14 DAY TRIAL // The Witcher franchise has had quite an interesting path, as after the original role-playing game delivered a challenging experience, lots of fans, especially in Europe, began to heavily promote the title with their friends, leading to a lot of success for Polish developer CD Projekt Red.
Now, after The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, the studio is back with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a final adventure for protagonist Geralt of Rivia, who needs to go on one final quest and eliminate the Wild Hunt, a supernatural phenomenon that sees mythical beings attack the world of man.
As you can imagine, no evil comes alone and Geralt's world is rocked by more than just the Wild Hunt, as a war is now underway, with the Northern Kingdoms being attacked by the Southern Empire.
The Witcher 3 presentation at Gamescom 2013 kicks off with some impressive in-game footage showing the destruction of a village by the Wild Hunt.
Geralt must travel to the local Jarl and solicit any information about the attack, and is then pointed in the direction of a small village to the south, which can be reached on foot, on horse, via boat, via swimming, or via the fast travel system.
All ways are accepted, according to the studio, and many will lead to different distractions for the player, from random encounters, such as bandits threatening a farm, to scripted events, like the appearance of an imposing monster who can be killed only by multiple brawls.
After reaching the small village, Geralt learns of new information but is also alerted about a special scandal in the community, as a monster from the woods is killing off villagers. While a part of them wants the creature's head, and is willing to pay Geralt for it, another insists it's just a spirit of the forest that warns of the villagers of their wickedness.
Geralt investigates and finds that the monster is just a regular creature that can be killed, although special actions are required.
After a great fight, Geralt collects his gold and the quest concludes with an animated epilogue showing that, without the monster to keep the village in check, its inhabitants start picking fights with neighboring settlements and are eventually raided and destroyed by another, much bigger town.
Many such quests with different and surprising conclusions are included in The Witcher 3, according to CD Projekt Red, so fans will have lots of things to do in the RPG.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is out in 2014 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.