According to a recent announcement from CD Projekt Red, their upcoming game is going to be one long experience. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the final game in the Witcher trilogy, apparently contains 100 hours of total playtime. Now that's a lot of game.
The central narrative of the experience will run for around 50 hours, with "additional stories," such as side quests and optional content, accounting for the other 50 hours. This amount of gameplay does make sense considering the game's open world setting is said to be "30 times larger" than its predecessor.
"The Witcher 3 is full of impactful decisions, and gamers will choose between storylines that exclude one another in a single playthrough, ensuring extensive replay value," said CD Projekt head Adam Badowski. "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt crowns the trilogy with the main narrative, revolving around Geralt's search for his loved ones and his conflict with the Wild Hunt. As players travel through the game, they visit lands with their own unique atmosphere, communities and memorable characters. CD Projekt RED didn't create an open world with a singular theme, but concentrated on delivering diversified and engaging environments"
The game was first announced with a teaser trailer on February 5th, although rumors had been circulating for some time. The Witcher trilogy is based on the fantasy book series of the same name by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, which follow the exploits of monster hunter Geralt of Rivia.
The upcoming game will feature a new proprietary engine, the RED Engine 3, which will allow players to explore the open world without loading screens.
CD Projekt has also released a few new screenshots from the project, although they are based on an early version and do not incorporate the new rendering technology the company developed. You can check those out below.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be released sometime in 2014 for "high end" platforms including the PlayStation 4 and PC.