Geralt of Rivia rides through Letten in daylight and the place looks like a postcard. Green countryside, handsome villas, not a bog in sight. Then the sun goes down.
That contrast is the whole pitch of Songs of the Past, the upcoming Witcher 3 expansion CD Projekt Red spent all of Wednesday showing off at Gamescom, streaming DLC snippets throughout the day for a total of more than 15 minutes of gameplay.
Dandelion’s in trouble again
Some things never change. The expansion once again stars Geralt as he investigates a dark secret in the countryside community of Letten, where Dandelion seems to once again be in trouble.
The footage opens with Geralt setting out to find a buddy he lost track of during a party. He mounts his horse, and the game shows off scenery that reads as a deliberate break from the base game’s dreary swamps and marshlands.
But the daylight version of Letten isn’t the real one. Once night falls, it’s clear the town has two faces, and its bright outward appearance seems to hide some greater darkness.
The chain is the new toy
And then Geralt fights some monsters, because of course he does.
It’s hard to get much out of a combat sequence without hands-on time, but the footage does give a peek at Geralt using his chain, a new weapon added for the DLC. He can use it to break up big groups of enemies by pulling stragglers in for a stab, Scorpion-style.
Mechanically, it’ll apparently work something like the crossbow, slowing down time while you line up an attack.
The remaster lands first
Songs of the Past arrives sometime next year, which means the wait is real. The other announcement is closer.
At Gamescom Opening Night Live on Tuesday, CD Projekt Red revealed that The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt — Remastered is coming Sept. 29, and it’s free for anyone who already owns the game. The updated version of the 2015 RPG carries a long list of changes, including improved graphical fidelity, updated combat and a reworked skill system.
The expansion will benefit from all of it. Between the remaster and this first extended look, Gamescom has been a good week to be a Witcher fan.
The real question is whether CD Projekt Red can hold the trick together: a bucolic vacation town by day, a gothic hellscape by night, and Dandelion somewhere in the middle of it, making things worse.
