Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 is one hell of an RPG, and the game has made waves throughout the games industry. Developers have confirmed that publishers are now more open to sprawling RPGs, and even CD Projekt, the kings of the modern cinematic role-playing game are taking note of Larian’s work.
Currently working on The Witcher 4, a remake of the original Witcher game, and a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, CD Projekt has a number of exciting RPGs in the works. While the team has spent decades crafting beloved games in the genre, they’re also taking cues from Baldur’s Gate 3 for their next games.
In an interview with PC Gamer, joint CEO Michał Nowakowski confirmed that the massive success of Larian’s turn-based CRPG has inspired the teams behind the company’s upcoming games. However, while the teams may take inspiration from Larian’s work, a Witcher game will still be a Witcher game, and Cyberpunk 2 will still be Cyberpunk.
“There was a lot of inspiration in what Baldur’s Gate 3 did, but I think we’re still sticking to what was in Witcher 3, Cyberpunk,” the CEO told the outlet. “But we don’t want to just make another game like that, just with better graphics. We do want to innovate.”
Nowakowski was keen to state that CDPR is definitely not making the style of RPG that Larian did, although they’re inspired by the depth of the work. While fans shouldn’t expect a CRPG in the vein of Divinity or BG3, they should expect more interaction with the world that prior CDPR games have offered.
“We definitely are not going to make a game like Larian did,” Nowakowski said. “That’s the kind of game they can make. But a lot of stuff with how they can interact with the world and what it does was, for sure, some inspiration to us.”
Nowakowski explained that CD Projekt is not really focusing on spin-offs and new experiences for the time being, despite the major success of Gwent in the past. Instead, the teams are focused on “key pillar games” with the CEO saying, “we don’t necessarily want to walk away from that”.
CD Projekt’s inspiration from Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t too surprising with both The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel both expected to double down on interactivity. Last year, The Witcher 4 game director Sebastian Kalemba told Gamertag Radio that NPC interaction is the primary focus of the upcoming RPG, bringing more interactivity to every character in the world, similarly to how Baldur’s Gate 3 works.
“We have this rule to make every single [The Witcher 4] NPC looking like they’re living,” Kalemba said, “with their own story.”
“We’re definitely pushing the quality of NPC – the way they look, their behavior, their facial performance – as much as possible,” Kalemba continued, “because we want to make even more immersive experience than we used to. We are trying to push the bar here.”
In the game’s reveal trailer, CDPR teased this by including a minor character of a girl praying alone in the forest to protect the village of Stromford, and this is the goal for most characters within the world.
“This is exactly how villages are working, right? Every single character has its own role,” Kalemba says. “[Stromford is] super isolated, followed by superstitions and beliefs that are false… They believe that, in this forest, there is a god.”
This is actually where Baldur’s Gate 3 thrives, and where Larian put a tonne of effort to make the world of Faerun feel alive. Every NPC has its place and its role, although they aren’t as simulated as worlds in CDPR’s games usually are. With this in mind, The Witcher 4—and presumably the next Cyberpunk—should have even higher-quality NPCs, but they should (mostly) all have purpose as well.
