Aside from all the stories and quests that fill every nook and cranny of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s sprawling, magical world (a feast for any RPG lover), there was a little something missing—a feature conceived but never added in by its developers’ team at CD Projekt Red. Then comes onto the scene, MerseyRockoff who has dedicated himself and his skills to bringing these lost assets back from nowhere for all of us gamers.
On NexusMods, modder MerseyRockoff released a new mod called “Boat Races,” which involves the reintroduction of a boat racing minigame that had been removed from The Witcher 3 during development. It’s a feature that was ignored and removed as there were more important deadlines to meet when coming up with what would eventually be in the final release. By slogging through the game files, MerseyRockoff uncovered text and audio for boat racing quests that never made it into the epic storyline. With these fragments, they scoured together new scripts and remade the races within CD Projekt Red’s REDkit modding tools.
What makes this mod great isn’t just its nostalgic value but also its accessibility. There are four race tracks that you can participate in Novigrad Harbor, Kaim Trolde, Oxenfurt, and Holmstein with Boat Races. This is even more impressive as it extends to 17 languages, among them Chinese (simplified/traditional), Turkish, or Czech. This accessibility has greatly increased the population of people who are able to take a piece out of an almost-forgotten game.
For years, the modding scene has played a key role in keeping The Witcher 3 interesting for players even as it approaches its eighth anniversary. Now, players can find mods such as “Boat Races” which offers another level inside the game and shows just how committed fans are. Merseyrockoff’s mod gives all those who wish to experience that a glimpse at what could have been, resurrecting one of the most talked about cut content into life and further enriching The Witcher 3 with even more layers than it already has.
