Witcher 3 has fifty hours of gameplay, plus a whole lot more
Sean Cargle March 1, 2013 - 2:55 amAn immense number of new details surfaced today as several German previews of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt hit the internet.
Ever played The Witcher 1 or 2 and thought hey I would like a horse, or I would like to hunt some animals, or I would like to roam around in a massive seamless world that is 30% larger than Skyrim? No? Me either, but CD Projekt Red was thinking about it. Today two German gaming magazines, PC Games and Gamestar, have put up previews of The Witcher 3 and revealed about twenty or so new pieces of information about this upcoming open world RPG. The information has been translated by numerous people, and Google, and let’s take a look at many of the most interesting reveals.
Storyline, cinematics and dialogue
-The main missions in the game will take up about fifty hours of gameplay, and there is plenty of side content. They estimate that there is about one hundred hours worth of content at max.
-Your save games from the previous two games will transfer and certain characters will change as a result, or even exist or not exist, but these are supposed to be minor changes that don’t affect the main storyline.
-There will still be cutscenes and cinematic dialogue that will apparently work fluidly with the open world.
The World
-There are three entirely open and explorable areas that have a seamless border (no loading). Also, no invisible borders.
-The world is much livelier than the previous games. Towns are filled with citizens and the wilds are filled with animals.
-You can steal things and people can send the guards to get back their property.
-Animals can be hunted for furs, claws, hides or other types of parts, all of which can be sold.
-Transportation services will be available, like boats and horses. Both of which can be bought or stolen and will improve in quality throughout the game.
-On top of the new transportation services, there will also be a fast travel system for the first time.
-There is a world economy of sorts that will be influenced by Geralt, you, and how much you trade in any specific region.
-Day/night cycle and weather system, both of which can affect the environment, quests and puzzles.
Geralt
-Geralt will be able to level up to a max level of sixty.
-Character development options are immensely more complex than the other two games (hundreds of options).
-He can only gain experience from missions now, not killing enemies.
-He can jump! (obviously the most important reveal here)
-He can now use his Witcher senses to hunt and track animals, which gives detailed information to help you prepare for a specific enemy.
-Geralt’s Witcher signs now can affect the environment, like Igni is now a flame jet that can ignite objects.
Everything else
-No quick time events. (huzzah!)
-New slow-mo combat system that will allow you to target individual body parts, like Fallout’s VAT system.
-New mini-games like axe throwing and card playing, plus probably some of the old mini-games too.
-AI are smarter when it comes to combat. They will be able to do things like surrender or shout for reinforcements.
-The Witcher 3 will be available on all next-gen platforms.
There is more to be found and perused over at World of Players, a German gaming forum that put together much of this information, and there is a Reddit post that translates much of it better than Google does. It may just be me, however unlikely, that this all seems even more ambitious than the game originally sounded. My major point of concern would have to be the length. The Witcher 3 is massively longer than the previous two games, even combined, and that presents a massive challenge to the team, but it is CD Projekt Red and they have yet to earn my pessimism.
Keep your eye on BeefJack as we move towards a 2014 release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Comments (1)
That seems very ambitious, to put it mildly. I hope they won’t overstretch themselves.