The Witcher 3 is a whole new experience in first person

As one of the most beloved video games of all time, it's hard to imagine The Witcher 3 as anything other than a gorgeous, third-personRPG spearheaded by an old man who's best. Geralt likes to collect cards and bet on races while he searches for his missing daughter. His love for fisticuffs is not included.

CD Projekt Red's giant role-playing game is so enduring because of how reliably fans can recall its stinky swamps, snow-laden sierras, and repugnant little rotfiends. Though they have never been on par with official support for the game, fan-made first-person mod for The Witcher 3 have been hidden on the internet's largest mod hub. These projects feel more like proof-of-concept experiments than add-ons designed to change flow, pacing or function in the game.

Gervant First Person is a mod that makes it impossible for The Witcher 3 to be a first-person game. The main file was updated last month, showing that it has continued to progress as it tries to change everything in between.

The creator of the mod says he didn't find a suitable mod for the fight. They tested it by playing through the game four different times.

The blasé response is indicative of a wider disregard for how others view their work. They don't have much of a social media presence, they don't have a channel on YouTube, and they don't have any contact information. When I contacted them to inquire about an interview, they explained that they would only talk about the mod and nothing else, and that English is not their first language. The mod was never designed to allow them to talk about it, instead it was designed to allow them to see Geralt's eyes.

It became apparent that I would need to install the mod myself. Installation of The Witcher 3's modding scene should be easy if you are familiar with it. Community Patch - Base and Community Patch - Shared Imports are the only mod that is required for Gervant First Person to run. Launching it via The Witcher 3 Mod Manager can be a pain, but it automatically integrates all of the necessary scripts. If you aren't messing around with a lot of other mod, you can get GFP up and running.

The mod supports both first- and third-person perspectives, so you can easily switch between them after selecting a custom key binding. The third-person option is the same as in the vanilla version, but changing to a first-person view makes the experience feel like an Elder Scrolls adventure. If you've ever wondered what The Witcher 3: Wild Skyrim would look like, this mod is for you.

The world was never designed to facilitate first-person play, and the transition between perspectives isn't exactly seamless. Once the camera is unlocked, issues with lighting become more prominent, as characters who should be off-screen occasionally teleport around. If you're playing a game with a gamepad instead of a mouse and keyboard, you'll see similar problems arise in combat. While dodging can be tough, combining swords and signs feels great in the first person.

The fact that a single person made this mod is remarkable and presents the strongest case yet for a first-person Witcher game, as there are many minor complications that arise from playing a blockbuster game in a way it was never intended to be played. The same engine that powers The Witcher 3 is used to build Cyberpunk 2077. You can explore Velen, Novigrad, and Skellige in first person. What else could you expect from a solo developer who built this in his spare time, just so he could beat up a bunch of nekkers? Not everything needs to be perfect.

There are aspects of GFP that improve on The Witcher 3. This is one of the most gorgeous game worlds to have ever existed, so having the ability to disabling various HUD widgets and explore its stunning sets in first person gives you the perfect opportunity to really drink in the splendor of it all. It shows some of the hidden functions that make up the world of The Witcher 3: you can study supply lines, patrol routes, and wolves forming packs to close in on a carcass. It's clear that this world wasn't designed with first person in mind, but its ability to incorporate it nonetheless is a real testament to how magnificent it is.

In the interest of providing clear context, I have killed the griffin in White Orchard and cleared several other side quests at the time of writing. As soon as you wake up next to Vesemir, you have unrestricted access to a full version of The Witcher 3 as a first-person adventure game.

One of the strongest arguments for why seasoned witchers should give this mod a try is that it is very easy to get lost. The world feels fundamentally different in first person, it looks more dense, but it also enjoys immense draw distance, creating a massive atmosphere where towns and towers can be seen from miles away. The HUD can be turned off to transform places like Velen and Skellige into whole new areas that retain all the warmth and familiarity of the originals. It isn't as professionally designed as the actual game, but it is important. The kind of first-person / third-person hybridity you might expect to find in a game like The Witcher could work, and it's probably the first project of its kind to attempt that.

There are many examples of this, which show both CDPR's attention to detail and crthdr's vision when it comes to converting that to first person. Geralt pops his head up to inhale when he swims. When you are following tracks or scent trails, first person senses feel more real. It doesn't matter if the mod feels polished or janky. For the record, it's between the two. It accentuates how refined this world is while acting as an unofficial prototype for how a better one might look.

crthdr is too modest to admit how radical the project is. The rest don't care. CDPR could have done it better. It was not on their to-do list. Most people don't care about first-person, and doing hybrid first person and third person is probably too much work. I prefer the first person.

Anyone who engages with GFP will likely come away thinking that their work is not that important. This is the kind of unofficial project that is well thought out to prompt real reflection within official ones.

If you want a completely different experience in this world, you should check out GFP, because the upcoming new-gen patch for The Witcher 3 provides a more-than-worthy reason for avid monster slayers to return to The Continent.