written by Jih-Wei Peng
So, you wanna be a cyberpunk? Then listen up, and listen up good, ‘cause there are three rules all cyberpunks live by 1) Style over substance, 2) Attitude is everything, 3) Always take it to the edge, and 4) Break the rules.
So sayeth Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the original Cyberpunk tabletop roleplaying game (often known by its second edition, Cyberpunk 2020, to distinguish it from the genre). Maximum Mike’s not an easy man to please, as video game developers have been sniffing around him asking to partner up and create a game based on his RPG setting almost since it was first published, but he has consistently turned them down as they didn’t, in his view, “get the joke.” CD Projekt, however, finally managed to win, not only his seal of approval but also his active collaboration, and looking at all we know of the game already, it’s not hard to see why.
For starters, Cyberpunk 2077 is dripping with the garish, neon-bright style of an ‘80s retrofuture. Chromed-up dirt girls side-eye sneering slick side-buzzed corpos, pink and purple neon signage illuminate streets down which futurized ‘80s cars speed down the steel and glass canyons of glittering spires alongside graffitied slums. All the visual panoply of the future of the ‘80s is in full display in more detail and color than ever before. Style over substance? Style everywhere you look.
It’s not just a matter of the aesthetic, though – CD Projekt has gone out of its way to do their best to create an immersive world for you to experience. The apartment your character lives in changes over time to match your actions and choices, intelligent holo-ads not only promote products for you but point you towards the nearest place to acquire them, your cyber eye HUD giving you not just information about your health, ammo and so on but also a scrolling ticker of local news and stock market prices – to say nothing of your vision becoming outright disembodied when you get a new cyber eye and get plugged into the new bit of kit before it’s installed in your body. As much as possible, CD Projekt wants to put you in the shoes of V, your character in the world of Cyberpunk 2077.
Those of you getting excited about the possibility of pawing through Kevlar sock drawers in Shenmue 2077 might be advised to temper your expectations, however. As the lead quest designer, Pawel Sasko has said, “I don’t think Cyberpunk is an immersive sim to the fullest potential because this is not the game we’re trying to make.” Night City appears to be a place to explore, not live in, with a focus on plot events, street stories, and dramatic set pieces rather than simply existing in the world.
Which is hardly a bad thing coming from the makers of The Witcher 3. While they have described The Witcher 3 as having one main trunkline with sidequests branching off but eventually looping back into the main trunk, CD Projekt claims that Cyberpunk 2077 will instead feature sidequests that branch into sidequests that branch into sidequests, making it effectively impossible to see anything close to all the game’s content on a single run-through, especially since many of the sidequests can be affected by any number of factors, from your background to which quests you’ve completed already to what your relationships are. Ambitious? Absolutely, but hey – always take it to the edge, right?
But what are you going to be doing during those sidequests? Negotiations and dialogue, for one thing. CD Projekt has eschewed the idea of skill checks in dialogue in Cyberpunk 2077, opting instead for the idea that all conversation options should become available based on your character’s identity and history rather than an arbitrary number. In other words, players are going to be expected to read the situation and pick the option that best suits their goals within a timeframe as NPCs aren’t always going to wait for you to make up your mind. Mix that with their declaration that the only game over screen you’ll ever see is on player death, not mission failure, and there are a lot of ways for any given situation to spiral based on what happens.
It’s almost inevitable that at some point peaceful negotiations will fail and leave V relying on alternative dispute resolution methods. CD Projekt has opted not to include specific classes, instead using a fluid classless skill system where you learn by doing at a rate and maximum capped by your attributes, but it seems like broadly speaking you’re either going to be building to be a direct combat tank, or a stealthy rogue with technological tricks, or some combination of the two and when negotiations break down those are going to be your main options. We’ll have to see if that allows enough variation to keep multiple playthroughs fresh, but we can expect cyberware to add a little spice to the action.
Oh, yes, cyberware, let’s talk about that for a moment, shall we? One of the reasons why Mike Pondsmith pushed the idea of “style over substance” was specifically about cyberware. In his view, any corpo footsoldier can buy some boring but functional bit of kit to make himself worth that much more to the corporation, but a real cyberpunk makes their cyberware as much a statement of identity and being as it is a tool – cyberware as cyberwear, if you will. Why accept a mere prosthetic leg replacement when you could make a set of fuzzy cheetah legs that allow you to leap buildings in a single bound? It’s unknown how far Cyberpunk 2077 will follow that same ethos as they’ve detailed only a handful of the more basic implants for now, but anyone who’s always wanted to express their inner self as someone with praying mantis knives embedded in their arms is going to be in for a real treat.
But what do your skills and cyberware look like in use? A whole lot of fun, that’s what. Do running slides across the floor to slip behind cover and frag the scavenger lurking behind it. Inhale stims to speed up your reaction time, causing the entire world to slow down – except for those of your enemies who’ve taken the same stims who are moving and reacting just as quickly as you are. Pick up rare smart guns whose bullets angle and track your enemies in flight. Use cyber eyes to find and blast targets through the walls they’re hiding behind, aim and angle ricochets for deadly effect, or identify and blast weak points off mechanized enemies like they were Zero Dawn machines.
Rip turrets clear out of their mountings with cyber strength to use as mobile heavy machine guns. Hack into the networks of disabled enemies and find all the information you want about their squad – and then mess with them remotely. Leap three stories into the air and then chop the head off of someone standing there with Mantis Blades. The list goes on to show that expressing your identity isn’t just about how you look, it’s how you choose to fight.
All in all, Cyberpunk 2077 is promising to bring us some of the most exciting adventures one can imagine in a dystopian hypercapitalist future. Let’s just hope they also remind us to do something to prevent that future from coming to pass, as that sort of place sounds a good deal more fun to visit than to live in.