The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is 35 times bigger than The Witcher 2. Let's think about that for a second. That fact alone is staggering, because 2011's RPG was already big enough. But in going open world, CD Projekt Red has created one of the largest RPGs ever made, and I was able to see an uncensored, un-edited hour of the ambitious project this morning behind closed doors.

The beginning of my presentation focused on creating "living communities that have daily routines" - my host walked me through a mountain village in which traveling merchants were plying their wares, alchemist tables were available for crafting, and side quests were being shouted out from the sides of the street. Like in Skyrim, the NPCs will have their own daily schedules and routines that they will stick to, and merchants will have actual paths that they travel to sell their goods. Geralt's interactions with these NPCs will "greatly influence their lives" in many cases.

A new economy system will make manipulating the in-game stores and merchants into a game in itself. Prices will fluctuate depending on Geralt's location. Buying fish, for example, is cheaper near the sea than it is inland. Geralt can use this to his advantage to make more gold by, say, purchasing fish at sea and then riding inland to sell them at higher prices.

Following the tour of the town, Geralt ran down to the shore and hopped into a boat. He sailed out into the sea, riding the waves off towards another shore. There will be no invisible walls in the entire game, and Geralt will be able to travel to any location he can see onscreen, my presentor told me. Since the world is so massive, a fast travel system is now necessary. Geralt must visit the locations before he can fast travel to them, though.

After this brief introduction to the world and its methods of travel, I was introduced to the notorious Wild Hunt, a group of spectral soldiers who kill without mercy, and who travel in darkly whimsical flying ships. They razed an entire village in front of me, leaving its occupants either dead or scarred in their path.

My presentation snapped back to Geralt after a brief cutscene introduced the Wild Hunt. Magic and alchemy will still be integral in manipulating the game's combat systems. As Geralt walked down the road he ran into a group of bandits attacking a poor civilian in his house. This was my first chance to see the game's revamped combat systems. The Witcher 3's new combat has been designed to combine the tactical depth of a typical RPG with the speed of a fighting game. Animation priority has been greatly lessened this time around, making it easier to string hits together or get out of the way of heavy attacks.

The brief scuffle with bandits was nothing, but a massive creature called a Fiend proved tougher when Geralt stumbled upon it in the wild. This battle was actually the beginning of a new side quest; Geralt wasn't able to kill the massive beast, a sinister-looking combination of a giant and a gazelle, during his first encounter, but could opt to track the beast back to its lair to finish the job. My presenter did not opt to pursue this quest for now, opting instead for a more in-depth side quest.

Still, the battle with the Fiend was notable for several reasons. For one thing, it showed off the incredible monster design that continues to be a hallmark of The Witcher. If anything, The Witcher 3's designs were more imposing and sinister than ever before. But more significantly, it revealed that each large monster, called "epic monsters" by the team, will have its own unique powers and its own story. The Fiend, for example, could hypnotize Geralt using a magical third eye, causing him to hallucinate and lose track of the beast.

Geralt took off in the opposite direction of the Fiend after the battle. He sat on a grassy knoll and meditated, the game's version of advancing its day/night cycle. This cycle, along with the weather, will have actual, tangible affects on the gameplay. Geralt would be ill-advised to take on werewolves at night, because they get stronger when the moon is out. He would be similarly fooldhardy to take a boat out to sea during a storm; big waves can actually topple boats, sending Geralt toppling into icy water where he will soon freeze to death. The dynamic weather and impactful day/night cycle sound like they have huge potential for dynamic sandbox gameplay.

After meditating, Geralt wandered into a village and found its residents in panic. A member of the village had just recently been found dead, wrapped up in vines. The superstitious village elders suspected a forest spirit, which they desired to placate, but a more militant branch of the village led by a man named Sven believed it to be a simple forest beast, and hired Geralt to find and kill it.

Geralt was able to use his enhanced senses to track the beast into the forest and identify it. These Witcher Senses, as they're called, highlighted clues like tracks and claw marks in red. Through these, Geralt was able to learn several facts about the creature - a massive claw mark gouging into a rock, for example, told Geralt that the creature was powerful, and that there was "no piont in blocking its blows."

Using these clues, my presenter was able to open up Geralt's journal, a sort of in-game Wiki of monsters, and determine that the creature in question was a Leshen. This lanky, skull-faced baddie has a cry like the cawing of crows, the Journal told us, and marks its victims, using their life energy to resurrect. Thus, we had to head back to the village and find out which civilian the Leshen marked before trying to kill it. We followed a flock of crows to a girl named Hilde, who Geralt saw through his Witcher Senses was marked. Sven took it upon hiimself to kill her even though he loved her, so that Geralt may rid the village of its curse. "It happens," my presentor said casually.

This mission showed how monsters will be "rooted in the community." The team at CD Projekt Red wants each epic monster encounter to feel special and personal, and they definitely achieved that goal with the Leshen battle. The final battle took Geralt deep into the forest, where he used what he had learned about the Leshen to destroy it with fire magic while dodging past its powerful blows.

What I saw of The Witcher 3 looked incredibly promising so far. Its huge open world and sinister monster stories should be a dark pleasure when it releases in 2014.

For more on The Witcher 3, check out my in-depth interview with CD Projekt Red's Game Director, Konrad.