Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person open-world RPG with FPS elements. It was developed by the Polish studio CD Projekt RED, which gained international fame thanks to their bestselling The Witcher series. The game is based on Cyberpunk 2020 - a tabletop RPG system created in 1990 by Mike Pondsmith.

Storyline and character creator

Cyberpunk 2077 is set in 2077, in a fictional metropolis of Night City, located on the nothern Californian coast. The city is a retrofuturistic dystopia, its portrayal taken straight out of the 1990s - the world is devastated and ruled by brutal megacorps, with the streets being home to gangs and the titular cyberpunks - rebels independent of the system. Due to the technological progress, cybernetic implants have become commonplace.

The main protagonist is V, a rookie mercenary trying to make their way up in this grim reality. During one of their gigs, the protagonist comes into possession of a chip able to grant immortality, desired by the world's most influential powers. The player creates their protagonist from scratch, choosing their gender (and being able to freely mix-and-match between male and female characteristics), appearance and origin (there are three life paths at our disposal - nomad, street kid and corpo - deciding the game's beginning and offering additional dialogue options). The character creator is also where we set the protagonist's five initial stats: body, reflexes, technical ability, intelligence and cool.

Johnny Silverhand

A key player in Cyberpunk 2077's story is Johnny Silverhand - a famous rockerboy (in the world of CP2020 that is the name for a rockman known for being involved with the criminal underground) who died in mysterious circumstances in the 2020s, many years before the game's events. His consciousness was digitised and saved onto a chip V comes into possession of. His fate is thus linked to our protagonist's, which doesn't mean he's our ally - he may, for example, try to take over V's body against their will.

Voice cast

Johnny Silverhand is played by Keanu Reeves, known from the Matrix movies, John Wick movies and many other productions.

In addition to Reeves, the game stars Gavin Drei (V - male), Cherami Leigh (V - female), Lovensky Jean-Baptiste (Placide), Samuel Barnett (St Delamaine), Michael-Leon Wooley (Dexter "Dex" DeShawn), Jason Hightower (Jackie Walles) and many others.

Gameplay

Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person RPG. The player explores a vast, open world (on foot, or behind the wheel of a car or a motorbike) and completes various, often non-linear quests. The game also includes an interesting Braindance mechanic, letting you view and examine the memories of other people. This is often used during various investigations.

Throughout the game we'll often have to fight - the combat system works similarly to an FPS with RPG elements (such as Destiny - as an example, headshots aren't always an instant kill, the amount of damage dealt being determined by V's stats). The player can use a diverse arsenal of futuristic weaponry (both firearms and melee weapons), as well as additional skills and tools (for example, we can hack safety systems and chips implanted into enemies). We can also eliminate foes quietly or negotiate with NPCs to convince them to our point of view or to find compromises.

Completing activities rewards us with two kinds of points - aside from regular experience used to develop our character, there's also street cred. It affects things such as access to better traders and questgivers. We can also increase our capabilities by installing various implants. The system is classless, letting us freely mix specializations and acquire different skills.

Night City is divided into six districts: City Center (where the headquarters of the megacorps are located), Westbrook (inhabited by the rich), Pacifica (controlled by gangs), Heywood (hosting the Latinos), Watson (where immigrants found a home) and Santo Domingo (supplying the metropolis with energy). We can also explore the desert areas around the city, known as the Badlands.

Cyberpunk 2077 runs on the RED Engine, which has received numerous improvements ever since the version used in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The technology allowed the authors to create a detailed world with a 24-hour cycle and high traffic intensity on the streets. The PC version also supports ray tracing and DLSS 2.0. The game's rich, varied soundtrack is also worthy of praise, featuring many famous artists (such as the band Refused, which portray the cyberpunk band Samurai).

Multiplayer

The core of Cyberpunk is its story campaign, although the game is supposed to receive a multiplayer mode after the base game's release. Unfortunately, so far the developers haven't revealed any more specific information about it.

Last updated on 25 September 2024