Yesterday saw the State of Unreal, a conference organized by Epic Games and focused on new technologies related to the Unreal Engine. In addition to unveiling version 5.6, as well as other good news regarding MetaHuman, the company shared, in collaboration with CD Projekt Red, a new demo video for The Witcher 4. The upcoming installment, as anticipated as it is mysterious, is the studio's main project at the moment and is being revealed little by little through trailers of varying length. Here are the three things to remember from this presentation, which is anything but trivial.
This is not a gameplay trailer...
...it's a technical demo. The difference between the two media is extremely important. When Cyberpunk 2077 was released, many players were extremely disappointed not to find certain gameplay elements shown in previous trailers. But during the development process, absolutely everything is subject to change, although this is rarely the case when it comes to a demonstration of the actual gameplay of a game.
With a technical demo, this principle is even more important to keep in mind. Everything shown was orchestrated to showcase as much as possible. In the actual game, not everything will be as condensed. Kajetan Kapuściński, CD Projekt Red's cinematics director, explains:
New regions: Kovir and Valdrest
The video introduces us to environments that players have never had the opportunity to see, notably Kovir, but also the city of Valdrest, which is an invention of the studio and not from Andrzej Sapkowski's literary medium. The kingdom of Kovir represents a development challenge in itself. Although it is emblematic of the universe of The Witcher, its mountainous and snowy landscapes are obviously much more complicated to get out of than the flat terrain of the cities and the muddy paths. The zone is located in the north of the imaginary world of the franchise and it is a region that the player has not yet explored. It is the largest exporter of minerals in the country, the quest with a salt merchant is therefore very consistent with the lore.
The town of Valdrest, welcoming and warm, is the cradle of a beautiful community where all professions meet and evolve together. We learn that it is a port city, which implies some geological specificities.
An interactive world
The city is the scene of quite a few events in The Witcher. The fourth installment will be no exception and we see this with Valdrest in particular. The title embraces this new generation of RPGs where NPCs have lives almost more interesting than the hero's. They can trigger chain reactions, have real goals and conversations, and bring life to cities that are now much more populated than before. Valdrest, for example, will have a population of at least 300 inhabitants. All have different physiques and are coded with an infinite number of animations, which provides real immersion. Kapuściński explains:
Bonus: the horse
Goodbye, Roach, we loved you. The Witcher 4 gives way to Kelpie, Ciri's fabulous black horse. It's obvious that saying goodbye to the mount that has accompanied us all these years isn't easy, but it's the turn of the young woman and her four-legged companion to impose their identity for the upcoming trilogy. Kelpie is our highlight of this technical demo, as the animal is so adorable.
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