The Witcher 3's free remaster splits players who already owned it

The Witcher 3's free remaster: gift or rehash

A next-generation patch that CD Projekt Red is giving away to anyone who already owns the game. In theory. Because paper can put up with anything, but a PS5's hard drive, apparently, cannot. The promise was a visual leap and, above all, a fixed combat system. The first is delivered. The second, say those who have tried it, is just as clunky as it was seven years ago. And that's where the fun begins.

What actually changes in the remaster

The official line spoke of improvements to the combat system. On the ground, the general feeling is that the skeleton is the same. One player sums it up bluntly: "They promised combat improvements and it looks exactly the same to me." What has changed is the skill tree, which is now organized differently and, according to reports, offers more points. The graphical upgrade is undeniable, with a caveat: the game already looked remarkably good after the previous next-gen patch. There is a leap, but it's not the abyss some were expecting.

The problem isn't the game, it's the yardstick

Here comes the elephant in the room: Red Dead Redemption 2. Anyone who lived in that world and then returns to Velen notices the void. The interaction with the environment, the weight of every action, the feeling that the world responds. It's the most repeated complaint and the hardest one to rebut with a patch. Combat, compared to what FromSoftware offers, is left mercilessly exposed. This is not an isolated opinion: it is the consensus of a considerable part of the veteran audience.

Bugs, crashes and the fine print of optimization

The PS5 version is piling up specific complaints. One player reports "a game crash every half hour." On PC the problem is different: FPS drops attributable to the increased graphical load. Optimization, that word which has become the industry's battleground, is once again at the center. And the context doesn't help: expectations for a future installment raise doubts about whether the chosen engine will be the right one.

The context: a decade and a remake on the horizon

The remaster doesn't arrive alone. Additional content has been announced and there is talk of a remake of the first Witcher. One comment nails the paradox: in ten or eleven years, the best thing between The Witcher and The Witcher will still be The Witcher. The shadow of Baldur's Gate 3 looms over any discussion of modern RPGs. And meanwhile, the free remaster has become an unintentional experiment: how much value is there in giving away something you already owned?

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The awkward fact: the remaster is free, yes, but the player's time isn't. And with crashes every half hour, the bill comes out expensive.