It’s going to be quite a task for CD Projekt Red to create a world of Cyberpunk 2077 good enough to live up to the expectations set by The Witcher 3. CD Projekt Red has become known as a master among the world builders in the gaming business. Other than The Witcher 3 which came out in 2015, we’ve had lots of games emulating the organic worlds that this developer has created.
It’s obvious that CD Projekt Red isn’t trying to escape from building a breathing world again, but in Cyberpunk 2077 it’s doing it on a greater scale than before with Night City. It’s a huge metropolis flowing with neon and risk that has its own rhythms outside of what your actions.
Bright lights of a living city
However, similar to other good open-world games, there’s a large focus on your choice as a player right from the beginning. Before the game has started, you can choose one of three backstories: Nomad, Street Kid, or Corpo. Then there’s an opening mission which will be absolutely different depending on what you’ve chosen. Later on, many of the stories and dialogues can be influenced as well.
So I chose the Corpo route, fascinated by the camouflage of an Arasaka body deceived with top-of-the-line cyberware. It all seems great in the beginning, I get to wander around the sparkling Arasaka tower on the way to meet my boss, but everything is quickly turning against me. Finally, I’m in a small flat in the Haywood area working with Jackie. Only here the three individual stories connect.
Neon dreams
The first four hours are a bright mix of everything, especially drama. Every mission has so many layers that you’ll be rewarded for being conscientious, or at least determination to explore more. An additional objective can open up a completely new dialogue path or a story thread. The same is true for discovering clues.
Sure, we’ve seen the idea of extras in missions in The Witcher 3 too, but Cyberpunk goes further: you choose the backstory before you’ve even begun crafting your V. Additional dialogue depends on whether you’re from the streets or the corporate highrises, providing you with new information and storylines that would be unavailable otherwise.
What is more, there are lots of dialogue options that depend on the way you spread the skill points. There are five main attributes that you can improve – Body (physical strength), Intelligence (smarts), Technical (hacking), Reflex (speed), and Cool (stealth and street smarts). Each of them allows you to dial in on precisely what you want your V to be. Perks are diverse, too, you can get increased proficiency with particular weapons you can become a sort of a cyber ninja.
Back to reality
It’s great that the level of liberty and creativity is the same when it comes to character creation tools. Cyberpunk 2077 allows for true diversity which is indicated in the choices given to the players for creating their character. You can choose body type instead of just being male or female, for example, and it’s also possible to have a female or male voice which doesn’t depend on the body type. In terms of customization, in addition to a variety of eye types, hairstyles, piercings, cybernetics, etc. you can choose what your character’s nipples and genitalia are going to look like. This is finally the game, where a decent diversity of audiences can be represented.
This is precisely what the game was created for. CD Projekt Red has simply given us the means with Cyberpunk 2077 to make our own stories. I’m looking forward to seeing what else Night City can offer.
