The hype for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was (and is) off the charts. The expectations were practically biblical in scope. In a rare turn of events, CD Projekt Red’s masterpiece is not only living up to the hype, but exceeding it in grandiose fashion. It’s receiving near universal praise, including from us – but what makes it so special? Why is the world of the Witcher 3 so damn engrossing? Here are 5 reasons why developers will have to rethink game design in a post-Wild-Hunt world.

Characters

Put bluntly, the characters matter. All too often games will pour every shred of narrative energy into the hero at the expense of everyone else. This practice – whether brought on by budget restrictions, timelines, or laziness – completely shatters immersion. Think about it, what motivates the secondary characters in open world games? Usually, they want some rats killed or a stolen item retrieved… and that’s it. What are their core values? What drives them? In almost all cases, games give absolutely no sense of this. The Witcher 3 is different, and that difference was blindingly obvious within minutes. Tomira the herbalist and Willis the smith, both of whom I encountered in my first hour, have real motivations – an intangible sense of depth of character, rooted in lore, and brought forth by excellent voice acting. That same feeling continues throughout the adventure – a real achievement.

Density

What good is a giant landscape devoid of discovery? A huge sandbox is not uncommon, but all too often there isn’t much in that sandbox besides sand. Wild Hunt is a sandbox filled to bursting with all kinds of toys – there are an overwhelming number of things to do, and you run into something interesting every few steps. Literally. Trying to walk between two adjacent towns? Without exaggerating, you could feasibly run into a bandit camp, a notice board, orphaned children, a bear, a heavily guarded treasure, AND a battlefield full of corpses. That happened to me in Velen. Good luck avoiding being sidetracked!

Writing

It’s good. Real good. The adaptation makes excellent use of Andrzej Sapkowski’s source material (great books if you’re into fantasy novels by the way), and provided lines of speech that make the characters unique. It’s the writing specifically that’s pressed me forward in the game – the first few hours were frustrating thanks to a decent amount of open world jank, but the story is so well written that I HAD to see it through. Writing plays a prominent role in getting strong voice work too. Very few characters are written generically, and the ‘flavour’ of their lines has given the actors an excellent sense of who their character is. The result? Excellent voice acting throughout the game, with heartfelt and realistic performance for even the most inconsequential of characters.

Realism

The world of the Witcher 3 is gorgeous, but more than that it feels real in a way other worlds don’t. The terrain and plant life change in a smooth manner, rivers and paths are realistically drawn, and all detail work is present to increase immersion into the game. It’s an absolute masterclass in art and design, surpassing even standouts like Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption. Nothing feels like it was shoehorned into the world, instead giving a sense that it flowed naturally and logically from the lives of its inhabitants. If there’s a town, it’s because that’s a logical place to build a town. I’ve tried to capture that realism in the screenshots included in this article.

Choice

This is the big one. There are no blue/red good/evil dichotomous choices in this game. There are only shades of muddy grey, just like real life. In that sense, trying to play the ultimate hero just isn’t possible here. You may THINK you’re being the nice guy, and end up slaughtering a village. The way that choices worm their way back into your story is frankly incredible, with seemingly meaningless interactions having butterfly effect ramifications much later in the story. Not only does this make the game unpredictable, but also endlessly replayable. Trying to imagine all the branching story paths CD Projekt Red had to account for gives me a serious headache, and I offer high fives to each and every one on that team. Kudos for turning the open world RPG genre on it’s head, and setting a new bar for others to aim at. It’s a VERY high bar.