Cyberpunk 2077 absolutely blew us away — here's why

CD Projekt RED is responsible for crafting what is arguably this generation'due south all-time game, in the form of The Witcher three. The Witcher 3, at the fourth dimension, featured some truly unprecedented earth edifice, visuals, and writing, with stellar third-person swordsmanship combat and piles of RPG layers on peak for good measure. CD Projekt Ruddy won itself praise for its support of The Witcher 3 post-launch too, which saw features and quality-of-life improvements filter in from fan requests, as well as two big expansions calculation dozens of hours of additional story content.

CD Projekt Blood-red set up themselves a high bar for any future project they shipped. If what I saw this week at Gamescom 2022 was anywhere near the last production, Cyberpunk 2077 won't just shatter even the grandest of expectations, it volition raise the bar for all of gaming for years to come.

It might seem counter-intuitive since I am writing near Cyberpunk 2077, only if you lot're a fan of CD Projekt Carmine's work, my honest recommendation is to avoid reading or viewing any previews most this game, including this 1. Go into information technology completely in the nighttime, and have your mind diddled in the same style I have. If you do desire to larn more, then please, read on, friends.

Setting the stage for sci-fi dystopia

Cyberpunk 2077 takes The Witcher 3's world-course earth-building and applies information technology to a gritty sci-fi dystopia, based on the archetype tabletop RPG Cyberpunk 2022. Mega-corps control civilization, led by corrupt officials protected past private loftier-tech super soldiers. Poverty and criminal offense are rife, as the corporations turn a blind eye from their ivory towers. Gangs dominion the streets, and Cyberpunk's protagonist, "V", finds herself (or himself) fighting to carve a niche in this tech-saturated world.

The sheer abundance of gameplay features and mechanics present in Cyberpunk 2077 was utterly boundless.

Five is finer a bounty hunter/mercenary-type, working themselves upwardly through the criminal underworld. The single l-infinitesimal quest we were shown at Gamescom featured then many twists and turns, branching narrative options, and gameplay systems, that gathering my thoughts has been remarkably harder than usual when coming in to write a preview. 50 minutes may seem like a long fourth dimension, merely the sheer affluence of gameplay features and mechanics present in Cyberpunk 2077, fifty-fifty in this "small slice" every bit they described it, was utterly dizzying.

The demonstration opened with 5 and her partner in shady dealings, Jackie, infiltrating a criminal gang known to be kidnapping mechanically augmented humans, specifically to steal their cybernetic enhancements, forcibly, to then sell them on for profit. Dismembered cyborgs were piled up and discarded like mannequins in a store stock room, slamming home the idea that the lines between "person" and "product" accept go utterly blurred in this tardily capitalist hell.

Information technology was here we got the kickoff taste of what combat will be like in Cyberpunk 2077. Some have lamented the fact CD Projekt RED has gone for a first-person perspective for Cyberpunk 2077, but honestly, for the type of game they're building, at that place'south arguably no choice. Much of the game's particular needs to be seen upward-shut-and-personal, especially given how vertical the game'due south areas can be. A elevation-downward or over-the-shoulder camera view wouldn't do this approach to level design justice.

Cyberpunk 2077's expanse layouts are crammed with options for traversal, opening up different ways to arroyo combat. Maybe you lot can slip through a vent and have a quiet approach, or simply go in gun's blazing. You'll need to pay attention to your environment if you want to take a more thoughtful approach to the game'south missions, but yous'll still accept a vast arsenal of high-tech equipment to blast and cutting your way through enemies, in add-on to performance-enhancing drugs.

Cyberpunk 2077's shooter combat felt very much like an interactive version of the infamous lobby scene from The Matrix. Bullet time capabilities are on offering to the player, granting heightened awareness for a brief menstruum of time, creating slow-motion sequences of cascading gore and globe-trotting sparks. The environment was too surprisingly destructible, creating a necessity for high-mobility gunplay. At one point, V and her partner were pinned down by a chap spraying gunfire through a wall, prompting the player to sneak around the dorsum for a flanking kill.

Incredible sci-fi freedom

Cyberpunk 2077 does seem to offer the opportunity for contextual stealth kills as well, along with the tools to allow players to play this fashion if they so choose. CD Projekt Ruby-red emphasized their fluid class arrangement, which allows players to, through cybernetic enhancement and weapons choices, to tailor their own classes. Want to focus on hacking and disabling enemies remotely before ever firing one of your bullet-homing smart pistols? Yous can. Desire to be a Metallic Gear Rising-similar cyborg ninja, complete with the power to hook onto walls, slice off limbs with a high-tech katana in tedious motion, with enhanced mobility? Yous can. Want to be a heavy focusing on reducing targets to piles of blood and circuits with a wall-penetrating shotgun? Cyberpunk has y'all covered. And this was just a sense of taste of what CD Projekt RED has in store for united states of america.

In-keeping with playstyle customization, Cyberpunk 2077 will also allow y'all to tailor the mode your character looks, including things like gender, and other aesthetics. It also enlists some pen-and-paper inspired stat choices, including things similar constitution. It also allows y'all to select some pre-determined backstories for your characters. No doubt these choices volition play a significant part in the game's plot as you progress.

This could be a earth sim without equal

If the full Cyberpunk 2077 feel is truly representative of the final product, the world the studio is edifice for the game volition represent one of the almost completely realized digital worlds in gaming history.

Cyberpunk'due south imagining of a futuristic Northern California megacity is equally daunting as information technology is enticing. Mega-complexes designed to firm thousands of residences soar into the sky, while the streets are jam-packed with hundreds of seemingly unique NPCs plying their merchandise, heading to piece of work, or skulking about in alleys ready to pounce on the innocent.

Everything in Cyberpunk 2077'due south world, from menus to quest markets, to HUD elements, are fully realized as part of the game'south world and lore. If you lot want to brandish bullet count in your onboard brain OS, you need to purchase a modification for your eyeball. An advertisement in the earth might allow you to download a quest marker to detect a vendor or other opportunities, while information provided by NPCs in the game'south story will be uploaded directly into your cybernetically-enhanced brain, via personal uplink ports carved into your cervix. All menus appear on screens in-game, or via augmented reality, rather than separately.

These systems work both ways, besides, of course. Enemy NPCs and characters can hack into your brain, which impacts your HUD display, distorting elements. At i bespeak during a chat, 5 was forcibly uplinked by a bodyguard and fabricated to answer questions while being monitored for telling lies or the truth. This opened up several dialogues, and actionable choices, all bearing web of consequences which should grant Cyberpunk 2077 some serious replayability.

Of form, your stats and skills with play a part as well, when it comes to hacking and counter-hacking. During another mission, 5 had the opportunity to escape a catchy situation through a locked door, but the security requirements were too high for the role player. Instead, V was able to subdue and hack into the network through an enemy NPC'due south brain instead, giving you to upload all sorts of viral software into the gang's internal network, offering new combat capabilities.

To change your character, you must attend special clinics in-game that will facilitate upgrades to your torso and mind. In the demo, this occurred as part of a cutscene, with "V" remarking that it was akin to visiting the dentist. The role player selected mods that connected your gun to your HUD remotely, assuasive you to see bullet and ammo count for your weapon, too as information on different weapon modes. The physician removes 5'southward eyeball to perform the enhancements, in a vivid out of torso experience. This is a where your organs and senses can exist fully digitized, and the very thought of "humanity" has get stretched.

Then, so much more to notice out

The Cyberpunk 2077 demonstration felt intentionally fast-firing, bombarding the audience with utterly insane amounts of information and gameplay systems, briefly hinting at features before tearing away into the next.

Cyberpunk 2077 at its cadre is an open-world, starting time-person RPG, only in execution, information technology feels similar and then much more than that. Information technology's complete with Thou Theft Car-manner open-world driving and car-hunt gun battles. It enlists a Deus Ex-manner approach to level design, with multiple pathways for different types of playstyles. The gunplay is as fierce as Wolfenstein, but every bit elegant as something like Max Payne, with stunning slow-movement effects, a vast assortment of super high-tech weapons, with the latitude of combat options you might expect from something similar Fallout or The Elderberry Scrolls, with Metal Gear Ascent cyborg ninja gainsay for skillful measure out.

This is the kickoff press presentation that made me wonder, "can a game possibly be also practiced?"

For me, what really divers Cyberpunk 2077 was the fashion selection and consequence is weaved and so intricately into the quests, in a way that many other big-name RPG developers have begun neglecting over the years. V's mission to impress an underworld gangland boss had multiple pathways to completion, some including a non-violent approach hinging on conversational skills, while another focused on hacking abilities and stealth. And of course, in that location's always the directly approach, spattered in blood.

Cyberpunk 2077 looks like it has terabytes of secrets waiting to be revealed as nosotros head towards its – as of now – unknown launch date. Only, as a fan of The Witcher 3, and CD Projekt RED in general, I know I'll exist dropping my digital pre-society the second they get alive. This is the offset printing presentation that made me wonder, "can a game possibly be too adept?"

Cyberpunk 2077 will hit Xbox One, PS4, and PC. It has no known launch date, just it is currently available for preorder at Amazon.

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Futuristic accessories

Here are the best Cyberpunk 2077 collectibles and merch

Cyberpunk 2077 is a huge game, and is accompanied by a massive pool of collectibles, accessories, and merch for everyone from hardcore collectors to dabbling fans. Here are the best collectibles and merch for Cyberpunk 2077.