Witcher 3 combat to lean towards "the tactics side"

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt boasts an overhauled combat system which CD Projekt RED believes will better demonstrate Geralt of Rivia's near supernatural ability to take on groups of foes.

Speaking to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, marketing executive Michał Platkow-Gilewski copped to problems with the previous games' combat, which didn't elegantly communicate what is apparent in the books the series is based on.

"What we wanted to do with Witcher combat is that we wanted to show how Geralt uses the sword. He’s the master of the sword. Geralt’s true mastery comes out in the crowd fights, where can take on five or six enemies on his own," he said.

"What happened in Witcher 2 is that people were telling us that the combat was just a little bit too arcade. The rules were a bit too arcade, to be honest. What we decided is to go a bit more over to the tactics side, to give you the feeling of having absolute control over the battlefield. That’s what we aimed for."

Platkow-Gilewski said one of the ways CD Projekt RED has addressed its ambition is be improving the camera.

"We’ll always show the fights from the right angle or perspective or distance so that you’ll be aware of all the enemies around you. If they communicate among themselves and decide that it’ll be a good idea to surround you, you’ll see everyone who’s going around behind you," he said.

"There won’t be any situation where someone attacks you and you won’t know what’s happening. The enemies will move around you and you will move as well, but it’s not wild and frantic. It’s a slow walk, like a slow dance. With swords. For all the enemies, we’re using real fighting techniques, many valid techniques. We have a few experts on our team, and we’ll be using stuntmen with huge experience for that as well. But Geralt’s fighting technique, it’s like sword dancing. He’ll have cool movements that you wouldn’t see in a real fight."

A colleague pointed out that geralt will never do anything "over the top", like somersaulting.

"But he’s different. He’s faster and stronger than anyone else, so his fighting technique is different," Platkow-Gilewski concluded.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is expected in 2014 on PC, PlayStation 4 and some other next-gen console we still have to pretend doesn't exist.