The Road to Cyberpunk: 1 Month to go

 Substance and style?

Bit of an early video this month I noticed, and that is likely because the team have unveiled a surprise 5th showcase that's going to land at some undefined time. Given how close things are cutting, I think this means a grand finale will land literally a couple of weeks at most before the launch, a decision which I bet made the boys in marketing extremely happy. Although whilst one might imagine that such a stretching of content would lead to an issue where you run out of things to talk about, remember that this isn't a Ubisoft title where they only really have one or two new features to show off each game, this is an actual fresh faced game with plenty to dive into at minute levels. Point in case, at this last conference we actually got to dive into a topic I've been crazy about for a long while now; vehicles.

Now I'm not a car guy by any stretch of the imagination, apart from the Aston Martin DB5, I couldn't identify a single other car even at gunpoint, so I can't pretend like I'm someone who can fully appreciate the level of dedication and detail that has clearly gone into the creation of every single car. But what I can see, even as an outsider to this sort of culture, is the way in which the design philosophy for these fictional cars seems to have perfectly mimicked that of modern day manufacturers with a slight sci-fi twist. I usually loathe to talk about how "I bet this is what it'll really look like in 50 years!", but with this one I really can't help myself, the resemblance is just too uncanny! The shape of the cars, the way they sound, even the evolutions to the way doors move or how windscreen blockers function have this shade of verisimilitude about them that I cannot honestly shake. Thus it hardly shocked me to hear how that was part of their design philosophy.

As they told things, the cars would be split into several classes which inform their general audience as well as the quirks of their appearance. Economy class is probably the type of car that spoke to me the most, seeing as how they all seemed to be affordable cars from today that have been retrofitted in order to fit within the 'Dark Future'. In hindsight I suppose this is somewhat close to the truth given that Cyberpunk does have a post-apocalyptic side to it's world, meaning that these could very well be former Junkers. The executive class, on the otherhand, comprises itself of cars that look to be actual evolutions on what we see today, with the most striking commonality from the examples we've seen clearly being the 6 wheeled look. I personally also get a low-rider vibe from at least the cars we saw in the trailer, but I somehow doubt that 90's car hopping is going to make a surprise return to relevance in 2077. (Although I'd be ecstatic if it did) The Heavy duty vehicles were somewhat unimpressive, I'll admit, seeming to just be utility vehicles that look identical to the ones of today. (If it ain't broke- I guess.) Sports cars are more what I expected out of this game, although I do love the variety we appear to be getting in them. The slight mad-max vibe they give off in the badlands is especially cool to see. And finally the Hypercars is the closest we're getting to those 'futuristic' cliches that one imagines when they think about the road of the future. I particularly like the holographic windows that appear completely opaque from the outside; very gaudy and elitist.

Although it was during the talk about these cars after the trailer that I was left with a few ponderous questions. Firstly, the implication seems to have been made that some cars will not be exclusive to their classes but will instead feature variations across Night City. So that one might find a fresh version of this car in the city or a Junker version in the badlands. Or maybe I misheard that and it has nothing to do with class, but rather just geographical anomalies. (It wasn't made amazingly clear) I'm also slightly curious about the fact that cars will apparently be imparted to the player through purchase options, which got me thinking about the way that economy will be represented in this game. For most games one usually doesn't ever consider such things as the economy is usually whatever is needed for the balance of the game, but with the commitment that CDPR seem to have been possessed with towards fidelity, I have to consider these aspects. How will the expense of these cars effect my perception of this world, even with the inevitable steep discount that we'll receive having got our cars through a Fixer? For one, I think that Hypercars shouldn't even be on the market at all, given that they are supposed to be the height of expense and thus really shouldn't ever be in the pricerange of a street mercenary. (But who knows, maybe CDPR will literally offer us some for a billion 'eddies')

Another segment I found fascinating, although this just comes from my personal obsession with game design over my obsession with this game, was the one in which they spoke about the recording process for these car's sounds. The team's choice to make these cars sound like combustion driven beasts, rather than sci-fi machines, (similar to their philosophy behind weapon design) drew the team to the sort of lengths that one would expect out of a racing game. There were race tracks, cameras stuck in engine ports and up exhausts and even huge boom mics to record the sound of a car window in operation. (I'm only mostly certain that was meant as a joke.) It's honestly surprising how much effort is going into this, and it makes the other car-centric open world games out there look pretty tame by comparison.

Of course, this also opened up the potential for some product placement to worm it's way into the game, and I'm still unsure how I feel about it. Having Johnny Silverhand's personal car be a Porsche from 1977 is better than making it a modern Porsche, but I'm conflicted about seeing that brand in this universe at all. It would be like a Volkswagen showing up in Fallout, it's just a crossover that you feel shouldn't happen. I'm a little more comfortable with Keanu Reeves' Arch motorcycles finding a crossover in game because their bikes sort of do fit the aesthetic anyway, (plus I like Keanu, sue me) but watching Cyberpunk and Porsche flirt on Twitter for the past week has been pretty nauseating. That being said, I'll probably still drive the car in game because it does look pretty sweet, if misplaced.

Finally there was a showcase on the different styles of Nightcity and I'll have to admit that I wasn't in love with this section. Don't get me wrong, I understand how when creating a world in this manner it is necessary to create thematic splits between the fashion of the citizens, (with this being especially important in the world of Cyberpunk) but I just thought it made people look a little uniform and I hope it ends up being something I don't notice too much when I play the game. On the positive side, I think this was the first time that we got to see the breadth of the character creation, albeit fleeting, because the various characters riding vehicles that we saw looked very distinct from one another. (Although that could have just as easily been the developers just model swapping to get a good shot.) I really do hope that the last event at least touches on character diversity because, unnecessary though it may be, I really want this character creator to be decent.

With but a month to go it really does strike me as a little strange that there's another show to look forward to. I mean, what can we been shown that we haven't already seen so far? I suppose marketing logic would dictate that there has to be one final show full of set pieces in order set anticipation off to a fever pitch, but right now I really don't think anyone needs to see anymore to be in that headspace. Cyberpunk has only ascended in popularity over the last few months and some are even going so far as to declare 'game of the year' to a game that literally no one in the public has played yet. (We're all excited, but just slow your role there a little, guys) But I'm not exactly going to bemoan a new reason to look forward to tomorrow, so I guess a finale is the next big thing out of Cyberpunk. It's a little surreal to think we're so close now, but here we are. I wonder if it'll really be everything we want it to be?