More than a decade later, CD Projekt Red has brought Geralt of Rivia out of retirement for another adventure—one that feels more personal than ever. Songs of the Past, the third expansion for The Witcher 3, takes Geralt to Letten, Dandelion’s ancestral and largely unexplored homeland.
Based on what was shown and discussed during the limited presentations at gamescom, this new journey begins with a celebration and a troubled night’s sleep. After the Beltane festivities, Geralt wakes with a pounding headache, only to discover that Dandelion has mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind nothing but his distinctive lute.
The initial clues lead Geralt to Dandelion’s cousin, Leila, who according to the developers is a guide through the tale and a possible romance choice. Leila links Dandelion’s disappearance to an ancient family mystery, the Garden of Thorns, a cursed site deep in the lands of Letten, whose origins are rooted in a controversy involving one of the family’s distant ancestors.
This is where the game’s ambiance begins to change from the sunny, pastoral beauty of Letten to something far more enigmatic and frightening. The designers say the statues spread about the garden are covered in thorns and suck the blood of living things nearby and the underground network of pipes that once watered the grounds is now completely clogged. All this is evidence of a corruption that has been lurking beneath the surface of this supposedly pristine area for years.
The dev team believes Geralt’s aiming and movement systems have been considerably updated from the original The Witcher 3, so from a gameplay standpoint both seem smoother and more precise. These, together with new finishers and updated texturing in the remaster, give the combat a more modern feel.
The coolest new feature, though, is a new chain weapon that lets Geralt drag enemies toward him before killing them off with a cool neck strike. This mechanic was particularly well demonstrated in the fight with the demo’s main boss, the Slumbering Knight – a root-covered skeleton who can utilize branching roots to attack and defend. The game’s writers promise familiar monsters of The Witcher universe will be joined by creatures like the Slumbering Knight, to offer a new mix of combat encounters across the expansion.
If this sample is anything to go by, Songs of the Past is shaping up to be a Blood and Wine sized expansion with around 20 hours of new material. More crucially, it’s designed as Geralt’s genuine final chapter before The Witcher formally transfers the mantle to Ciri in the fourth game. What happened to Dandelion is still a mystery, and that may be the greatest strength of Songs of the Past: an invitation to walk the Path with Geralt one more time—not to save the world but to save a friend.
The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past will be released in 2027 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2, after the free full remaster of The Witcher 3, which drops September 29 this year.
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I dropped the game once because of the movement and combat system, but I should give it another chance.