The Witcher series is one of the most revered in video game history. CD Projekt Red revealed at The Game Awards 2024 that The Witcher 4 has gone into production with the code name Polaris.
The film trailer shows Geralt’s adopted daughter Ciri accepting a witcher assignment in a small village beset by a monster who requests human sacrifices. It also showcases her new equipment and skills, including a chain and advanced magic.
Gameplay
You can get a lot out of this game, even if you’re a seasoned veteran or new to the Witcher series entirely. Developer CD Projekt Red took a long time to get this game out the door, but it looks like it will be worth the wait.
The Witcher 4 is set in a world of magic where monsters invade and humans must fight back, sometimes guerrilla-style. The game is much the same as the first Witcher game, but it leverages the new technology in order to provide an awesome experience.
As you watch in the game’s opening trailer, you can see Geralt’s daughter Ciri slaughtering a monstrous monster in an outpost. You also get to see her use her new skills, a sword and new magical abilities.
We don’t know when The Witcher 4 will come out, but the game is now fully production and it is in beta. In 2022, during an investors call Q&A, the studio’s co-founder and director Adam Kicinski announced that “We were hoping to have a new Witcher game every four to five years so I’m pretty sure we’re going to have The Witcher 4 in 2025”.
Characters
At Witchercon, Henry Cavill (Geralt), Anya Chalotra (Yennefer), and Freya Allan (Ciri) talked about directing the new Witcher game. Among other things, they gave us some insight into their characters and Witcher 4 world.
This time around, players will take over Ciri, which is a completely different person from Geralt. She is less judgmental, more willing to see what is happening. She will primarily be struggling with the long-ago nightmares that surround her.
She’s also got a knack for magic that’s going to be crucial in battle. She may not always win encounters, as the trailers suggest, but she is able to quickly reverse an encounter’s course.
The other major figure is Vilgefortz of Roggeveen who is one of the game’s strongest mages. He and his band of magi had led the victory at Sodden Hill in the war against Nilfgaard. He’s a very good swordsman, too. He even defeated and disfigured Geralt in a duel with a sword at Thanedd.
Potions
There’s no denying that the Witcher franchise has alchemical devices, and the fourth installment – Polaris, as it’s known – doesn’t leave any stone unturned. The development team for the game also provided some additional information on potions and weapon oils that will improve Geralt’s combat power.
Most potions will have a particular purpose and are used to boost the character before combat. Some of these potions will even come with Enhanced and Superior versions that grant higher stats or are less toxic, etc. They’ll distill these potions from a mixture of substances, all of which can be found throughout the globe.
These ingredients will be looted or bought from alchemists, including local herbalists. White Honey purges toxicity and residual potion effects, and Swallow increases rejuvenation. Another essential potion is Blizzard, which pauses time by 30 seconds so the Witcher can launch an endless barrage of slashes. Other potions will have defensive effects such as neutralizing poisons or utility effects such as a carrying weight.
Equipment
There are a number of different weapons and armour packs available in Witcher 3. These are generally split into school sets that give a preference for a certain style of play, except for the Wolven gear set which is all-purpose and offers a nice balance of stat boosts from all categories.
Apart from swords, Geralt can also wield axes and a mace. But only a handful of weapon sets qualify as grandmaster weapons. You can find these by visiting the grandmaster smith, Lazare Lafargue, in his workshop outside Grans’ Place and Metinna Gate.
CD Projekt Red didn’t reveal a release date for the next Witcher game, but it did state that it was in full production. The studio normally releases a new game every four to five years, so we’d be guessing it comes after 2025. In addition, it was recently announced that The Witcher 4 will be engineered with Unreal Engine 5 rather than the studio’s REDengine.
Story
The Witcher is a series of fantasy RPGs in which mutant heroes kill monsters that threaten humans for a fee. These games take place in a large, open world where you can roam around and talk to other players, and make decisions that have an impact on the narrative and launch new missions.
At the 2024 edition of The Game Awards, Polish video-game studio CD Projekt Red dropped a teaser trailer for a new entry in the series. The trailer showed Geralt of Rivia’s adopted daughter Ciri taking on a job in a remote village terrorised by a monster demanding human sacrifices.
Although the trailer was tremendously exciting, fans were alarmed at Ciri’s apparent advancement to full-fledged witchess and how that might change the series’ existing tropes. Thankfully, Sebastian Kalemba and CD Projekt Red Franchise & Lore Designer Cian Maher have since assured fans that Ciri’s new powers are not going to compromise the series canon.
