The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Interview and Preview
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Speaking with an old friend for more information allowed Geralt to utilise the new dialogue system that gives him more options on how to approach conversations. While it is difficult to ascertain the impact of this system in a short preview, it did seem robust. The developers also mentioned that there will be different ways to tackle dialogue, such as speaking in whispers or by ending conversations (suddenly and brutally), which sounds undeniably cool. Facial animations have also been overhauled with characters now having the same numbers of bones in their face as were present in an entire model in the original title.
Leaving the company of his friend and the safety of his castle stronghold, Geralt rode out into the wild on horseback. The world itself is almost as much the hero of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as Geralt. The developers were particularly keen to emphasise the scale and detail of the environments. To begin with the continent is 35 times larger than that seen in the last game and there will not be any load times required to transition between areas. It is so large that it takes nearly three quarters of an hour to ride across on horseback. It is a staggering achievement and incredible to experience as everywhere feels like a living, breathing location from small farmsteads to shadowy coves.
In order to deal with the enormous landscape, CD Projekt RED has chosen to add a few new features including a nifty fast-travel system (which necessitates locations are visited first before they can be teleported to) and boats. Boats will be a useful tool as much of Geralt's world takes the form of islands and archipelagos. The map is roughly divided into three different cultural areas. No Man's Land is a desecrated and sinister area full of swamps, dark forests and empty fields. Skellige is a series of islands that bring to mind a mixture of Celtic and Viking traditions with a population largely comprised of noble warriors. Finally, the largest city in the game is Novigrad, a port that is full of corruption, organised crime and sinister cults.
And this interview from GamingBolt:
Leonid Melikhov: I am intrigued by the whole weather dynamics in The Witcher 3.
Jonas Mattson: Did you like it?
Leonid Melikhov: I liked it and I thought it was pretty cool.
Jonas Mattson: We really wanted to be more than just fiction and create an impact in the community. We wanted the people to react to it and get affected by it. Because sometimes when it is raining and nothing happens.
Leonid Melikhov: What about the monsters in the game?
Jonas Mattson: Some monsters in the game are nocturnal and you can only hunt them in the night. Some monsters are not. This is where your boosting skills and abilities will come in the picture. What kind of monsters I am going to deal with? What kind of potion should I drink to prepare myself for the fight? When should I fight?
Leonid Melikhov: It probably depends on where the player is currently located in the world.
Jonas Mattson: Oh yes. There are monsters in the game where you won't simply find running around in the wild. The fiend that you saw earlier, it feels comfortable in its own territory, so the player needs to lure it out. Our monsters in the game act differently and take in to consideration where it is and they behave accordingly.
