The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was one of the most hotly anticipated titles going into Gamescom 2014 and it didn’t disappoint. CD Projekt came prepared, showing us the ‘Downwarren’ gameplay as well as some gameplay commentary, which explained the new battle system and a bit about the world you will be exploring.
The Witcher 2 sold more than 1.7 million copies on the PC and Xbox 360, transforming CD Projekt into an internationally renowned developer. The series as a whole has earned 279 awards, and The Witcher 3 alone has garnered over 150 awards since it’s announcement in early 2013. The developers are boasting a bigger and better approach with a potential 36 endings, as opposed to The Witcher 2‘s 16, and a world larger than the first two games combined. There are currently over 30,000 lines of dialogue and CD Projekt have estimated that to complete the entire game, side quests and all, will take 100 hours, beating both of its predecessors by over 35 hours.
If all of that hasn’t impressed you, below is the latest gameplay video, a 35 minute commentary which sees Geralt travel from towns to swamps, taking on a plethora of monsters and meeting a whole host of personalities. It shows off the beautiful scenery, the refined combat, the depth of the dialogue choices you can make and the inventory system, amongst other features.
The Witcher 3 received criticism earlier this week for partnering with Microsoft and offering extra content with the Xbox One Collector’s Edition alone. Every Collector’s Edition comes with a figure of Geralt, the game’s protagonist, an artbook, stickers, a game map, the soundtrack, a steelbook, a medallion and a collector’s box. But only the Xbox One version comes with a cloth map and two decks of Gwent cards, despite being the same price as the PS4 and PC version. CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwinski responded spoke to Eurogamer about these criticisms, stating “Our PC versions are released DRM-free, we bend over backwards to give you the most beefed up editions of our games (be it standard or Collector’s), and we deliver the same game, regardless of platform or version you buy.
“Moreover, we promised not (to) have any exclusive DLCs, neither per platform nor per retailer, and we do stand by our promise–nothing has changed, nor will change in this regard.”
“The support of partners [allows us] to make our game visible worldwide,” hence the decision for the better Xbox One Collector’s Edition tie in. They added that “This should hopefully translate to better sales, which will in consequence allow us to do what we have been doing for the last 10 years, i.e. reinvest this money to make more great RPGs, while still sticking to our values.”
We still have a while to wait to see how the game will fare, but so far everything CD Projekt is releasing shows promise. It is looking to set the bar for the action RPG genre and is likely to provide Dragon Age: Inquisition with some stiff competition.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is due to be released 24th February 2015.