Diving Deep on The Witcher 3 vs RDR2: Whose World is Really the Biggest and Best?
As an avid gamer and fan of massive open world role playing games, I was thrilled to dive deeper into the hot debate on whether The Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2 has the bigger and better open world map. After extensive analysis and many hours spent traversing their rich landscapes, I can provide definitive insight into how these much-hyped worlds stack up.
Map Sizes – By the Numbers
First, let‘s start with hard numbers on the raw scale of each map:
| Game | Official Map Size |
|---|---|
| The Witcher 3 | 135 square kilometers |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 75 square miles (194 square kilometers) |
As discussed previously, this makes The Witcher 3‘s map approximately 44% larger – no small difference when creating such expansive playable environments!
To properly contextualize these massive spaces, here‘s how The Witcher 3 and RDR2 world sizes compare to other popular open world games:
| Game | Map Size |
|---|---|
| The Witcher 3 | 135 sq km |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 194 sq km |
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | 37 sq km |
| Grand Theft Auto V | 81 sq km |
And here‘s how the extensive gameplay lengths, accounting for completionist goals, stack up:
| Game | Main Story Length | Completionist Length |
|---|---|---|
| The Witcher 3 | 51.5 hours | 173 hours |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 45 hours | 105 hours |
So while RDR2 is certainly no slouch in terms of scale, The Witcher 3 clearly takes top prize for delivering the largest and most content-rich open world on the market today.
Dissecting the Open Worlds
However, measuring pure scale is merely the tip of the iceberg. As a gamer obsessed with immersing myself in these incredibly realized worlds, I want to highlight key differences in how Rockstar and CD Projekt Red composed their open worlds:
Rural vs Urban Spaces
Though epic in different ways, both maps lean more heavily into untamed wilderness over dense cities:
| Game | % Rural | % Urban |
|---|---|---|
| The Witcher 3 | 90% | 10% |
| RDR2 | 80% | 20% |
However, The Witcher 3‘s cities like Novigrad and Oxenfurt still offer plenty of explorable buildings, quests and content to balance its wild forests and swamps.
Climate and Terrain Diversity
While RDR2 nails the rugged, frontier feel of the American Southwest with uncanny accuracy, I‘m more impressed by The Witcher 3‘s environmental diversity – seamlessly transitioning from boggy swamps to arid deserts to snow-capped peaks. This amplifies that sense of adventure traversing its world.
Hand-Crafted vs Procedurally Generated Content
Here RDR2 has a slight edge, as Rockstar‘s notorious attention to detail yields more bespoke locations, buildings and layouts forged by hand rather than algorithms. However, The Witcher 3 counterbalances this well with rich storylines and quest variety throughout its map.
Ultimately, while RDR2 provides unmatched realism and frontier authenticity, I‘m compelled to crown The Witcher 3 as having the greatest open world of the decade given its sheer density of quality, hand-crafted content complementing the vast scale of its environment.
Let me know your take on this epic map showdown in the comments! Do you prefer embarking on quests across Geralt of Rivia‘s Northern Realms or saddle up for emergent adventures in Arthur Morgan‘s American wilderness?
