The Witcher 3’s next-gen update makes a beautiful game much smoother

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has always been a beautiful game. One of my favorite things to do when I played for the first time in 2015 was just wander around on horseback soaking in the incredible atmosphere, from the crumbling ancient ruins to the bustling towns. Seven years later and I found myself awed once again while playing it on the PlayStation 5.

A free next-gen patch for The Witcher 3 launches on December 14th, giving the aging open-world a boost if you’re playing on a PS5, Xbox Series X/S, or high-end PC. I’ve managed to play through the first few hours of the new version — for those who’ve already played, I’m right in the thick of the haunting “Bloody Baron” quest — and while it’s still fundamentally the same game, some of the improvements make a noticeable difference.

As with many next-gen games, The Witcher 3 offers two different graphics options: one with a focus on high-end visual effects like ray tracing, and another that emphasizes performance at 60fps. And, like most games I’ve tested, performance is the way to go in my opinion. The ray tracing is nice, of course, but either way the game looks great. The world is huge and detailed, and no matter what, the lighting looks incredible; I still love watching the sun set while riding through a swamp or up a mountain. It’s a game made to screenshot (and this week’s update also includes a photo mode so you can do just that).

For all of its ambition, The Witcher 3 is also a game that has always been a little rough around the edges. It’s never as bad as Cyberpunk 2077, but a choppy frame rate and other visual issues can really bog down the experience, particularly in combat. But from what I’ve played so far, most of those issues have been ironed out — I haven’t even seen a Roach glitch yet — and, when combined with the 60fps mode and some slightly streamlined controls, the experience could even be described as smooth.

It’s not a full overhaul of the game, of course. This is a next-gen patch, not a full-on remake like The Last of Us Part I. And there are plenty of things that make it clear this is a game that launched a console generation ago — dated character models, wonky animations, hair that moves about with a strong disregard for gravity. The first time I killed a werewolf, it flopped around the cave like a half-inflated balloon.

Even still, the upgrades improve The Witcher 3 where it needs it the most. This is a game beloved for its storytelling and roleplaying elements, and those remain completely unchanged here. In fact, it’s remarkable how well they hold up, particularly given all of the excellent fantasy open-worlds that have launched in the meantime. But playing with an improved frame rate, smoother controls, and generally fewer technical issues makes the rest of the experience less of a chore.