Mike Pondsmith and CD Projekt Red gave the world the first look at gameplay from their forthcoming Cyberpunk 2077.
There are three things they stress throughout the video; this is a game in development, and it might all change, this is a RPG, and your choices will have consequences that ripple throughout the whole game.
It’s hard not to be impressed at the sheer spectacle of the game but my takeaways are different. I already get that it’s an RPG.
The combat scene they open with is detailed and nervy, I was reminded of the best parts of Mass Effect with the use of cover, and yet it felt far more fast-paced than that. I worried if I could keep up.
This is going to be an adult game. There’s lots of nudity and a truckload of swearing. Not a problem for most of Geek Native’s readers but something to consider if you’re a student sharing a flat and playing late at night.
It’s a huge game. The setting is a virtual city that’s teeming with life. I’m glad I have got a brand new gaming rig put together by the professionals at Scan because I’m not sure anything I could have done would be able to cope with the game. There must be dozens of NPCs walking around in some of the city scenes. The future looks dark and busy.
I suspect it’s going to be a challenging game too. Even at the end of the gameplay demo where to show off some of the advanced gear the give the introductory character some extra powers they had to take the gang boss seriously. They also had to make a series of high risk and high reward decisions to even get as far as the gang boss.
Most importantly, Cyberpunk 2077 feels like a cyberpunk game. The characters look cyberpunk. The characters and NPCs sound the part. Even as I worried that the game was going to challenge my abilities I was designing a character in my head.
When you start to design a character for a game you don’t yet have that’s when the developers can smile knowingly. That’s when the game is working. As it stands now, Cyberpunk 2077 is going on my wishlist.
The game is due out on PC, the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.
