The REDkit modding tools have truly changed everything when it comes to the longevity of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, as it has thrown wide open the doors for massive modding ranging from trivial texture swapping. Whereas CD Projekt Red now has its full attention on Polaris and the remake of the original Witcher title, the community has filled that void with activities of its own. The latest of the big pushes, a mod entitled Tales of the Witcher, gives the players huge incentives to return to Geralt’s world, starting with a whole new region to explore.
The mod, created by Nexus Mods user Gerwant, does not merely iterate on existing assets; it attempts to replicate the atmospheric storytelling celebrated by the base game and its official DLCs. The project is envisioned as a sort of prologue, set prior to the main game, and thus allows the creators to invent fresh scenarios unencumbered by the myriad of choices players enacted in Wild Hunt or Blood and Wine. This is a wonderful undertaking that shows how professionally programmed tools in the hands of passionate amateurs can keep a game alive indefinitely.
Walking through a new landmass in The Witcher 3 feels like Evoca to 2015, but technically, this is something very modern! With its custom quests and environmental storytelling seamlessly combined with the bleak, lived-in feel of the Continent, this expansion offers something for the “newness” of the geography to most veterans who have drained every question mark out of Velen, Skellige, and Toussaint. The modding community can be viewed as a second development team making sure that, even as the decade of the RPG classic approaches, the title continues to dominate.
Tales of the Witcher is available for download via Nexus Mods for those who want to take another go at it. While there have been whispers here and there about some sort of official legacy updates, the fan-made expansion is the most tangible content update we have as of this moment. It is building a bridge that better connects the waiting fandom with the next iteration of Witcher games and showing that Geralt’s journey is anything but over, as long as there is love for the game and the tools are accessible.
