Witcher 3 plot "extremely ambitious", CD Projekt discusses narrative depth

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt developer CD Projekt Red has told VG247 that its plot is "extremely ambitious" and that it is going deeper into the game's world than ever before, broadening its moral choices and more.

In an interview that you can read here soon, lead quest designer Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz said of The Witcher 3's plot, "Geralt has regained his memory, and he’s also more mature now. He knows what he wants from life, and he’s determined to get it. In my opinion, plot of The Witcher 3 is the most mature plot in The Witcher trilogy.

"It focuses on matters most personal for Geralt, but at the same time we are still keeping complex the politics, intrigues and mature subjects like racism, that are so important for The Witcher setting."

Despite the team's desire to broaden its story-telling potential, Tomaszkiewicz cautioned that The Witcher 3 wouldn't go beyond what players know from previous instalments. Don't expect Geralt to be a one-man army who single-handedly changes the entire world, for example.

"Witcher 3 is extremely ambitious in terms of the number of characters and plots that we’re introducing," Tomaszkiewicz continued, "but also in terms of how we want to present them. We want to tell a truly immersive and emotional story in an epic environment.

"The overarching plot will have a huge impact on the state of world as a whole, but we’re not aiming at making Geralt savior of universe – this would be out of his character. As always, Geralt will get dragged into big events that he would otherwise stay out of, and influence them in his own way."

Part of Geralt's impact is the Witcher 3's deeper moral choice system which isn't presented in black or white binary questions. Each choice will help players reach one of 36 'world states' by the time the end credits roll.

"We’ve never used simple “black and white” moral choices in our games, "Tomaszkiewicz concluded, "and The Witcher 3 is no exception. We are keeping “shades of grey” moral choices that are the key element of The Witcher universe.

"As for the ending states of the world, we are using the “butterfly effect” as we did in our previous games. So you can expect that seemingly unimportant choices may cause serious consequences later on in the game."

It sounds epic. Let us know what you think of the Witcher 3's scope below.

Meanwhile CD Projekt RED has stated its open-world approach will be entirely different to Skyrim's. Check out the details here.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will hit PC, PS4 and 'next-gen formats' in 2014. Stay tuned for our full interview soon.