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In-game choices aren't often as impactful as in The Witcher 2, where a single fork in the road defines the rest of the RPG in its entirety. Although ambitious, the leadership at CD Projekt Red doesn't believe the idea was worth all the effort required to bring it to fruition.
A pivotal moment arises when Geralt must choose between two characters, Iorveth and Roche, to assist. They each offer a unique pathway through the following chapter, with particular dialogue and characterization distinctive to the side you pick. The Witcher 3 might be bigger in scale and more impressive in most other avenues, but no decision impacts the story POV quite as much.
"In The Witcher 2, we had a very difficult structure of the game, because there are two paths," Adam Badowski, co-CEO of CD Projekt, told PC Gamer. "You can go one path and you won't see the other path. From the production perspective it's a waste of resources. From [the] player's perspective, it might be cool, but definitely it was [an] experiment."
Going into The Witcher 3, Badowski felt this wouldn't be feasible for the more sandbox-oriented approach they were taking. "We brought totally something new, something that supported the open world concept," he states, explaining that the studio chose to lean more into world-building than letting players choose their narrative.
"The biggest thing was how we can deliver such a big game in the open world, keeping [the] great story of Geralt, and there were many doubts back then," he finishes. The Witcher 3 was truly a benchmark for CD Projekt and Geralt, demonstrating the team's capabilities and providing a stunning gateway into the mythology for players around the world.
The Witcher has evolved into a huge franchise since, with a Netflix show, animated movies, and multiple spin-off games. Besides The Witcher 4, a remake of the first game is in the works - if that goes well, maybe we'll see a redux of The Witcher 2, and more can experience that era of CD Projekt for themselves.
