“Oh. My fucking. God. It’s so beautiful.” That was all I could tell my video game text chain after leaving CD Projekt Red’s theater demonstration of Cyberpunk 2077. Considering the depth and breadth of their Witcher series, we all have pretty high expectations for their new RPG. And as far as I can tell, they’ve exceeded every one I have.
It starts with a tough choice right off the bat. You’re given the opportunity to work for a powerful gang leader, giving you jobs, street cred, resources and some badass gun fights. But of course, there’s a catch. You have to give the boss access to your internal hardware, allowing him to see and hear everything that you do. On top of that, there’s no way of knowing if that’s the only thing happening during the invasive procedure.
Keanu’s Star Wars-esque hologram is lurking in the background during the whole conversation. Apparently he’s not just a cameo, but heavily involved throughout the whole game. I don’t think anyone is mad about that, and huge props to the studio for keeping that under wraps for so long. Meanwhile, back in the demo, your character agrees to the terms and is tasked with doing some recon at a rival gang’s home base.
You hop on your customizable (if I remember correctly) motorcycle and make your way across town. The landscape is simultaneously beautiful and disgusting. The way they portray the slums of the future is incredible. Advanced technology is intertwined with run down buildings and grimy streets. It feels real and lived in, rather than just a backdrop to tell a story.
Eventually you arrive at the parking lot of a formerly abandoned building, and all you know is a news van outfitted with some hefty tech has been there for a few days. It’s up to you to find and scan it so the boss man can figure out what’s goin down in cyber town. And oh yeah, there are lots of bad guys.
Similar to The Witcher, your character isn’t locked to set classes or archetypes. You have the choice to pick up whatever skills you want, allowing you to specialize in a few areas or spread your points and become a jack of all trades. The character we were shown was spec’d for stealth, hacking and non-lethal takedowns. You’d expect him to unlock doors and turn off cameras, which he did. But what I didn’t expect was for him to override the safety protocol on a sparring robot, making it sucker punch its human opponent hard enough to throw him out of the boxing ring. A collective “ooooohhhhh!!” filled the theater as we all felt it deep in our guts.
The mission goes on, you hack some cool shit, hide bodies and eventually find the truck. But then they pause, open a just-for-the-demo menu, and restart the section as a new character. Now they played a girl spec’d for strength and heavy weaponry. And goddamn, does she she deliver on those fronts. Locked door? Just Chewbacca that shit open. Room full of goons? Set up behind a little cover and turn the room to swiss cheese with your minigun. Anything she did, it was big dick swingin. And the audience loved it.
I love RPGs, but I’ve never really been one to replay them to experience different character types or branching storylines. My story was my story, and I could move on. But after watching that half hour demo, I can say that Cyberpunk 2077 will likely be my first for both. April 2020 is a long fuckin way away. But you better believe I’ll be counting down the days. 306…
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