The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered

1. Summary

The Witcher 3 is still the game people love. Hundreds of reviews in this slice call it a masterpiece, an all-time great or the best RPG they have played. Reviewers thank the studio for making the upgrade free, and owners who lacked the expansions were pleased to find them included. Returning players and people who had bounced off the game years ago describe the Remastered version as their excuse to start again, and some name the new skill tree, looting from horseback, transmog or smoother riding as reasons.

The upgrade itself launched in rough shape. Nearly two thirds of the negative reviews (65%, 622 of 960) describe a technical problem: frame rates well below the previous Next-Gen version even on top-end Nvidia cards, rendering that broke on AMD graphics cards until an optional driver arrived, crashes, failed launches and saves that would not load. The look is a separate argument. Long-time fans in particular say the brighter, more realistic lighting strips out the original's painterly mood, while others find it stunning. Some reviewers were angry that the update replaced the version they owned; others reply that Steam's Game Versions menu still lets players roll back. Reviews grew more positive through the week as players reported fixes landing, while the argument over the new look carried on.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Still one of the great RPGsHigh

The base game's reputation is untouched. Hundreds of reviews use words like masterpiece, greatest or "of all time", and the praise centres on the same things as ever: side quests with real consequences, the Bloody Baron, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, Geralt himself and the soundtrack. One long review put the quest design simply: "Many of them could easily be main quests in other games." Dozens of negative reviews also call it a favourite or a masterpiece before turning on the remaster. A minority still finds the main plot slow, Gwent tiresome or the whole game "overrated", complaints that read the same as they did before the update.

A free upgrade, expansions includedHigh

Plenty of reviewers thank the studio for not charging for the upgrade, and owners who only had the base game were surprised to find Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine added too. "I don't think I've ever had 4.99$ go this far in my life, best money spent ever," wrote one player who had picked the game up on sale. Others compared it favourably with paid remasters from other publishers. Some negative reviews answer that a free update can still be criticised, and a handful of reviewers say the store price went up while others note it went on sale at half price in launch week.

A reason to return, and a way in for newcomersMedium

The upgrade pulled people back. Returning players describe starting a third, fifth or seventh playthrough, a New Game+ or a Death March run, or finally finishing the expansions they never reached. A smaller group had owned the game for years without getting past the opening hours, and they credit the smoother controls and new look for finally hooking them: "took me 3 tries to finally click with this game, remastered patch has been the catalyst." One player who had quit after an hour wrote that the remaster "completely changed my opinion of the game."

Quality-of-life additionsLow

Some reviews name specific additions: looting while mounted, transmog through the new Reforge system, more accessibility options, a photo mode, finishing moves, better camera options and in-game mod support that, they note, reaches consoles. "Roach rides a bit smoother, ledge and ladder climbing are better as well," wrote one returning player. The criticism is about details: transmog is locked "behind a lvl 24 quest", item notifications can stack up, and some accessibility toggles reset between sessions.

Where players are split

The new lighting and lookHigh

The visual overhaul splits reviewers. Players on capable machines praise the path tracing, reworked lighting, sharper textures and denser foliage, which one newcomer said made the world "look like a modern release rather than a decade-old classic." The other camp, largely long-time fans, says the brighter, more photorealistic lighting lost the original's colour grading and dark-fantasy mood. Complaints describe washed-out colours, nights almost as bright as day, overexposed sunlight, glowing hair and pitch-black interiors under path tracing. One wrote that "It's like someone who is afraid of the dark was in charge of this remaster." Several players fixed part of it by turning bloom off or lowering gamma, and some asked for an option to restore the old lighting while keeping the gameplay changes.

Combat and movement changesMedium

Reviewers disagree about whether the reworked combat and movement make any difference. Some found Geralt more grounded and the fights more fluid ("The combat does feel noticeably better."), with new finishers and better Roach handling. Others felt nothing changed ("But the combat and horse controls feel exactly the same to me."), and a few say it got worse, with new animations delaying inputs; one player wrote "you no longer control Geralt, you merely give suggestions what he should do." Reports of attacks swinging at empty air, dodges that don't fire and heavy controller input lag overlap with the bug complaints. Some players who always disliked the combat say the remaster did not change their mind.

The reworked skill treeLow

The new ranked skill tree with prerequisites is welcome to some: "The skill tree is probably my favorite part." Long-time players with established builds are the unhappy side. Reviewers say the update refunded everyone's points and removed or rebalanced several skills, and some feel the new tree pushes them toward one heavy-attack style. "Say your goodbyes to and start mourning your build," warned one player who still recommended the game. Several asked for the old tree as an option or a free respec in the accessibility menu.

Steam Deck and LinuxLow

Handheld and Linux players report opposite experiences. Some say the remaster runs well on Steam Deck at medium settings and "plays perfectly on linux", and a few AMD owners on Linux avoided the Windows rendering bugs entirely. Others found graphics settings locked to the Deck preset, ray tracing and DLSS unavailable under Proton, games that would not launch, or a Deck experience that went from smooth to "borderline unplayable on deck". Several reviews mention that Windows handhelds like the ROG Ally and Xbox Ally were hit by the AMD problems.

What frustrates players

Performance fell, even on top-end PCsHigh

Frame rates and stutter come up in more negative reviews than any other single problem. Players on RTX 4090 and 5090 cards report numbers they consider absurd for an 11-year-old game ("40fps on a 4090 at 2k res with raytracing on and pathtracing off without dlss is crazy work"), and others compare the remaster directly with the Next-Gen version, saying the same save and settings now run at half the frame rate. They name specific causes: path tracing and ray tracing that barely differ in cost ("Getting the same performance with and without Path Tracing Lol."), Nvidia HairWorks cutting frame rates sharply until, they say, a hotfix addressed it, screen-space reflections, VRAM spikes and long load times. Several players dislike that the image only looks clean with DLSS or FSR, because turning upscaling off leaves a jagged or pixelated picture. Some positive reviews carry tuning advice (turn off HairWorks, skip path tracing, update drivers), and others report smooth play on mid-range cards once settings are adjusted.

Broken rendering on AMD graphics cardsHigh

Negative reviews from AMD owners describe the same broken rendering: black grass, black boxes in place of fire and smoke, missing trees, flickering water, Ciri missing her torso in the prologue and Geralt's skin turning dark. "Literally my favourite game of all time but the remastered is completely broken," wrote one player. Reviewers say the fix was an optional AMD driver, version 26.9.2, that the Adrenalin app did not offer automatically; as one put it, "The remastered update was tested and supposed to run on a driver version that isn't out yet". Some AMD users edited their reviews to positive after installing it, but others still report problems with it, including Windows 10 users and owners of older Radeon cards, and several complain that the RED launcher told them their drivers were out of date when they were not.

Crashes, failed launches and lost progressHigh

Crash reports range from a game that will not start to crashes every few minutes, black screens with audio, script compilation errors from leftover mods and freezes on loading screens or ladders. Saves cause their own trouble: some players lost access to saves, others found manual saves failing, settings resetting on every launch, or saves that could not go back to the older version once the remaster had touched them. "Crashes every 10 min." is a whole review. Old mods stopped working, and several players only got the game running after disabling mods in the launcher. Quest bugs also appear: an unclimbable ladder in the prologue, a griffin trophy that cannot be looted, and Gwent cards vanishing from a player's collection.

The update replaced the version people ownedMedium

Some negative reviews object that the remaster overwrote their game instead of arriving as a separate listing or an opt-in: "The remaster being mandatory and not optional is actually a stupid idea." Players with older PCs, Windows 10 machines or no SSD feel locked out of a game they had been playing the week before. Other reviewers answer with step-by-step instructions for picking the original or Next-Gen version under Properties: "CDPR didn't take anything away, you just need to manually pick the version you want in the Steam settings." Players who rolled back add caveats: the download is large, saves made in the remaster do not load in older versions ("save files are only compatible when moving from original to remaster but not the other way around"), and they expect the upcoming Songs of the Past expansion to require the new version.

Audio, controller and settings bugsLow

Dialogue plays too quietly under the music ("half the cutscenes it sounds like the NPCs are whispering they're so quiet"), controllers double their inputs in menus ("Controller Button presses are duplicated forcing all menu navigation to only function on keyboard"), vibration fires constantly, and resolution or HDR settings reset or refuse to apply. Disabling Steam Input fixed the controller problems for several players.

Launcher, requirements and older hardwareLow

A small group objects to the RED launcher, its sign-in prompts and data collection ("the launcher is such a useless awful inclusion"). Others point to the new minimum requirements, which they say list Windows 11 and stronger GPUs, and say their older machines can no longer run the default version. A few players said the remaster actually ran better than before on their older hardware.

3. The player conversation

Positive and negative reviews rarely answer each other. Most positive reviews are brief praise for the game and the gift, while the negative ones tend to list what broke. Most negative reviews name the remaster, the update or the patch directly, dozens say outright that they still love The Witcher 3, and some promise to switch their vote once fixes arrive. A few did exactly that in edits, crediting the AMD driver or a hotfix. Some defenders call the critics review bombers with weak PCs.

Veterans in the middle of playthroughs, or with modded installs and established builds, are the ones describing lost saves, refunded skill points, broken mods and the changed look. AMD owners and players with mid-range or older hardware report the rendering and performance problems, while high-end Nvidia owners split between smooth play and frame rates in the 30s and 40s on the most expensive cards. Newcomers and lapsed players who never finished the game write warmly about it, and they credit the remaster for getting them through the opening hours.

Day by day, reviews dipped on the second day after the 29 September launch and were more positive than on launch day from 2 October onward, by which point reviewers report that AMD's optional driver and the first hotfixes were out. The edited reviews that flipped to positive credit those technical fixes; the argument over the new look continued through the week.

4. What the developers could do

1. Restore performance to at least Next-Gen levels. Frame rates are the problem negative reviews name most often, and players compare them with version 4.04 on the same save and settings, naming path tracing, ray tracing, HairWorks and screen-space reflections as causes.
2. Fix AMD rendering in the game and correct the launcher's driver check. AMD owners describe black grass, missing geometry and flicker at launch, reviewers say the fix depended on an optional driver the Adrenalin app did not offer, and the launcher told up-to-date users their drivers were outdated.
3. Stabilise launches, saves and settings. Negative reviews describe crashes and failed launches, along with failed saves, script errors from leftover mods and settings that reset every session.
4. Offer a classic lighting and colour option. Long-time fans who dislike the new look say the tonemapping and bloom erased the game's mood, and several asked to keep the gameplay changes with the old look.
5. Make the version choice easier and keep saves compatible. Reviewers want the remaster to be opt-in or clearly selectable, saves that move back to older versions, and a clear answer on whether Songs of the Past will need the remaster.
6. Add native anti-aliasing options that don't require upscaling. Players say turning DLSS or FSR off leaves a jagged or pixelated image, and owners of older AMD cards are stuck on FSR 2.
7. Give veterans a legacy skill tree or free respec. Players with long-standing builds lost their points and several skills, and asked for the old tree or a reset option in the accessibility menu.
8. Fix the dialogue mix and controller input bugs. Players report quiet voices under loud music, duplicated menu inputs and constant vibration.