At first everyone thought we were either going to get The Witcher Remake or The Witcher 4 — well guess what? We’re getting both! That’s right, those of you that have been struggling to bear through the terrible combat of the original (ahem, Momo Tabari), can just throw that copy out of the proverbial window.
The Witcher Remake is being developed by Fool’s Theory (with supervision from CD Projekt RED) from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5, so we’re getting a proper remake. That means a gorgeous new Geralt, fresh combat (please be better than The Witcher 3), and a hopefully more modern take on the narrative. Some stuff in that game does not pass the vibe check.
Here’s everything we know so far about The Witcher Remake, from the release date and story to the gameplay and PC requirements.
The Witcher Remake release date
The official Twitter account for The Witcher wrote “We want to do this right, so please be patient — it's gonna be a while until we can share more details.” It’s likely we won’t see much news about The Witcher Remake in 2023, but there’s always hope for a 2024 release. Who am I kidding? We’re not seeing this until 2026 (my child will be 4 by then — I want to cry).
The Witcher Remake will likely launch on PS5, Xbox Series X and PC. The Witcher 3 also saw a Nintendo Switch release, so that might be in the cards as well.
The Witcher Remake story
If you don’t want some SPOILERS for The Witcher — move along.
The original game follows Geralt of Rivia in an amnesiatic state as he attempts to get his bearings in the world. While trying to recover, the Wolf School is attacked by unknown assailants, stealing the mutagens and everything else they need to make their own Witchers. Eventually, you find out that this group is called Salamandra and their motives are more complex in nature than you might think. It’s up to Geralt to decide how to deal with this threat and everything else that gets in his way.
We don’t have any information on The Witcher Remake just yet, but there are a few twists and turns in the original that newcomers will enjoy. I just hope there are few surprises for those that have played the original as well. I’m not expecting Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth changes, but it would be nice, considering there’s a component of time travel in The Witcher.
The Witcher Remake gameplay
You may not have heard of The Witcher Remake’s developers — Fool's Theory. It’s a Polish team of developers that provided support on RPGs like Divinity Original Sin 2 and Baldur's Gate 3.
"Collaborating with Fool's Theory on the project is just as exciting, as some of the people there have been previously involved in The Witcher games,” said Adam Badowski, head of studio at CD Projekt Red. “They know the source material well, they know how much gamers have been looking forward to seeing the remake happen, and they know how to make incredible and ambitious games. And although it will take some time before we're ready to share more about and from the game, I know it'll be worth the wait."
We need a full overhaul! Throw everything out. Even The Witcher 3’s combat. I don’t want it. No, it’s not terrible, but it might as well be. The Witcher Remake probably won’t be out for a few years, so I better see some really impressive combat. It needs to be smooth and dynamic. Players need the ability to make builds. It needs to be dangerous. If you can’t give us the threatening world of The Witcher, why bother? Geralt never had “main character energy.” Our boy got his ass kicked so many times, and nearly died multiple times for the dumbest reasons. Invoke that fear.
What I really don’t want to see is those cards! Yes, you know what I’m talking about. No, not Gwent. The cards that you get for sleeping with women. Stop it. No. I can’t even begin to describe how gross that is, and I won’t, so just don’t.
If I wanted The Witcher Remake to be reminiscent of any game, I would recommend God of War Ragnarok. Kratos is a heavy, burly dude, but you can make a sleeker, fast paced version of him that glides around the battlefield as gracefully as Geralt does in the books and TV series.
The Witcher Remake PC requirements
The Witcher Remake will be running on the Unreal Engine 5, so we’re not really sure what to expect, since there aren’t many Unreal Engine 5 games out there. Let’s look at the current specs for Cyberpunk 2077 to see what kind of laptop you might need.
The minimum specs for Cyberpunk 2077 require you to have an Intel Core i5-3570K or AMD FX-8310 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 470 GPU. The recommended specs include an Intel Core i7-4790 or AMD Ryzen 3 3200G CPU, 12GB of RAM, and a GTX 1060 6GB / GTX 1660 Super or Radeon RX 590 GPU.
Considering that the best cheap gaming laptops can run laps around those specs, you might be good for The Witcher Remake with an RTX 3060 GPU — at least for the minimum specs by the time it launches.
Outlook
I’m hyped for The Witcher Remake — it’s been years since I played the original. I want to jump into the remake once I’ve finished reading all of the books, so I can get a real sense of Geralt’s past and all of the implications that certain dialogue and narrative elements present. Honestly, I care less about the overarching plot and more about the kind of decisions and gameplay elements we’re presented with. Stay tuned here for more news on The Witcher Remake.
