We have seen very little of The Witcher 4 to date, so we still have no idea how the game will play and how different it will be from its predecessor. However, a recent discovery suggests the new entry in the series may address what is widely considered one of the series' biggest issues: the combat system.
As spotted by Reddit user Lymbasy, Jacqueline Kate Salsman, former senior combat designer at Santa Monica Studio for God of War and God of War Ragnarok, has joined CD Projekt Red as an Expert Gameplay Designer, and is now working on The Witcher 4.
While we don't know the extent of their involvement in the creation of the game's combat system, this definitely sounds promising. While The Witcher 3's combat is not bad by any means, it barely goes beyond serviceable, and doesn't really take advantage of Geralt's skills as a witcher to deliver a memorable experience.
God of War and its sequel, on the other hand, feature one of the most satisfying combat systems seen in third-person action games, featuring very distinct weapons and abilities that make fighting enemies from regular mobs to bosses a joy while incentivizing player creativity at the highest level of play. Hopefully, some of what makes the two games starring Kratos and Atreus so fun to play will trickle down to The Witcher 4, especially as Ciri's abilities are canonically far superior to Geralt's.
Unfortunately, it may be a while until we are finally able to see what Ciri will be capable of doing in The Witcher 4. Although CD Projekt Red has been talking more about the game (and how it won't fall into the same pitfalls that impacted their previous games, such as Cyberpunk 2077), it is unlikely we will see more of it until the Songs of the Past expansion launches for The Witcher 3 next year
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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