CD Projekt Red is overseeing a remake of the first Witcher game

[Daniel Sims]

What just happened? CD Projekt Red has finally started to shed light on one of the projects it announced earlier this month – a remake of the first Witcher game. The company hasn't offered many details on the title yet, but revisiting its first game makes sense for multiple reasons.

This week, CD Projekt Red confirmed it's overseeing a remake of the original 2007 Witcher game. Polish studio Fool's Theory is developing the project from the ground up on Unreal Engine 5 with CDPR staff involvement. The title is still in early development, so fans won't see it for a while, and CDPR isn't ready to share more details on it yet.

The cult hit that started the now-popular game franchise which then led to one of Netflix's biggest hits might be one of the best examples of a game that needs a remake.

For starters, it's the only Witcher title still exclusive to the PC after earlier plans for a console port fell through. Console users who jumped into the series with the much more popular Witcher 3 will have a chance to investigate its predecessor for the first time.

The 15-year-old RPG also clearly shows its age. Even in 2007, the Witcher didn't have the best graphics around (the infamous processor-melting Crysis came out that year), though it did impressive things with the graphics engine BioWare designed for Neverwinter Nights. An Unreal Engine 5 remake should offer a transformational increase in visual detail while possibly getting CDPR comfortable with the technology it plans to use for future projects.

The Witcher was the game that transformed CDPR from a Polish localization house into a world-famous game studio. Despite being rough around the edges in its graphics, pacing, and user interface, The Witcher had enough endearing qualities to make it a success. The game's atmosphere, characters, and morally gray nonlinear storyline helped it stand out from other RPGs, eventually spawning two sequels along with the new trilogy CDPR has in development.

The remake was previously called "Canis Majoris" – one of five Witcher games CDPR wants to release in the coming years. The others are a game from The Molasses Flood, codenamed "Project Sirius," and the three games CDPR is making internally. The company is also planning a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 currently called "Project Orion" and a new intellectual property codenamed "Hadar."

Though Canis Majoris won't appear for a while, we may see it sooner than the other projects. CD Projekt also still plans to release the next-gen upgrade for the Witcher 3 this year, free for those who already own the game.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/96454-cd-projekt-red-overseeing-remake-first-witcher-game.html

 

[psycros]

Kinda glad I never played original. Everyone I know who has says its buggy and not that good.

 

[Threadcount]

I miss the days where games focused more on the story than how many Rays they could trace, or fake frames they could generate, this 15 year old game although buggy is a great example of this, played great on my 8800 GTS back in the day.

 

[emmzo]

Kinda glad I never played original. Everyone I know who has says its buggy and not that good.

In 2008,it blew my mind. If you had played and loved any classic isometric RPG, this was a must. I recall Witcher II being buggy as hell, but not this one.

 

[Puiu]

I miss the days where games focused more on the story than how many Rays they could trace, or fake frames they could generate, this 15 year old game although buggy is a great example of this, played great on my 8800 GTS back in the day.

We are still getting plenty of great games. The whole "they focused on x or x better" is just nostalgia.

 

[sreams]

I love how they used the Harry Potter theme...

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Kinda glad I never played original. Everyone I know who has says its buggy and not that good.

I don't recall the game being buggy....here's what I do remember.

The game's story was good, I really enjoyed it.

The game's combat and difficulty was awful and make the game boring, even on the hardest difficulty. Combat, you chose a stance and just swing your weapon - then when the sword (mouse cursor) flashes on the screen, you click the mouse button again. Rinse and repeat over and over and over and over and ov.......

The use of magic was pretty much pointless, you never really needed to use it. You could just pound a healing potion at anytime and heal so the idea of dying at all during combat was negligible.

The only reason I kept up with the game was to see the story unfold. If the story was boring I wouldn't have played through the game.

I never bothered with the rest of the series. I don't think you really missed much by not playing the first game.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

We are still getting plenty of great games. The whole "they focused on x or x better" is just nostalgia.

There are some good ones, but they are overwhelmed by mountains of figurative horseshat from AAA devs. back in the 2000s companies like EA and activation were rapid firing gold nuggets at us.

 

[MarcusNumb]

Well what a pity that they don't want to remake The Witcher 3 with Unreal Engine 5. If they do, I will be more than happy to pay 40euros for it.

 

[Puiu]

There are some good ones, but they are overwhelmed by mountains of figurative horseshat from AAA devs. back in the 2000s companies like EA and activation were rapid firing gold nuggets at us.

Does it really matter if we are getting more bad games? The number of developer studios nowadays dwarfs the number of devs back then, and even so the ratio of good to bad games hasn't changed that much. You just didn't hear about those that much back then (game distribution was much much harder).

 

[Burty117]

Does it really matter if we are getting more bad games?

Yeah, they charge more for games now yet, more often than not, the game is rubbish.

The number of developer studios nowadays dwarfs the number of devs back then, and even so the ratio of good to bad games hasn't changed that much.

Doesn't that make it even worse for modern games? They cost more, more people are making them, yet they still produce more rubbish than good?

You just didn't hear about those that much back then (game distribution was much much harder).

See, you're kind of right to an extent, downloading games from a store or subscription services didn't exist or were in their infancy. This meant buying a gaming magazine or following a website. What was nice about the magazine's was the inclusion of a demo disk.

Modern systems means an "algorithm" picks what to show you. And normally just means whichever developer has the biggest marketing budget gets put Infront of your face all day long.

Personally to me, it does feel like the quality of games being released has dropped pretty hard over the past 20 years. I still have my PS2 plugged in and I still play through certain old games every year.

 

[Puiu]

Yeah, they charge more for games now yet, more often than not, the game is rubbish.

Doesn't that make it even worse for modern games? They cost more, more people are making them, yet they still produce more rubbish than good?

See, you're kind of right to an extent, downloading games from a store or subscription services didn't exist or were in their infancy. This meant buying a gaming magazine or following a website. What was nice about the magazine's was the inclusion of a demo disk.

Modern systems means an "algorithm" picks what to show you. And normally just means whichever developer has the biggest marketing budget gets put Infront of your face all day long.

Personally to me, it does feel like the quality of games being released has dropped pretty hard over the past 20 years. I still have my PS2 plugged in and I still play through certain old games every year.

I also play many old games. But I do understand perfectly well that nostalgia can be a biatch.

 

[Burty117]

I also play many old games. But I do understand perfectly well that nostalgia can be a biatch.

Yeah no doubt, the game "Freedom Fighters" comes to mind for me, I remember it much more fondly but when I play it today, it's really not great.

I've just re-activated my WoW sub in prep for the new expansion in a months time. It's still a great game for something that's 18 years old.

 

[Puiu]

Yeah no doubt, the game "Freedom Fighters" comes to mind for me, I remember it much more fondly but when I play it today, it's really not great.

I've just re-activated my WoW sub in prep for the new expansion in a months time. It's still a great game for something that's 18 years old.

I've reactivated my Eve Online sub a year ago.

 

[Thunder6230]

The goal is nowdays to resell everything in every gen at full price

 

[Puiu]

The goal is nowdays to resell everything in every gen at full price

As long as they make meaningful updates to the game I don't mind it that much (good remakes/remasters are good remakes/remasters).

But many of them are just quick cash grabs for which they put an intern to work on (some texture upscaling and support for new consoles).

 

[Threadcount]

Yeah no doubt, the game "Freedom Fighters" comes to mind for me, I remember it much more fondly but when I play it today, it's really not great.

I've just re-activated my WoW sub in prep for the new expansion in a months time. It's still a great game for something that's 18 years old.

Freedom Fighters, that brings me way back, remember when you still got the demo disc with the Gaming Magazines, also Soul Reaver and Legacy of Kain where great games.

 

[Nobina]

I played 3 then 2 then 1 and I have to say as much as I like Witcher, the first game was unplayable for me. You just spam one click and on hard modes enemies just take too long to die, meaning you're gonna be spamming that mouse button for a long time. I couldn't get past the beggining.

 

[Thunder6230]

As long as they make meaningful updates to the game I don't mind it that much (good remakes/remasters are good remakes/remasters).

But many of them are just quick cash grabs for which they put an intern to work on (some texture upscaling and support for new consoles).

Like ffvii remake is fantastic compared to the original one