Future Witcher game priority: OPEN WORLD aspect or GAME MECHANICS ?

+

Future Witcher game priority: OPEN WORLD aspect or GAME MECHANICS ?

  • Invest more on the open world. I want sidequests and roaming without restrictions.

    Votes: 15 42.9%
  • More complex combat + other mechanics even if the map is the size of Witcher 2.

    Votes: 20 57.1%

  • Total voters
    35

Guest 3847602

Guest
Riven-Twain;n8442410 said:
Also, perhaps greater emphasis upon navigation by landmarks in order to complete quests

That's nice idea, like searching for Keira outside Blackbough - if we were meant to recognize landmarks all by ourselves (pond, rock, cart) and find her without Geralt saying anything out loud when in proximity to one of those clues. Though, it might be for the best to save this approach for treasure hunts.
 
Why can't it be both? We can get a lot from wider map size to different lands. Kovir & Poviss, Lyria & Rivia and others. I myself would love to go back to the start, as I have stated before, it's now time to go back to the beginning "The Butcher of Blaviken" before the fall of Cintra. We only get a glimpse of the books from the first game in the opening cinematics.

We can also use fluid like controls, the speed and ballet type of movements as described in the books. While it worked for Geralt in some points, it hindered him as well.

TW3 is a beautiful masterpiece with the colors and locations, but the storyline and sub-plots left more to be desired. I will direct your attention to what I think the game felt like to me (it will also age me). "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is the finest example of the direction I am taking you. "Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom (Horrendous piece of garbage that gave the world a new rating code)", "Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade". A perfect end to the storyline of Indiana Jones (stay with me, I am getting to my point).

After years of hounding Stephen Spielberg & George Lucas for another Indiana Jones movie, they created something that is almost as bad as The Temple of Doom, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" Here's the point to it: The last Indiana Jones movie was just a way to shut up the fans, all it did was enrage the fans with the horrible storyline, sub-plot and action. See the connection?

CDPR did a fantastic job with the open world aspect, the looks of the characters. But the storyline, sub-plots and action was watered down. While it gets a rating grade of "M" in the States "18+" (or is it 17?) elsewhere for the amount of violence and language, they watered down the "Adult Situations" is the term I will use, in which they had amped up in TW2. We have 2 games with Triss as the love interest, only to get Yennefer in the last one because this is what the lore fans wanted (there are other lore items that were also needed. some made it, others did not). And no matter what, I still can't choose Yennefer over Triss. But let me say this one thing, I have 2 copies of the game, XBox One and PC. I walked away from the XB1 version with me choosing Yen over Triss, and that won't change, but for PC, Triss will win every time.

What I am saying in a long typed out post is that, CDPR gave us their word that there would be a 3rd Witcher game. But as time passed, they were trying to meet deadlines and make money, and so they gave us "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". After 10 years with Geralt, they wanted to move past him as quickly as they could to make other games. While I can't fault them for wanting to move on with something new, I can fault them for one word "Soon".

I don't know if I could play another Witcher game without Geralt, I just don't know. I do know that I would play another Witcher game if it started back to the beginning, following the cannon of the Witcher Universe. After reading all the books, I love that cannon. Don't get me wrong, I love the direction CDPR took us on, 5 years after the disappearance of Geralt & Yennefer. But maybe it's time to get back to the basics.

I know I will catch flack because I want to go back while others want to continue moving forward, but it is, what it is....my opinion.
 
DontBlnkBadWolf;n8465860 said:
TW3 is a beautiful masterpiece with the colors and locations, but the storyline and sub-plots left more to be desired. I will direct your attention to what I think the game felt like to me (it will also age me). "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is the finest example of the direction I am taking you. "Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom (Horrendous piece of garbage that gave the world a new rating code)", "Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade". A perfect end to the storyline of Indiana Jones (stay with me, I am getting to my point).

TW3 was meant to be "The Last Crusade" in Geralt's saga. While it might not have done a perfect job for various reasons, it did wrap up the story. As the numerous interviews since 2013 tell, this is where the developers themselves wanted to end it, it was planned to be a trilogy.

After years of hounding Stephen Spielberg & George Lucas for another Indiana Jones movie, they created something that is almost as bad as The Temple of Doom, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" Here's the point to it: The last Indiana Jones movie was just a way to shut up the fans, all it did was enrage the fans with the horrible storyline, sub-plot and action. See the connection?

Well, if a new "Witcher 4" game with Geralt was to be released, that could very well end up being his "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". It is something that would be made because of demand from the fans (or shareholders), not because the story needed it.

CDPR did a fantastic job with the open world aspect, the looks of the characters. But the storyline, sub-plots and action was watered down. While it gets a rating grade of "M" in the States "18+" (or is it 17?) elsewhere for the amount of violence and language, they watered down the "Adult Situations" is the term I will use, in which they had amped up in TW2. We have 2 games with Triss as the love interest, only to get Yennefer in the last one because this is what the lore fans wanted (there are other lore items that were also needed. some made it, others did not).

Wild Hunt is currently one of the (if not "the") most awarded titles in the history of gaming, and it has a review score of 93% on Metacritic and 97.34% on Steam (the highest for any mainstream AAA title after Valve's Portal games). It also won awards specifically for the best story. By now, it probably sold well over 10 million copies - ~3M on Steam alone - and it continues to sell. While, as I already acknowledged, it is not perfect, from the developers' point of view there is not much reason not to be satisfied with how it ended up like.

I don't know if I could play another Witcher game without Geralt, I just don't know. I do know that I would play another Witcher game if it started back to the beginning, following the cannon of the Witcher Universe. After reading all the books, I love that cannon.

Remakes and reboots are risky (in terms of reception) and not very rewarding. Most of the time they are not worth making, they are inevitably compared to the originals and get negative reviews from their fans because of the changes, and the developers are criticized for their lack of creativity. CDPR care about their public image, and do not want to be associated with "lazy" ways of money making. I also do not think there is anything about the existing trilogy that is bad enough to warrant throwing them in the garbage and a rewrite from scratch. At most they could be remade for technical reasons (TW1 is already rather dated now), but it is unlikely to happen. If your main concern is the lack of Yennefer in the first two games, it might be worth noting that TW3 alone is about 60% of the content in the entire trilogy, and if we combine the three games, no NPC has much more screen time than Yennefer. Geralt being separated from her and Ciri and later finding them is also an integral part of the story. Removing that would result in rather different, but not necessarily better games. Again, from the developers' point of view, it is just not worth it.

Finally, even if a remake/reboot was made, it would still have to deal with deadlines and other issues that lead to flaws in the existing games. There is no guarantee that it would not end up being worse (except obviously in technical aspects), rather than better than the originals.

By the way, this is not really on topic here (open world vs. game mechanics), there are other, more general threads about future Witcher games like this one and a few others, and also this poll specifically about the protagonist.
 
Last edited:
I don't remember where i've read it but i think if CDPRed didn't go through money and development issues during Witcher 2 then we would have found yennefer by the end of the game or maybe earlier.I think they had in mind a different ending so choosing her wouldn't feel as forced as it is in W3.
 
sv3672 I understand all of your points, as well as I know that CDPR put the gaming industry on notice, especially Bethesda for their ES games as well as Fallout. And as for being off topic, I stated at the beginning that why can't it be both open world vs. game mechanics. Is my analogy of the way I saw TW3 vs. the Indiana Jones movies a bit much, sure, but it was to make a point. As I see it, the way of the future is going to be based more on mmpo with a solo quests taking a backseat. Hence Rockstar's GTA V.

About a week or so ago, Bethesda has already announced Fallout 5....this is way early to be already under development for the 5th one. I contribute it to CDPR and what they did with TW3. Again, there are going to be hits and misses from fans on what they would like in the next Witcher game (if it is actually going to be made). We already know where I stand, I know of a few others that share my thoughts. But just a small group doesn't a Witcher make.

I do thank you for this thoughtful debate, just like I welcome all debates. Debates can create wonderful things, and creative thinking.
 
Last edited:
I don't think open world is going away, but I'd rather a much smaller world with more detail. There's more detail in Flotsam and Vizima than anywhere in TW3. Flotsam is supposed to be a crappy hell hole and yet it's such an engrossing place. I never felt that way about anywhere in TW3. Sure the scenery was pretty, but the fact that you're hardly in one place for more than a brief period of time makes many places forgettable and shallow.
 
Top Bottom