Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Interview Adam Badowski describes Witcher 3's non-sandbox open world, confirms multiplayer for Cyberpunk 2077

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: CD Projekt; Cyberpunk 2077; The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Eurogamer's Robert Purchese recently spoke with CD Projekt RED managing director Adam Badowski about the company's two upcoming games, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077. The interview was published in two parts, one for each game.

The Witcher 3 interview has some information about the nature of the game's open world mechanics as compared with Skyrim's. It appears that Witcher 3 will be an open world game, but not a sandbox game as the term is commonly understood. Adam describes his company's plans with a laudable amount of detail:

The Witcher 3 will have a whopping 50-hour main story. And if you want, you can extend that to over 100 hours by tackling side-quests. Skyrim play-times are regularly in the 100s of hours, but the emphasis - as Badowski pointed out - is on side-quests and exploration. Bethesda also uses procedural quest creation to fill its huge worlds with things for you to do. How else could it manage?​

The Witcher 3 will have a 20 per cent bigger world than Skyrim's. But if Bethesda can't hand-craft all of its quests with a budget of $85 million, a team of 90, years of open world experience and a development time of three-and-a-half years, how will CD Projekt Red be able to?​

"It's a matter of scale," answered Badowski. "Bigger team will achieve bigger goals."​

"You have to remember that the team is much bigger and much more experienced. Right now we are on consoles and we have technology already established, we have all the story plots done, so it's not so bad."​

Today, CD Projekt Red employs 150 people. They're split into three teams: one for The Witcher 3, one for Cyberpunk 2077 (which is currently smaller) and one for the proprietary Red Engine. More people will be hired, Badowski told me, but the upper limit for the studio will be a headcount of 200.​

He pays attention to what The Witcher fans are saying, and the number-one concern he's seen about The Witcher 3 is that fans think the traditionally tight stories of the series will be sacrificed to fit an open world.​

Not so. "We don't want to make any compromises in storytelling," he told me. "We simply needed to come up with a larger-scale story. That's it. The world is bigger so we need to fill it with good stories.​

"We don't want to change the gameplay into the sandbox experience - that's not the plan."​

Badowski reiterated: "We don't want to lose anything that we achieved in The Witcher's six years. Don't expect too many sandbox, mechanical solutions in The Witcher 3. It will be hand-crafted very precisely."​

Adam describes some of the game's constraints in further detail:

Hero Geralt can explore the open world of The Witcher 3 in new ways, too. He can jump now, and he can climb. It's "not exactly" the climbing you'd find in a game like Assassin's Creed, said Badowski, "it's similar to what we have in Uncharted". "For example," he added, "climb up and there are special sequences, there are special animations built into the system."​

That's mixed with freer physics-based rambling. "You can go wherever you want, you can travel wherever you want," he said. "There are no invisible barriers in the world; you can jump down from the cliff and simply die."​

[...] You won't be able to kill civilians in the open world of The Witcher 3. That's to do with Geralt being a pre-defined character with a fiction he needs to adhere to. "I can't imagine that Geralt is going to the village and killing everybody," said Badowski. "It's just stupid. So we have to prevent such situations in some quests."​

At the end, he drops this bomb:

The Witcher 3 is due at the end of next year and there's still much we don't know about it. For instance, will it have multiplayer (a first for the series)? "We're thinking about something," Badowski answered, "but I cannot explain it now. You can expect some information later on. Sorry for that!" I probed about whether it could be something similar to the Dark Arena mode in The Witcher 2. "I don't think so," he said.​

While Witcher 3 may or may not have multiplayer, the much shorter Cyberpunk 2077 interview reveals that multiplayer is already confirmed for that title:

"It will be a story-based RPG experience with amazing single-player playthroughs, but we're going to add multiplayer features," CDPR managing director Adam Badowski told me.​

Of course, what "multiplayer features" actually means is anybody's guess.
 

Stabwound

Arcane
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
3,240
I mildly enjoyed the first two games but this sounds like it's going to suck. A world bigger than Skyrim? Skyrim is a fucking 1-inch deep ocean. Color me skeptical.
 

kaizoku

Arcane
Joined
Feb 18, 2006
Messages
4,129
Thanks to KS I no longer care.

Crossing my fingers that in a year from now, inXile does another KS for a cyberpunk cRPG. Retro sci-fi with Blade Runner vibes to it.
 

Rake

Arcane
Joined
Oct 11, 2012
Messages
2,969
I prefer inXile to do a time-travel or sci-fi RPG.
Shadowrun Returns and the next Shadowrun game (i hope there will be) by Harebrained Schemes are all the Cyberpunk i need.
 

Mrowak

Arcane
Joined
Sep 26, 2008
Messages
3,947
Project: Eternity
Even I have to say there's huge potential for :decline: in these news...
 

evdk

comrade troglodyte :M
Patron
Joined
Mar 31, 2004
Messages
11,292
Location
Corona regni Bohemiae
Codex 2012 Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
The more they reveal about the project, the less I care. As Rake mentioned, with KS around I do not even need to. The only thing from CDP looking at least slightly interesting to me at the moment is Cyberpunk, solely by virtue of not being another goddamn fantasy game, but the MP news are not welcome at all. Looks like they are trying to channel BW here.
 

grdja

Augur
Joined
Mar 20, 2011
Messages
250
I guess only question about CP2077 MP is whether it will be deathmatch or CTF.
 

norolim

Arcane
Joined
Nov 21, 2012
Messages
1,012
Location
Pawland
Unfortunately, almost all the news coming from CDPR recently is bad news. I liked the first Witcher a lot, but there is almost nothing I like about W3 so far.
 
Last edited:

evdk

comrade troglodyte :M
Patron
Joined
Mar 31, 2004
Messages
11,292
Location
Corona regni Bohemiae
Codex 2012 Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Unfortunately, almost all the news coming from CDPR recently is bad news. I liked the first Witcher a lot, but there is almost nothing I like about W3 so far.
Because they are taking it further and further from the original game. We are deeply in LOLSKYRIM territory now and CDP want a piece of the moneypie.
 

Mrowak

Arcane
Joined
Sep 26, 2008
Messages
3,947
Project: Eternity
Unfortunately, almost all the news coming from CDPR recently is bad news. I liked the first Witcher a lot, but there is almost nothing I like about W3 so far.
Because they are taking it further and further from the original game. We are deeply in LOLSKYRIM territory now and CDP want a piece of the moneypie.

Not really. My guess is they really liked *modded* Skyrim so they went all "let's make a Skyrim but better". There's this prelevant attitude of dev and QA teams to shape games according to most recent trends (games they played), regardless of the past lineage. Which is bad IMO, because it conditions them to create something in comparison with a benchmark rather than being truly creative and innovative - they have entered into a lockstep.

That's why I am less concerned about them making an open world RPG and more about them themselves referencing Skyrim. "It's gonna be like Skyrim, but..." Yeah, whatever. :roll:
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Mrowak Witcher's "past lineage" is a poorly translated timed clicking game and "Mass Effect with swords" meets Game of Thrones. Again, I'm not sure why people are so butthurt about this game. Let them reinvent themselves each time! Like Commissar Draco said:

TWICHER 1 Faggot Age done right.
TWICHER 2 ASS AFFECT done right
TWICHER 3 :incline: of SKYRIM.
 

Mrowak

Arcane
Joined
Sep 26, 2008
Messages
3,947
Project: Eternity
Witcher's "past lineage" is a timed sword clicking game and "Mass Effect with swords". Again, I'm not sure why you people are so butthurt about this. Let them reinvent themselves each time! Like @commisar draco said:

TWICHER 1 Faggot Age done right.
TWICHER 2 ASS AFFECT done right
TWICHER 3 :incline: of SKYRIM.

Also it will be the last game about Hetero Bro and unashamed Masculinity before the Potatoes will finally copy the New 20 years old shit from West and CD project will make game about Teletubisie. :decline:

I want them to reinvent themselves. But looking at random other titles (Arkham Asylum in TW2 and Skyrim in TW3) and haphazardly copy-pasting design decisions from them can hardly be called "reinventing".
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I want them to reinvent themselves. But looking at random other titles (Arkham Asylum in TW2 and Skyrim in TW3) and haphazardly copy-pasting design decisions from them can hardly be called "reinventing".

I said they were reinventing themselves, not inventing new game designs. :M

Seriously though, everything I've read about Witcher 3 sounds pretty awesome. Its only flaw (other than this new news about possible multiplayer) is how unbelievably ambitious it sounds.

Unfortunately, almost all the news coming from CDPR recently is bad news. I liked the first Witcher a lot, but there is almost nothing I like about W3 so far.

Are you people reading the same words I am? I just don't get it.
 

evdk

comrade troglodyte :M
Patron
Joined
Mar 31, 2004
Messages
11,292
Location
Corona regni Bohemiae
Codex 2012 Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Are you people reading the same words I am? I just don't get it.
I am not in the market for another Skyrim. And the words I am reading seem like marketing bullshit anyway. "It'll be open world but with a strong story focus!" "50+ hours main quest!" "Unique monster hunting side quest, definitely not a minigame!" "Awesome combat!" If you believe that, I have a Sim City 2013 copy I'd like to sell you.
 

Rake

Arcane
Joined
Oct 11, 2012
Messages
2,969
I want them to reinvent themselves. But looking at random other titles (Arkham Asylum in TW2 and Skyrim in TW3) and haphazardly copy-pasting design decisions from them can hardly be called "reinventing".

I said they were reinventing themselves, not inventing new game designs. :M

Seriously though, everything I've read about Witcher 3 sounds pretty awesome. Its only flaw (other than this new news about possible multiplayer) is how unbelievably ambitious it sounds.

Unfortunately, almost all the news coming from CDPR recently is bad news. I liked the first Witcher a lot, but there is almost nothing I like about W3 so far.

Are you people reading the same words I am? I just don't get it.
It's not that what they say is :decline:(multiplayer aside, that is :mad:) . Is that they sound so ambitious. Bigger than Skyrim, better than New Vegas, better looking than Witcher 2 etc. They sound like they will bite more than they can chew. Just like Obsidian actualy. They have talend, but what i hear makes me go :roll:
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Are you people reading the same words I am? I just don't get it.
I am not in the market for another Skyrim. And the words I am reading seem like marketing bullshit anyway. "It'll be open world but with a strong story focus!" "50+ hours main quest!" "Unique monster hunting side quest, definitely not a minigame!" "Awesome combat!" If you believe that, I have a Sim City 2013 copy I'd like to sell you.

Sure, but not believing those things are true != seeing those things as bad in and of themselves
 

norolim

Arcane
Joined
Nov 21, 2012
Messages
1,012
Location
Pawland
Are you people reading the same words I am? I just don't get it.
Oh come on! Multiplayer, Witcher's awesome sense, only DX11, twitch and stat based combat at the same time, which confirms they are trying to make a game for EVERYONE (we all know how that usually works: DA2 anyone?). I don't know, always supported them, but I honestly don't like what I'm hearing about W3.
 

Mrowak

Arcane
Joined
Sep 26, 2008
Messages
3,947
Project: Eternity
I want them to reinvent themselves. But looking at random other titles (Arkham Asylum in TW2 and Skyrim in TW3) and haphazardly copy-pasting design decisions from them can hardly be called "reinventing".

I said they were reinventing themselves, not inventing new game designs. :M

Seriously though, everything I've read about Witcher 3 sounds pretty awesome. Its only flaw (other than this new news about possible multiplayer) is how unbelievably ambitious it sounds.

I does sound awesome, which raises a few questions - how this stuff is going to get implemented. I am doubtful if only because I remember similar keywords from TW2 ("you will *hunt monsters*, you will have to *use baits*, there will be *complex alchemy system* and all *skill trees* will be so *different* they will enforce *different gameplay styles*" - we all know how it ended up). And while I think TW2 was a good game the marketing really painted too optimistic picture of it. Which appears to be the case again. A fear most of the features they mention will be highly irrelevant.

Also this stuff sounds suspicious:

Hero Geralt can explore the open world of The Witcher 3 in new ways, too. He can jump now, and he can climb. It's "not exactly" the climbing you'd find in a game like Assassin's Creed, said Badowski, "it's similar to what we have in Uncharted". "For example," he added, "climb up and there are special sequences, there are special animations built into the system."​

Which basically means you can climb up only in special places. :/ Not very reassuring.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Which basically means you can climb up only in special places. :/ Not very reassuring.

Yes, but so what? That means it's actually less of a sandbox open world game, that it's more tightly scripted. If you're worried about Witcher 3 being a Skyrim clone, then isn't that a good thing?
 

Mrowak

Arcane
Joined
Sep 26, 2008
Messages
3,947
Project: Eternity
Which basically means you can climb up only in special places. :/ Not very reassuring.

Yes, but so what? That means it's actually less of a sandbox open world game, that it's more tightly scripted. If you're worried about Witcher 3 being a Skyrim clone, then isn't that a good thing?

I am suspecting they cannot think out of the box any more. Tightly scripted sequences is the second worst thing after cutscenes. Most of the story should be conveyed through gameplay, and pressing X button to jump and W key to go up is hardly better than a QTE.

But maybe they will come up with something creative, I don't know. I know for sure, however, is that from these interviews I don't get the vibe like they had something really fun to play in mind - just your standard setpieces masked as a game.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom