STORY: A world in turmoil, and the worst is yet to come.



The world is in chaos. The air is thick with tensions and the smoke of burned villages. The fearsome Empire of Nilfgaard has struck again, ravaging the hapless Northern Kingdoms. The once-mighty who tried to use Geralt for their own gain are now gone. In these uncertain times, no one can say what the future holds in store, who will bring peace to the world and who will cause it only misery.



But a force darker and deadlier emerges. The petty men and women commanding tin-plated armies fail to understand that their conflict is child's play compared to the Wild Hunt, the otherworldly threat which now looms. These ghastly spectral riders have plagued the world for ages, plunging it in misery and despair. Yet this time the Wild Hunt seeks one person in particular: the one bestowed upon Geralt by Destiny itself, the one soul Geralt considers kin.



Non-Linear, hand-crafted

The Witcher 3 features over 100 hours of non-linear gameplay, nearly half of which is devoted to the immersive main storyline, a narrative focusing on Geralt and htose closest to him. None of this is automatically generated - both core and side quests are handmade with meticulous care, meaningfully woven into the vibrant game universe. Forming or supporting the main and secondary storylines, they draw players into engaging, intricately-crafted adventures extending across the rich, living, world.



Non-linearity is a core feature of the game, with player choices branching the adventure from the main storyline on multiple levels, from entire sub-stories, to trivial everyday matters. Saving a miller's son from a wyvern attack may affect who will ultimately don a crown, while thwarting a plot to assassinate a noble lord could spell doom for his oppressed subjects.



Quests may be taken on in any order, completed one at a time or pursued in parallel with others. Regardless of the method, players actions will bring many consequences that change the story and affect the game world. These consequences culminate in three completely different playable epilogues set in one of twelve possible unique world states. Defined by the outcome of climactic events and the fate of key NPCs, these states provide a total of 36 different possible endings.



Choice and consequence

Choice and consequence, the former difficult and often grim, the latter delayed until key moments, is a concept CD Projekt RED devised and developed into its key contribution to the genre. The core of CD Projekt RED's RPG philosophy, this concept was the backbone of The Witcher 1 and 2. Naturally, choice features prominently in the story, as well as the game mechanics, of The Witcher 3. With the 'lesser evil' as a key concept, the story puts players before situations in which there is no clear good: do you help an alderman enchain all the village elves he claims are secretly working for the Scoia'tael, or do you stop him at the risk of enabling outsiders to storm the gates and letting outlaws into the city to massacre all the humans? Such hard choices are complemented by the interactivity of dialogue, letting players choose how they speak to other characters, how they shape their relationships, thus determining how NPCs treat them in return.



Each action impacts the story and the game world. NPCs, communities, monsters and locations all change based on player choice - you may rid a fishing village of drowners and watch its economy prosper, or kill a merchant in one town and see his trading partners in another go bankrupt for lack of goods.



A choice once made resonates, its effects both immediate and delayed. Revisit a location where an important story juncture played out, and you're sure to find it transformed by your previous actions. Similarly, a choice made in one corner of the world, pertaining to specific characters, could well breed consequences in other lands, among other populations.