Key Highlights:
- The Witcher 1 turns 18, and is due for a remake.
- The remake is being built on top of Unreal Engine 5, and will feature many changes and improvements over the original.
- There’s some scared ground here though, and not everything needs to be remade for the sake of it.
The Witcher has officially turned 18 years old, marking a monumental achievement for CD Projekt Red. The very first Witcher game was released back in October 2007, and despite its flaws remains an enjoyable experience, and one that laid the foundation for things to come.
A remake of the first game was also announced a while back, and while we are yet to see any proper gameplay footage just yet, its nevertheless exciting to speculate on what the team might be cooking up for us.
With that in mind, here’s exactly what the Witcher remake needs to get right, in order to be a success.
The Witcher 1 Remake Needs to Change Quite a Few Things from the Original 2007 Game
ATTENTION: The Witcher game is 18+!
— The Witcher (@thewitcher) October 26, 2025
No, this isn't a reminder about its age rating. 🔞
Happy anniversary! 🥳 pic.twitter.com/b9owdhOPqq
The first Witcher game was built on top of an outdated game engine when it was first released back in 2007. Called the Aurora Engine, this was a successor to BioWare’s very popular Infinity Engine, first used in 2002 to release Neverwinter Nights.
The Aurora Engine was quite old at the time, and this is painfully obvious ocean you take a look at the presentation and visuals of The Witcher. This is the first thing the Unreal Engine 5 based remake should be addressing (albeit not while destroying the visual themes of the original).
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There’s also the matter of its gameplay and game design. The Witcher has (for lack of a better term) a very, very janky combat system – one that has not stood the test of time. It can be quite infuriating, and is often more of a miss than a hit in practice.
This is yet another area the remake should focus on. A complete overhaul of the combat system is most definitely needed, perhaps bringing it more in line with the one present in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
There are also a few quality of life improvements that are necessary, such as having access to more graphical options, widescreen resolution support, and of course, the implementation of a way more robust, freely movable camera system.
Some Elements Should Be Preserved, and Remain Untouched Entirely
The key to a good remake is adding in a few enhanced, quality of life improvements, along with a few minor changes to the existing source material.
This is all while ensuring that the remade ‘content’ keeps a respectable level of polish, along with simultaneously maintaining the tone and atmosphere of the original game.
The remake should strive to keep the tone of the original, and make appropriate changes (while not making any outlandish changes of its own).
Some aspects of The Witcher feel outdated in comparison, which, when combined with its often quirky dialogue and outright bad voice acting (for some characters) make for quite an experience. This isn’t something that the remake should change, if you ask me.
The jankiness is part of its charm, and should be translated onto the remake as well.
There’s no doubt that CD Projekt Red is cooking something truly spectacular behind the scenes, and for now, we will just have to remain patient until they have more information to share with us.
The news of a Witcher 1 remake was first revealed back in October 2022, titled ‘Canis Majoris’, a codename for the project. It’s been 3 whole years since we’ve had any updates regarding the same, and it is hoped that CD Projekt Red has something to finally show us after all this time.
