CD Projekt RED has revealed a fresh look at The Witcher 4 in a stunning Unreal Engine 5 tech demo, with Ciri front and centre and Kovir brought vividly to life.
CD Projekt RED just dropped a new look at The Witcher 4 during Epic’s State of Unreal livestream, showing off what the next instalment in the franchise could look like using Unreal Engine 5.
The gameplay footage, while not from a final or in-development build, shows a playable sequence and environmental showcase designed to highlight how The Witcher 4 might eventually run on current-gen hardware.
The sequence features Ciri, now the series lead, tracking a manticore through the forests. She rides Kelpie, investigates a bloodied merchant caravan, and delivers the news back to a sketchy contract-giver more concerned with smuggled goods than salt shipments.
As CDPR cinematic director Kajetan Kapuściński explained on stream, the demo is part of an ongoing 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.” Technical advances like SmartGeo streaming and Nanite Foliage were on display – fancy terms aside, it looked remarkable.
You can check out the full tech demo below:
The scene ends in a Koviri settlement full of bustle and detail, complete with Ciri’s cloak shifting naturally with movement and crowds that feel genuinely alive. It’s a throwback to The Witcher 3’s Novigrad demo, but dialled up dramatically in scope and fidelity.
We also get a first proper listen to Ciara Berkeley as Ciri, taking over from Jo Wyatt. The tone hits right – measured, wearied, and more seasoned than we’ve ever heard Ciri before. While the camera cuts away from the dialogue just as a decision point nears, the performance is already doing some heavy lifting.
CD Projekt RED has confirmed this isn’t real gameplay footage and won’t appear as-is in the final game. But as a proof-of-concept for The Witcher 4, it’s hard not to be impressed.
First teased at The Game Awards in 2023, The Witcher 4 will be the first mainline entry since 2015’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The studio says it’s building “the most immersive and ambitious open-world Witcher game ever,” and if this demo is anything to go by, they’re not bluffing.
No release window has been confirmed, but the tech suggests CDPR is taking its time after the high-profile stumble of Cyberpunk 2077’s launch. For now, The Witcher 4 remains deep in development, but if this is how it looks years out, the wait could very well be worth it.
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