One Common Wild Hunt Monster Could Use an Overhaul in The Witcher 4

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One Common Wild Hunt Monster Could Use an Overhaul in The Witcher 4

As a seasoned Witcher fan with countless hours spent slaying monsters across the Continent, I can’t help but feel that underwater combat in The Witcher 3 was somewhat of a missed opportunity. Don’t get me wrong, the game is a masterpiece, but when it comes to drowners, the aquatic battles leave much to be desired.

In The Witcher 3, the continent can be a perilous landscape, and witchers are specifically trained to handle various types of battlefields. However, engaging in battle submerged, particularly when dealing with drowners, can be frustrating due to the limited combat options underwater. Generally speaking, The Witcher 3’s fights tend to offer a lot of versatility and dynamism, but underwater encounters mostly rely on Geralt’s crossbow for defense.

In The Witcher, drowners are frequently overlooked and easily eliminated by players on land, but engaging them underwater can be laborious due to Geralt’s limitations and the confined drowner animation set. With fewer aquatic enemies in The Witcher series, underwater combat with drowners could be significantly improved in The Witcher 4 by expanding the combat possibilities for both the player character and the drowners through new animations, weapons, and the inclusion of sign usage for the player character.

Expanding on Underwater Combat in The Witcher 4

In many instances when characters drown underwater within The Witcher 3, they can be easily defeated with just one or two blows, which can feel disappointing. However, this type of combat underwater offers an exciting opportunity for intense, rewarding encounters due to several factors. For one, underwater combats are relatively scarce compared to other battle situations within the game. Secondly, the stressful elements such as the time constraint due to oxygen scarcity, poor visibility, and restricted movement make underwater combat a distinctive experience.

In the hypothetical game The Witcher 4, the seemingly harmless drowners that Geralt encounters underwater in Witcher 3 could be transformed into formidable enemies during underwater combat scenarios. This shift would occur by enhancing their combat abilities and numbers while submerged, thus making them much more dangerous than before. The aquatic skills of drowners might include powerful claw attacks, the ability to latch onto their victims, emitting venomous clouds in the water, swarming prey in groups, and pulling their targets down when they try to resurface for air.

Introducing Balance to The Witcher 4’s Underwater Combat

As underwater environments are the natural habitat of drowners, an expansion of their combat repertoire while underwater would not be unexpected, and would also give the protagonist of The Witcher 4 a greater challenge. To encourage more chances of encountering drowners underwater, high-level loot, high-level armor witcher and weapon sets, and interesting missions could involve underwater sections. However, these must be balanced carefully, as encountering groups of efficient drowners every time the player character goes for a swim could quickly become tedious.

In order to make underwater fights against drowners in the upcoming game, _The Witcher 4_, more engaging and less reliant on just the crossbow, it’s important to extend the combat abilities of the protagonist underwater as well. Instead of only relying on traditional _Witcher_ signs like Aard and Igni, they could be modified for use underwater, such as Igni heating water to boiling in its path and scorching enemies, or using Aard to disperse drowner venom clouds. Sword fights would still be challenging, but a smaller blade like a silver dagger could prove effective in underwater combat. This expansion of weapon options for _The Witcher 4_ would not only enhance the underwater combat experience but also make combat and crafting more diverse in other parts of the game, offering more variety than just two swords and a crossbow.

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2024-09-13 15:33