CD Projekt RED’s next game after The Witcher 3 is a good starting point for this list, and is probably the easiest recommendation to make if you’re looking for something that can scratch the same itch.
The RPG had a horrendous launch, there’s no going around that as everyone knows that, but the studio stuck with it and accepted that they dropped the ball. After years of updates and the excellent Phantom Liberty expansion, Cyberpunk 2077 is no longer the joke it used to be on its first year. It has evolved into one of the best open-world RPGs of its generation.
Set in Night City, you play as V, a mercenary who becomes the unwilling host of Johnny Silverhand, a legendary rocker and anti corporate revolutionary whose personality has been preserved inside a digital construct implanted in V’s head.
With Keanu Reeves playing as Johnny, you’ll spend much of the game trying to figure out how to get him out of your head before his presence consumes you. Along the way, you’ll take on odd jobs for Night City’s various factions and characters, build V however you want, and decide whether you want to become a firearms specialist, a stealthy hacker, a cybernetic killing machine, or a combination of all three.
There’s no real timer in the game for V’s condition, so have the freedom to explore all that Night City has to offer.
It doesn’t have The Witcher 3 medieval high fantasy setting, and most of the game is set in one city, but it has the same attention to detail with its characters, side quests, and world building that make CD Projekt RED the best studio in the genre that it will be easy to get lost in this world.
Why it scratches the Witcher 3 itch: Excellent characters, side quests, romances, major choices, and world building.
