CD Projekt Red is the studio that brought you The Witcher games which, in my opinion, pushed the boundaries of what a game can achieve in terms of narrative, emotion, and utilization of the nonlinearity unique to games. The latter comes in the form of choices that leave you pacing around your house trying to make up your mind.
Their new project is called Cyberpunk 2077 (based on the popular pen-and-paper Cyberpunk 2020) which promises to bring more of the head scratching, gut wrenching decisions and affecting moments of The Witcher, but this time the setting is way on the other side of the SciFi/Fantasy spectrum. After The Witcher though, I have faith in CD Projekt Red to do it well. Hell, to do anything well. You could tell me their next game is going to be set entirely on a Mormon-exclusive golf course and I’d probably still give it a shot.
More details on Cyberpunk after the trailer.
Mature content warning.
Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in Night City, in a world where cybernetic augmentation (like in Deus Ex), designer drugs, roving gangs, and “Braindances” have wreaked havoc on society. And don’t forget the shadowy megacorporations endemic to the cyberpunk genre, of course.
Overdoing it with augments, booster-drugs, and Braindances can do a number on a person’s brainpan. Those who do eventually turn into “Psychos”–which, from the sound of things, is a legally recognized designation. As the name probably implies, Psychos are pretty scary dudes. MAX-TAC, or the “Psycho Squad,” is an elite police force tasked with taking down, you guessed it, Psychos. You saw a few of them in the trailer.
The aforementioned Braindances are basically neural recordings. Streaming one into your brain-mounted BD-Player allows you to experience everything the recorder experienced. From sensual data to curiosity. You can check out the Uncharted of the Cyberpunk world or, if you felt so inclined, could check out the Silence of the Lambs of Braindances and finally, finally understand how Buffalo Bill felt when he asked himself that infamous question.
If anything has stood out to you about the (admittedly sparse) details surrounding Cyberpunk 2077 it should be this. The Braindances are a (kind of silly) name for a well-known trope in cyberpunky fiction, but in the context of a game these could offer some extraordinarily interesting gameplay options.
So what’s it gonna be, cyberpunk? Are you gonna fight your way through and survive in this messed up world, or will you devolve into a muttering BD-junkie?
Keep an eye on this one folks, looks like it could turn out to be something really incredible. It’s due to hit shelves, and I’m quoting here: “When it’s ready.”