The Witcher 4 is one of the most highly anticipated games due for release in the next few years. With Ciri as the lead, players can expect a vast and detailed world that reveals new lore intertwined with its story. One of the expectations for The Witcher 4 is that it’ll improve on the systems from The Witcher 3. Gameplay, particularly combat, is likely to undergo a lot of changes, as Ciri has a different fighting style and set of abilities from Geralt.
One of the most important mechanics is fast travel. Fast travel is a background feature, but dramatically impacts quality of life for players in an open-world game. Fast travel has been a feature in video games for decades, but some systems work better than others. Luckily, CD Projekt Red has found a system that works for its games, and The Witcher 4 is likely to follow suit.
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The Pros and Cons of Fast Travel in Video Games
Fast travel is a must-have feature in open-worlds that are so big. As a feature, fast travel can be more controversial than expected, and needs to be implemented in a way that makes sense in the world, but also hits the right balance of not being too easy or so difficult that it removes the convenience of fast travel.
Another point that open-world games need to hit is exploration. A fast travel system that’s too convenient can tempt players to abandon exploration entirely, or lead them to miss important or interesting quests that can only be encountered through exploration. Players need to have a reason to explore, but also shouldn’t be tempted solely to fast travel to every destination.
Fast travel can be controversial as many fans of older games prefer systems that are more integrated, such as Morrowind implementing its silt strider system, but, overall, the player needs to physically travel to each destination. Arguments for this include deeper immersion. On the other side of the scale, Oblivion Remastered‘s open world retained the original’s fast travel system, where the player could travel to any city whenever they wanted, even if they hadn’t been there before.
The Witcher 4’s Fast Travel Likely Won’t Be Groundbreaking
CD Projekt Red appears to be happy with the system it implemented in The Witcher 3, where the player finds a sign post and can fast travel to other signposts across the Continent. This fast travel system was carried over to Cyberpunk 2077, which used dataterms instead of signposts.
As CD Projekt Red has used the same fast travel system for two games in a row now, it’s very likely that it’ll be used again in The Witcher 4. The fast travel system strikes a good balance between convenience and lore, and requires some travel to and from the fast travel points, rather than letting the player travel from wherever they happen to be located.
CDPR’s Existing Fast Travel Model Does the Job
While it’s tempting to reinvent the wheel, it’s better to not try to fix what isn’t broken. The Witcher 3‘s fast travel system works well as it has sign posts scattered throughout the world in convenient locations, where players have to natively find the sign post to fast travel, and explore the world along the way to and from quest destinations. This strikes that balance between immersion and convenience, and doesn’t have to be changed for The Witcher 4.
Quests driven by narrative are a staple of The Witcher 3, and have been promised to carry over in The Witcher 4. Implementing a fast travel system that drops players close to where they need to be, while giving them room to encounter other quests along the way is one system that supports that without breaking immersion.
