I Really Want to Get Back into The Witcher 3 but I Have Save Game Anxiety

Published Oct 9, 2026, 1:01 PM EDT Help, I don't know where to (re)start Image: CD Projekt Red You know the feeling, I bet you do. There's a game you played and loved but never finished — or never felt you got closure on, in one way or another. And, suddenly, there's a compelling reason to go back, like a patch or visual refresh. But trying to start a big, complicated game in the middle is disorienting and hard work. You have to remember how everything works, what the buttons do, what's happening in the story, what all this stuff in your inventory does, how you set up your character build, where the useful vendors are, and so on. It can be quite a hump to get over. You're not in the flow anymore, and the flow can be hard to find. You could always start again, but that means losing all of your previous progress. I'm in this position right now with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I'd like to go back to the game to check out all the changes and improvements in the new, free Remastered update. I'd also like to be poised and ready, immersed in the character of Geralt and his world, by the time the new expansion Songs of the Past drops next year. But in this case, my dilemma is more complicated than choosing between picking up old threads or starting again. I've played this game a lot — mostly a long time ago — and started new saves a bunch of times. I've got a bewildering variety of starting points to pick from. This is a problem of my own making. I'm a serial restarter when it comes to RPGs, which is one reason I have at least 25 World of Warcraft characters. Some people love endgames; I love a clean slate, the feeling of gradually piecing my playthrough together, the sense of all that possibility ahead of me. But The Witcher 3 is hardly a sandbox — it's a story-led game with a linear main questline and a clearly defined lead character. There might be a limit to how many times I can face White Orchard. So where should I start? Here are my options: My original PlayStation game save, which I abandoned somewhere in the middle of the game's second expansion, Blood and Wine. I don't know why I never finished it. This is the highest-level character and the most advanced in the story, but I have no idea what's going on and I last played it 10 years ago. My most recent save is on Steam, from four years ago. I decided to push through the main story on Death March, the highest difficulty level. It's pretty well advanced — the Wild Hunt campaign is in the closing stages — but the save is right before a boss I was terminally stuck on, which sounds like a terrible place to pick up. I have another, earlier Death March save which I left somewhere in the Skellige Islands, midway through the original campaign. I started a New Game Plus save at some point, but never got very far with it. Image: CD Projekt Red Or I could choose a fresh start, but even that's not simple. There are four options: Literally just start the game again Start a New Game Plus, using my OG PlayStation save Start from the Hearts of Stone expansion, which I've finished before, with a premade character (an option offered by developer CD Projekt Red) Start from the Blood and Wine expansion with a premade character It's head-spinning stuff. Another consideration is that The Witcher 3 Remastered includes substantial changes to both combat and skill trees. This means that, in every scenario except a completely fresh save, I would begin the game with all my skill points refunded and would need to do some homework and admin on a new character build before I even started to play. Oof. So, what to do? As much as I love a fresh start, I don't think I have time to play the entirety of The Witcher 3 and its expansions, and I don't want to leave another save in Skellige. So that's out. So is New Game Plus, which presents the same problem, but with more homework to do on the character first. Image: CD Projekt Red I do want to finish that Death March run, but that would be better done after refamiliarizing myself with the game on a different save, so it goes on the back burner for now. And I like Hearts of Stone, but don't feel the need to play it again for pure story's sake. That leaves Blood and Wine. A decade later, I would love to see the end of it. And, with its discrete map and storyline, it serves as a more digestible, self-contained Witcher 3 experience. But picking it up partway through sounds messy and unsatisfying. I don't like the idea of a premade character much either — hashtag not my Geralt — but it makes the most sense as a starting point, and I'm grateful to CD Projekt for the option. So I think that's the way I'll go. Starting a game again can feel pretty high-stakes and mentally taxing. After all, you're making choices about dozens, sometimes hundreds of hours of your life, both already invested and still to come. It can be tricky to pick up a book or a TV series after time away, but it's nothing like this. I found it hard enough to get back into The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom when the Switch 2 Edition launched, and that game has less surface complexity and was much fresher in my memory. Free sign-up Get Polygon’s Wishlister newsletter A weekly cheat sheet to what you’ll eventually love to play. No buying, no commitment — just saving for later. Sign up free Free. Unsubscribe anytime. But I've got to give CD Projekt credit. Firstly, for offering a range of thoughtful, customizable ways to play the game, including premade characters for the expansions, New Game Plus, and well-considered difficulty levels. Secondly, for its dedication to keeping The Witcher 3 freely updated and widely available over the past 11 years, with cross-platform cloud progression, so I can pick up any save on any system I want. (Even if that makes it harder to choose.) And, finally and most importantly, for making a game, a world, and a character so compelling that I'm always excited to come back to it. Even if it is a bit of a headache.