CD Projekt Red wants Cyberpunk 2077 to see a series-long transformation in line with that of its Witcher trilogy.
In an interview with PC Gamer, Cyberpunk 2077 narrative director Igor Sarzyński says, "Consider The Witcher games and how much they changed with each installment. We want a similar evolution here."
Honestly, it's pretty hard to envisage that evolution for Cyberpunk. When The Witcher 1 was released, CD Projekt Red was a tiny developer with relatively little experience. While the game has since become something of a cult classic (inasmuch as that's possible for the foundation stone of one of the best RPGs of the past decade), it's pretty janky, with odd combat controls, ugly NPCs, some questionable acting, and open-world sections that still haunt me.
- The Witcher 4 director on lessons learned from the "struggles" of Cyberpunk 2077's release: "It's a continuation of the evolution, improvement, and transformation"
- CD Projekt Red says its "ambition is high, crazily high" with The Witcher 4 as devs hope to "apply all the lessons learned" from Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3
Even The Witcher 2 was a massive step up from its predecessor, and while it didn't quite live up to the freedom of The Witcher 3, it's a much more conventionally enjoyable effort. Of course, the third entry in Geralt's trilogy established CDPR as one of the world's leading RPG developers, completing that evolution. But watching Cyberpunk 2077 - already a massive, polished RPG - undergo that kind of change in three games seems like an almost impossible task.
Sarzyński clarifies, however, that it's more a question of tone and setting than delivery; "Cyberpunk 2077 was our first venture into a futuristic sci-fi world with a ton of new gameplay mechanics, narrative tone, themes, and art direction. Some of the stuff worked almost right out of the box, such as the art, city design, music, interactive scene system, [and] playstyles. Other aspects took more time to get right, like character progression, NPC interactivity, and optimization. That's natural; it's impossible to nail everything on your first try. Now with all the game elements iterated and working well, we'll focus on connecting them even tighter and creating a coherent, total immersion experience."
That certainly bodes well for the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, known internally as Project Orion, and I can't say it sounds like bad news for The Witcher 4 Polaris either. That said, it's likely to be some time before we see either of those games - work has only recently started on Cyberpunk 2, and The Witcher 4 isn't expected until 2025 at the earliest. That's a lot of time for a glow-up.
