I remember wrapping up my first playthrough of Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt back when it was released. A sigh escaped my lips, lamenting the end of a journey that was going to haunt me for a while thanks to some very bad choices on my part. But there was also relief, as The Continent took up two weeks of a well-deserved vacation, my obsession with finding all of its secrets fuelling an almost feral approach to visiting every possible corner of the land I could reach.
Of course, a couple of playthroughs have since followed, one of which served as a way to get to a better ending in the story, while another exists just so that I could check out the game’s next-gen update on my PS5. Either way, there’s no getting around one simple fact: The Wild Hunt is just ginormous, and the remaster of the game feels dangerous. I want to start over despite so many games vying for my attention.
It isn’t just nostalgia, though. Nor is it any single upgrade that’s proven compelling enough to warrant the temptation I now face. It’s in how the familiar masterpiece now comes without a lot of the friction that proved annoying back in the day that has me so eager to return to White Orchard and begin a search for Ciri that continues to be among my favorite virtual undertakings over the years.
The Continent’s Charms
Where other massive, sprawling maps might have given me a reason to hesitate about revisiting them, The Continent pulls me in the opposite direction. I can almost see the signposts that mark the Hangman’s Tree, and the Baron’s Castle out in Velen in my mind’s eye, my mind already guiding Roach through familiar territory as memories of Bothclings, Lubberkins, and desolate old men come to mind.
Novigrad’s volatile vibes, and Skellige’s tranquil waters are all reasons to go back for another round of potion-crafting, and monster hunting all over again, and that’s not even counting potentially experiencing the Gaunter O’ Dimm storyline and Regis’s effort to bring peace to bloodthirsty vampires in the game’s expansion, now free to all who might have missed out on them back in the day.
The visual overhaul, coupled with changes that are targeted at making Geralt and Roach’s movements feel smoother than before, stands to give a new flavor to the whole world, one that encourages exploring it all over again with potentially new perspectives and refined systems in place to make it feel fresh yet familiar. That’s as good a reason as any to be diligent in a new playthrough instead of merely fast-travelling through them all to save time.
The remaster can make each major region in the game feel like an entirely new destination on a journey where you might remember the roads, but definitely haven’t seen the sights they offer in this manner before. But that’s not all of what makes the remaster a potentially great way to spend a couple of weeks. There’s also the one who’s at your side for the journey.
A Hero With A Twist
I cannot overstate gruff old Geralt’s role in my desire to revisit the adventure that defines his saga. But of course, it’s a story I’m well familiar with at this point, and isn’t really what’s making me gravitate towards his gravelly voice and cynical disposition. Rather, I’m drawn to how those personality traits translate to a ruthless and efficient fighting style that makes good use of his agility, momentum, and superior physical abilities to make him a killing machine like no other.
Of course, I’ve talked about how that used to be a tad too clunky to be perfect in the original game, and how the remaster could change that before. But that’s focused only on the movement, while the revamped skill tree is where my attention’s firmly fixed this time around. I focused on my swordplay for most of my time in The Continent with a smattering of Sign-powered abilities like Quen’s force field and Igni’s flamethrower upgrade.
Now I wonder about what it would be like to rely solely on my Signs, my swords being tools to execute a surgical finisher instead of the main tools of my trade. Could I lean more into the alchemical side of things, making a beeline for Toussaint and the upgrades to mutations that came from my time there?
The remaster isn’t just going to look different, but can potentially feel different if I go in the opposite direction of what I built Geralt into the first time around, and it’s another important part of its allure. It’s also a great way to weigh anchor at our next port of call: the adventure itself.
Journeys As Great As Their Destinations
I remember thinking about how lonely The Path seemed when I first began to tread it in Geralt’s shoes all those years ago. I also remember feeling like I was quite swiftly corrected after I met more new faces than I could keep track of, each of them pulling me in directions that did not lead to my next story mission, but were only all the more interesting for it.
The hours you spend between your story missions matter the most in a game like Witcher 3, with spontaneous rides to nearby markers, a quirky encounter with an eccentric druid, or a deadly monster terrorizing local populations until you decide to step in and end the threat once and for all.
The Wild Hunt has a unique way of making even the most ordinary parts of its world extraordinary, and getting to experience it all once again with improved controls and better systematic integration into the experience is definitely a great reason to sink another hundred hours into a game that always has something to give back. It helps that my memory of the world means I have a general idea of what to expect from it, which in turn can make a new playthrough become a power trip pretty quickly.
You might argue that this takes away from the unpredictability of playing a game for the first time, but I only have to point you in the direction of the choice-based narrative to show you that it’s still very much a part of the experience. I know now that trying to force Keira into seeing things my way is only going to have her digging in her heels and taking on a foolhardy mission in her search for redemption.
I know now that I must nurture my bond with Ciri instead of choosing to remain aloof and distant, my mutations be damned. I know that I must make many choices differently, and perhaps see the story and everything it offers in a new light. But I’m also equally aware that I might just stick to the choices I’ve already made, the weight of the consequences being too much to take any risks. That business with Triss and Mengle always ends with the pair of us tearing through that madman’s men almost inevitably, after all.
Nuanced Nostalgia
It’s quite a feat to have people interested in a game that’s more than a decade old, even as a sort of spiritual successor from a lot of the folks who made The Wild Hunt now draws ever closer to enthrall us. But while the Vale Sangora is a hitherto uncharted land with an entirely different set of natural laws governing it, The Continent is going to be immediately familiar, but perhaps ever so slightly different in a way that makes journeying through it again worthwhile.
That blend of nostalgia and curiosity is precisely what makes the remaster a very tempting cup of tea amid a slew of equally attractive beverages vying for my metaphorical taste buds. It’s comforting, and yet every bit as flavorful as it’s always been even as it adds a few new ingredients into the mix to make the entire thing even more palatable.
I might still be on the fence about voluntarily giving up some invaluable shut-eye to return to the Continent again. But that’s just it. I’m not repeating a story, or going through the motions of a combat system that’s definitely aged at this point. Instead, I’m just happy to return to a world that has so much to offer, and new ways to get to its best parts. That’s definitely something priceless, and something The Witcher 3 Remastered already has in spades.
To those of you planning a new trip through the Continent, we’re likely going to pass each other on The Path. And I know that even Geralt would crack a rare smile at the thought of a new adventure in a game that gives him so much to reminisce on once he hangs up his boots at the end of it.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
