The Witcher 4 looks astonishing in a new Unreal Fest tech demo today, but I’ve been on the path long enough to know that the visuals that delight our eyeballs years out from release don’t always reflect how a game ends up looking once it’s finally out on a gaming console. Still, a new cinematic trailer and extended tech showcase have me wishing The Witcher 4 wasn’t still two to three years away and probably cross-gen with PlayStation 6.
CD Projekt Red developers shared the stage at Epic Games’ Unreal Fest in Orlando, Florida on Tuesday to show how new improvements to Unreal Engine 5 are helping make The Witcher 4 feel like the true generational shift fans might expect for a game coming out over a decade after its predecessor. The sequel will be the Polish studio’s first after ditching its in-house game engine tools for UE5, and CDPR shared a taste of those early results running at 60fps on a base PS5 with fans during the conference, including the player’s new horse pal called Kelpie.
A new cinematic trailer showed crooked elites getting their just desserts when a dragon flies down in the night and rips their wagon to shreds. A mysterious wanderer emerges the next day to investigate the remnants of the crime scene, eventually revealing herself to be Ciri, the former princess and Geralt of Rivia’s mentee all grown up. Observing for clues as if her mind had shifted into detective mode, it’s clear she looks a little different from her appearance in The Witcher 4‘s initial reveal at The Game Awards 2025. Is that emblematic of a shift moving forward?
While she’s supposed to be much older now, her new model looked different than what fans may have expected from playing The Witcher 3. CD Projekt Red later revealed a behind-the-scenes video about the making the of the 2024 cinematic trailer and noted that character models naturally look different depending on the rendering-style and medium. “At this point, any character’s appearance may vary depending on the medium—whether it’s in a trailer, a 3D model, or in-game,” game director Sebastian Kalemba wrote at the time.
A spokesperson for CD Projekt Red told Kotaku that only two changes were made to Ciri in the new trailer, one of which was already changed. “It’s the same character model used in the trailer,” they said. “Ciri’s face is a direct copy of The Witcher 3 model, adapted to work with the latest MetaHuman technology. Two subtle changes were made to improve animation quality: slightly raised eyebrows, and a more relaxed eye area—the latter was present in the trailer but has since been removed.”
The real treat today was nearly 10 minutes of seeing Ciri wander around a new open world. A gameplay tech demo showed the monster slayer wandering through sprawling sections of wilderness and village streets lined with NPCs. There’s even a bear that pops out at one point, and a knocked-over fruit crate that sends apples tumbling down a cobblestone path. It’s a UE5 showcase intended to wow and amaze with its extensive detail, hyper-realistic movement, and seamless transitions. Gently falling snowflakes and icy river currents all add to the effect. More immersive! More visceral! Video Games!
The spokesperson for CDPR stressed to Kotaku that today’s footage is a tech demo for Unreal, not the game itself. Ciri’s look, the open world, all continue to evolve throughout development. “It showcases the powerful foundation we’re building in close collaboration with Epic Games to push open-world design further than ever before and the core systems and features we’re developing using Unreal Engine 5. We’re really proud of this early milestone and excited to give you a sneak peek at some of the cool tech like UAF, Nanite Foliage, Smart Objects, ML Deformer and FastGeo Streaming that are helping shape the future of The Witcher.”
I don’t need to remind Witcher fans of E3 “downgrade”-gate, which saw players poring over preview footage and showing how it looked better than what eventually launched in The Witcher 3 in 20215. As then-CD-Projekt-Red visual effects artist José Teixeira explained at the time, you can’t downgrade a game that doesn’t exist, and what’s really happening in these situations is that trade-offs are made to keep a game performant while also making it look as good as possible.
The takeaway from Unreal Fest is that CDPR feels confident it’ll be able to do that using UE5 in a way that makes the wait worth it for all the Witcher-heads out there. It looks like it’s working so far! The in-game footage is even better-looking than the cinematic.
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