Designed to be the crowning achievement from the renowned RPG developers; The Witcher 3 will feature a mature, nonlinear, vast and completely open world said to be 20 percent larger than Bethesda’s Skyrim.
CD Projekt RED has officially announced the highly anticipated return of Geralt of Rivia, further more they have also announced that The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt will be the final chapter in Geralt’s tale and the conclusion of The Witcher series.
Adam Badowski head of CD Projekt RED told us more of what to expect from the 2014 release.
“The captivating and non-linear story of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt takes place in a rich, truly open-world environment. A world which is thrilling to explore, full of daring adventures, momentous quests, memorable characters, and unique monsters.
Players will freely travel through woods, lakes, mountains, cities and villages. Each region is inhabited by distinct populations with their own customs, legends and problems. The world of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is 30 times bigger than The Witcher 2,” said Adam Badowski, head of the studio.
“Imagine playing a dark fantasy game with the same great non-linear story as in the previous Witcher titles, but now told in a world you can explore freely with no artificial boundaries. The war-ravaged world is so huge that to reach farther places you will need to ride a horse or sail a boat to get there. A world where your choices have truly epic consequences. From the development side, this goal is extremely demanding.
Our team had to make significant design changes and our tech had to be rebuilt. But we believe that this will lead to a completely new level of non-linearity and a whole new, richer gaming experience. As a gamer, I would love to play this kind of RPG, and I think this is what many players are waiting for. This is our dream come true at CD Projekt RED, and we hope it will be the same for you!” adds Badowski
Set to be the most ambitious Witcher title yet CD Projekt RED has set out to push the limits of the RPG genre. Open-world, free-roaming exploration is an adventure in itself as the player will gallop through war-ravaged lands, sail misty waters and track down dangerous beasts for money.
An improved combat system will allow players to feel like a real monster-hunter, a witcher who uses his superior senses and fighting skills to survive in a dark fantasy world-while he embarks on a quest to save his loved ones. The new core mechanics of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt immerse the player in the experience completely, with no Quick Time Events, only intuitive RPG gameplay.
Badowski also gave a reason to why Geralt’s story was set to end. “People may ask if this is really going to be the last Witcher game. Yes, it is. Why? Because we believe that we should end the series on a high note. Technology has progressed to where we can finally tell the story the way we want, with the visuals we want, in the world we imagined. This will be the ultimate fantasy RPG experience, and while we’re hardly out of stories to tell, we believe it’s time for us to look to new worlds and new horizons to keep pushing the boundaries of what we can create.” Due to the first game being a PC exclusive and the Witcher 2 coming only to Xbox 360 a year after its original PC release, Geralt’s exploits aren’t familiar with gamers the world over. This makes the decision to end the series as a trilogy a controversial one.
However for those of you who have missed out on Geralt’s adventures so far the Witcher 3 looks set to explode into your games library as the 2014 release is to be made available on “all high-end platforms,” which can only be predicted as next gen consoles, which are touted to be released at the end of this year. The Witcher 3 along with the next gen consoles are all making for top billing at this years’ E3 as gamers are excited to see what their new kit can do.
To celebrate this momentous announcement, the developers of the award-winning Witcher franchise are putting The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition on a 50% off sale on GOG.com and Steam for the next 72 hours. And for console gamers, the price of The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is permanently decreased to only USD/EUR 29.99 USD/EUR or GBP 19,99.
CD Projekt RED has added a whole new section to their website. If you want to find more information, please go to www.thewitcher.com
