If there’s one criticism leveled at games running on Unreal Engine 5, it’s sometimes their lack of visual identity. Epic Games’ engine tends to deliver a more photorealistic rendering, but without any real artistic flair if used in its purest form.

Since CD Projekt RED has switched to Unreal Engine 5 for The Witcher 4, fans of the series fear they, too, will be faced with this generic look. During his interview with The Game Business, co-CEO Michał Nowakowski offered reassurance. In his view, the transition from REDengine to Unreal Engine was essential to enable faster game releases by making development more efficient.

He claims that Epic’s engine will not alter the unique elements that players love so much about the studio’s RPGs.

"But together with Epic, we can bring it to that point. I know when we made that switch, people were saying, ‘Oh, it’s going to be another Unreal-looking game.’ But we’re not going to be. We really are going to be able to differentiate ourselves. People are going to feel this is a CDPR game still, and the technology under the hood is actually going to be irrelevant from a pure fan perspective."

The Witcher 4 is expected in 2028.