't look right unless he's in his base armor (I'm boring, I know), I'm glad that I finally get to live out that fantasy without my stats taking a hit. Yes, there are Witcher 3 mods that have added transmog systems previously, but having it integrated into the base game makes it all much easier. Who knows, maybe I'll finally change the armor at some point. Nah, I won't.

The Witcher 3 Remastered does what it sets out to do: it polishes the game, massively enhances combat, and dramatically improves the visuals. Are said visuals fully to my taste? Not quite. Are they bad? Absolutely not.

The vast majority of players will receive this as a free upgrade, and as a result it's not really a question of 'is it worth it?' but more 'will I like it?' My answer is yes, you probably will. It's the perfect tee-up for Songs of the Past, and a great excuse to dive back into the world we know and love. That'll be another 70 hours gone, then: I'm not liable for any 'sick days' or time lost.