Witcher 3 ignores much of the political machinations of its predecessor, instead focusing on Geralt of Rivia's personal mission to recover his memory and save Yennefer, an ex-lover taken by the Wild Hunt. The Hunt are the main antagonists in this game, as Geralt chases them to the bleak and frozen Northern Kingdoms, but they're like no monster he has faced before. More like a force of nature than an actual beast, they consist of huge, marauding suits of armour that pillage and kidnap their way across the world with impunity. Zipping around in intimidating flying war barges and razing villages overnight, they've become more myth than reality. But Geralt has a bone to pick with them, and he's a hard man to dissuade.

Wticher 3

Even in our short demo (40 minutes is a short demo for a game of this size) we're given a perfect example of the complex morals at work here. During his pursuit, Geralt happens upon a village being terrorised by a monster that lives in a nearby forest. In any normal RPG this would be a simple find it and stab it mission, but this is Witcher. One group, the elders, want to appease the beast: it's been living in the forest for as long as they can remember and they don't see a reason to anger it. The younger group has had enough and want the monster gone. It's entirely up to you who you listed to, and neither option is the wrong or bad one. For the purposes of the demo, we chose to kill the monster. First things first, Geralt needs to know what he's up against so he heads into the forest to investigate. As many monsters have weaknesses and strengths that can be the difference between success and reloading a save, it's best to know what you're walking into. Hunting a werewolf? Probably best not to do it on a full moon, or you're in for a bad night.

One of the things that is immediately apparent as Geralt steps from the Nordic-inspired village into the murky forest is just how beautiful the game looks. Even standing still, Geralt's hair floats lazily in what wind makes it through the trees. The entire mood of the surroundings changes the further we head into the forest, as less light filters through the trees and the sounds of animals grow louder. The playthrough was running on a custom PC set-up so it was a showcase of the best you can expect but the sheer number of particle effects, elements being separately affected by wind and individual AI pursuing their own agenda all on screen at the same time puts most "immersive" games to shame. Jarzębowski attributes this graphical fidelity to the new console generation. "Because we are developing the game for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC, we go nuts in terms of visuals. We want the game to look as beautiful as possible," he says. "I think we are in a good moment, we don't have to choose between better graphics or performance on either PC or consoles now, we can just create the best looking game possible."

When questioned about just how far the game takes the processors in those consoles, Jarzębowski was hesitant. "If it maxes out the consoles? Well, the future will tell. There are games that are being released for current-gen that look way better than everything created so far. We are always getting wiser and wiser, so I expect our next game will look even better."