The White Wolf Returns in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[Cognimancer]

The White Wolf Returns in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Geralt of Rivia is back, and this time, it's personal.

If you've been itching to dive back into the morally ambiguous world of The Witcher, you're in for a treat. CD Projekt Red, developers of the Witcher series and the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, has lifted the veil [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8gIsYuPIKco] on the third title in the Witcher trilogy: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Digital subscribers to Game Informer got a peek at the adventures in store for Geralt in his final outing.

Wild Hunt looks to be bringing a number of changes to the traditional formula of the past two games in the series. The most notable difference is in scope: The Witcher 3 will let Geralt wander freely in an open world that challenges Skyrim in size. Despite the grand scale of the game's free-roaming playground, the focus will be much more personal; Geralt's days of questing as an amnesiac sword-for-hire are over. Instead, players will navigate a continuous storyline (no more discrete chapters) that leads Geralt towards a confrontation with a "personal nemesis."

REDengine 3, developed for the next generation of gaming hardware, will power Wild Hunt as it brings The Witcher's world to life. Horse travel will allow for quick traversal of the countryside (with the possibility of saddlebags for some much-needed inventory storage). The open-ended gameplay also places a heavier focus on monster hunting, though players will need to study up on their otherworldly foes by reading books and questioning villagers to discover exploitable weaknesses. The monsters themselves will be brandishing overhauled AI, with a notable absence of highly-scripted boss battles. Veterans of the series can expect to see the return of gameplay staples such as in-depth alchemy, a detailed magic system, and fluid sword combat.

Details on the plot of Wild Hunt are still mostly under wraps. The freeform nature of the game means Geralt will be able to advance a variety of local storylines as his personal quest unfolds. These areas span the hotspots of a Nilfgaardian invasion, including Skellige, Novigrad, and No Man's Land. Geralt's journey will no doubt see him getting tied up in the politics of war, but the main storyline is driven by his own motivations: the protection of his loved ones and tracking down the titular Wild Hunt, a nightmarish horde of specters that always appear in times of great strife.

Geralt will embark on this hunt sometime in 2014. In the meantime, feel free to speculate wildly and/or swoon over his incredible new beard.

Source: NeoGAF [http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=511690]

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[Reyalsfeihc]

As someone who's been unsure whether or not he should dive into The Witcher 2, this one could be what draws me back into the franchise if their open-world monster hunting turns out to be done well.

 

[Bat Vader]

I can't wait for The Witcher 3. I think it is going to be awesome. Something I really want to see in it though are side quests that could effect the ending of the game. I am going to be sad when I complete the game in 2014. It is such a great series, I don't want it to end.

 

[jollybarracuda]

Hell yah, an open world Witcher sounds fantastic. I'm hoping their focus on the personal story won't detract from making a living, breathing world though. CDProjekt has already shown they can craft an awesome story, now to see them try and flesh out a world will be very interesting. It's a safe bet that CDProjekt knows what their doing though, as the last two Witcher games have been absolutely phenomenal and they seem very dedicated to making a respectable product.

 

[spartandude]

hopefully il have upgraded my pc for then

 

[lancar]

The Witcher is a weird series for me.

I'm a big fan of RPGs. I love the premise, the story and the in-depth gameplay that the Witcher series provides, but for some reason I never finished the first game until the second one was on its way to me in the mail.
And it seems this story will repeat itself again, as I still haven't finished The Witcher 2.

I don't know why, but somehow I just stop playing them when they near their end.

 

[LotusPhi]

"The White Wolf Returns" made me think of Okami. I should really learn to read titles until the end to not get disappointed.

 

[Cry Wolf]

SNIP

Well, I guess I have nothing of value to add here. I really hope that the Witcher 3 is fantastic, and an open world might be fun, but I'm worried it's not the best thing for the CDProjekt - especially after the first Witcher. Oh well.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

Bigger is almost never better, Skyrim was bad because most places, quests and NPCs didn?t have anything interesting to offer and if you have been to one or two caves you had been to them all. I hope they?ll keep in mind that one of the best things about their two previous games was that most of the content was uniquely hand-designed without much filler and grind

Gothic 1+2 and even Risen beat any game made by Bethesda imo. It depends how much I?ll like The Witcher 3, if they decide to go the carefully hand-crafted and thought-through Open World style with interesting characters, environments/level-design and quests like Piranha Bytes (and their previous game Witcher 2) or the ?let?s fill everything with dragons and caves and shit, even if it?s all boring? of Bethesda. I?d much rather see mentioned that all their content is uniquely hand-crafted and interesting than ?20% larger landmass than Skyrim?, I couldn?t give less of a toss about that if it is all boring filler or bad.

Gothic 1+2 were indeed wonderful in world-crafting (let's... not talk about later titles). They were also massively popular in Poland, so I wouldn't be surprised if CDP Red were to take a page from late Piranha's technique.

And the Witcher world has been very well realized in the books and the later tabletop RPG. There's definitely enough lore and material there to make a gameworld more in the style of Piranha than Bethesda. I hope they have sufficient resources, although if CDP Red's previous efforts are any indication, they won't shy away from a challenge.

As much as the news makes me excited though, I still lack a machine powerful enough to run The Witcher 2... Maybe I'll get a new one by the time 3 comes out, then make a full trilogy playthrough.

 

[Norrdicus]

Taking the story to a more personal level also sounds iffy, I really enjoyed the political aspects of The Witcher 2 (and 1), mainly because you were never the center piece of the politics. In any other RPG I can think of you are always the center piece, the biggest hero or villain in the land with plot armor so thick a thousand swords couldn't penetrate it. In The Witcher, you're nothing more than a pawn, you bend your knee to kings like anyone else, and you are rarely the deciding factor in a big war, unless you stumble into

Spoiler

killing a king

.

Witcher 1 was a rather personal story too, so I don't honestly have anything against this change.

In fact, because you liked how you were never the centerpiece of politics, but more like a merc hired with honeyed words, you could probably like the way they set up political questlines in Witcher 3: You don't have to meddle in politics at all, so the writers can potentially give you a lot of scenarios that beg the question "Do you really want to get involved in this shit? Why not just quit while your hands are clean and go kill a Nekker or something?" and allow you to, well, actually quit without exiting the game.

 

[mateushac]

I'm rather sad about this whole open world thing. I'm one of those who believe you can either have a tight, focused story, OR a big ass world in which you can jerk around.
For me, that's basically the reason why GTA IV sucked so hard. You can't expect the player to care about the quests while he has a giant world to explore, nor to explore the world while there are important plot points to advance.

 

[OniaPL]

Hopefully this time the gameplay itself won't be horrible.

 

[Soods]

If Witcher 3 is as big improvement from Witcher 2 as Witcher 2 was from the first one, then this will easily become the best game ever. Needless to say, I am very excited.

 

[LongAndShort]

Yes, yes and motherfuckin yes. This is the best news I've heard in ages, where can I preorder it?

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Well this pleases me greatly and would be a nice addition to one of the next gen consoles.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

- Bigger is almost never better, Skyrim was bad because most places, quests and NPCs didn?t have anything interesting to offer and if you have been to one or two caves you had been to them all. I hope they?ll keep in mind that one of the best things about their two previous games was that most of the content was uniquely hand-designed without much filler and grind.

You can blame that on current gen hardware limitations. The Witcher 3 is a next gen game. So that shouldn't be a problem, in theory.

 

[cerebus23]

I find it most interesting how a linear rpg maker transitions into a sandbox game, none of the other companies has done it bioware stuck to mostly linear games with not huge sandbox maps ever, beth does sandbox, way bioware and cd did it makes it easier to tell a story and pace a story vs a sandbox where people can get distracted.

it wold be like bioware suddenly deciding to do skyrim, cd projekt has a great talent for making worlds i am really excited to see what they can do in a sandbox and really interested to see how they manage that sandbox.