E3 2019 Impressions — Cyberpunk 2077

While at E3, I was able to see Cyberpunk 2077 in a more intimate setting than just a trailer. Here is my take on Cyberpunk 2077.

The hype levels were off the charts for Cyberpunk 2077 at E3 this year. From the surprise announcement of characters during the Xbox Event to the announcement of the release date to the fifty-minute demo that was out there for the lucky few out there to experience from CD Projekt RED. The only thing not made available to the public as of yet being that new demo for Cyberpunk 2077. Something that was out to highlight more of the gameplay and the various ways we all can experience the game when it does finally hit the PS4, Xbox One, and PC on April 16^th of 2020.

As I said, this new demo out of E3 was all about the gameplay and we got to see various builds for V in action, even though this will not be a feature in Cyberpunk 2077. It was here to show us more about how the various choices at creation and during the game can and will change just how the game plays out. For instance, there are three different backgrounds we can take that will not only explain where V got all of their skills but also affect dialog choices along the way. I do not believe they went with any of them while I watched the demo, but they popped up as one would expect in any other game that uses the system. They are just a different choice locked out or opened up when we are presented with a choice.

Moving along, the two different versions of V fell back on one male and one female. A Corporate Net Runner and a Street Kid Solo for those familiar with the Cyberpunk tabletop game this is all based on. These were just examples for the demo, but we will get many various other ways to go about playing the world. Given that Keanu Reeves’ character is a named NPC in the tabletop world, it would make sense that we will see various other “classes” come to Cyberpunk 2077 at some point. Not all will translate well into the video game form, but it would be easy to figure out.

Anyway, this demo picks up a good way into the narrative of Cyberpunk 2077 and V wants to learn a bit more about the chip that is implanted in their neck that could hold the secret of immortality. To do this, V needs to interact with the Voodoo Boys, a Net Running gang, to ‘liberate’ an area in Pacifica. This would be one of the other of the six major districts in Cyberpunk 2077 that we will need to explore and play in. This one all based around a tourist trap location that has been met with all kinds of ruin due to the corporations pulling out all their funds. Gangs have moved in to make it a nightmare to live in and this is where V needs to ride off to.

After making it to the location and a bit of a briefing about what needs to happen, our Net Runner V is asked to go in a bit more stealthy and try to bring down the gang of Animals that are holed up in an abandoned mall. Being a Net Runner we were able to use the local network of the building to unlock and alter various things about to cause distractions so we could go unseen. Things like turning off a regulator on a sparring robot to knock out one of the watching Animals or turning the weight up extremely high for another on a bench press and pinning them down. These were only a few of the options we could go through to make a slow and sneaky progression to the objective in the mall.

In the demo, this is where CD Projekt RED used a bit of developer magic to switch over to the Solo build of V so we could see just how a different skill set could be used. This version being a more “Terminator” build of the character in Cyberpunk 2077 and thus after prying open a few doors and knocking out a few Animals with CQC, we could get to the same location we needed to be at in only a few minutes instead of a long and drawn out sneakfest. Again, only a different variation and using quick swapping just for this demo. It just goes to show how varied and wide they are allowing us to build our V.

After this, they moved into a full brawl and “boss fight” situation where they tried to let each character shine a bit more. Obviously, the Solo build was all about running and gunning while ripping turrets out the ground to use against the enemies. The Net Runner was able to use a glowing orange wire to perform quick hacks to do various things to take enemies out of the picture. Things like hacking cybernetics to pull grenade pins or shutting the host completely down. Also hacking the same turret mentioned before to lay down cover fire. More or less, everything on a network in Cyberpunk 2077 can be hacked if you want to go through the game and not kill a single person.

There were quite a few other and minor things to pick up along the way that I have left out as to not spoil Cyberpunk 2077 for those looking to go in as blind as possible as it comes to the world and story. It does look like it will be filled with the great level of detail we know the developer for and looks to be one of their most ambitious titles to date. It also looks like they are truly sticking to the source material and making more than a clone of other cyberpunk video games in the past as some were worried. I will say that Cyberpunk 2077 truly looks like it is going to be the RPG style game that we were all hoping to see and I am excited to see even more along the way.