This is not my first journey into Night City. It of course, all began in the minds of writers, developers, and the imaginations of everyone who read Gibson's seminal Neuromancer. This is my first visit to CD Projekt Red's night city in quite some time, since the upgrades that followed the release of the The Phantom Liberty expansion pack - and having a desire to explore the neon underbelly of a city that cares about nobody, and no thing. My first journey into Night City since experiencing the Edgerunners spin off series, and my sense of immersion is deeper than what it ever was.
image via Steam Store page for game
Night City is a brutal, unforgiving place. If you don't have money. You're no one. If you don't have influence, you're also nobody. If you have neither of these, you cannot do much but wander about looking for something to do. Thankfully, There's no shortage of things to do, but the ones that do pay are dangerous, and that is exactly where you find yourself.
Danger and drama create interesting stories, and Cyberpunk 2077, its side quests, its environment and characters are a celebration of the finest decades of science fiction stories we've been blessed with. Go off and explore. Talk with people. Hack mainframes. Open doors with explosives, or a suggestive tongue.
image via Steam Store page for game
A sense of outrageous stoicism contrasted with despair exists in your available dialogue options.
"Nobody owns me. I'm fine - you should try it." She said, as she knew she was going to die. As the player, it is my job to prevent that death, and I am hopeless to the outcome at least more than once. Playing as a Corpo in Cyberpunk 2077 didn't change the game, it didn't make the story any deeper, it just gave me a new angle to chat with people in unexpected ways.
To show that the background, the sculpting of one's past, makes them who they are in the moment they face. Cyberpunk 2077 might play like Grand Theft Auto with bionic implants, neon-goth cyberpunk aesthetic and clear, plastic blouses, but its roleplaying system goes deeper than most games, and its level design is open ended and invites exploration.
If one path is closed to you, you can be assured that there are a few others. For one given quest, the options were so open ended:
- Bash down the door
- Sneak in
- Disable the security cameras and walk in the front door
- Snipe out the guards, and then sneak in
- Go in all guns blazing
- Do nothing and intercept the objective on the way out / in
This level of freedom is unparalleled in most games produced now, and that fills me with a sadness that I cannot describe in any reasonable terms. There are a few of the "survival" games that try to emulate this, but instead of being lovingly crafted, they're procedural sandboxes that have some of these properties emerge due to the nature of the random seeds used to generate the worlds, but it is not a crafted experience, which is amusing, given the main tasks in those types of games.
image via Steam Store page for game
Speaking of the depth of the mechanics. Cyberpunk 2077 has crafting. It has driving, it has stealth. It has guns. It has cool, and intrigue, and it also illustrates a hedonistic future full of sexualised imagery, low cut tops, and more diversity in fashion than what the future will probably have.
This won't be the last time I pick up this game. I do hope there will be a sequel at some point in the future, and I do hope it won't be attacked with buckets and buckets and buckets of water that dilute the atmosphere.
Atmosphere, and wandering around and exploring the streets, going from job to job and hearing "Don't Walk, Don't Walk, Don't Walk" and "Walk" at pedestrian crossings is such an integral part of the Cyberpunk experience. I love this game. I am so glad it was supported into the software it is now, as opposed to remaining what it was upon release.