Well, I say behind-closed-doors. It turns out that if I wanted to watch a prerecorded saunter through a chunk of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt’s Songs of the Past expansion, I could have just tuned into the Gamescom livestream, rather than travelling to Germany before parking myself in an almost pitch-black miniature theatre for 45 minutes. Now my by-touch handwritten notes are completely illegible, and I don’t even get to feel smug about attending a super secret preview.
Still, the preview – which like Songs of the Past itself, was a joint operation between CD Projekt Red and co-devs Fool’s Theory – didn’t show off the expansion alone. It also focused repeatedly on the combat, movement, UI and role-playing reworks being introduced in the base game’s Remastered upgrade, which is coming months ahead of Songs of the Past on September 29th. And, usual hands-off disclaimers applying, looks like it could be the more appealing package for lapsed Witchers – especially as it’s free to owners of the original.
Fighting, in particular, appears far more fluid and responsive than Wild Hunt’s current, awkward sword-shuffles. Geralt strings combos together with greater grace and, I suspect, outright faster attacks – I’ve not counted animation frames but he certainly looks like a more nimble swordfighter in the Remaster. Smarter camerawork also gives a better impression of which baddie, when they’re grouped up, is the one being targeted.
It’s not quite reaching Batman Arkham degrees of brawly slickness, and again, it’s impossible to properly judge swordfeel when everything’s being controlled by an unseen developer. But there’s very visible intent here to improve on one of Wild Hunt’s lingering (and, if we’re honest, pretty major) flaws, which is more than most 11-year-old singleplayer games get. There’s a very specific synergy with Song of the Past’s new tools, too. Among the remaster’s new finishing moves are those centred around the silver chain, which Geralt apparently picks up during the expansion: at one point our lad latches onto a wasp-infested monster, drags it into blade range, and decapitates it in one clean motion.
Yes! I want to do that! I want to do that more than I want to perform sluggish spinning moves in the base game’s current form, which I suppose means the preview is working. Although, chain aside, I’m not sure I saw anything in this demo that really stirred the blood for Songs of the Past, at least not to the same extent as the battlin’ rework did for the free remaster.
It doesn’t look bad either: new region Letten is an attractively verdant corner of the Continent, its denizens more concerned with brewing booze and frolicking through crop fields than doing a war. The disappearance of old mate Dandelion allows the mysteries of the main plot to hang on a nicely personal hook, and once Geralt does stray from the Lands of Plenty into a Witcher-standard haunted forest, there are some suitably yucky beasts to fight with those enhanced moves. Thornblooms, despite looking like darkly reskinned Archespore, attack with a more thrashy, visually dramatic ferocity, and the Swarmion – those bee boys – pack shields made of densely swarming hornets.
Still, nothing so far has answered the question of why, exactly, this expansion exists. I’m not even a massive Witcherist but it still feels strange, rather than bold and exciting, to have another Geralt’s Last Adventure to follow the previous Geralt’s Last Adventure. Like if BioWare rocked up next week with a sequel DLC to Mass Effect 3: Citadel, and its first big preview only showed Shepard flying off to Space Gloucestershire by themself.
That’s something Songs of the Past will need to justify, to players and to itself. The Remastered edition’s upgrades are, to be sure, smaller in scope, but right now they seem like a much more potent force behind a potential reinstall.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-witcher-3-songs-of-past-looked-alright-in-its-behind-closed-doors-preview-though-im-more-enticed-by-the-remasters-combat-upgrades
