Cyberpunk 2077

We still have a month to go before Cyberpunk 2077 releases on November 19^th for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Google Stadia but there are more details to share. Here are 16 more things you should know before buying the open world FPS/RPG.

Interactive Cutscenes

Using what the development team calls the “Scene System”, players will actually be in a cutscene, controlling V (though the level of control will vary depending on the scene). According to the developer in Official PlayStation Magazine’s September 2020 issue, one way this manifests is by allowing V to look around during conversations and scout out any potential threats. How this will play out in certain situations remains to be seen but it could make for some interesting twists in certain quests.

Car Brands

During the latest Night City Wire, the various cars, trucks and motorcycles that one can cruise around Night City in were unveiled. There’s the Economy class vehicles like Makigai, Thorton and Archer; the Executive cars like Villefort and Chevillon; Sportscars like Quadra and Mizutani; and Hypercars like Herrera and Rayfield. The Heavy Duty vehicles include Kaukaz and Militech trucks for plowing through any and all obstacles.

Porsche and Arch Motorcycle Collaboration

There are also tie-ups with official vehicle brands as well, like Keanu Reeves’ own Arch Motorcycle and the legendary Porsche. Both have in-game vehicles as a result with the latter being based off of the Porsche 911 Turbo. It even has some plot relevance by being Johnny Silverhand’s vehicle of choice.

Styles

Cars won’t be the only way to define one’s style – there are also four distinct styles of clothing to don. There’s Kitsch, touted as style over substance and embodying the 80s with its neon hair, bright colors and chrome plating; Entropism, which prioritizes necessity over fashion; Neomilitarism which is the corporate brand of choice and represents elegance; and Neokitsch, the post-Neomilitaristic look that mixes in some Kitsch. Throw in the different Life Paths and there will be plenty of interesting ways to customize V.

Leaked World Map

For those interested in a more holistic view of Night City, the physical map of the same leaked earlier this month. It provides a better look at the various highways, the scale of districts relative to each other, and much more. Don’t let the overall size dissuade you though – the city is highly vertical, which makes for numerous layers to dissect, and it’s packed to the brim with content.

Infiltrating Rich Homes

Said content includes infiltrating the homes of Night City’s more affluent citizenry and presumably attempting robbery. Of course, as senior quest designer Philipp Weber noted on Twitter, such luxurious homes have the “best security” and “Only an idiot would try to infiltrate that.” But don’t let that stop you from trying.

Extensive VA Cast

Back in September, Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad tweeted out images of voice actors for the game’s Chinese localization. What’s noteworthy about this is that were more than 150 VAs with over 100,000 lines recorded. The number English voice actors and recorded lines has yet to be official confirmed but this provides some hints to the extensiveness of the voice work.

PC Requirements

The minimum and recommended requirements for the PC version have also been revealed. While CD Projekt RED will provide 4K and RTX specific configurations closer to launch, these should give an idea as to whether your system can handle the game. Minimum requirements include an Intel Core i5-3570K or AMD FX-8310, 8 GB of RAM, a GeForce GTX 780 3 GB or AMD Radeon RX 470 and either Windows 7 or Windows 10 64-bit. Recommend requirements include an Intel Core i7-4790 or AMD Ryzen 3 3200G, 12 GB of RAM, a GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB or AMD Radeon R9 Fury, and Windows 10 64-bit. An SSD is advised for the minimum end but pretty much mandatory for higher end users. Finally, you’ll need 70 GB of space to install the game on.

Free Post-launch DLC

Cyberpunk 2077 will obviously have free post-launch DLC. While CD Projekt RED hasn’t provided finer details, these could include additional outfits, quests and maybe even New Game Plus. Also, for those worried about the size or readability of subtitles, the developer also confirmed that font size and colour could be adjusted in the full game.

Paid Expansions

Along with free DLC, there will be paid expansions as well. While we don’t know when they’ll release, especially with the base game having suffered delays, these aren’t carved pieces of content from the base game as per CD Projekt president Adam Kiciński. More details, including a post-release roadmap, are to be expected in the coming days.

Multiplayer and Microtransactions

Multiplayer is also in development though what it offers and how it works is unknown. A couple of things that are known is that it won’t arrive until after 2021 – or even later than that, given that delays on the base game resulted in it being pushed back along with the expansions. There will be microtransactions, though they won’t be “aggressive” as per Kiciński. Instead, they’ll be designed in such a way that “makes people happy to spend money.”

Playable on Xbox Series X/S and PS5

Though Cyberpunk 2077 is available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC in November, it will also be playable on Xbox Series X/S and PS5. While these are free upgrades that will make them playable on next-gen consoles, another upgrade is in the works that will take “full advantage” of the hardware. There’s no release date for the same but it should be interesting to see how the game performs on them at launch.

Melee Combat Being Polished

We’ve seen quite a bit of melee combat over the past few months – and heard about how viable a melee-only build really is (answer: Not very). But senior gameplay designer Pawel Kapala noted that the development team wasn’t “100 percent happy” with the state of melee combat. Back in August, when the Tools of Destruction trailer dropped, Kapala said “We’re spending a lot of time trying to perfect that, and we basically, we’re not 100 percent happy, mostly with visual feedback on the hits, on the melee. So, we’re still working on it.” While it has improved and will be getting “even better” by launch, it remains to be seen just how substantial the improvements will be.

Soundtrack Artists

A lot of work has gone into creating Night City but it wouldn’t be as effective without a solid soundtrack backing it. Fortunately, a diverse range of artists are contributing original songs to the game, from Refused and Grimes to A$AP Rocky, Run the Jewels, Nina Kraviz and Rat Boy. Some of them even appear in-game, like Refused as chrome rock band Samurai and Grimes as Lizzy Wizzy.

Multiple Difficulty Options

Last year, CD Projekt RED noted that there would be multiple difficulty options. There’s even a Hardcore setting which disables the UI and will offer a “real challenge” for players. Hopefully more details on the various difficulty options will arrive before launch.