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Witcher 3's open world approach "totally different" to Skyrim's, says developer

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt may be taking the open world route to new levels like Skyrim, but developer CD Projekt RED has explained why its approach to Geralt's world is totally different from a story-telling perspective.

Speaking with RPS, Michał Platkow-Gilewsk was quizzed about how the studio approached its world based on what it saw Bethesda achieve with Skyrim.

"It’s hard not to mention Skyrim," he replied, "but I believe that our approach to our game is totally different. What they created was an open-world RPG. What we’re doing is a story-driven RPG set in an open-world environment.

"For us, the most important aspect of the game is always the story. And by “story” I mean not only what’s happening, but also the choices and consequences, the moral gray areas, the good or bad characteristics of the NPCs that make them believable. After you meet them, you’ll remember who they are and why they do what they do. All that is the most important thing for us."

Platkow-Gilewsk was quick to add that creating such a immersing world wasn't without challenges, "It’s a big challenge, but we’ve identified all the tricky parts of it, and we’re working hard to give a great storytelling experience in this open world. As far as asking what will be the consequences of your actions, there will be a lot of them. You know Witcher 2.

"We want to bring all of our experience in this field and put it in an open-world environment. Bigger and smaller actions will all bring you to small or huge consequences. It’s enough to tell you that we’re preparing three totally different epilogues depending on how you finish the game, with different choices somewhere in the middle.

"There will be 36 different states you can leave the world in. By states, I mean more significant changes, not every single change you’re involved in."

Does the prospect of such a reactive open world get you excited? If so, you should also check out our rather huge info dump on The Witcher 3 from last week. It includes details of the game's 50-hour campaign, magic and more.

We've also got a big gallery of new screens here.

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

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Dave Cook

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Dave worked on VG247 for an extended period manging much of the site's news output. As well as his experience in games media, he writes for comics, and now specializes in books about gaming history.

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