The Witcher Interview

HomeLan Fed has conducted an interview with CD Projekt’s Michal Kiciñski, asking the studio’s co-founder several questions about their upcoming RPG, The Witcher. Check it out:

Q: What can you tell us about the combat system in the game?

A: Combat system is a very important aspect of any action rpg game, so we spent a lot of time thinking it over. The combat system The idea was to convince the players to take an active part in the combat and make it is as fun and user-friendly as possible. Our system is based on timing attacks and chaining them into special sequences. Before or during combat you create your own string of special attacks by putting them into special slots, and then try to pull them off during actual combat by clicking at right moments – when your weapon hits the opponent. If you manage to click at the right moment, you will get so called (perfect) attack. Scoring (perfects) is very important because the more you flawless attacks you have the more experience is gained. This way the amount of experience received is also up to the player. If he’s good and can time his attacks properly, he get more experience and advance faster. Each attack has different properties and each costs specific amount of endurance points. However if you manage to score a perfect strike you pay less or no points at all. By chaining different kinds of attacks you can achieve many spectacular effects, for example first strike can paralyze the opponent, second can push him back on the ground and third on can be a finisher showing the witcher stabbing his foe to death. With almost 40 different attacks there are plenty of combinations to experiment with.

At the beginning of the adventure you have only three slots for your attacks, which means that you can only combine three strikes. But when you acquire some experience you will be able to create longer sequences. Moreover the player is able to choose one of three combat styles. The first one (balanced) is most versatile – good for attacking and defending alike – and enables the witcher to use his magic gestures. The second is (defensive) and in this style the witcher uses his weapon and a shield. The last style (offensive) lets the witcher to use two swords at the same time dramatically enhancing his combat prowess, but also limiting defensive abilities.