This week has been very exciting for fans of the upcoming sci-fi role playing game Cyberpunk 2077. We’ve been treated to loads of new details on CD Project Red’s game. The role playing game by the Polish developer will feature deep quests, a branching story, brutal combat, and tons of sci-fi body alterations. We’ve taken a look at the latest details and picked some of the most interesting and important pieces of information for you.
Environment
The story of Cyberpunk 2077 will play out in Night City, a huge metropolis divided into a couple of distinct districts .We now have a glimpse of what the actual map will look like. The World of Cyberpunk 2077 Deluxe Edition, an artwork book seen here on Amazon, contains a bit of information on what the map looks like.
Reddit-user u/Witcherloreexpert enhanced the image (as seen below) and it seems that some of these districts are separated by water. We can also see some of the main roads and a huge dome located in the left most district.
Night City is located in the west coast of the United States in the Del Coronado Bay. As of the year 2020 it is said to have around five million inhabitants across its many boroughs, and in 2077 was voted “the worst place to live in America”.
Better look at Night City map (from deluxe edition book cover) from cyberpunkgame
“The city is really the core of Cyberpunk 2077. We approached it very holistically; we started with very big ideas of the city and then went into detail and detail and detail and detail. We have an urban planner in the team, for instance, which really helps us with the map and the layout to make the city feel very realistic,” a CDPR dev said to GamesRadar.
And most of that city, as it turns out, is destructible! While no Battlefield-esque destruction can be expected from a huge open world game, Cyberpunk 2077 will be partially breakable. As described in this extensive Reddit post detailing a Q&A with the developers, about three quarters of the assets are destructible. You won’t be a complete Terminator, walking through every concrete wall as it if were cardboard, but you will be able to destroy most assets.
Story
Cyberpunk 2077 will feature an extensive, cyber-philosophical story. During a Polish Cyberpunk 2077 community event the devs revealed that the story will be grander than the already magnificent The Witcher 3 storyline. “For me everything is on a much grander scale than the stories of small human dramas presented in The Witcher,” as translated by VideoGamesChronicle. The dev continues: “From a creator’s perspective, Cyberpunk 2077 is a story about heroes in opposition to the world, and that world itself is one of the heroes as well.”
As detailed earlier, you will take on the character of ‘V’. You can decide whether you play the male or female version of said lead. How the story evolves depends on the choices you make, which is why Cyberpunk 2077 is allegedly more replayable than The Witcher 3. On the other hand, it’s also shorter than the fantasy RPG. Still, the amount of words written for the game is insane (assuming they didn’t use a huge font, of course):
“It turned out that we wrote two thick book volumes of dialogue, and another whole two volumes of directorial comments to go alongside them. The texts that will not be recorded will be the same, and the words in the documentation for the game cannot be counted, but there were plenty of them too.”
Speaking of The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 will feature a way more intricate and interesting branching story line. The Witcher 3’s quest structure is described as “a single line with a bunch of branches sticking out of it, which sometimes go back to that single line.”
Not Cyberpunk 2077’s story… “In Cyberpunk 2077 those branches grow more branches, which then often tie around each other.” In other words, with some many branching branches branching into already existing branches, its’s always going to give the player a more or less unique playthrough. That means CD Projekt Red is effectively inviting us to play through the game multiple times to get the full package. Way ahead of you, CDPR!
Gameplay
Lastly, there’s also some news concerning the actual gameplay of Cyberpunk 2077. For example, while the world is dynamic in terms of weather and time of day, it’s not going to completely overhaul the gameplay depending on the situation.
Yes, people grab umbrellas or try to take shelter when it rains, but it won’t affect the car physics (which should be more realistic than GTA’s slidey physics). On the other hand, during the day a facility might be more heavily guarded than during the night. But will guards reach for their umbrella when it rains, that’s what we would like to know…
“Police won’t intervene when they see you committing some smaller crimes, like for example beating up some random dude on the street, because they treat it as just an everyday occurrence in Night City, but if they see you committing more extreme crimes, like pulling a gun out and shooting bystanders or driving through them with your car, they will absolutely try to fry your ass”
A couple of details before we wrap up. While all the third person content was cut from the game, sex scenes should still be… satisfying for the cheeky gamers among us. CD Projekt Red mocapped all the scenes and steamy moments should be quite immersive.
While actually clothed, players have control over what they wear and what they enhance their body with. Different modifications will have different effects on the stats of the player. Some of these buffs can be seen in the extensive gameplay showcase below (starting at 18:40).
Cyberware, clothes and consumables can be acquired through in-game stores and can also be crafted. Of course, what you wear, consume and implant into your body affects how you operate in the game world. Some pieces of cyberware are aimed towards the rapid and efficient disposal of an enemy, while other items make it possible to stay out of the fray altogether.
Cyberpunk 2077’s release date is April 16th of 2020 for PS4, Xbox, Stadia and PC. Release dates for the upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Project Scarlett are, as of yet, unknown.