Wednesday 10 January 2018

CYBERPUNK 2077 lurches into life again

CD Projekt, the Polish development company behind the Witcher trilogy of video games and the GoG digital games service, seem to have begun the pre-release marketing for their next video game: Cyberpunk 2077.


They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step, and that's what this move seems to be: five years after its last tweet, the Cyberpunk Twitter feed has rebooted itself with a simple "beep".

Cyberpunk 2077 was announced in 2012 as one of two large-scale, open-world RPGs the company was working on. The other was, of course, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which was released to a rapturous reception in early 2015 (I am playing this at the moment and should have a review in the next week or so). After an early concept trailer and a bunch of interviews, CD Projekt declared radio silence, not wanting to hype up the game before it was ready.

Cyberpunk 2077 is - shockingly - a cyberpunk video game set in the year 2077. It is set in the Cyberpunk pen-and-paper RPG universe created by Mike Pondsmith in 1988, a world of massive corporations, oppressive corporations and people struggling for freedom and humanity in a world of massive technological and corporate power. The video game will be set in one city (probably Night City, a post-conflict Californian city and the signature setting in the pen-and-paper game) and possibly its surrounds, and will allow players to create their own character. They will be able to pursue a detailed main storyline, numerous side-quests and lots of optional activities. There may also be a multiplayer component of some description.

Given the impact of the Cyberpunk RPG and the genre as a whole, which inspired the Deus Ex and Shadowrun franchises, among others, it'll be interesting to see what the final result is like. CDPR may also be fortuitously tapping into a renewed interest and awareness in the cyberpunk genre, thanks to the recent release of Blade Runner 2049 (out on DVD and Blu-Ray next month) and the arrival of the Netflix TV series Altered Carbon.

It'll be interesting to see how in-depth the marketing for Cyberpunk 2077 will be, and if CDPR are going to give us a short, sharp campaign followed by release or something longer. In either case, the hopes for a 2018 or early 2019 release have risen according.

1 comment:

Ghost said...

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a great game but make sure you pick up the second expansion; Blood & Wine. It's like the crown jewel of the game. A warning though; it's a long game. I spent over 100 hours on it and didn't come close to completing all the missions.
As for Cyberpunk 2077...well, it's good CD Projekt is still working on it but I do wonder if there's a market for it. I rather they concentrate on GWENT.