14 DAY TRIAL // CD Projekt Red has confirmed that the story in the upcoming The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be spread all around the game's open world, but will also allow players to linger for as long as they want in any one area without having to involve themselves in the main plot.
The Witcher 3 is one of the big games set to appear in 2014 and promises to end the story of the franchise's hero, Geralt of Rivia.
We have heard quite a lot of details in recent months, and even a concrete confirmation that the new title won't feature any type of multiplayer experience, as the team at CD Projekt Red couldn't find a way to implement any meaningful online mode into the RPG.
Now, The Witcher 3 project lead, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, has told Forbes that the story of the game presented a challenge, particularly because the studio now combined it with a completely open world.
"The most important characteristic of all of our games is their nonlinear, mature storylines," Tomaszkiewicz said. "We took the game model from Witcher 2 and simply added to it an open world, not the other way round. We wanted to achieve the same feeling and pacing that our other games have."
In order to promote exploration, however, The Witcher 3's story is spread around the huge world and players will have to do plenty of other activities if they want the plot to progress.
"That’s why we split key bits of plot information among different regions of the world and every time you learn one of these plot points you need to solve local problems to achieve your personal goals," Tomaszkiewicz added.
What's more, the studio has also confirmed that a special system is in place that allows players to put off the main quests for as long as they want.
"We’ve created a special mechanism that allows gamers to spend as much time as they want doing side quests, exploring the world, hunting monsters and so on. At the same time they will always know at what stage of the main storyline they currently are."
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is expected to appear in 2014 for PC, PlayStation 4, and probably for the Xbox 720.