Cyberpunk 2077 is out

 It time to burn this city down

At the time of this blog being published, Cyberpunk 2077 will officially be out in a worldwide release that promises to break at least a few records due to the anticipation around it. (Though I suspect that those records will have stipulations like "Roleplaying game", "Sci-fi title" and "In the month of December" attached to them.) In fact, for some Cyberpunk will have already been out for around 24 hours, and they'll probably never read this here blog because they're already diving into the city of broken dreams and carving their bloody swathe through it's denizens. And on that day I'll be fully honest with you all, I have no idea what I'll really do with myself. It's like this great relief mired by this miasma of fear, because I don't really know how to react when confronted with the prospect of literally nothing to look forward to. But all that is a bridge one must cross when it comes, for now all I want to do is stoke the flames of anticipation one last time as the wait for this title finally slows to a stop. (And for the sake of the 'no-one' who cares, this was written on Friday the 4th. So last week.)

I've been a fan of roleplaying games for as far back as the days of the PS2, and I'd like to think that a big part of that comes from the promise of the genre. Perhaps you've hung around here before, in which case you'll know that I'm big on escapism, but even before I sought that like the junkie that I am, there was a certain allure to the prospect of living in a world that wasn't your own. Most games that I played at the time served as sort of adventures like you'd see in the movies; short contained bursts of action neatly capped off at the end with a resolution and then it was all over. RPGs somehow felt much more involved then that, promising a world to reside in, characters to stake yourself behind, personalities to embody, and even directions to guide the narrative itself. That's right, I was drawn into the whole 'actions have consequences' argument. (The latter of which is still something I never think has been adequately and exhaustively explored in a single game) 

And as I recently shared, despite living up to all that expectation which I've formed around what an RPG game should be, Cyberpunk was not on my radar at all when it was first announced. To be entirely honest, I was still stuck on that cliffhanger ending for 'The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings', a game which was already a couple of years old when I played it, so I saw any other project taken on by this indie game developer as a huge distraction. I didn't care about a whole new world with a title as nondescript as 'Cyberpunk', I wanted to know what became of Temeria once the Black Ones invaded! (Ironically, The Witcher 3 would eventually come out and completely skip past that invasion, then relegate all the political intrigue surrounding that event to an easily missed side quest. so I got screwed either way.) But things changed around once the game, which it feels all the world apart from me was waiting for, literally forced itself in front of my eyes during a Microsoft E3 conference. You know, back when conferences still happened in rooms and people actually watched them. (What an alien concept...)

Now the table have completely flipped and I literally cannot function without my hope for this game, which may sound a little unhealthy and it absolutely is, but there's so much promise here I can't help myself. To be clear, much of my excitement is bound past what the game itself can offer, but what it means for the rest of the industry as an example and a validation, should it succeed. I mean, the wider industry is currently wrestling with a debate about whether or not to up the price of standard games another 10 units of your local currency, in order to match some imaginary hike of development costs and standards for their subpar AAA offerings, whilst Cyberpunk hops along as a game which promises to outstrip them all for 49.99. Do you understand how meaningful that is? The sort of message that sends? This will be a game devoid of predatory microtransactions and blood-from-a-stone policies which sink so many other huge titles, (Just look at every Looter-shooter ever) and should this game be the mega hit everyone says it's destined to be, that'll lend weight to the right side of the scales.

But of course, the actual game itself is just as exciting for me. I've never been the sort of person to automatically fall head over in heels for the Sci-fi space, in fact as my tastes grew I found myself more often drawn to fantasy, but even I cannot deny that a good Sci-fi game trumps just about everything else. Of course, Cyberpunk isn't technically science-fiction per se, but the the maturity and authenticity with which they've developed their dystopian look at the future of corporate America rings the same sort of emotional notes with me. I like seeing the sorts of world spaces that exaggerate some aspects to make us think on our own, and Cyberpunk looks to be dripping with that. If it isn't commentary on disparity between the rich and poor, it's the the ever creeping dominance of marketing into our psyches or how corporate bottom lines and lobbying has the tendency to effect more of our daily lives then it really should; Cyberpunk has, in it's marketing alone, touched on all of those themes with enough of a spotlight to be recognisable yet enough of a straight face that it remains ponderable. Which isn't to knock the more farcical way with which similarly themed games such as 'Outer Worlds' handle such topics, but I just have my preference to this style, personally. It rings more true.

On top of that lies the promise of a world that looks so real yet so fantastical that we all just want to be there! One of the first sci-fi worlds to really arrest me was something that my Father insisted I watch, and that was of course, Bladerunner. Now many things make that movie the masterpiece it is, but the just one those, the visual direction, alone stands apart as something truly astounding.  With that movie was born this vision soaked in a neon cityscape of towering monoliths and limitless industrialisation. Since then we've seen so many sci-fi worlds that try to touch upon and evolve that idea, and even some games that try to mimic or grow upon it, but Cyberpunk is the only one which seemed to wave all that away and just try to bring us there. I know it's a bit condescending to call Cyberpunk the Bladerunner videogame, but just look at Little China in Nightcity and tell me that those glittering holographic Koi fish don't encapsulate the very thematic soul of Ridley Scott's cult classic.

It doesn't even end at just the look either, even the gameplay appeals to me and so many others. Having the choice of playstyle revolve around the build of the character and who you want to make them feels like this inexplicable marriage of game design and narrative which brings the Immersive Sim to the open world better than it's ever been done before. (Which, I admit, is sort of a kick in the nuts to 'Watch Dogs: Legion's team given that they were credited by some with pioneering that same thing just a month prior. Not long to hold the crown, I guess.) I like the look of the weighty and expansive skill tree which seems to change things up to the point of severely altering playstyle depending on where you specialise, I love the ingenuity of the weapon design which looks to keep even simple lead-trading interesting, and I adore all the little details they've promised; such as the way that weapon animations evolve with the player's skill level to represent their growing mastery. Heck, I even like the look of that Photomode they unveiled. (Praise the sun!)

Unless something truly horrific has occurred, like the literal end of the world, you'll have access to all that right now and (Hopefully) be basking in the knowledge that the hype was, in fact, validated. And I'm pretty sure there's nothing that can go wrong now, I mean the street date has already been broken and folk are playing it, what else can the Devs do to hold the masses back? Although, I have heard that the game without the Day One patch is pretty buggy, so CDPR could, feasibly, hold us all hostage for a few more days whilst they work on things. (I gotta stop given them ideas!) I await my turn to explore a world of decadence spotted with poverty, progression balanced by regression and freedom surrounded by conformity. But enough rambling, why are you reading this? Go play the game!