During today's State of Unreal 2025 live stream, CD Projekt Red unveiled some more of The Witcher 4 and its features in a new tech demo – including a first look at Ciri's horse Kelpie.
Game director Sebastian Kalemba begins by introducing the new Witcher protagonist and her mount. "Just like Geralt had Roach, Ciri has her own loyal companion," he explains. "These two characters need to feel like one – since you're gonna explore the world on horseback, riding needs to feel seamless, natural, and just fun." What exactly does the lead mean by that? Everything about Kelpie is so realistic, it'd make horses in Red Dead Redemption 2 blush.
Epic Games' senior director of product strategy, Wyeth Johnson, dives into this hyper-realism in depth: "We're introducing multi-character Motion Matching in Unreal, so Ciri and Kelpie, they're perfectly synchronized when mounting from any angle and speed," he describes, going on to detail some of the Unreal Engine tech used. "We also support Root Motion movement on Kelpie, so controlling her feels realistic and grounded."
Kelpie's realism doesn't end with the immersive Root Motion tech, though. "There are also some really nice improvements to our Unreal Chaos Flesh solver and these machine-learned deformations," Johnson concludes alongside a mind-boggling visual of everything in action as an unsaddled Kelpie gallops across the screen. "So you've got realistic muscles moving and stretching under Kelpie's skin without compromising the performance there."
The Witcher 4 is shaping up to be a breathtaking entry in CD Projekt Red's beloved series of RPGs, from its ultra-realistic horseback riding, to its setting in the never-before-seen kingdom of Kovir – and as a longtime fan myself, I can't wait to experience it all firsthand whenever the game releases. For now, however, I'll have to remain content with shuffling through the new Witcher 4 screenshots shared today and rewinding the tech demo.
Need even more to look forward to? Here are other new games coming this year and beyond.
