It’s been ten years since The Witcher 3, and we still have no idea when The Witcher 4 will launch. But thanks to a new tech demo, we have an idea of what CD Projekt Red is aiming for with the anticipated sequel’s visuals, even if we don’t get to see the game in action for years.
On May 3, The Witcher 4 kicked off a showcase of Epic’s Unreal Engine 5.6. The game marks the first time CD Projekt Red will use the engine, having relied on its proprietary REDengine in the past. While the demo doesn’t represent actual gameplay, game director Sebastian Kalemba says it is running on a standard PlayStation 5 and getting 60 frames per second. The buzzword-filled presentation mostly aimed at developers still had plenty of info there to show gamers in general how The Witcher 4 might compare to its predecessor.
The tech demo opens with a cinematic trailer showing a wagon attacked by a manticore on the road, and Ciri showing up in the aftermath. Much more interestingly, that’s followed by an in-engine demo that’s meant to show off the game’s new engine while being representative of gameplay. It’s set in the mountainous region of Kovir, a setting the Witcher games haven’t gone to yet, where Kalemba says at least some of The Witcher 4 will take place.
We’re also quickly introduced to Kelpie, Ciri’s horse. Whether or not Kelpie will become as iconic as Geralt’s horse, Roach, is yet to be seen, but Unreal senior director Wyeth Johnson touts a new animation system that will make the movement of Kelpie’s muscles and skin more realistic. The engine also has some new tech to sync animations when two characters are interacting, so actions like Ciri mounting Kelpie should look more natural than they could have before.
Some of the most impressive details of the demo are aspects that aren’t even remarked upon when Ciri gets to the port city of Valdrest. Ciri tours the city wearing what I must say is an incredibly cool cape, as RPG protagonists are wont to do. Both the cape and Ciri’s movements are far smoother than anything The Witcher 3 managed ten years ago. What gets more attention from the presenters is how Ciri interacts with NPCs, like when she bumps into a vendor carrying a crate of apples, which then spill and roll across the floor.
Much of the demo focuses not on Ciri, but on the NPCs around her. According to Johnson, Unreal is adding a host of tools to “close the gap” between Ciri and other characters in the world. While Ciri might be rendered in higher quality than the incidental characters around her, new systems for animating cloth and the ways that NPCs interact with objects are meant to make them, and therefore the world, look more realistic. Crowds are also getting a boost in The Witcher 4. More than 300 animated characters can appear onscreen in the new engine, according to Johnson, while still allowing the game to hit 60 fps.
The demo concludes not with a new detail about engine tech, but with a look at something players can look forward to in the world of The Witcher 4. As Ciri leaves Valdrest, she stops for a look at Lan Exeter in the distance. Lan Exeter is one of two capitals of Kovir. A sprawling city set on either side of a massive river, Lan Exeter using canals in place of streets in The Witcher canon, which could give one of The Witcher 4’s main cities a decidedly different feel from anything in the series before.
There’s plenty of impressive technology on display in the presentation, but as interesting as it is to ponder how they’ll show up in the game, it’s best to temper expectations. The Witcher 3 itself was criticized on launch for what some players called a “graphical downgrade,” when the game at launch didn’t match how it looked in pre-release trailers. While the PS5 may be capable of running a tech demo as impressive as what Epic and CD Projekt Red just showed off, that doesn’t mean The Witcher 4 will actually look this good. Instead, it’s best to think of the demo as an aspirational tone-setter, an example of the ideas that will be used to shape the game’s world and interactions, rather than a preview of what you’ll actually be playing.
