Summary
A modder is restoring a notable feature that CD Projekt Red removed fromThe Witcher 3while the game was still in development. While the acclaimed open world RPG has no shortage of enjoyable content to keep players busy, mods like these are always nice to see, as they not only preserve pieces of gaming history, but they also give fans ofThe Witcher 3an idea of what could have been had the developers decided to implement the elements of the game they cut from the final product.
Since its 2015 release,The Witcher 3has widely been regarded asone of the best role-playing games of all time, in large part due to its extensive replayability. Thanks to the action RPG’s genre-defining open world, emphasis on choice and consequence, and lengthy expansion content, players can easily spend hundreds of hours on the acclaimed title without running out of things to do. However, not every feature that CD Projekt Red planned forThe Witcher 3made it into the final build of the game. After all, games packed with features and questlines are bound to leave content on the cutting room floor at some point during development. One dedicated fan, however, has managed to bring some ofThe Witcher 3’s cut content back using mods.
As spotted on NexusMods, a modder named MerseyRockoff has restored the boat racing minigame inThe Witcher 3that never saw the light of day. By usingCD Projekt Red’s official REDkit modding tool, they successfully recreated this canceled feature in the game with the mod they made, aptly titled “Boat Races.” MerseyRockoff first came across this cut content by looking throughThe Witcher 3’s game files. There, they spotted remnants of what appeared to be some boat racing-related quests that weren’t present in the final game. The feature seemingly didn’t make it far in development at CD Projekt Red, as MerseyRockoff was only able to find text and audio files pertaining to the long-lost boat races.
This Witcher 3 Mod Adds Boat Races Back to the Game
Nonetheless, they were still able to bring the content back by creating additional scripts from scratch “based on CDPR’s writing and careful examining of the files.” According to the modder, this “means that all the conversations, characters, notices and journal entries featured in the mod were originally written by CDPR, but re-created and brought to life by [the modder] using REDkit.” This goes to show just how dedicated MerseyRockoff was in adding back theminigame to the open-world RPG.
What’s especially impressive about thisWitcher 3modthough, outside of it adding four boat races to the game accessible in Novigrad Harbor, Kaim Trolde, Oxenfurt, and Holmstein, is that it’s available in 17 different languages, including Chinese, Turkish, and Czech. While the audio is predictably only available in English, the fact that people around the world can experience this cut content fromThe Witcher 3is particularly noteworthy.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
WHERE TO PLAY
You are Geralt of Rivia, mercenary monster slayer. Before you stands a war-torn, monster-infested continent you can explore at will. Your current contract? Tracking down Ciri — the Child of Prophecy, a living weapon that can alter the shape of the world.PLAY AS A HIGHLY TRAINED MONSTER SLAYER FOR HIRETrained from early childhood and mutated to gain superhuman skills, strength, and reflexes, witchers are a counterbalance to the monster-infested world in which they live.Gruesomely destroy foes as a professional monster hunter armed with a range of upgradeable weapons, mutating potions, and combat magic. Hunt down a wide variety of exotic monsters, from savage beasts prowling mountain passes to cunning supernatural predators lurking in the shadowy back alleys of densely populated cities. Invest your rewards to upgrade your weaponry and buy custom armor, or spend them on horse races, card games, fist fighting, and other pleasures life brings.EXPLORE A MORALLY AMBIGUOUS FANTASY OPEN WORLDBuilt for endless adventure, the massive open world of The Witcher sets new standards in terms of size, depth, and complexity. Traverse a fantastical open world: explore forgotten ruins, caves, and shipwrecks, trade with merchants and dwarven smiths in cities, and hunt across the open plains, mountains, and seas. Deal with treasonous generals, devious witches, and corrupt royalty to provide dark and dangerous services. Make choices that go beyond good & evil, and face their far-reaching consequences.
