The Witcher 3 Made a Small Change That Had a Big Impact

(CTN News) – Added features in The Witcher 3 include graphical enhancements, a photo mode, original content inspired by Netflix’s show, and a range of quality-of-life improvements, tweaks, and fixes.

As a whole, the update is a welcome and compelling reason to revisit this modern classic, but in all honesty – as our review noted – few of these changes have a significant impact on gameplay.

In the course of playing, the last seven and a half years disappear, and the game’s inherent quality emerges as the most significant factor.

As I did, you may also find yourself turning off new features such as the close camera angle. This looks cool but clearly does not complement the game’s combat style or movement speed.

In spite of this, there are some updates that continue to have an impact.

The swift loading times and performance mode on console make this occasionally ponderous game more slick and manageable, whereas the cross-platform cloud save feature has been a game-changer for me personally, allowing me to transfer my progress between PlayStation 5 and Steam Deck.

However, one small update – not enabled by default – has a profoundly positive The Witcher 3 impact on The Witcher 3’s gameplay: Quick Sign Casting.

The Witcher universe consists of magic spells known as signs, and Geralt has access to five of them at all times: a fire attack, a force blast, mind control, a magic trap, and a magic shield.

Quen, the shield sign, is an invaluable weapon in any combat situation, while Axii’s mind grip makes it particularly useful in crowd control situations when human enemies are present.

Witcher 3 players who wish to change signs previously had to pause mid-combat and use a radial menu to do so.

Signs can now be cast by holding down the right trigger and using the four face buttons, as well as the left trigger.

When you have learned the button assignments, this proves to be a far more frictionless way of playing. In fact, it is so much more fluid that it encourages you to play differently, The Witcher 3 mixing spells more often, rather than, for example, setting up a Quen shield and then sticking to Igni, the fire spell, throughout combat.

The ability to switch between refreshing Quen, picking off strays with Axii, and blasting groups with Igni has now been greatly enhanced.

Without technically adding new content to the game, The Witcher 3 Quick Sign Casting unearths a tactical and situational approach to The Witcher 3’s combat that has always been there, but has been buried by the control scheme (in much the same way that Death March difficulty exposes the hidden importance of character builds in the game).

It does not magically make a Signs build the best way to play – this game will never really appeal to fans of the glass-cannon mage archetype – but it does bring to life the fantasy of a monster hunter for whom magic is another tool in their arsenal.

In a nutshell, it is a small adjustment that has a dramatic impact on the game.

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