It’s safe to assume that for the majority of players, their first experience with CD Projekt Red’s fantasy series was The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. While its two predecessors were successful, they’re dwarfed in comparison to the blockbuster status achieved by Geralt’s swansong. 30 million sales and counting sent CDPR into the stratosphere, making the studio a household name with a consumer friendly focus further cemented with free downloadable content and a communicative approach to feedback that assured it was always on your side.

Obviously, this reputation was torn asunder with the release of Cyberpunk 2077, an ambitious yet ultimately unfinished game that drew the ire of fans and critics alike, resulting in a fallout the studio still hasn’t recovered from. A next-gen release of this and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt are on the horizon, but far enough away that it’s unclear exactly how such things will eventually be received. The company continues to invest in new studios and ideas, but I can’t help but feel it will never reach the untouchable status it worked so hard to garner only a handful of short years ago.

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But let’s travel back in time for a little bit. Today marks the 14th anniversary of The Witcher, which first launched on PC way back in 2007. It has never received a console port, but was subject to an enhanced release on its home platform. If it wasn’t for the rampant success of its sequels, it’s likely the game would have gone down in history as an underappreciated classic, but here we are, appreciating its janky majesty over a decade later. It’s a special game, albeit one limited by the resources afforded to the studio at the time and how it was cobbled together in a way that is notably scattershot. Yet the heart of its world, story, and characters remained untouched, translating the original novels in bold and creative ways.

I personally never clicked with it, having played it on my first boyfriend’s PC and failing to see the appeal of an experience that pales in comparison to the games I was accustomed to seeing on consoles. My childhood was also defined by Japanese role-playing games, and it wasn’t until the likes of Mass Effect and Oblivion burst onto the scene that I realised how diverse the genre could be, and how ambitious it was becoming as hardware grew more powerful. The Witcher arrived just outside of this revolution, and thus it was brought to life by passionate players who were happy to develop mods and implement them into the game simply so it felt better to play and also looked the part to boot. It’s a chore to go back to now, but that’s to be expected, and further reinforces how wonderful a full remake, or even a comprehensive remaster would be if it were to surface in the coming years.

While a remaster that enhances the PC version with notable quality-of-life improvements and visual upgrades would suffice, I think The Witcher is so far removed from Assassins of Kings and Wild Hunt that it wouldn’t gel with the audience that came to the series for the first time with the sequels. To put it generously, the game is hard to play, obtuse, and punishing in a manner that only older RPGs tend to be. It also has some gross attitudes towards female characters and even rewards Geralt with cards to celebrate his sexual conquests. The subsequent games are a little better in this regard, even if they still prove a little irksome, but a remaster would need to publicly address these elements or remove them altogether to fit modern sensibilities. The gamers will just mod them back in anyway, so no harm done.

The Witcher

So we come down to a full remake, which would likely be a project on the scale of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I don’t see CDPR treating it as a normal project, it would probably want to expand on its original vision with deeper characters, a more expansive storyline, and perhaps references to its sequels that will make its audience feel more at home. Many of the people I’ve spoken to who adore Wild Hunt often speak of its predecessors with trepidation, noting they’ve either never played them at all or dabbled with them and noticed they didn’t hold the same appeal as the bustling streets of Novigrad or the frosty mountains of Skellige. While some might view this as a bummer, it can also be interpreted as an opportunity, an open goal for CDPR to venture into its back catalogue and introduce these games to millions of people for the very first time. Whether this is through a remake, re-release, or a remaster - all of them feel like a no-brainer.

There are so many elements of The Witcher that reach their full potential in the two sequels, whether it be Geralt’s characterisation, the world’s heated politics, or the relationships he forms with the likes of Triss and Yennefer. Seeing the original game updated to modern standards would allow the trilogy to feel like a relatively cohesive adventure instead of the somewhat stilted sequence of advancement it occupies right now. I can’t in good conscience recommend that a newcomer play all three of these games. Assassins of Kings has aged nicely, while Wild Hunt is spectacular. But the first one? In 2021? I’m not so sure.

The Witcher

So it’s time for a new coat of paint, and whatever form that happens to materialise in, it would be amazing to see The Witcher have a place in today’s landscape where it’s accessible, engaging, and most importantly - fun to play. Happy anniversary, and here’s to another ten years.

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