If there is a game that is expected like May water it is without a doubt, 'Cyberpunk 2077'. The new title of CD Projekt Red, creators of the 'The Witcher' saga, aims to be a mammoth game in every way and I can attest to that, because I've been waiting for almost 1 months to get the demo, and finally I got it.........
Personalization elevated to its maximum exponent
Once we have the character we jump into the world of 'Cyberpunk 2077' and the only thing we can do is stay spellbound looking at infinity. The futuristic aesthetic is very successful and Night City breathes in every street and corner. All the streets are full of NPCs that we can interact with. There are policemen who will start to get upset if we go overboard, armed groups who will shoot us if we get close, street fights and, ultimately, activity.
'Cyberpunk 2077' is a first-person game, something that at first didn't quite convince me and that after four hours of playing it has ended up falling in love with me. ¿Why? Because 'Cyberpunk 2077' is a roleplay. We play our role and immerse ourselves in our character. That it is in the first person helps to get into the story, to be part of the city and not a mere spectator. How the characters look at us, how we look out onto the balconies and see the neons and flying cars, all of this creates a perfect atmosphere that integrates us fully into the hustle and bustle of Night City.
The cyberpunk aesthetic is very complicated. This baby of the movies and series of the 80s that placed us in a future dystopia not too far away. Movies like Neuromancer, 'Blade Runner', 'Judge Dredd' or 'Akira' already imagined a world of this type and 'Cyberpunk' follows this line, but fills it with color. All the buildings, characters, enemies, companions, premises and vehicles are filled with colors, neon, screens, touch buttons and other nerd-friendly treats.
During the day, Night City brims with life and invites us not only to go on the main missions and kill the enemies, but to explore, discover its corners, go up to the buildings, go down to the basements and enjoy that futuristic aesthetic. At night, the lights are the real stars of the game. Imagine a movie like 'Blade Runner', but with everything full of neons, banners, lights and colors.
The power of decisions
One of the keys to the RPG genre is decision making. 'Cyberpunk 2077' shines brilliantly in this aspect not only because we have to take them, which also, but because everything counts. Do you think that one decision is not going to have an impact on the rest of the plot? You are wrong, you are very wrong. Anything we say or do has a real impact on the main line.
It's just a very simple example of the power of decision making in 'Cyberpunk 2077'. So much so that there is a mission that has 12 different paths. 12 roads, to be said soon. One of them, of course, is the Pacific. If before the mission we get the money that they ask us for the robot, we give it to them, we take it and we leave there so excited. This not only applies to this mission, but to the entire game. Literally, they have confirmed that we can play the game without killing anyone, although we will have to exert violence at some point.
The dialogues are very well integrated into the game. We have one or two options that open the plot to us, but also many others that give us more context of the lore or the mission. In the same way, there are dialogues with a time limit that, if we skip, they can end well or not. Also, on some occasions, we can interrupt someone who is speaking to us with our line of dialogue, which makes the conversation feel natural and not like a turn-based battle.
In the dialogue parts, our class and skill tree will also play a fundamental role. There are lines that only a Street Kid or a Corpo can say, and there are others that we can select if we have a certain well-developed skill. For example, at one point in the game we talked to a hacker and, since I had the "Intelligence" branch empowered, I was able to talk to her about her equipment and the hardware she used. These dialog lines are marked with the icon of the corresponding branch.
Not only will our decisions in the form of dialogues open and close doors for us, but so will our skill and attribute tree. For the test, I mainly strengthened "Body" and "Intelligence", which allowed me a better handling of firearms. My way of solving all the collisions was shooting, but that was my way. The beauty of 'Cyberpunk 2077' is that everyone can have their own.
No time to get bored
Anyone who has played 'The Witcher 3' will know that it is a huge game. There are countless things to do, mini-games that ended up becoming titles with their own entity ('Gwent') and secondary and accessory missions everywhere. 'Cyberpunk 2077' is exactly the same. The demo I have played, which is nothing more than a tutorial, can last up to 10 hours. The main story is somewhat shorter than that of 'The Witcher', which lasted about 35 hours if we did only the plot and about 130 hours with the secondary missions, so we can get an idea of the universe in front of us. This one, by the way, will have its own series on Netflix.
Of course, in 'Cyberpunk 2077' they have not forgotten about the police. I have been killed more than once during the test, mainly because my driving skills can be improved and it is likely that at some point I have accidentally run over someone. The more "vandals" we are, the more our search level will increase, the more aggressive the police will be and the more shots we will have to hit. As in 'GTA V', without going any further.
What I think of the game after playing
'Cyberpunk 2077' is a game aimed at fans of the RPG genre, and I consider that to be a key point to keep in mind. I don't think 'Cyberpunk 2077' is a game for everyone, as 'The Witcher 3', 'GTA V' and other RPGs are not. It is a title that, if you do not like the genre, can become heavy (this and any other of the style, of course). It also requires greater attention and not to miss the details, because if you blink you lose it, and the plot does not seem to be exactly simple.
That said, the only thing we can do is wait for it to be released at the end of the year to be able to analyze and enjoy it. In the absence of knowing the rest of the story, what I have been able to see and play I really liked, and if this is only part of the epilogue, I do not even want to imagine what awaits us on the streets of Night City.