General Gaming The Witcher: Remake in UE5 announced, update: Remake won't release until after the next mainline game ("Polaris")

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

CD Projekt Red Announces a Remake of The Witcher in Unreal Engine 5 - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

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CD Projekt Red has announced that it will remake The Witcher in Unreal Engine 5, alongside developer Fool's Theory.

 

[Spork3245]

The first game? Unexpected, but welcome! Hopefully it's using Witcher 3 mechanics

[ThreePi]

Cool. It took me like three tries to get into the first Witcher game because of how janky it was. I eventually got through and enjoyed it tremendously, but the jank has certainly kept me from playing it again.

[Spork3245]

6 minutes ago, ThreePi said:

Cool. It took me like three tries to get into the first Witcher game because of how janky it was. I eventually got through and enjoyed it tremendously, but the jank has certainly kept me from playing it again.

 

I got about 2/3rds through the game, was enjoying it, then CDPR put out a patch that fixed the super long load times... which made all pre-patch save game data incompatible (  ), and I was so annoyed that I never went back to it. 

[Keyser_Soze]

Well, I would hope they remake it in UE5 (or anything really) since the engine the first Witcher game used was the Neverwinter Nights engine.

And yeah I too tried to get into the game but it felt just a bit dated.

[crispy4000]

This is where I will jump in.  Tried watching plot summaries on Youtube before booting up 2, but I even gave up on that.

[stepee]

Ok cool what’s the update on the W3 current gen version thoooooo

[Brian]

I am down with this type of remake. Loved the first game. 

[Moa]

In retrospect this should have been obvious when they announced multiple Witcher projects.

[legend]

I own this because CDPR gave it to me like 3 different times, but never played it; I've only played 2 and 3. So I'll definitely give the remake a shot!

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, ThreePi said:

Cool. It took me like three tries to get into the first Witcher game because of how janky it was. I eventually got through and enjoyed it tremendously, but the jank has certainly kept me from playing it again.

Same here. I've tried several times to playthrough the first game and was never able to. I always hoped they would remake this game at some point. This is DEFINITELY a remake I could get behind.

[Dodger]

I'll check it out, might as well update 2 now. 

[Brian]

10 minutes ago, Moa said:

In retrospect this should have been obvious when they announced multiple Witcher projects.

I was thinking one of the Witcher projects to be similar in size to Thronebreaker. I am surprised by a remake of the first game due to the sheer size of the project. 

[johnny]

THIS is a game that could actually use a remake 

[Mr.Vic20]

The Salamandra ride once more! 

[XxEvil AshxX]

Considering how different The Witcher 3 plays from the original Witcher, I would definitely be interested in experiencing the story again with updated gameplay. The original was fun but yeah playing the Rock-Paper-Scissors with the different sword techniques just kinda got old after a while.

 

I bet they'll retcon that original story too, since most Witcher 3 fans will be wondering where Ciri is.

[BloodyHell]

I beat the original many years ago, and I'm extremely excited for this. I don't blame anyone for not playing it, it wasn't a fantastic experience.

[Jason]

Will they be keeping the titty playing cards for the women you shag?

[Fizzzzle]

Hell yeah, brother. This is a remake I can get behind.

[TwinIon]

I also bounced off the original when it came out. I have to assume they're updating the gameplay while swapping engines.

 

The CDPR roadmap had three Witcher items on it: Sirius (by Molasses Flood), The new Witcher Trilogy (by CDPR), and Canis Majoris (by a third party).

 

I would guess that this remake will be the first of those that we'll see, and that makes me wonder if it will be a hint of what is to come. With at least the Witcher trilogy and the remake being made in UE5, it would make a lot of sense to share both game assets and engine tweaks. If they're updating gameplay, they could try and remake Witcher 3, or they could use what they're working on for the new trilogy, which I have to assume will be in a similar vein.

 

Whatever comes of it, as long as it plays better, I'll give it a go.

[BloodyHell]

19 hours ago, TwinIon said:

I also bounced off the original when it came out. I have to assume they're updating the gameplay while swapping engines.

 

The CDPR roadmap had three Witcher items on it: Sirius (by Molasses Flood), The new Witcher Trilogy (by CDPR), and Canis Majoris (by a third party).

 

I would guess that this remake will be the first of those that we'll see, and that makes me wonder if it will be a hint of what is to come. With at least the Witcher trilogy and the remake being made in UE5, it would make a lot of sense to share both game assets and engine tweaks. If they're updating gameplay, they could try and remake Witcher 3, or they could use what they're working on for the new trilogy, which I have to assume will be in a similar vein.

 

Whatever comes of it, as long as it plays better, I'll give it a go.

This is apparently Canis Majoris, I heard on some podcast... Lord Cog on Defining Duke, I think.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

CDPR confirms that the Remake will be open world.

 

The Witcher Remake will feature an open world, CD Projekt says

WWW.POLYGON.COM

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Geralt may have a bigger world to explore this time

 

[Brian]

This is definitely getting a full remake treatment. 

[Mr.Vic20]

Yes, I'll take it! I can't get enough Good open world games! 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

This GamesRadar writer is REALLY happy at this development:

 

The Witcher Remake going open world can solve the original's most glaring issues | GamesRadar+

WWW.GAMESRADAR.COM

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And no, I'm not talking about the romance cards

 

Quote

 

My abiding memory of The Witcher is of the Swamp. In my mind, it's a section that squats goblin-like over a game that it almost ruins entirely by its presence. So now that CD Projekt Red has confirmed that The Witcher Remake will be fully open world, one of the original game's biggest stumbling blocks could be gone for good.

 

The move to an open world is likely to mark the single biggest difference between CDPR's 2007 debut and its upcoming remake. In the original game, the story was divided up into chapters, each more or less occupying its own setting. Sometimes, parts of those chapters could merge into each other, but for much of the game you could return to anywhere you'd been before, or go anywhere new without progressing the story.

 

Unfortunately, that story could, at times, be very difficult to progress. Each chapter required several elements to come into some semblance of alignment before it could be completed – the chapter-based structure belies the non-linear nature of the game. In the early stages of the game, Geralt is simply trying to gain access to the city of Vizima, but to do that he has to pull together several narrative strands involving a missing child, a cursed village, and an angry mob.

 

 

[Greatoneshere]

Remakes are a confusing breed. Obviously there will (hopefully) be quality of life updates and adjustments, streamlining of controls and options so the game plays better and smoother, updated graphics options, etc. But when you begin to fundamentally change the game, that becomes a sliding scale. People loved the RE2 remake, but many complained about the cuts the RE3 remake received (I didn't care). Many of us don't care because we played the original and look forward to a new experience in the same game, but for new players they'll never touch the original.

 

Purists often complain when a game, with a remake, changes itself so much that it plays like a different game, so keeping the original version easily available and accessible becomes paramount. My worry becomes a lot of the original versions of games may get lost permanently in time with the remake essentially "replacing" the original. I'm not too worried about it here in this case, but if The Witcher will be remade with an open world (sounds awesome), that becomes, in some ways, a fundamentally different game than the original was. For the better? Sure. But like with the Silent Hill 2 remake, some of the jank is the point. A polished Silent Hill 2 remake is kind of not the point of why the original was so good. Sometimes you simply can't recreate the lightning in a bottle magic that made the original game worthy of a remake in the first place, so remaking a game by doing more than simply "updating" the basics can become a dicey proposition. Zero Punctuation gets into this. I don't know, just some thoughts I'm throwing out there:

 

 

 

[Mr.Vic20]

As long as the original game can boot in a future OS/EMU then I'm not worried about the loss of the original. In the case of this remake, taking the witcher open world has proven successful, a 3 shows. That said, I do wonder at the amount of extra content they will need to add to ensure that the world is not empty compare to 3. 

[Brian]

Remakes will always be contentious. Personally I always prefer a remake that takes chances and mixes things up. Like @Mr.Vic20 said, the original is available to be played. 
 

15 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

As long as the original game can boot in a future OS/EMU then I'm not worried about the loss of the original. In the case of this remake, taking the witcher open world has proven successful, a 3 shows. That said, I do wonder at the amount of extra content they will need to add to ensure that the world is not empty compare to 3. 

The first game is pretty small. I wouldn’t mind a smallish open world that is very dense with layers. 

[Mr.Vic20]

I suspect they will bring Gwent into the fold and make a bunch of extra content because as much as you are probably correct that a seemless but small open world would be best, they will be weighing that against the fact that A LOT of the potential audiance didn't play the first two Witchers and only jumped in at three. 

[XxEvil AshxX]

I'm interested in how they're going to structure the story this time around. The first game was chapter-based and each chapter had its own self-contained mini-story in addition to the overarching one.

 

Also... the first game picks up after the last book in the series, after

 

Spoiler

Geralt is essentially impaled in the town square, which kills him in the book. The game retcons the ending and has Ciri zap him away to a different dimension where she heals him, which is what puts the Wild Hunt on his and Ciri's trail.

 

None of this is explained until the third game, so I can't help but wonder if they'll lay out the bread crumbs a bit more clearly in the remake. (which would ruin the overarching mystery, but I mean, most of us know the story by now).

[Paperclyp]

Is there an analog of a series that was as niche and sort of unknown / unapproachable as the first two Witcher games that turned into a phenomenon? 

 

I remember not only thinking I wouldn't be able to get into the Witcher 3 because I hadn't played the first two, but I initially thought it was like an expansion of vanilla Witcher 3 lol (cuz of "The Wild Hunt" subtitle). 

 

It's cool they are going to the effort to tell the full story. 

[Brian]

1 hour ago, Paperclyp said:

Is there an analog of a series that was as niche and sort of unknown / unapproachable as the first two Witcher games that turned into a phenomenon? 

 

I remember not only thinking I wouldn't be able to get into the Witcher 3 because I hadn't played the first two, but I initially thought it was like an expansion of vanilla Witcher 3 lol (cuz of "The Wild Hunt" subtitle). 

 

It's cool they are going to the effort to tell the full story. 

The GTA series

the FarCry series

[Paperclyp]

48 minutes ago, Brian said:

The GTA series

the FarCry series

 

Good picks but the early ones were fairly popular games in their own right (pretty sure Far Cry 2 at least sold several million). And just being console games by relatively well known devs they had some widespread awareness. Perhaps I'm biased because I personally was quite familiar with both series before they took off crazy. 

 

To me the Witcher was an unknown entity, and when the 3rd one was clearly going to be a thing it was difficult to even experience the other ones (at least 1, I don't know much about 2).

[XxEvil AshxX]

1 hour ago, Paperclyp said:

 

Good picks but the early ones were fairly popular games in their own right (pretty sure Far Cry 2 at least sold several million). And just being console games by relatively well known devs they had some widespread awareness. Perhaps I'm biased because I personally was quite familiar with both series before they took off crazy. 

 

To me the Witcher was an unknown entity, and when the 3rd one was clearly going to be a thing it was difficult to even experience the other ones (at least 1, I don't know much about 2).

 

The first Witcher was more of a cult classic kinda thing... but I remember The Witcher 2 being a big deal when it came out. Not only was the PC version technically pretty impressive but the fact that they were able to port it to the 360 was no small feat either.

 

I actually remember there was supposed to be a 360 port of the first Witcher game (i think it was titled White Wolf or something like that) but they scrapped it because of the control scheme. I think they were trying to do a straight port and it just wasn't working.

 

EDIT:

Actually it was cancelled for a different reason....

[BloodyHell]

3 hours ago, Paperclyp said:

Is there an analog of a series that was as niche and sort of unknown / unapproachable as the first two Witcher games that turned into a phenomenon? 

 

I remember not only thinking I wouldn't be able to get into the Witcher 3 because I hadn't played the first two, but I initially thought it was like an expansion of vanilla Witcher 3 lol (cuz of "The Wild Hunt" subtitle). 

 

It's cool they are going to the effort to tell the full story. 

Witcher 2 wasn't Witcher 3 popular, but it did very, very well. The first is the one most didn't play. 

 

I love the second game.