Cyberpunk 2077 is a game that many people have been hyped for ever since it was first revealed. While many games nowadays shy away from political discussions and ideas, the developers of this game have stated that the game will engage players on multiple levels by dealing with some complex real world issues. In the new issue of Official Xbox Magazine (September 2018, issue 167), CD Projekt RED’s Quest Designer Patrick Mills discussed how cyberpunk is a very political genre and how the game will follow in this tradition.
Mills stated, “Cyberpunk 2077 is a game about people with power at the top and people at the bottom with none. That power can come from money, hierarchies, technology and violence. The original Cyberpunk 2020 setting, like the setting of The Witcher stories, was a complex critique of the author’s world, and we don’t shy away from that in our games. On the contrary! I think it’s one of the things that sets us apart. Of course, to us, mature doesn’t mean just sex and violence. We will try to engage you on multiple levels, not just the visceral, but also the intellectual. Cyberpunk is an inherently political genre and it’s an inherently political franchise. It’s a place that is very critical of the world in which we live, in interesting and complex ways and we hope we can get that across. Cyberpunk 2077 is about a world where a vanishingly small number of ultra-rich individuals at the top of intractable corporate power structures reign over a disintegrating world where the vast majority of the population lives in an endless cycle of poverty and violence. How different that is from our world depends a lot on your perspective, I suppose.”
The developers have also explained before why they chose to use first-person perspective in the game. Now, Mills addressed this issue as well, and argued that the first-person perspective allows for a greater degree of immersion in the game. The developers had recently explained that they have character customization as an option in the game because they want this to be the player’s story, so it makes sense that a first-person perspective is used. Regarding the use of this perspective, Mills stated, “There’s a lot of things we get from first-person and part of it is being closer to the character and to feel like you’re inhabiting that character. But at the same time I would also say this: go play a third-person game, go play The Witcher, and look up. Just try to look straight up. You’ll find that the immersion never really works, it never feels like you are looking up. It feels like you’re moving a camera around. In Cyberpunk 2077 we really want you to be able to walk around Night City and look up and see those skyscrapers made of concrete, glass and steel. To feel like you’re in this canyon, this jungle and it’s eating you alive. That’s only possible in first-person.”
Cyberpunk 2077 is set to release for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One, but we don’t know when it is set to release as of now.