CD Projekt Red released a free upgrade for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt yesterday, and players are divided over what it actually improved. The update brings the game’s graphics up to modern standards, but some fans are unhappy with the price: brighter, washed-out lighting that removes the fantasy of a world built on shadows.
The complaints are simple. “My god this new lighting is lifeless,” one irate person wrote on X, asking the studio for a way to play the older version on Xbox. Another player on Reddit said bluntly, “I prefer the old look,” adding that the original had “better contrast, with stronger highlights and a more pronounced overall image.”
The Lighting Problem
The core issue is the new lighting model. The Remastered edition uses path tracing, a technique that simulates light bouncing through a scene. On PC, players can turn off the Bloom effect that causes the washed-out look, but there is no such option on console. That means Xbox players are stuck with a game that feels brighter and less contrasted than the version they owned before.
The comparison is easy to spot. Screenshots side by side show the original game’s deep shadows and rich color giving way to a flatter, sunnier palette. The technology behind the change is objectively better — path tracing renders light more naturally — but the visual result is a matter of taste.
Brightness and Contrast
The complaint is not just aesthetic. Players are losing the sense of depth that made The Witcher 3 feel like a real place. “What’s the point of removing all whimsy of a fantasy game? Realism is the death of escapism,” one player wrote on X.
The video linked to the report painstakingly compares the Remastered edition with the next-gen edition and the original edition of the game. It shows how the newer versions lose the punch of the old lighting, even as they gain sharper textures and denser foliage.
“I don’t think anyone is disputing that models, texture, foliage density and all that is bad – that’s improved for sure,” wrote another subreddit commenter. “The lighting is objectively better technologically (path tracing) but it is much brighter and almost ‘washed out’ sometimes while the ‘original’ (next gen upgrade actually which already had ray tracing) had more contrast and a different type of lighting. What you prefer is very much subjective here.”
Technical Glitches Everywhere
The lighting issue is not the only problem. PC players with AMD-based systems are reporting a wide array of graphical glitches. Switch 2 owners are seeing blurry visuals when playing the game in handheld mode, even with blur-related graphical options turned off. The game’s audio mix seems off, with voices suddenly quiet and music loud — though apparently meditating in game fixes this.
Console players on older Xbox Series S hardware are also bemoaning a drop in performance because of this update. The base minimum specs of the game have gone up, meaning the game no longer runs at a high frame-rate on older machines. And because the update is automatically applied on consoles, there is little they can do about it.
What CD Projekt Red Says
The company has not publicly addressed the complaints yet. The writer of the report contacted CD Projekt Red trying to explore the broader approach to brightening the game and how intentional it was. Whether the studio will respond remains to be seen.
Plenty of People Like It
Not everyone agrees. Many players are praising the update, saying the game “looks so much better now.” The writer’s own experience of The Witcher 3 – Remastered was very positive on PC, though they have not yet tested it on consoles.
Across the game, the changes have made The Witcher 3 feel modern and revitalised, though they don’t fundamentally alter what’s there. The game remains the same story, same characters, same world — just rendered in a brighter light.
A Question of Intention
The bigger question is whether CD Projekt Red made a deliberate choice to brighten the game, or if the technical upgrades pushed them in that direction. The path tracing and HDR settings both contribute to a brighter image, but the writer notes that the computing cost is so high that even people with beefy PCs are not in favor of it.
| Platform | Console | PC |
|---|---|---|
| Rollback Option | None | Various |
| Bloom Setting | None | Turnable off |
| HDR Setting | Present | Present |
| Issue | Cause | Platform Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Washed-out lighting | Path tracing, HDR | Brighter, less contrast |
| Glitches | Graphics driver | PC, Switch 2 |
| Blurry handheld mode | Handheld mode | Switch 2 |
| Performance drop | Minimum spec rise | Older Xbox Series S |
The Verdict
The dispute is not about quality so much as tone. The original The Witcher 3 was a dark, moody game that felt dangerous. The Remastered edition is cleaner, sharper — and some players miss the darkness.
The writer’s own experience was positive, but that is one person’s view. The comparison images and videos show the difference clearly, and the complaints are specific enough to be real.
The game is free to upgrade, so players who dislike the new look can keep their old version. Those who want the modern polish have it. The divide is real, and it will likely remain until CD Projekt Red decides whether to address it.
For now, the complaint stands: “My god this new lighting is lifeless.”
See the video the story is built around at Eurogamer.
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