The Witcher 4 Tech Demo – A First Look at Ciri, Kovir, and the Future of Open-World RPGs
End of last year, we got the first cinematic reveal trailer for The Witcher 4. Since then, the hype from fans has been huge. Now, last night on June 3, 2025 at the State of Unreal 2025, we got a tech demo for The Witcher 4. You can find out everything about it here.
The goal of the Witcher 4 tech demo was to show what’s possible in terms of gameplay with Unreal Engine 5.6. The content shown is an early development version of the game and not real gameplay. Still, what we see in the demo is very impressive, and of course, the game will look very similar later.
What is The Witcher 4
The Witcher 4 is the sequel to the popular Witcher franchise with Geralt of Rivia as the main character. But Witcher 4 is different because the protagonist changes. His adoptive daughter Ciri, who also became a witcher, takes over the lead role. She fights against humans and monsters. With the steel sword against humans and silver against monsters. It is thus a completely new saga in the Witcher universe.
The game will offer a comprehensive story with tons of side quests. And all of this in a huge open world that you can freely explore. The game is set a few years after “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt”. Still, it’s less of a direct sequel as it introduces entirely new themes and mechanics. We will still see many familiar places again, and characters like Geralt and Yennefer will also appear in the game. More info about the Witcher franchise can be found in our The Witcher Pixel Sundays article.
Buy The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt key
The Witcher 4 Tech Demo
Last night, as part of the State of Unreal by CD Projekt Red, a tech demo for Witcher 4 was shown. The scenes presented are not real gameplay, but they show what will be possible in The Witcher 4 through the Unreal Engine 5.6. The demo starts with a 2-minute cutscene showing a monster attack on a cart, followed by the main character Ciri. You can watch the entire tech demo directly below.
The Witcher 4 obviously runs in Unreal Engine 5.6 and the game looks impressive. The world is full of detail and the game runs on a standard PlayStation 5 with ray tracing at a stable 60 FPS.
After seeing a bit more of the world, we move on to Ciri’s horse Kelpie. With Kelpie, you can explore the open world more effectively, and riding is designed to feel realistic and fun. To achieve this, Ciri and Kelpie were perfectly synchronized to look good from all angles. Ciri’s horse has realistic muscle movement and skin stretching animations developed through machine learning. This brings even more realism to the game, all without reducing performance.
To achieve high density and realism in the forests and nature, CD Projekt Red uses a technology called Nanite Foliage. It was developed in collaboration with Epic. This technology allows for extremely detailed and realistic trees and vegetation with high density and fidelity without performance loss. This gives developers complete artistic freedom. The technology is also memory-efficient and quickly rendered.
We also see the city of Valdrest. The city is incredibly dynamic, with people spitting at Ciri (witchers are very unpopular), she can push other characters aside, and even accidentally knock over a basket of apples from someone’s hands as she walks past. She even apologizes. But that’s not all in this dynamic world. A poor boy runs to the fallen apples and grabs some, and even the pigs run to the apples. So small actions often trigger chain reactions of other events.
On Ciri’s way through the city, she throws a coin to a beggar and sees a drunkard getting thrown out of a bar. No matter where she goes in the city, something is always happening and everything is interactive. The NPCs interact with each other too. For example, they buy things at the market stalls. Or when a musician group performs in the market square, almost everyone gathers to listen. And even with many characters on screen, everything runs smoothly. This is possible thanks to a new Unreal animation framework and much more.
World and Story
The Witcher 4 takes place in the northern region of Kovir, which was hardly shown in previous games. So there’s lots of new stuff to discover: new characters, new cities, and much more. In the tech demo, we see the lively yet impoverished city of Valdrest, dark forests, and magical creatures.
Hey, I’m Kilian, but online you’ll probably know me as “Tux1243.” I've been part of the team for almost two years now, always trying to keep you in the loop with the latest and coolest gaming news. I also have a huge passion for doing deep dives and detailed analyses of entire game series and franchises. I love getting to the bottom of things and exploring the little details and backstories that make game worlds so fascinating.
Download the Allkeyshop Browser Extension Free
For all the latest video game news, trailers, and best deals, make sure to bookmark us.
You can find all the best and cheapest online deals on CD keys, game codes, gift cards, and antivirus software from the verified CD key sellers on our store pages.
To not miss any news on Allkeyshop, subscribe on
Google News
.
MORE RELEVANT ARTICLES
