The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s new game mode is a detailed representation of how people living with long-term dementia feel.
Many game mods aim to bring new challenges to the players. PC Gamer is now talking about a new mod for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that’s frighteningly realistic in its challenges.
As the name suggests, the Long COVID Mode game mod gives the main character Geralt the so-called Long COVID. The disease refers to long-lasting symptoms that were already reported in 2020. Symptoms of long-term coronavirus vary, but they include difficulty breathing, fatigue, low stress tolerance and brain fog, among other things.
According to modder Stellar7Project, the Long Covid mod adapts the Long Covid features to The Witcher 3’s game mechanics.
“The Long COVID Mode highlights how over 65 million long-term coronavirus patients around the world take their lives to an entirely new level of difficulty,” the modder describes. “Based on patient experiences from the NGO Long COVID Europe, this mod turns the symptoms of Long Corona into game effects.”
In game mode, the symptoms of Long Corona progress in four levels, depending on how Geralt’s stress level increases. In sports, the disease affects, among other things, stamina consumption and oxygen deprivation during diving. Also, at higher levels, some foods can bring energy rather than deplete it, and in addition, Geralt can completely lose his witcher sense when hit by brain fog.
More information about the Long Covid mod and installation instructions can be found on NexusMods. There’s no video of the mod, but there are animated gifs behind the link that show what the corona effect looks like in the game.
