As distant as any kind of optimism for this year may feel, gamers had plenty of reasons to be excited about 2020. Not just…
As distant as any kind of optimism for this year may feel, gamers had plenty of reasons to be excited about 2020.
Not just because Microsoft and Sony are launching next-generation consoles, but there was also a suite of upcoming games with tremendous hype behind them. Of all these titles, three towered above the rest: Final Fantasy 7 Remake, The Last of Us Part 2 and Cyberpunk 2077.
Two down, one to go.
Living up to prodigious hype is never easy, but Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red has it particularly hard. The game was announced in 2012, with a mysterious teaser trailer following in early 2013. It was at E3 five years later, in 2018, that we would next glimpse the game. In between, The Witcher 3 became a blockbuster success that dramatically lifted the studio’s prestige — and excitement for Cyberpunk with it.
And that was all before Keanu Reeves joined the project. »No, you’re breathtaking. »
Cyberpunk 2077 was originally set to launch on April 16, but was pushed back to September 17. At the time, CD Projekt Red said the game was complete, but it needed more time to polish what it hoped would be its « crowning achievement for this generation. »
That same reasoning was behind another delay, announced earlier this week. Cyberpunk 2077’s new, hopefully final release date is November 19.
After playing the first five hours of the game earlier this week, CD Projekt Red’s desire to fine-tune is understandable. I played a fraction of the game, but saw enough to know that Cyberpunk 2077 is a colossus.
In many ways, my session with Cyberpunk 2077 reminded me of Horizon Zero Dawn. I’m predicting that, like that game, the world of Cyberpunk will end up being its most fascinating component.
It takes place in Night City, a dystopia that fuses technological progress — almost all of Night City’s residents are mechanized to some degree — with deep societal inequality. Neon lights and hostility are ubiquitous.
You play as V, a mercenary. It’s hard to describe V as anything more than that, because you’ll decide most of what V is. This is true visually, as the game opens with an impressively sweeping character creation screen where you can decide to play as a male or a female (or a male who’s referred to as a female, or vice versa) and alter every aspect of their body, including voice, minute facial features and, yes, the genitals.
