An immediate smash-hit, Elden Ring managed to break into the mainstream more than any Souls title has before, and it quickly took over the internet. And that success wasn’t just because of pre-release hype, Elden Ring actually managed to live up to its monumental expectations and was acclaimed for it. So, with plenty more AAA open-world adventures on the horizon, it would be wise for the industry to look to Elden Ring as an example of how to do it right; in particular, CD Projekt Red’s upcoming The Witcher 4 should do just that.
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What The Witcher 4 Should Take From Elden Ring
The Witcher 3 is still widely considered to be one of the greatest games of all time, with many still keeping it as their favorite gaming experience ever. Looking back, it’s not hard to see where all the praise comes from. Releasing in 2015, The Witcher 3 was fairly groundbreaking in terms of storytelling, character relationships, combat variety, and having an open world that feels truly lived in.
But it’s been seven years since The Witcher 3 was released, and quite a bit’s changed since then. By far the biggest shake-up for the open-world genre was the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2017, a game that changed the very definition of what an open world could and should be. While plenty of straightforward, traditional open-world games still release today, there’s a definite shift towards more exploratory gameplay mechanics, where it’s up to the player where they go and when.
Though there has been plenty of Breath of the Wild clones over the last five years, by far the most impressive game to have seemingly taken inspiration is FromSoftware’s Elden Ring. It’s unfair to brand Elden Ring with the blanket term of “Breath of the Wild” clone, but the two games do share some key similarities, such as an emphasis on approaching objectives whenever the player feels like it and leaving it up to them to find points of interest on the map. But as opposed to Breath of the Wild’s strict “find it yourself” approach, Elden Ring gives players some general guidance, showing them a golden trail towards their next primary objective.
The Witcher 4 should take a similar approach to its open-world design. In previous entries in The Witcher series, the player is just given an overworld map, a marker is placed on their next objective, and any points of interest are highlighted. Instead, The Witcher 4 could really push its immersion by forcing players to pay attention to road signs to make sure they’re heading in the right direction and allow players to follow environmental clues to find a monster’s lair, as opposed to just having it pinned on the map from the moment the quest is accepted.
Another element The Witcher 4 should borrow from Elden Ring is its quantity and variety of bosses. While Elden Ring does reuse some assets to create multiple bosses, each one has a distinct variation that keeps it engaging and unique, and The Witcher 4 could do exactly the same thing. Dragons, Archgriffins, and Fiends could all be presented to be big bosses, all of which could be found via hunting. This would go quite far in making the player feel more like an accomplished Witcher, who is actually capable of tracking and slaying a terrifying monster. More frequent and more varied bosses is certainly something The Witcher 4 should take from Elden Ring.
Elden Ring is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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