‘The Witcher 3’ Precious Cargo Quest Trailer Offers Best Look At Typical Gameplay

The May 19 launch of “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” inches closer, and as it does, developer CD Projekt Red continues to roll out trailers that provide a better look at how the game plays. The studio has released a brand new trailer showing the titular witcher, Geralt, embarking on one of the game’s side missions, showing off combat, investigation, choices and consequence in a neat package.

The Precious Cargo quest trailer, hosted on the official Xbox YouTube channel, starts with Geralt riding through a lush forest countryside near the game’s starting area of White Orchard. Sun-bleached trees sway in the breeze, shafts of light peek through leaves and a herd of deer race across the vast, open landscape.

Geralt comes upon a narrow dirt road and is hailed by a weary merchant who has set up a small campfire by the roadside. Dismounting, Geralt learns that the merchant and his horse were set upon by monsters from a nearby swamp. He managed to flee to safety, but his goods - and a little box in particular - are still trapped in the swamp.

A few moments later, Geralt has reached the swamp. After dispatching a group of monsters, Geralt locates the cart and horse but notices the body of a driver nearby, with an arrow through his throat. Using his witcher-vision, Geralt locates and pieces together more clues, which he uses to confront the merchant, who promptly tries to escape on horseback. Running him down, Geralt delivers the treacherous soldier to the authorities for a bounty.

The nine-minute video does a good job of showing off the range of side quests and open world nature of “The Witcher 3,” as hinted at in a recent Gamespot YouTube video, which detailed the game’s vast setting. The video shows off impressive vistas, open seas, snow-capped peaks, bustling cities and dank caves, displaying the impressive variety of environments that CD Projekt Red has crafted.

The video also shows that the world of “Wild Hunt” is broken up into two large maps: the smaller starting area of White Orchard and smaller, closed off levels contained within the game’s main continent. Loading screens are far and few in between, and gamers will be able to travel the open countryside mostly without impediment, though there will be some moments when the game takes a moment to load, such as when traveling to The Skellige Isles, which is only accessible by boat.

The enormous world of “The Witcher 3” has certainly taken time to create, as CD Projekt Red has had to delay the game multiple times in order to ensure it releases as bug-free as possible. The game is set for release on PS4, PC and Xbox One on May 19.