The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past Debuts First Gameplay, Revealing Geralt’s New Weapon and Deadly Enemies

More than a decade after its initial release, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt continues to stand as a benchmark for open-world role-playing games. Following an exclusive, hour-long preview of its forthcoming expansion, Songs of the Past, at Gamescom, it is clear that the White Wolf’s enduring appeal remains as formidable as ever.

Mechanically, Songs of the Past honors the design philosophy that made Blood and Wine an enduring triumph. Players are invited into the uncharted territory of Letten, a picturesque yet perilous province brimming with intricate questlines, terrifying bestiary additions, and a nuanced narrative that weaves beloved franchise veterans alongside compelling newcomers.

Rather than reinventing a foundation that already thrives—evidenced by the game’s remarkably consistent concurrent player numbers on SteamDB—this expansion leans heavily into Geralt’s sardonic charm while peeling back the layers of Dandelion’s enigmatic history.

The preview begins with Geralt confronting a dockside vagrant who has mysteriously acquired Dandelion’s iconic lute. Following a brief and decisive display of bare-knuckle persuasion, the Witcher recovers the relic and journeys to the bard’s ancestral estate. There, an encounter with Dandelion’s cousin, Lilla, quickly reveals that this petty theft is merely the prelude to a far darker mystery.

Their investigation steers the duo into the overgrown perils of the “Garden of Thorns.” This twisted landscape introduces formidable adversaries such as the Thornbloom—a towering, predatory plant that discharges corrosive bile from a distance—and the Swarmion, a necrophage-adjacent fiend fortified behind a swirling barrier of hornets. To overcome these hazards, Geralt wields a newly integrated chain weapon, allowing him to breach defensive swarms from afar, drag targets into melee range, and execute gruesome finishing maneuvers, including a cinematic decapitation.

The excursion concludes with a dramatic confrontation against a resurrected spectral knight, punctuating an atmospheric crawl through the garden’s labyrinthine corridors. It delivers the quintessential dark-fantasy gameplay that defined the original release. Furthermore, narrative cues suggest that Lilla may serve as a potential romantic path, offering players an intriguing alternative to the enduring Yennefer versus Triss dilemma.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Songs of the Past is slated for release in 2027 and is currently available to wishlist.

Source: Polygon