The Witcher 4 doesn’t need an open world

A new Witcher game is coming. This is confirmed by the Polish game company CD Projekt. It is also clear in which direction one will move after the last main part. The Witcher 3 was acclaimed for its game world. But more doesn’t equal better. The next Witcher game doesn’t need an open world; it might even turn out to be a problem. A comment.

Cyberpunk 2077 opened my eyes

The Witcher 3 scooped countless awards in 2015 and impressed with its gripping story and fabulous open world. While game companies like Ubisoft used the same formula over and over again, and at least made me tire of it, CD Projekt’s third fantasy adventure set in the Witcher universe was a nice change of pace.

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The dark fantasy game world invites you to explore, but the real motivation are the main and side quests, which all tell their own exciting stories. So I roamed almost 100 hours through the game world in search of new stories – and although the world of The Witcher 3 could fascinate me, towards the end I had to admit that the exciting game world is sometimes not so exciting.

The next game from CD Projekt opened my eyes with its open world. With Cyberpunk 2077 I lost my joy of discovery much faster: This was not (only) due to the disastrous launch, which had devastating consequences especially on last-gen consoles, but above all to the open game world. I realized namely that I mainly the stories make you want more, but not the game world.

The open world is not CD Projekt’s true strength

The king has fallen! CD Projekt is no longer the pinnacle of open world developers. Compare Red Dead Redemption 2 from competitor Rockstar Games with CD Projekt’s Cyberpunk 2077. In the western game you ride through the icy mountain landscape, the dry prairies or bustling small towns of America and a little story awaits you around every corner: a person in need, a mugging or something completely whimsical. These encounters feel though by no means repetitive because they are all individually designed.

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In Cyberpunk 2077 you not only travel through the big city, but also through the dirty badlands and, like in The Witcher 3, you meet a wide variety of characters who send you on interesting quests. But you don’t really interact with the world itself. It feels mostly static.

In the case of Cyberpunk 2077, in my opinion, it even lacks recognition value. This is because most of the tasks in linear areas such as buildings take place and you rarely explore the world yourself on a mission. In addition, you often do not drive to a mission goal yourself, but land on the passenger seat. After a few short dialogues, you can even skip the ride. All of this shows me that the creative minds at CD Projekt want to tell stories, yes the game world partially prevents them from doing so.

A linear Witcher game can work

It is precisely for these reasons that I long for a change of course at CD Projekt. The next big Witcher game must not be a purely open-world game! Instead, CD Projekt should look back in time: the first two Witcher games were more like that Semi open world, i.e. with individual lifting areas that change in the course of the story. This also ensured that the main story was not slowed down. In The Witcher 3, on the other hand, you lose yourself in the open world after just a few hours. Gwent just turned my rushed search for Ciri into a Priority Group On Opportunity mission.

Or: CD Projekt tries something completely new and dares a linear story game, for example to a similar extent as Naughty Dog did with The Last of Us 2. With Cyberpunk 2077, the development team has already proven that they’re pretty good at linear, scripted quests, like the action-packed prologue mission. That’s CD Projekt’s true strength: staging gripping stories.

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Unfortunately, that’s probably just wishful thinking. Because with the announcement came the information that the next big Witcher game will be developed on the basis of Unreal Engine 5 and that they are “working closely with the developers of Epic Games with the main goal of customize the engine for open-world experiences“. (Source: CD Projekt RED)

Of course, wishful thinking could also turn into hope. Because with the help of Unreal Engine 5, a new open-world experience could also be made possible that better merges the game world with the narrative. What do I ultimately choose? Rather than wishful thinking shaped by reality at this point, mixed with a hint of disappointment. If it suddenly turns into a linear story game, I’ll spend a round.