CD Projekt Red Isn't Afraid of Making The Witcher 3 Too Difficult

Steven Bogos

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Jan 17, 2013
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CD Projekt Red Isn't Afraid of Making The Witcher 3 Too Difficult


The Witcher 3's "dark" difficulty setting features permadeath and nail-biting difficulty.

While EA is lamenting that games are VG24/7 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/139732-EA-Games-Too-Hard-to-Learn-Claims-Exec], quest designer Philipp Weber tells us how The Witcher 3 won't be pulling any punches, even on its "normal" difficulty setting. "Normal should be a challenge," Webber explained, telling us that in most games, "normal is easy, and easy is - well, you can be on your phone while playing."

He told us that The Witcher 3 will be "easy to learn but hard to master," and that he really wants players to start to struggle with it towards the end. "There's a nice curve. It gets more difficult the more you progress in the game, but also you will learn more and more things." Enemies do not scale in The Witcher 3, and combat requires precise and accurate timing. Venture too far into end-game territory without the proper experience and you will get slaughtered.

When asked where he would put The Witcher 3's "normal" difficulty setting on a chart, with Skyrim right down the bottom, and Dark Souls at the top, Webber told us it would be somewhere close to the middle. However, when asked about the game's punishingly difficult "dark" mode, well, he said that wasn't even on the same chart.

"Dark difficulty is something that many people in the company are very passionate about," said Webber. As well turning the difficulty up to its very highest setting, Dark difficulty also features permadeath. "[Many people] want a real challenge. If you die five minutes before the ending, it's over. There are actually people who have already done it."

In a world of hand-holding tutorials and games that literally have a mode where you can just watch the cutscenes while the game plays itself [http://www.pcgamer.com/mass-effect-3-narrative-mode-and-action-mode-explained/], it's good to see devs like CD Projekt Red stick to their guns and actually make games that are challenging.

Call me an old man, but back in my day, games were supposed to be hard. That was the whole point!

Source: VG24/7 [http://www.vg247.com/2015/02/05/dark-difficulty-and-permadeath-how-hard-is-the-witcher-3/]

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Bat Vader

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Mar 11, 2009
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Does CD Projekt Red just scan the news for what other devs are saying and then just put out something that one ups them in terms of awesomeness. I am happy to see this though. Permadeath is an awesome thing to see in games.
 

RJ 17

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Nov 27, 2011
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I still laugh at the thought that games are "too hard" these days. Retro games were obscenely difficult, and with good reason: they were (often) ports of arcade games which were specifically designed to suck up as many quarters as possible.

Has anyone here ever made it to the kill-screen of the original Donkey Kong? I don't think so. How about Pac-Man? A little easier, but I highly doubt anyone on this site has ever made it to the kill-screen.

As such, I have to agree with CD Projekt...games these days are laughably easy in comparison to the games of yore. All games should be "easy to learn, hard to master" if you ask me. :p
 

Soviet Heavy

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Jan 22, 2010
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I thought that Dark Mode in Witcher 2 just limited you to a single save and upped the difficulty. It was Nightmare mode that had permadeath.
 

Absolutionis

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Sep 18, 2008
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This seems like a dig at EA's recent announcement that their games like their DLC Quest: Fantasy Iteration and DLC Quest: SciFi Iteration were too difficult.

CDPRed already has players' goodwill. This announcement seems unnecessary.
 

major_chaos

Ruining videogames
Feb 3, 2011
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Riiiight. Here's hoping that since TW2 they A. learned how difficulty curves are suppost to work (Hint: its not meant to start brutal and get progressively more piss easy) and B. learned how to do actual difficulty rather than throwing you in against a decent sized mob with zero explanation of the semi-complex combat system or hugely situation and hard to correctly use magic in the prologue.

Also willing to bet that "dark mode" is going to be cheap as hell(wooo you added a 400% multiplier to monster health and damage, such skill, much game design), but still be praised to high heaven because Souls ushered in a grand new era of people wanting games to play like they are trying to drain you of quarters.

I do plan to pick up TW3 (once I figure out which organs I can sell to upgrade my PC to a point where I can run it at stable framerate that is) but I think I understand the slavish devotion people have to the Witcher and CD Project even less than I understand the Valve cult.
 

Erttheking

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Ok fine, but can they make the game hard because of a well structured difficulty curve and not because the combat is shit?
 

Sanunes

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Mar 18, 2011
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None of that sounds really hard to me at all, its just going to be enemies with scaled up health and a gimmick of perma-death on the "hardest mode". To me they are really opening themselves up to major criticism if the game really isn't hard for my experience with The Witcher 2 was that it wasn't hard at all, it just had a steep learning curve right from the start and once you figured that out the game became pretty mundane.
 

Haru17

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Still editorializing in the news section without disclosing. Being a 'quirky' news site with a meme-ish forum avatars doesn't exempt this site from basical journalistic principles.
 

CpT_x_Killsteal

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Jun 21, 2012
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Haru17 said:
Still editorializing in the news section without disclosing. Being a 'quirky' news site with a meme-ish forum avatars doesn't exempt this site from basical journalistic principles.
You mean the last line? I don't think that's too much of a problem.
 

Elfgore

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Dec 6, 2010
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Needlessly challenging more like it. It was the needlessly difficult combat of the second game that made me put it down till I learned of the combat re-balance mod. Chances are this game will now go on hold till something similar comes out. I don't mind difficulty in games like Dark Souls, but I play the Witcher for story.
 
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CpT_x_Killsteal said:
Haru17 said:
Still editorializing in the news section without disclosing. Being a 'quirky' news site with a meme-ish forum avatars doesn't exempt this site from basical journalistic principles.
You mean the last line? I don't think that's too much of a problem.
The last couple of lines, I think, are the problem. They aren't necessarily that bad by themselves, but you definitely couldn't call them neutral and objective.
 

Geisterkarle

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Dec 27, 2010
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RJ 17 said:
Has anyone here ever made it to the kill-screen of the original Donkey Kong? I don't think so. How about Pac-Man? A little easier, but I highly doubt anyone on this site has ever made it to the kill-screen.
No we probably didn't. Because even the people that did spend more time on it as it is worth for me (also every one of them did it by having an own arcade machine at their homes!) And Pac-man basically has no kill-screen it just gets the hell bugged out!
If someone is interested in those crazy people, I recommend "King of Kong":
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/
(and since then everything in this movie has been crushed!)

But I will run you Super Meat Boy Light World in 30min, if you want, so don't tell me that "we" are bad gamers!

Back to topic: Everything I hear about Witcher 3 just makes me more hyped about it! I hope I will die a lot! :) Challenge accepted!
 

CpT_x_Killsteal

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Jun 21, 2012
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thebobmaster said:
CpT_x_Killsteal said:
Haru17 said:
Still editorializing in the news section without disclosing. Being a 'quirky' news site with a meme-ish forum avatars doesn't exempt this site from basical journalistic principles.
You mean the last line? I don't think that's too much of a problem.
The last couple of lines, I think, are the problem. They aren't necessarily that bad by themselves, but you definitely couldn't call them neutral and objective.
True, true. I didn't notice the second last line, it might be a bit much. Escapist is generally level-headed about this stuff, especially Steven (from what I've seen), so I don't think it's too bad personally. Though I can understand if people jump at each instance of it, especially if their accounts were only made in 2014.
 

Supernova2000

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May 2, 2009
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erttheking said:
Ok fine, but can they make the game hard because of a well structured difficulty curve and not because the combat is shit?
Indeed, that's the only reason I never went higher than normal; as it was, I was already fighting the controls as much as the enemies.
 

Nazulu

They will not take our Fluids
Jun 5, 2008
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erttheking said:
Ok fine, but can they make the game hard because of a well structured difficulty curve and not because the combat is shit?
Yes, thank you. The problem I usually find in games is when the mechanics or design begin to betray you, which is only annoying.

Show them how it's done CD Projekt, because if don't, this is just going to come back and bite you in the ass.
 

Phasmal

Sailor Jupiter Woman
Jun 10, 2011
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Alright, Witcher, we get it, you're not a regular game, you're a cool game.
Sexy times! Game is hard!
Alright chill out, brah.

In all seriousness, that's good. I hope they live up to the `easy to learn thing`, from what I've heard from my friends who have played the first couple, the controls and combat could be a bit shite.