The last generation of gaming brought one of the most critically acclaimed RPGs, and games in general, with The Witcher 3's missions, lore, and worldbuilding are the most celebrated aspects of the game that cement its legendary status.
That being said, it's not without its blemishes in features and more technical aspects. The "next generation" of consoles and GPUs are still growing into their own, so cross-gen and remasters are two of the most common releases, making Wild Hunt a great holdover for newer titles and giving this modern classic a facelift and boost in lifespan.
It Needs More Engaging Combat
It was serviceable enough to be entertaining for most, but the combat in The Witcher 3 is generally regarded as its weakest aspect. The game has interesting concepts on paper, with two sword types for monsters and humans, different Sign magics with elemental and strategic bonuses, and other physical skills.
But while the bones of something more engaging and compelling combat-wise are there, it comes off as too simplistic in cases, at least in normal difficulties. Saber Interactive should look into tweaking it so it's not just a button-mashing contest by doing things like making the strategic aspects of combat more rewarding and warranted.
The Movements Should Be Smoother
Geralt didn't exactly control in the most comfortable manner in the game, feeling quite heavy and clunky to run in particular. There wasn't much that could be done about it in the original release of the game back in 2015, but a modernization on the PS5/XSX could allow for some more fine-tuning. After all, this isn't a simple post-launch patch.
Movement could especially be a nuisance when trying to run through navigating the more dense cities of The Witcher 3 like--and namely--Novigrad. It's understandable if the heavy controls were in part for realism's sake, given the equipment Geralt needs to carry, but it would be welcome in the remaster if the movement was a bit lighter and snappier in changing directions quickly.
Load Time Optimization With Next-Gen SSDs
One of the biggest things the new generation of gaming consoles have brought players is SSD storage devices. Hard drives are being pushed further and further into the past, with the speed of SSDs making massive differences for read/write speeds. In-game, one of the major reasons for caring about this is cutting load times down to almost nothing at all.
The Witcher 3 doesn't have unbearable load times, but building this remaster with the PS5 and XSX as a base, it's something that should feature as a notable upgrade. Aside from booting into the game, this would work wonders for fast traveling.
More Lenient Fall Damage
Fall damage is something that can easily become a big nuisance in any game, and this was one of the little things that annoyed fans in The Witcher 3. It's logical to take significant damage from heights that are reasonably too high, and also to die from cliffside drops, but Geralt could take ridiculous damage and deaths from surprisingly low falls.
Plenty of games found completely removing fall damage justified without ruining immersion, but it's also understandable to keep the mechanic here. But a straightforward fix by making damage taken more lenient isn't much to ask for.
The Famous Roach Clipping Should Be Taken Care Of
It's arguably the most famous bug from the game, and fans have even warmed to it over the years, but it's definitely something that needs polishing for the remaster's launch this year. The game features one of the most impressive open worlds and Geralt's trusty horse Roach is needed so the player doesn't have to hoof it to towns or signposts for fast travel.
Though being able to whistle to Roach from anywhere has resulted in the horse clipping and getting stuck in walls and other assets. While a fun meme that's even gone meta with CD Projekt Red themselves, this is a bug that impedes on traversal being as smooth as possible.
A More Generous Carry Limit
Somewhat similar to fall damage, carry limits in games can also become annoying quickly and feel counterintuitive to the experience. Given RPGs--especially open-world ones--try hard to immerse the player in wonderful, dense fantastical worlds introducing and gear management system for what the player can carry can have arguments in its favor.
However, The Witcher 3, in particular, is a game that easily pulls players into looting most of what they find while traveling, making becoming over-encumbered a needless drawback for some. Also similar to fall damage, a simple tweak to keep the mechanic could be to adjust the overall limit without removing the mechanic altogether or adjusting individual item weights.
More UI/HUD Options
It's apparent that a lot of these improvements have been implemented to varying extents in mods, but seeing Saber tackle things like this would be nice to see. In of design, UI/HUD elements could do with some reconfiguring. While this may not be an issue for some, things can feel a bit cluttered at times for others, even if it's just for immersion purposes.
Making displays more minimalistic and intuitive would be a nice way to clean up the screen, but providing options is more -friendly. Being able to toggle how HUD elements are placed could be a nice way for players to customize the more logistic side of the experience.
New Swordplay Animations
This could be something that comes along with potential hand-to-hand combat improvements, but these could also be to spice things up from a visual perspective. It's a simple touch that could have bigger benefits, as the added flair to fights would make things feel much more cinematic as a result.
Getting into fights seeing the same exact animations can feel dull at times, especially for the "run of the mill" fights that don't provide particular challenges. New counter and parry animations, for instance, could make a difference in this respect. The same could be said for critical hits also, but even basic attacks getting new animations could go a long way.
Balancing Skill Trees
While also related to combat, skill trees and Sign upgrade management could do with seeing some retooling and balancing in the remaster. Some Signs could benefit from some degree of buffs and nerfs, while also making more upgrades feel more tangible. It'd be more fun to be able to play with several without ultimately feeling a couple or so make the others useless by comparison.
Geralt has a limited amount of skill slots to make use of, and some of the more generic and ive buffing skills aren't very tangible. This'll require more intricate work as to not make more balancing issues, but it's also arguably one of the improvements that should be inevitable in a next-gen remaster, six years later.
More Variety In Gear Sets
Animations aren't the only thing that could use some spicing up, and gear sets are something that'll actually have statistical benefits. There are some well-designed and useful armor sets, but a lot of them are limited to the traditional Witcher school gear. There isn't a lot of incentive to venture away from them in the end, and it can also impede cosmetic choices to a degree.
One of the RPG genre's fun aspects is customizing the character (within reason), and having new armor sets with unique, lore-fitting designs that are also useful gameplay-wise would be refreshing to experiment with.
