You don’t have to speak, just seek. And peep the technique
Inside Cyberpunk 2077, and the most elaborately detailed future city we’ve ever seen in a videogame
Quite often in the business of videogames, it’s not what you do that counts, but the way in which you do it. Indeed, as we continue the lead-up to the next generation of consoles, there’s growing scepticism within the industry as to whether we might be reaching a point of diminishing returns when it comes to what new tech can reasonably do for the latest era of games. Gone are the days, after all, when fresh hardware enabled as obvious and dramatic a jump as the one from 2D to 3D. Are slightly more realistic puddles really all we can expect in the years to come?
There are some who, in the wake of Sony’s PS5 reveal event, would posit exactly this. (And they might tell you the puddles didn’t even look that shiny, either.) It’s understandable, really: much of what we were shown looked all too familiar, as we comment in Knowledge this month. Gran Turismo 7 on PS5 looked largely like its PS4 predecessor, Sport; Horizon Forbidden West seemed close to indistinguishable from Horizon Zero Dawn. Only the new Ratchet & Clank game, of all things, managed to display the real power of the forthcoming console via its lightning-fast, SSD-enabled loading times. Still, it was a strangely underwhelming showcase. Then again, this year we were watching not from the comfort of a ringside seat in LA, but the squalor of our own homes. It’s clear that the pomp and ceremony of E3 is still needed – and is a hell of a thing to try to recreate.
Like it or not, plenty of console generations have been won not on the strength of innovation, but on who can make a statement with such undeniable authority that everybody else feels obliged to shut up and pay attention. In our four short hours with Cyberpunk 2077 this month, CD Projekt Red has managed to do just that. There’s not much in Night City that’s particularly new, but it presents itself with total conviction and unparalleled flair. The attention to detail that the Polish developer has lavished upon this metropolis makes The Witcher III’s world look like ancient history – and it didn’t even need a new console to do it. Welcome to the future.
Four hours in Night City is not enough. Sure, we’ve been here before, in a sense. But a hands-off glimpse is nothing compared to being able to inhabit this world; to have firsthand proof that one of the most astounding vertical slices we’ve ever encountered is more than just smoke and mirrors. Being here in the semi-augmented flesh, so to speak, evokes the feeling of visiting a real-world city for the first time, though that initial wow factor never totally goes away – or at least it doesn’t for the duration of our demo. There is perhaps no single revelatory moment to compare with, say, the first glimpse of Rapture seen from Bioshock’s bathysphere, or emerging from the sewers into the world of Oblivion. Rather, this is a place that leaves you regularly shaking your head in quiet disbelief. By the end of our time with Cyberpunk 2077, there’s still no sign of Keanu. But we keep recalling what he said on stage at E3 last year, as we wander around the busy district of Watson. He’s right. It is breathtaking.
It’s also a place that, to a certain extent, looks familiar: Blade Runner has, after all, become something of a set text for sciencefiction videogames, and we’ve seen precisely this kind of melting pot of cultures and
architecture before. (Watson, in particular, has a strong Asian influence, particularly in sub-district Kabuki.) Yet even taking Los Santos and Kamurocho into consideration, we’re struggling to think of a virtual urban space that has felt quite so convincingly alive, so completely intoxicating in all its mesmerising detail. It’s certainly not just smoke and mirrors, though there’s plenty of both here. Vapour plumes billow from Night City’s manholes as steam rises from a nearby noodle bar. Take a pew and you can almost smell the teriyaki sauce sizzling. You can absolutely hear it, athough it’s just one ingredient in a crowded soundscape: there’s a constant hubbub of chatter and low-level noise, occasionally punctuated by shouts, sirens and bursts of gunfire. But for now we’re just people-watching. We catch pedestrians pausing by the windows of a club to gawk at pole dancers. And we stroll by rough sleepers huddling among the trash, straining to get comfortable on the damp piece of cardboard that will be their bed for the night.
There’s plenty else to draw the eye. We spend a good few seconds looking at the scruffy letters carved into a lift’s otherwise pristine doors; likewise a handrail acned with rust. Later, we turn our gaze downward to the vibrant colours of signage and glaring electronic billboards reflected in the rainslicked asphalt. We stare at cars gliding by as we pause by a crossing, our eyes not fixed on the road, but turned skyward. It’s a lot to take in, particularly when we start a mission and we’re trying not to get distracted while furiously scribbling notes, straining to parse dialogue that’s peppered with street slang and references to characters, places and organisations we don’t really know yet. Our unaugmented human brain feels slightly overworked – overloaded, even. Yet it’s not that Cyberpunk 2077 assumes a degree of knowledge about its universe, so much as it’s trying to establish that you already have a place in this underworld. A bit of disorientation is deliberate. Protagonist V has already made their start here; it’s up to you to determine where they go next.
There’s no shortage of options, that’s for sure. At the end of our session, lead gameplay designer Michał Dobrowolski invites us to open the map to see how much (or, as it turns out, how little) ground we’ve covered. We’ve long bemoaned the way
open worlds are getting larger rather than denser, wishing more would take their cues from the Yakuza series. But it’s clear Night City marries detail and scope: as we zoom out all the way, we note that only a fraction is dotted with icons representing all the side activities for which we didn’t have time. And that’s without considering the Badlands, the vast desert area beyond the city limits.
That, we sense, is a little way off yet – for us, if not for those who choose one of the other two backstories at the outset. Nomad players will begin in the Badlands, while the Corporate path sees you begin the game with everything you could want before a rapid fall from grace. A cyber-savvy Street Kid like our V, meanwhile, gets a brisk introduction in the grottiest of dive bars. The first of many choices presents itself as we look into a mirror, deciding whether to take a slug of Dutch courage before resetting our broken nose following a mugging.
Our anaesthetist behind the bar grumbles: he has a debt that needs repaying. As a favour to a friend, we amble upstairs, sliding into a grubby booth opposite fixer Kirk, before we’re shoved along by the ample bulk of his burger-munching bodyguard. Agreeing to steal a VIP’s car to settle the debt, we’re handed a gadget that should stop us tripping the alarm. Moments later, we’re in a parking garage. Attendant Rick is in on the job; approach him and he’ll turn off the CCTV. “Camera’s blind. You got 20 minutes,” he mutters. Kirk’s gambit pays off, but as we get ready to start the engine the door opens and a man thrusts a gun in our face – the first of many mid-mission surprises, because
evidently nothing ever quite goes to plan here. We choose to hit the gas, but the NCPDPD show up and cuff both would-be thieves. Thee car owner suggests you be dumped in the sea; happily, the arresting officer is on our side and lets us off. The thief introduces himself: this is seasoned merc Jackie Welles. Fast-forward six months (via a montage sequence that isn’t ready yet) and you’re partners, about to embark upon a mission thathat promises to transform your fortunes.
What follows is the rescue mission we first saw two years ago: a tense excursion into an apartment to find a young woman kidnapped by scavengers. Yet it’s not quite the same, and not just because the controllerr is now in our hands. Beyond a reworked UI and a significant lighting overhaul – the placece is still dark, but much less grey – the pace feels slower and weightier. As before, an old woman opens the door to her apartment across the way, but this time V waves her inside silently. The threat is still tangible, but it feels less urgent; it’s clear CD Projekt Red wants us to linger, and little wonder.
We head inside. Stealth is our preferred option, as we approach one goon from behind, crouching to stay silent before pulling off a non-lethal takedown and dumping him in what looks like a chest freezer. We skid past the entrance to the next room alongside Jackie; two more scavengers emerge, and
THE THREAT FEELS LESS URGENT; IT ’S CLEAR CD PROJEKT RED WANTS US TO L INGER
two more takedowns follow. But the softlysoftly approach looks tricky for the next area – and besides, we’re itching to see how our handgun feels. However, our approach is a little reckless, and while a couple of headshots see to two of our opponents, we find ourselves cowering behind cover, anxiously waiting for our health to refill as bullets rain around us. Dobrowolski says the studio wanted to capture the feeling of a tactical shooter. Later on the gung-ho approach might work better, when you’re equipped with cyberware that triggers a spell of slo-mo after every successful dodge, or simply armed with the kind of shotgun that can blow a rival’s legs off. And the more you use a weapon, the more proficient you’ll become at wielding it: noting the hefty recoil from a powerful assault rifle we later pick up, Dobrowolski says if we stick with it, “eventually it’ll be like you’re using an aimbot.”
For now, it’s clear we’re best biding our time, popping up when a gang member is reloading or else using the opportunity to flank them. Or, for that matter, to use our hacking abilities. Given the time constraints, we don’t find many opportunities to make the most of these – and besides, the better abilities aren’t available for a while – but we do get a bit of practice, using a screen to distract a guard before snapping his neck, and then luring two into position before remote-triggering a grenade on one’s belt. But once we’ve got our hands on a sniper rifle that can shoot through cover, we decide to go loud more often than not.
This particular gun is our reward for tackling a powerful Cyberpsycho on the streets, one of myriad side activities that are usually worth pursuing for the chance to get your hands on some rare loot. Alongside more substantial narrative-focused side missions, you’ll also find gigs – tasks offered by local fixers in each district, which are automatically downloaded to your phone for that familiar icon overload when you visit the map screen. Among them, you’ll note the location of scanner hustlers: citizens who tackle crimes for a reward from the NCPD, which doesn’t have the capacity to cope with such rampant criminality. On one occasion, we hit the jackpot: while you’ll normally be asked to neutralise any ongoing threats before securing evidence at the scene, in this case, we find a man (either strung out or dead, we don’t stick around long enough to make sure) lying on a filthy mattress. As other pedestrians mill ignorantly by, we scoop up a datashard on which we find info leading to a cache of valuable swag. On the drive there (you can summon your car to your position as Geralt would Roach by tapping right on the D-pad) we hear a woman’s voice. “Please, I have kids,” we hear her beg. Our radar pings to let us know where to find her, but time’s getting on. We reluctantly drive on, slightly appalled at ourselves for failing to intervene.
Still, we have bigger fish to fry. In this instance, we’re at Lizzie’s Bar to find the client who’s about to give us details on a heist arranged by gold-plated fixer Dexter DeShawn. An exceptionally cool female bouncer with purple hair and spikes on her arms bars our entrance, casually holding a baseball bat behind her neck before swinging it to the front and slapping it into her palm. But after a brief warning we’re allowed inside. The barman declines a bribe to let us know the whereabouts of Evelyn Parker, but there’s a good reason for his silence: she’s sitting to our left. We turn back to see the barman pour a tequila; the only brand V drinks. If the client knows your tipple, you wonder what else she has on you. She swiftly ushers us into a private room, where a holographic dancer gyrates on the table. The chip she’s after is in the possession of the ultra-rich Yorinobu Arasaka, heir to his father’s tech empire. To get it, you’ll need to infiltrate Konpeki Plaza, a neo-kitsch hotel for those who’ve made it in Night City. V’s never been; it’s out of their price range. “The decor’s to die for,” Parker says. “As you’ll see for yourself.”
How? Braindance. This neural tech is a true emotion engine: a VR-style simulation of a memory where you inhabit a body and feel what they feel – up to a point – without being in direct control. But with the raw data, tattooed BD editor Judy effectively allows you to move around your ‘dance partner. Her dark backroom suite becomes a portal to another world, as Night City disappears into a halo of light. When it fades, we’re looking through the eyes of a thug, listening to instructions from another as he prepares to
THE MORE YOU USE A WEAPON , THE MORE PROF IC IENT YOU ’LL BECOME AT W IELD ING IT
rob a convenience store. It’s a simple job, in and out. We watch as he enters, gesturing to one customer to get to the ground before pistol-whipping another who doesn’t follow the order immediately. He’s clearly twitchy, the camera jerking from side to side as he makes sure the two customers aren’t packing. But as he snatches the cash and heads out there’s the sound of a gunshot, and a flash of purple light cuts the feed. With the editing tools, however, we can move freely around the scene. Hacking into the CCTV feed by the counter, we get to see the culprit: the punk who sent him in for the cash. And why? Well, because, as Judy tells us, “BD freaks will pay a preem for a real flatline.”
We’ve already experienced one of those by then, albeit through little fault of our own as a brief connection issue with our remote demo causes our car to veer onto the pavement. Noting our apparent clumsiness, Dobrowolski politely suggests the handling isn’t quite as he’d like, before we explain what happened. Nevertheless, he is pushing for the car handling to be less arcadey – “I’m a Forza guy,” he tells us. But our prang has
alerted a small group of NCPD; in fairness, that pedestrian beneath our wheels isn’t looking so hot. Two of the three pull iron – see, we’re getting the hang of the lingo – as we’re warned that a police netrunner is trying to plant malware on us. We don’t find him in time, which causes our neural augs to overheat as we duck behind a low wall. Out of inhalers to top up our depleted health bar, we weigh up whether to try a hack or to risk attracting more attention by gunning them down. In the end, we opt for a more oldfashioned choice: we run. Yet, after making our getaway, we inadvertently attract the attention of a gang that’s up to no good, our gaze lingering long enough for them to start shooting. We crouch next to a parked vehicle, failing to notice that one of their number has sprinted across the road, shotgun in hand. Restarts, we discover, are reasonably short, and we wake up not far from where we hit the pavement in two pieces.
But we digress. Our second braindance sees us given full camera control in analysis mode. “Think of it as your own little sandbox,” Judy says. Keen as we are to get
back to the real one, we enjoy the chance to play digital detective. We’re reminded at first of Detroit: Become Human’s investigative elements, though scrubbing through the memory is more like Dontnod’s Remember Me, only this time you have three individual feeds to sift through for clues. Since the tech records sights and sounds the original ‘roller’ wasn’t aware of, you can pick out individual background sounds or simply tune into conversations for a little extra flavour.
The first part, however, is both over- and under-tutorialised. We are familiar with how video footage works, and with the controls displayed at the bottom-right, we really don’t need to be taught how to rewind, fast-forward and pause. Shortly afterwards, as we find ourselves walking around Konpeki Plaza as Evelyn, it’s not entirely clear what we’re supposed to be doing. Happily, we’ve got Dobrowolski in our ear to offer a bit of guidance, who admits there’s work to be done here. Still, the process itself is more involved than, say, LA Noire. This is more than a mere pixel hunt, even if the yellow outlines on interactive objects could be clearer. Bars at the top of the screen let you know how many clues there are to find in an individual section. In other words, we have an idea of when to search; it’s up to us to figure out where. The third layer, which lets us pinpoint thermal signatures, is the key: rewinding to the point where Arasaka’s PDA is turned on provides the final piece of the puzzle.
Or so you’d think. But from then on, things get messy. First, Evelyn wants you to cut out the middleman and split the fees with her, leaving Dex high and dry – though you don’t have to make that particular call just yet. Then in comes Militech agent Meredith Stout, keen to have you retrieve the company’s Flathead spider-bot – looking for all the world like a future Boston Dynamics product – from heavily-augmented gangsters Maelstrom. Again, we’ve (sort of) been here before. Although that meeting, too, is a choice; you can just show up at Maelstrom’s factory hideout. In the end, we refuse Stout’s offer of a virus-ridden credchip to trick the thugs. But when we pay them a visit and leader Royce stomps into the room, pointing a gun at V’s head and immediately demanding we pay twice the agreed fee, we’re left with no other option but to shoot our way out. With the chip, we’d have had two alternatives: hand
W ITH REGULAR AUTOSAVES , ANY DEC IS IONS YOU MAKE CAN BE WALKED BACK PRETTY EAS ILY
it over and create further chaos, or fill Royce in on Militech’s plan and walk away with the bot – only to face the might of Militech itself on the way out. The only way to complete that mission without firing a bullet in anger, it turns out, is to pay with your own credits: “Between 90 minutes and two hours in the open world should be enough,” Dobrowolski reckons. Ah, well. We’re too busy enjoying ourselves headshotting Dum-dums from behind a gantry to care. We laugh as Jackie leaps from ground level to join us and Dobrowolski adds that we’ll later be able to use a double-jump to get around in similarly agile fashion. “When?” we ask, immediately realising that in a game like this you might as well be asking how long a piece of string is.
We make it out unscathed, thanks partly to a shotgun that inflicts poison damage, an assault rifle that deals chemical damage, and a slice of artichoke and avocado pizza that gets us through a particularly tight spot. We meet up with Stout on the way out – though depending on your decision, it could just as well be her rival at Militech, Gilchrist. We learn, too, that had we not been too busy shooting to notice, we might have rescued a prisoner who has a role to play in the story much later on. In other words, if Cyberpunk 2077 is a sandbox game with an RPG backstory, it’s invested most of its street cred in the perks of an immersive sim. And don’t worry about mistakes or bad choices permanently costing you: with regular autosaves, any decisions you make can be walked back pretty easily.
However that set-piece plays out, you’ll head back to the city’s oldest bar, Afterlife, to celebrate and deliver the Flathead to Dex. And while there’s still no sign of Keanu, we do get a tantalising hint as Jackie sits down at the bar and orders a celebratory drink: two tequila Old Fashioneds with a splash of cerveza and a chili garnish. “A duo of Johnny Silverhands, comin’ up,” says barkeep Claire. After she pours them, we’re offered three choices of toast. To getting filthy rich? To the heist of a lifetime? For us, there’s really only one option. We raise our glasses, of course, to Night City.