Witcher 3 - Interview @ Geekbomb

If you can tolerate the pink layout then a site called Geekbomb has a new interview with CD Projekt Red’s Quest Designer Philipp Weber to talk about The Witcher 3.

Has there been any huge changes in the gameplay or the mechanics from the previous titles?

“The biggest change for us is that we now have an open world, so many of the quests actually work differently. You won’t have the case anymore where people talk about a monster roaming the forest and it’s like ten metres away from you – that will not happen in this game. In general, and as an example, the combat system is a very refined version of The Witcher 2. Its combat system wasn’t perfect. There were some complaints and we listened to them. I personally think that gameplay wise this is my favourite [of the series] and it works very well. I have a lot of fun with the combat system, which I always like to compare to a dance. You move a lot and there’s a rhythm – it’s pretty cool.”

I actually did find it to be a bit like that, and it was really fun! Speaking of combat, one of the things that I really enjoyed was that there was no level adjustment when it came to fighting monsters. You actually had to level up a little bit before taking on certain foes. What was the inspiration behind this move?

“We always liked that in old school games you always felt a sense of accomplishment after you overcame a certain monster that you maybe couldn’t defeat in the beginning. In many games that have been released in the last few years, monsters are always exactly as strong as you are at the time. For me personally it defeats the purpose of a role playing game because you improve your own skills but you also improve your characters. As an example, if the wolves in the prologue level give you issues, it’s a nice feeling that twenty hours later you can return, do that [he snaps his fingers] and they all fall down and die.”

Being the last title in the series, I’m sure a lot of the fans will be desperately wanting some DLC. Can you reveal if there is going to be any at this stage?

“We’ve announced that we are going to be having some free DLC! We don’t really believe in giving you something like an armour pack where we give you the armour and ask for $5.99. Basically we want to treat players like we would personally like to be treated as players.”

Is that part of the reason that you will be providing free DLC – to give something back to gamers?

“Yes, exactly. And if we were to ever charge for DLC then I think it would be more like what we used to call an add-on in the good old days. I think that’s the only way we could imagine making DLC that you would have to pay for – so you actually get your moneys worth.”

Thank you azarhal for the link.