It was recently announced that CD Projekt Red is working towards becoming a two-team studio that will work on both the Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher franchises simultaneously. Along with this, it was also revealed that these are the main two series that the developer will focus on going forward.
Following this announcement, many fans have started to speculate about what The Witcher 4 could potentially look like and how the franchise will change from previous titles. So we figured we would join in on the fun and put together our list of the ten things we want Cd Projekt Red to include in The Witcher 4.
10 More Fluid Sword Combat
The Witcher 3 was a massive hit and hugely influential release, but this success was not due to the game's often clunky combat system. Many fans found the speed of the sword-swinging animations combined with the pace that the game strings inputs together to be hard to master and slow.
Luckily, what has been shown of the CD Projekt Red's next game, Cyberpunk 2077, implies that the studio has gotten better at designing more fluid and user-friendly combat. It is worth noting that Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person shooter, but still, it is a promising sign for the future of combat gameplay from the developer.
9 A Better Crossbow
With The Witcher 3, CD Projekt Red introduced an equipable crossbow to the series, and it added a new ranged option that was missing from previous titles. Unfortunately for many players, the crossbow never became a regularly used item in most situations until it was able to receive a significant damage boost in a later expansion.
Ideally in the next Witcher release, CD Projekt Red would start you off with a crossbow that is capable of putting out more serious damage as it increases the value of the weapon outside of its very specific uses.
8 A More Traditional RPG Progression System
The Witcher 3's progression system was based around upgrading individual abilities and equipping them into limited slots that could be modified by mutations. This is quite different from the standard point system many RPGs use to improve attributes that govern specific skills.
With The Witcher 4, if CD Projekt Red were to move towards a traditional system, it would allow players to invest in the aspects of the game that they most enjoy while also letting them have more control over their build.
7 More Responsive Horse Riding
One of the most frustrating aspects of The Witcher 3 was the horse riding mechanics and in particular how clumsy it would feel trying to maneuver Roach with precision. This made it annoying to travel through cities and even some of the larger towns in the game while on your horse.
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Luckily, as with the combat in Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red seems to be improving overall when it comes to their driving mechanics. While a car or motorcycle should handle very differently from a horse, hopefully, the effort the developers seem to be putting into traversal in their latest game can also translate to the next Witcher title.
6 Changes To The Crafting System
The Witcher 3 features a gear crafting system where Geralt can use materials and recipes to create new pieces of armor and weapons. Outside of the material requirements though players also need to visit a blacksmith to actually craft any new gear.
Forcing players to visit specific vendors is already tedious, but it was made more annoying by the fact that there are so few blacksmiths in the game's open world. Ideally CD Projekt Red would allow players to craft anywhere, but if they were to at least increase the number of blacksmiths in the game, this would be a nice improvement.
5 Gwent
While Gwent has now received its own spin-off title, the popular digital card game made its first appearance in The Witcher 3, so hopefully, it would also be featured in the franchise's fourth title. It was well implemented in the third and provided both a fun set of collectibles and an engaging side activity.
Potentially CD Projekt Red could decide to remove Gwent if they are concerned about it affecting the success of their standalone release, but this would likely be a bad decision as many of their fans would miss the card game.
4 Ciri
Following the release of The Witcher 3, CD Projekt Red made it clear that the game would serve as the end to Geralt's story, but that the franchise would continue with a different main character. Many fans have assumed that this means Ciri will be the new protagonist, due to the fact that one of the endings for the third Witcher showed that Geralt had begun training Ciri to become a Witcher.
It makes sense that CD Projekt Red would want to move on from Geralt after three games, and replacing him with Ciri would be perfect as it would allow them to close the door on Geralt but still easily bring back to any past characters.
3 A Jump Forward In Time
Assuming Ciri becomes the new face of the Witcher franchise, starting The Witcher 4 with a jump in time from the last game would allow them to begin at a point when Ciri is thoroughly trained and has replaced Geralt. Doing this would mean that players would get to see how Ciri has taken to her new profession right away and get straight to the monster slaying.
If CD Projekt Red did still feel the need to include moments from her training, this could be accomplished through short flashbacks like in the Witcher 3.
2 Other Witcher Schools
Some of the most rewarding crafting recipes to hunt down in The Witcher 3 are the ones that allow you to make the armor and weapons of other Witcher schools. Finding these helps to flesh out the world of the Witcher and helps to add some identity to the other schools that players have not yet seen.
It would be very exciting to see CD Projekt Red take this one step further in The Witcher 4 and introduce Witchers from other parts of the world or even let fans visit the other schools in the game.
1 The Ability To Fast Travel From Anywhere
In the Witcher 3, players are able to fast travel between signposts in areas that Geralt has already visited which is a nice feature but one that could be improved. Ideally, you would be able to fast travel to a location you have already been to from anywhere else in the world.
Forcing players first to find the nearest signpost always felt like an unnecessary step that really only wastes the player’s time and does not add anything to the overall experience.