Yesterday, excitement peaked when CD Projekt RED took the stage at the State of Unreal event, but what we saw was an enticing prelude to the future and not an in-depth penetralia into gameplay for The Witcher 4. Think of it as taking a good look at an incredible engine while the car itself remains partially finished.
One CD Projekt RED spokesperson clarified: This here was a tech demo. It is basically showing some of the tools and systems being since developed with Epic Games for the next installment. They are pushing the frontiers and limits of open-world design using Unreal Engine 5, and this particular demo was showcasing impressive tech involved, some of which would be UAF, Nanite Foliage, Smart Objects, ML Deformer, and FastGeo Streaming. Essentially, it's a matter of setting up a rock-hard foundation for the game to come.
This probably doesn't come as much of a shock. The studio has stated that The Witcher 4 probably won't be ready for 2027 and so anything full-blown could explain enough gameplay at this point.
You may recall back in 2022, CD Projekt RED announced that they were distancing themselves from their own RED Engine and adopting Unreal Engine 5. This was not just to make their own sweet games but to also help move the needle forward for open-world development for all. What we saw running on a regular PlayStation 5 in full glory- 60 frames per second and with ray tracing turned on- was impressive and was justification for this collaboration.
Eagle-eyed fans noticed Ciri looking slightly different in this new video from the trailer released during The Game Awards 2024. CD Projekt RED also commented on this, further explaining that it's the same character model from the 2024 trailer; Her face is directly based on the Witcher 3 model but adapted to the latest MetaHuman technology. They made a couple of tiny changes-they slightly raised the eyebrows and made it more relaxed on the eye region-to improve animation quality. Interestingly, the relaxed eye region was in the earlier trailer but has since been taken out.
On the side, Epic Games took advantage of the State of Unreal event to announce that Unreal Engine 5.6 is now publicly available and carries even more enhancements for game developers.
While we await a slightly longer time for actual Witcher 4 gameplay, the tech demo does reflect a highly promising scenario for the projected amazing world CD Projekt RED is building. The future looks bright for the next adventure of Geralt (or perhaps someone else's).
