The new version of The Witcher 3 comes with major graphics upgrades, a photo mode, new content inspired by the Netflix show, and a host of quality-of-life improvements, tweaks, and fixes. All in all, the update is a welcome and compelling reason to revisit this modern classic, but in fairness – as our review pointed out – few of these changes have a massive hardware impact on the experience. As you play, the last seven and a half years fade away and the inherent quality of the game asserts itself above all else.
You may also find yourself, as I did, quickly disabling new features like the close camera angle, which looks cool, but clearly isn’t suited to the combat style or the game movement speed. There are a few updates that have a lingering effect, though. Fast load times and console performance mode make this sometimes heavy game smoother and more manageable, while the addition of multi-format cloud saves has been a game-changer for me personally, allowing me to transfer my progress between PlayStation 5 and Steam Deck.
But there is a small update – not enabled by default – which has a profound and positive effect on The Witcher 3Current gameplay of: the new Quick Sign Casting option.
Signs are the magical spells of the Witcher universe, and Geralt has five at his disposal at all times: a fire attack, a force blast, mind control, a magic trap, and a magic shield. Each is particularly useful against certain types of enemies, but they also have overlapping utility; Quen, the Shield Sign, is invaluable in any combat situation, while Axii’s Spirit Grasp is especially handy for crowd control when beset by human enemies.
Previously, Witcher 3 players who wanted to swap signs had to pause in the middle of combat and use a radial menu to switch between them. With the new option, signs can be thrown by holding down the right trigger and using the four face buttons and the left trigger to trigger them.
Once you learn the button assignments, it turns out to be a much smoother way to play. In fact, it’s so much smoother that it encourages playing differently, mixing signs more often rather than, say, setting up a Quen shield before entering combat and then sticking to Igni, the fire spell, for the rest of the encounter. Now you can easily and smoothly alternate between refreshing Quen, clearing parasites with Axii, and blasting groups with Igni.
Without technically adding any new content to the game, Quick Sign Casting unearths a tactical and situational approach to The Witcher 3The combat of who was still there, but discouraged by the control scheme (much like the Death March difficulty brings out the game’s buried emphasis on character builds). It doesn’t magically make a sign build the best way to play – it’s never really going to be a game for fans of the glass cannon mage archetype – but it does more fully realize the fantasy of a hunter of monsters for whom ease with magic is just another tool in the toolbox. It’s a small tweak that hugely changes the game for the better.
