The Witcher 3’s game world is littered with Points of Interest. Some lead to hidden treasures, others to monster nests, while some even trigger new quest lines. But some players have expressed that the game’s Points of Interest aren’t all that interesting – at least, not all of them. This is an issue that should be taken into account for The Witcher 4, the upcoming start to a new Witcher saga.
RELATED: The Witcher 4’s Romance Options Should Be More Like Witcher 3 Than Cyberpunk 2077
The Witcher 3 and Points of Interest
For CD Projekt Red’s 20th Anniversary, the company held a livestream with Philipp Weber, who was a junior quest designer while The Witcher 3 was still in development. At around the 8:30 minute mark, Weber reveals that he’s one of the people who integrated question marks on the map of The Witcher 3, and many of them were those “terrible” (as he describes them) Smuggler’s Caches. He then goes on to say that marking those loot caches was a mistake, agreeing that it overpopulated the game’s map.
This seems to be something a lot of players agree with. While there’s no denying that the game environments are gorgeous, traversal and exploration tend to drag, especially when the player isn’t following a quest. This is in part because the world’s Points of Interest aren’t as intriguing as The Witcher 3’s best quests – not that they should. If every undiscovered location had as much content as a normal quest, the game’s file size would likely be too large for any PC or console to handle.
Improving the Map System for The Witcher 4
Perhaps the answer to improving The Witcher’s map and open world is a mix of downsizing and quality control. Instead of incorporating multiple Points of Interest with straightforward designs (like Smuggler’s Caches or Monster Nests), it might be better to input just one with more to explore and a story to uncover. A good example of this is the Vikk Watchtower from The Witcher 3 Hearts of Stone expansion, which featured the somewhat humorous treasure hunt quest “The Royal Air Force.”
That’s not to say that random loot caches should be removed from the game entirely. Weber actually talks about The Witcher 3 team’s original idea for the Smuggler’s Caches. In the anniversary livestream, it’s revealed that these caches were never meant to be marked on the map. Instead, the developer planned to make seagulls circle around the cache, and curious players would be rewarded if they chose to investigate the area. And that honestly sounds better than what was implemented.
It would also help to make traversal varied and less tedious for players. This is an issue that’s very much apparent in The Witcher 3’s Skellige as many of the Points of Interest are far out at sea. The inclusion of Harbor Fast Travel points helps somewhat, but it doesn’t make sailing out to the middle of the ocean any less dull. Perhaps including a faster option for traveling by boat would help. Alternatively, the developer could simply remove all the far-flung, water-bound Points of Interest altogether.
The Witcher 4 could introduce players to a completely new side of the Witcher universe. Hopefully, that includes a more optimized map and better exploration. Incorporating these would undoubtedly make The Witcher 4 a step up from its predecessors.
A new Witcher game is currently in development.
MORE: Cyberpunk 2077 Will Be a Thorn in The New Witcher’s Saga for a Long Time
