On rare occasions, some games manage to transcend their status of being code made for entertainment, and reach an entirely different status. These games are works of art. Some excel in pure graphical performance and visual fidelity, others excel through an extensive attention to the smallest of details or through sublime artwork. CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3 does all of these, and then some.
The first Witcher game wasn’t bad-looking, but there wasn’t anything astonishing about it either. At the time, CD Projekt Red’s financial possibilities were modest, so they focused on story-telling, immersion and gameplay. To save resources, they employed the use of Bioware’s Aurora Engine. For the Witcher 2, they created their own engine, and the difference was significant. To this day, The Witcher 2 looks amazing. Yes, there are better looking games out there, but in terms of RPGs, not many titles manage to compete, even today. For The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the bar is raised even higher. CD Projekt Red has invested heavily into developing The Witcher 3, and it shows.
I personally hate the term “next-gen”. The lines between last-gen and next-gen are so thin and blurry, it’s hard to really put some games into a category or another. With The Witcher 3 though, I can honestly say it truly looks and feels like it represents the possibilities of gaming in the future. It looks breathtaking. A spanking new engine powers the game, and boy, it really feels like a nuclear power-plant in a world filled with wind-mills. Every single part of Geralt’s armor is detailed, every ink in his chain mail is visible, every thread of grass is noticeable. It’s hard to translate the visual experience of The Witcher 3 into words. It’s the kind of thing you need to see. It’s the kind of game you need to soak in, and the scenery simply makes you gaze at the screen, forgetting your objectives or quests. It’s that good. It’s art, in its purest form.
I admit to being a fan of The Witcher series. I actually had the privilege to read Andrzej Sapkowski’s short stories and novels (the novels that the Witcher series is based upon), and have grown to love everything about Geralt and the politically complex world he is a part of. It’s hard to be objective as such. Still, The Witcher 3 is sublime, at least visually, and even the most skeptical of gamers will be extremely impressed with what it offers in terms of eye-candy.
It’s interesting to look at why all this was possible, though. CD Projekt Red saw the limitations of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Sure, the consoles managed to stay relevant far longer than anyone initially anticipated. But the truth is, every ounce of power the old consoles had to offer had been depleted and over-used. CD Projekt Red Gameplay designer Anrzej Kwiatowski commented on the matter in an exclusive interview with Examiner, stating that ““I mean, despite last-gen systems being pretty formidable, we’ve been limited by their computational power with regards to realizing our creative vision for some time now.”
This pretty much explains the studio’s decision to develop the Witcher 3 for next-gen consoles and the PC only. Tuning back to release the game for past-gen consoles was simply not an option, and I respect the studio for the choice. They gave up on possible revenues in favor of quality, and that’s rare (yes EA, we’re looking at you). In any case, The Witcher 3’s launch is closing in, and soon, we’ll all be able to lose ourselves in the gorgeous world CD Projekt brought to life. The Witcher 3 is launching this year, and while a release date has not been announced yet, we’re expecting it to land sometime during the summer.