What a Thrill! We had no clue which of the marvellous games of E3 2018 was to be our favorite up until a mere three days before the grand opening. But after only 50 minutes of watching the game Cyberpunk 2077, we have no doubt. Cyberpunk 2077 is by far the greatest thing we have seen in the LA showing. This latest release from the team that brought us Witcher, CD Projekt Red, is based on the table-top role-playing game, Cyberpunk 2020.
The first thing you should know is that Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person shooter, but with the same intriguing game styles you have come to love in Fallout and Deus Ex. The third-person perspective of the Witcher Series may be gone, but from what we gathered from the gameplay demo, the change was made for good reason.
Character Driven
First of all, much of the action in the game is based on gunplay as seen through the eyes of “V”. The interactions with the world and the many fascinating NPCs you will meet is also more personal than ever in this perspective and so the swap is well justified.
CD PROJEKT RED
You can choose between a male or female “V” —one of the reasons, the name was shortened— and the character can be fully-customized from the very start. This is an RPG in the very sense of the word including character builds and stats. You can even choose your back story from the beginning.
As the game progresses, your character can be upgraded and customized to your liking. One thing we noticed in the demo was that even seemingly inconsequential items have their own special benefits and boosters. For example, V has a jacket hanging in her room — the demo we observed had the female version of V. The jacket offers special protection from poisons. This is only one example of the many boosts and benefits scattered across the game.
One of the major elements are the fascinating array of cybernetic implants —it ain’t called Cyberpunk for nothing— and these also offer some impressive abilities once properly installed and fully upgraded. In this sense, you will see some interesting similarities between this game and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. For that matter, there are many striking similarities, including digital readouts seen above the character’s heads, alternative outcomes to various missions and much more.
A True Sci-Fi Epic
But Cyberpunk 2077 is also very different. It is far more visually engaging for one. It is bigger as well and features vehicle driving in a vast open world. There are no loading screens or fast travel options between locations. In essence, it can be likened to GTA in first person. But the similarities end there, it is first-person and features a brilliant array of characters, buildings and random people wandering the environment constantly.
The whole story takes place in 2077, in the futuristic Night City, an area located in California’s Northern reaches. It is somewhat reminiscent of Judge Dread’s Mega-City One, complete with massive mega blocks — one of which V calls home. Each mega block is a whole new open world location to explore and is chock full of unique and captivating interactions.
In the demo we saw, V travelled from her room, to the elevators, out the doors and down the street with no stuttering, loading or interruptions. We then navigated the highly populated streets to meet up with Jackie, a fellow gun for hire. Then we set off to find a fixer and our first mission, then to a ripper to get some cybernetics installed. We then climbed into Jackie’s car to drive to the location of our mission, and the game went on.
Throughout the entire demo, we were never faced with a cut scene or loading screen. Everything was being controlled by the CD Projekt Red gamer. To say this was all very impressive would be a gross understatement — we were literally slack-jawed and captivated the entire time.
Brutal but oh so rewarding
The action of the game is absolutely stunning, which is saying something for a game development studio not known for their shooters. While we were already pretty impressed with what we saw in Fallout 76, the combat featured in Cyberpunk 2077 offers a whole different level of intensity and brutality.
In one mission, our hero had to relieve some cybernetic thieves of an important spider bot. At first, this was attempted through financial remuneration, when this didn’t work the action picked up rather quickly. V and Jackie had to shoot their way out of the hideout. The CD Projekt Red player took the time to demonstrate different guns and their capacity to violently dismember opponents — limbs went flying in all directions.
It may come as no shock, but all in all, this game has heavy adult themes. Just like the Witcher, there is nudity, plenty of swearing and buckets of blood. This is naturally not to everyone’s taste but does a perfect job in portraying the developer’s intentions with this game. There may be times when the language seems a little gratuitous, some of the other viewers in the room were noticeably uncomfortable, but in our opinion, the scripting suits the game and story line perfectly.
First Impressions
There is hardly any need for us to summarize our first impressions of Cyberpunk 2077, we have said plenty already. So, if you’re interested you can buy Cyberpunk 2077 here and enjoy this fantastic game.
But we can say that there are few games that have surpassed our expectations so effectively — Last of Us II, perhaps. We are sure we will only get more lyrical about this impressive game in the months to come. The release date has already been postponed numerous times and at the time of writing is set for December 10th, 2020 — which would fit perfectly with the Cyberpunk 2020 game upon which it is based. Lastly, if you want to have some upgrades for your character, you can buy cd keys that can be helpful as your game progresses.
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