Next week, CD Projekt Red will release The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered, a sweeping visual and mechanical overhaul of the 2015 role-playing game that has defined the open-world fantasy genre for more than a decade. Announced against the backdrop of a 2026 gaming landscape where the original title is well past its prime, the remaster was pitched as a chance to make the game feel brand-new once more. Yet a freshly surfaced comparison clip has instead ignited a wave of backlash, with a surprising majority of fans arguing that the remaster’s graphics actually fall short of the original.
The controversy centers on a short side-by-side clip shared by the official Witcher X account, which pitted the upcoming remaster against the 2015 release. The roughly 11-second comparison shows Geralt igniting the Igni sign to blast a Drowner with a torrent of fire, with both the Witcher and his foe standing in a marshy, waterlogged area designed to reflect the flames. The clip was clearly intended as a showcase of the remaster’s upgraded textures and enhanced lighting effects, but the reaction it drew suggests the update may not land the way the studio hoped. One response simply asked, “Why does the remastered version look worse?” — a sentiment echoed across the thread.
A Case of the Wrong Square?
The skepticism is not confined to a lone dissenter. “Old one looks so much better!” wrote one user, while another leaned into the sarcasm, asking whether the comparison had been flipped: “Did you put the before and after text on the wrong square because the left looks way better?” The recurring theme in the comments points squarely at how the remaster handles reflections and color. “The color and fire stands out more and looks more alive” in the 2015 release, explained one user, noting that the original footage carries a more intense orange hue and renders the flames reflecting off the water in a seemingly more dynamic way.
There is something about the original’s warmth and the way the fire bounces across the water that the remaster just doesn’t quite capture.
Witcher 3 fan
If anything, the backlash is a testament to how good the original game still looks even after all this time. But better looks are not the only thing coming to the remaster.
More Than Just Pretty Pixels
While the upgraded visuals are nice, the remaster will also bring improved animations, an overhauled combat system, better movement and mount handling, and tweaked enemy behavior. The skill tree has received a significant revamp as well, and the major update adds cross-platform mod support alongside a handful of new accessibility features. Perhaps most exciting for the existing player base is that the overhaul will be free for everyone who owns the original base game, with all currently released expansions made available at no additional cost.
The timing of the release is deliberate. It arrives in the lead-up to Songs of the Past, an entirely new expansion set to launch next year. The paid expansion was developed by CD Projekt Red in partnership with Fool’s Theory, the studio behind the The Witcher remake that is currently in development. Songs of the Past is expected to be about the size of Blood and Wine, which means there is a great deal of new content to dig into once the remaster has players settled in.
Looking Ahead
For now, the community’s debate over the remaster’s visuals is unlikely to dampen enthusiasm for the broader project. With the base game’s overhaul arriving free to existing owners and a substantial expansion on the horizon, CD Projekt Red has positioned itself to reinvigorate one of gaming’s most beloved franchises. Whether the remaster ultimately wins over the skeptics or simply earns their patience remains to be seen, but the studio’s willingness to revisit its own work — and do so at no extra charge — signals a clear commitment to keeping the Witcher universe alive and evolving.
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