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A CD Projekt Red tech lead has delved into the design challenges of jumping between the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3, and one amusing highlight is the difference in approach when it comes to protagonists.
Speaking to All Out Gaming (below), CD Project Red senior VP of technology Charles Tremblay is asked about how working on the likes of The Witcher and Cyberpunk contrasts and compares.
A lot of it is what you might imagine. Stuff like the verticality of Night City's towering buildings being something to adapt to when you're used to the medieval styling of The Witcher's European setting – coincidentally, that's not too dissimilar to a story about Assassin's Creed Odyssey we wrote about lately.
Another thing CDPR had to account for, though, was the main character. Cyberpunk 2077 features a protagonist called V that's essentially of your own making regarding backstory and appearance, which lets you forge a headcanon that'll dictate how you play the RPG. While you can make story-altering choices for Geralt and Ciri in The Witcher 3 and 4, though, it's not quite the same level of control as their character and backstory is set.
"The agenda is quite different that we have on Cyberpunk," Tremblay reflects. "Ciri or Geralt, they are fully fledged characters. They have their own personality, there are things that they will not do. While when you go to Cyberpunk, V is a more mercenary.
"She has more freedom about how she wants to tackle the world, in an evil or good way, while it's very difficult to see Geralt starting to go GTA style. Very, very difficult to see."
The greater sense of creative control on offer in Cyberpunk 2077 is grand, though I imagine the design work behind it must have been a pain to get around when putting the game together. It's something that plenty of CDPR devs pulled off in the end, though I don't imagine we'll be getting GTA Ciri when The Witcher 4 comes out.
