The Witcher: Monster Slayer screenshots are hilarious. It’s a mobile augmented reality game similar to Pokémon Go in which you seek for creatures while observing the world through your phone’s camera, but it’s based on The Witcher, so instead of a big-eyed Bulbasaur, you may stumble into a gnarly-ass griffin on your roof or a mangled horse in the park. Neat!
The Witcher: Monster Slayer will be released this month, on July 21, for iOS and Android. It was created by Spokko, a Polish studio that was bought by CD Projekt, the author of the Witcher RPG trilogy, in 2018. However, you won’t be meeting CD Projekt’s Geralt outside of a Starbucks, since Monster Slayer is set “far before the period of Geralt of Rivia,” according to the developer. (Way ago when Starbucks was still in business, I suppose.)
However, there are human characters that speak to you. According to Spokko, the quests in Monster Slayer will be “deep, story-driven adventures inspired by the Witcher series.” ” I’ll reserve judgment until I witness more than a guy who looks like he drank too much at a ren festival screaming “rescue me Witcher” from a municipal park walk.
Aside from that moment, the gameplay footage from last year (linked below) shows us tracking creatures with witcher senses, fighting them (seems like a simple blocking and slashing time game), investigating horse decapitations, and stocking up on remedies. For me, the lesson is that Monster Slayer isn’t meant to be a visual toy: The novelty of running into a water hag in the park is exciting, but there’s also a game to be played here. We’ll see how it goes later this month.
The Witcher and CD Projekt are living in an interesting era. The Witcher 3 is widely considered as one of the finest PC RPGs ever created, and its universe has only grown in popularity in the six years since its debut. The first season of the Netflix Witcher program, starring Henry Cavill, was a smash hit, sparking renewed interest in the Andrzej Sapkowski books on which the games and show are based. Despite this, there is no major new Witcher RPG in the works that we are aware of. CD Projekt is also keeping the spin-off card game Gwent but otherwise looks to be focused on resurrecting the legacy of Cyberpunk 2077, an OK game that failed to be the success that The Witcher 3 was for many.
On Friday, July 9, CD Projekt will team up with Netflix to host WitcherCon, a pair of live streams where we’ll hear more about the show’s second season and other Witcher-related material. However, the Polish game developer has previously stated that it would not be announcing a new Witcher game during the event. If it is working on one, it is keeping quiet about it, though the possibility has not been ruled out.
On Friday, July 9, CD Projekt will team up with Netflix to host WitcherCon, a pair of live streams where we’ll hear more about the show’s second season and other Witcher-related material. However, the Polish game developer has previously stated that it would not be announcing a new Witcher game during the event. If it is working on one, it is keeping quiet about it, though the possibility has not been ruled out.
When The Witcher: Monster Slayer is released on July 21, it will be free to play. We’re not sure what will be available for purchase in the app, but Pokémon Go offers Pokeballs, necessary goods gained by playing, and other boosters that raise XP or attract Pokémon—it’ll most likely be something along those lines.
If you’re willing to leave your PC to battle endriagas (giant scorpions) in the Dank Wilderness (an empty lot someplace) and have an Android phone, you can pre-register for the game on Google Play—which just means you’ll receive a message when it’s ready. It will also be available for iOS. And someone will almost certainly have it operating on a PC with bogus GPS locations, enraged everyone who is genuinely wandering around parking garages hunting for strigas. Later this month, we’ll test it out in our own municipal park.
