Role playing games need to deliver a mix between the two aspects, CD Projekt Red believes

Mar 7, 2012 08:18 GMT  ·  By

CD Projekt Red, the studio behind the popular The Witcher series, has talked about role playing games nowadays, advising developers to try and deliver an experience that focuses both on the story and on the player’s freedom.

The Witcher 1 and 2 have delivered some great experiences that portrayed impressive adventures for their protagonist, Geralt of Rivia. They also brought to life some stunning worlds, which still impressed lots of players, even if they weren’t as open as the ones seen in RPGs like Skryim or Fallout 3.

CD Projekt Red’s Manager, Adam Badowski, has talked with Side Mission about RPGs nowadays, saying that some tend to lose focus on the two main aspects of any great game: story and freedom.

“For us the two main features of an RPG are freedom and story. They have to coexist in a good game of this genre,” Badowksi said. “The polarization of these two in modern RPGs is not where we are going. We know that a 100 per cent sandbox game will make the story suffer. And a completely narrative driven game will limit the choice. The industry often doesn’t put effort to combine the two.”

Badowksi believes that he and his team managed to deliver a great blend between the two aspects with The Witcher 2, as even though it’s not a truly open world, the player can still make plenty of choices in regards to the story.

“The Witcher’s world isn’t the most open, but we give complete freedom when It comes to the story. As our slogan for the Enhanced Edition says – a true hero forges his own story. That’s what Geralt does. Maybe you can’t wander the world as you wish, but surely you can straw around different gameworld states – you wander around storylines, they are completely up to you.”

RPG fans can once again experience The Witcher 2 on April 17, when the game’s Enhanced Edition is re-released on the PC and makes its debut on the Xbox 360.