The Witcher 4 Will Take Inspiration from Kingdom Come Deliverance 2

The Witcher 4 appears to be taking some notes from Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. We’re pretty spoiled by great RPGs right now. Developers of all shapes and sizes have been putting out some of the best games we’ve seen in years. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 was a massive hit when it launched earlier this year as it made all the right decisions when it came to crafting a super immersive and highly enjoyable RPG. Baldur’s Gate 3 was another role-playing game that just crushed it from a narrative level, allowing players the opportunity to have varied stories with rich characters where their choices feel consequential.

After years of seeing games like these, many are turning their eyes back toward big RPG developers like BioWare, Bethesda, and CD Projekt Red to see if they can match what these developers are up to. Some criticized Starfield for feeling very dated by the time it came out, especially since it released in the shadow of Baldur’s Gate 3. One of the next big RPGs that people are excited for is The Witcher 4. We just got a new look at a tech demo for the game this past week, revealing CD Projekt’s ambitions for the world that they’re trying to create. While we still have a ways to go, it seems like CD Projekt has set a high bar for itself and is learning from its contemporaries.

When speaking with PC Gamer, CD Projekt Red revealed that it was very impressed with Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 and is even taking some inspiration from that game for The Witcher 4. The developer was impressed by the immersion in the game and the level of freedom and choice that the is presented to the player. CD Projekt Red is interested in following that trend, though it still plans to make sure The Witcher 4 is very much a CDPR game.

“The Kingdom Come kind of simulation, it’s great,” says CDPR co-CEO Adam Badowski. “There’s so many options, you can change the world, it’s super great. And we would like to keep that, we’d like to follow this trend as well. So these are our next steps for sure, and it’s kind of a similar challenge to what we have in The Witcher 3 because of the open world and storytelling here, freedom of choices. But at the same time, we would like to build very fleshy, very well-motivated characters. So it’s kind of in contradiction from time-to-time. That’s a great design challenge.”

In regards to Baldur’s Gate 3, CD Projekt Red was clear in stating that they enjoyed that game a lot and may take some lessons for it, but the inspiration will be less direct since it’s a turn-based RPG that has a totally different approach to gameplay and storytelling.

“It’s a bit of an unclear answer, but to make it more clear, we definitely are not going to make a game like Larian did,” says Nowakowski. “That’s the kind of game they can make. But a lot of stuff with how the characters can interact with the world and what it does was for sure some inspiration to us.”