The Witcher 4 is easily one of the most hotly anticipated RPGs today, heralded as the continuation of CD Projekt Red’s fabled, bumpy path to excellence within the genre. Indeed, after Phantom Liberty and the redemption of Cyberpunk 2077, hopes are generally quite high for The Witcher 4, and while we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves, it seems pretty safe to say that the game could represent a massive evolution for the studio.
Since its reveal trailer in 2024, fans have been on the hunt for information about The Witcher 4’s story and gameplay, both of which are mostly shrouded in mystery at this point. Naturally, it’s been assumed that the game will follow in the footsteps of The Witcher 3 in many core aspects, such as its approach to third-person melee combat, quest design, and world design. And while it’s likely true that The Witcher 4 will build on certain elements from its predecessor, there are reasons to believe that it will be far more of a generational leap forward, a truly distinct and futuristic experience.
The Witcher 4 Returning Character Wish List
The Witcher 4 will begin a new story, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a few familiar faces fans have gotten to know in previous games.
In Terms of Attention to Detail, Visuals, and Animation, The Witcher 4 Will Be Miles Ahead
If you take a quick look through The Witcher 4’s sparse promotional materials, or sources like CD Projekt Red’s highly illuminating AnsweRED podcast, you’ll notice that the developer tends to bring up Unreal Engine 5 quite a bit. This is because CDPR formed a partnership with Unreal creator Epic Games a few years ago, vowing to develop both The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk sequel Project Orion in UE5 rather than its proprietary REDengine. This is a decision that could be dissected and theorized about until the day of release, but taking CDPR at its word, it looks like Unreal Engine 5 is facilitating substantial improvements to visuals, world design, and animation.
Fit the 9 games into the grid.
CDPR describes Unreal Engine 5 as a “playground” for artists and designers, praising its ease of use and performance, which reduces certain processes from hours down to minutes. The result sounds like more than just a better workflow: more advanced motion capture means more emotive and believable characters, and more feasible experimentation and tweaking means greater attention to detail, something that CDPR seems to be targeting in particular. In a recent AnsweRED episode, the studio highlighted a specific example of this, explaining that an NPC on crutches will have a completely distinct set of animations informed by the impairment, rather than just being a bog-standard NPC with a superficial visual quirk.
Listening to CD Projekt Red’s developers, it’s clear that their goal isn’t just to make The Witcher 4 look good. For instance, the game’s animators have noted the importance of making Ciri’s animations not only smooth, but readable for players making gameplay decisions.
Ciri Will Be a New Kind of Force To Be Reckoned With
It’s worth noting how these advancements in tech will combine with the unique aspects of Ciri as a character to create something radically different from The Witcher 3. CDPR has touched on a few key differences between the two in terms of combat, like the fact that Ciri will be much more fluid, able to cast spells while moving, and even jump during fights—two things that Geralt is incapable of in his games. But you don’t exactly need to know the nitty-gritty details of CD Projekt Red’s development process to guess that Ciri will feel quite distinct from a gameplay perspective.
As an acrobatic fighter with unique powers, Ciri will probably be more about speed and agility than Geralt, who is already something of a sword ballerina himself; the stark contrast between the two in The Witcher 3 should be evidence enough of Ciri’s greater speed. However, Ciri has also undergone the Trials of the Grasses in The Witcher 4, meaning that she could theoretically be even faster and more reactive this time around.
Moving On from Cyberpunk 2077
After the historic hype and crash of Cyberpunk 2077, I want to be careful not to stoke the flames of expectation too much, especially for a CD Projekt Red game. It’s easy to look at something like The Witcher 4’s Unreal Engine 5 tech demo and conjure mental images of a stunning, never-before-seen gaming landmark, and while I would love nothing more than for The Witcher 4 to be just that, it’s important to stay realistic.
Having said that, one must imagine that CD Projekt Red has learned its lesson in the aftermath of the Cyberpunk 2077 backlash, which caused the company to suffer financial losses as well as reputational ones. To put a fine point on it, it’s hard to believe CDPR would want to make the same mistakes again. On a more optimistic note, Cyberpunk 2077 introduces a lot of new ideas and details to CD Projekt Red’s world design, quest design, and narrative design, all of which could potentially inform the development of The Witcher 4, further distinguishing it from Geralt’s journey in unexpected ways.
