First taste of Cyberpunk 2077

Andrew Brush 10 Jan, 2013 at 5:28pm ET Article published in Gaming

Polish outfit CD Projekt RED have just unveiled the first teaser for their shiny new RPG Cyberpunk 2077.

Driven ‘psycho’ by a chronic overuse of body enhancements, this teaser shows the results of one heavily modified woman’s rampage against the ‘meatbags’. HK-47 would be proud.

Cyberpunk 2077 aims to bring gamers a mature new RPG experience as they rise from the gutters of the decadent and dystopian ‘Night City’ dodging gangs, megacorps and police along the way. Sadly there’s not so much as a frame of game footage to be seen in this teaser, but should its quality and tone translate across into the finished product then it will certainly be worth waiting for.

Check out the press release blurb and trailer below:

The teaser shows how the Psycho Squad might acquire a new member. The Psycho Squad specializes in combating “psychos” – individuals who overuse implants and substances that boost or otherwise alter the human body. There comes a point when they overdose on these innovations, and their bodies start to rebel against their biological body parts as well as against all things organic around them. Simply put, they start killing people, who they now derisively call “meatbags.”

When a psycho goes on the rampage, strange things can happen. There’s going to be a lot of carnage, so the psycho might be taken down by regular police, but they’re not always able to get the job done. When things spin out of control, they call in MAX-TAC (Maximum Force Tactical Division), popularly called the “Psycho Squad”. And these guys are exceptional, these guys are crack troops. The fact that they’re proud of that name tells you a bit about their mindset. They wear a badge with their official emblem on their right sleeve, but their left is reserved for their unofficial Psycho Squad emblem. It’s primitively made and the image itself is on the crude side of things. It’s not unlike a badge special force operators might make and wear to distinguish themselves from the ranks of grunts in any theatre of war.

Comments

10 Jan 2013 ~ 5:44pm Ilriyas So they're turning the Cyberpunk P&P RPG into a videogame? I cannot bloody wait.

Going to play so much Solo!
10 Jan 2013 ~ 5:44pm Theironhand Whoa.....that is one badass trailer. Gave me goosebumps and I still cannot stop watching it.

Definitely looking forward to seeing more from this game.
10 Jan 2013 ~ 7:30pm Basil Hidden message at 2:14.

Reads as follows:
Do you like our latest creation? We certainly hope so You may remember that we sometimes send you guys secret messages like this. It's a great way for us to speak right to you instead of burying ourselves in corporate mumbo-jumbo so let's begin!

First of all - have you noticed all the details in our teaser (yes, it's a teaser. We'll make a proper trailer in the future)? If you know the Cyberpunk setting there are some things you can spot, like implants - look for the weapon hands and the real skin - corporate emblems that should look familiar and more. Happy hunting!

You're probably curious about the release date. It's currently scheduled a way off in 2015 but in truth the delivery date is more like "when it's done". We will release Cyberpunk to you when we're convinced it is nothing but pure, refined, unadulterated awesome. We want it to be the most kick ass futuristic RPG ever - OK, maybe this sounds pretty bully, but it is our actual goal! You judge if we deliver it!

Oh - and you may wonder why we announced our game so early before the release. The reason is that we're still building our dev team so if you are a talented dude or dudette willing to work in a really different company (gamers rule & boring corporate stuff drools!) on a super ambitious project, send us your application right now! careers@cdprojektred.com

So you want to know what kind of game Cyberpunk 2077 will be? The short description is that it will be a story-heavy, nonlinear, open world RPG based on the well known Cyberpunk pen&paper system and setting. Building open world games is something we are mastering right now and we believe that properly joining nonlinear gameplay with an excellent story telling will bring a totally new quality. Mmm... We'll tell some more about it soon!

And that's not all that's new. We are about the reveal our other project which is much closer to being completed and yes, it will also be a fully open-world game with an intense story. You can probably guess the game we're talking about :-) On the 5th of February it will all be clear.

So stay tuned as we will have quite a lot to show and tell you soon!

We are waiting for you on our newly created forum called Afterlife - what other name could we have chosen for it?

CD Projekt RED Team
10 Jan 2013 ~ 8:01pm Ilriyas Open World.

Cyberpunk.

Cyberpunk 2020.

Skills and Classes kept true.
10 Jan 2013 ~ 10:55pm NullenVoyd This vid was much better than a zombie girl child falling out of a hotel window slow motion and in reverse!

But seriously, this gets all my everything.
10 Jan 2013 ~ 11:02pm fatcat unf
10 Jan 2013 ~ 11:43pm lmorchard Oh holy hell, I played the crap out of Cyberpunk 2013 and 2020 in high school and early college.

I once ran a campaign that resulted in the players demolishing a shopping mall from the inside because the local cybershop had been sticking virus-infected gear in mall-goers and everyone went nuts.
11 Jan 2013 ~ 12:39am Ilriyas I absolutely adore Cyberpunk 2020 would love to play a game again like back when I was a member at TTW. Only issue is I'm a terrible GM so I wouldn't be able to run one.
11 Jan 2013 ~ 12:52am UPSLynx Want. Will buy. Do need play.

But 2015? uugggghhhhhhhh
11 Jan 2013 ~ 1:08am fatcat
Want. Will buy. Do need play.

But 2015? uugggghhhhhhhh
that's sooner than HL3....
14 Jan 2013 ~ 1:17pm UPSLynx It's funny because it's true
19 Jan 2013 ~ 10:40pm pseudonym Yesss...

And more Witcher...

YESSSS!
11 Jun 2018 ~ 2:41am fatcat
5 years later

and still no HL3 lol
11 Jun 2018 ~ 7:40am CB
Because what our gaming landscape really needs right now is another gruff white dude protagonist in a dystopian society with a fetish for the pseudo-exotic.
11 Jun 2018 ~ 11:40am Cliff_Forster

@CB said:
Because what our gaming landscape really needs right now is another gruff white dude protagonist in a dystopian society with a fetish for the pseudo-exotic.

To be fair, the developer is Polish. Most of them only know other white people. Seriously, I know a couple Polish guys that moved to the states a decade or so ago. Poland may be the whitest nation on earth, and a place that would connect with the idea of a white slum.
11 Jun 2018 ~ 4:11pm fatcat

@CB said:
Because what our gaming landscape really needs right now is another gruff white dude protagonist in a dystopian society with a fetish for the pseudo-exotic.

um, the game has a character creator. you can be who you want. the trailer even shows this
11 Jun 2018 ~ 6:44pm GHoosdum
Maybe @CB was referring to HL3?
11 Jun 2018 ~ 10:36pm CB
Okay. I didn't watch the trailer frame by frame to analyse the potential protagonists. I left the trailer with the impression that the protag is a gruff white dude. He'll probably be default, at least, like in Mass Effect, we'll see and hear this white dude in all the marketting.

Either way, the setting is not particularly compelling. Maybe it was 20 years ago, but I feel like Cyberpunk is a bit stagnant.
12 Jun 2018 ~ 7:19am Cliff_Forster

@CB said:
Okay. I didn't watch the trailer frame by frame to analyse the potential protagonists. I left the trailer with the impression that the protag is a gruff white dude. He'll probably be default, at least, like in Mass Effect, we'll see and hear this white dude in all the marketting.

Either way, the setting is not particularly compelling. Maybe it was 20 years ago, but I feel like Cyberpunk is a bit stagnant.

Actually I feel the same way looking at the trailer. Cyberpunk as a fictional genre peaked 20 years ago and I'm not sure this game looks like one of the better representations of the genre. The author of Neuromancer isn't that compelled either.

https://www.pcgamer.com/william-gibson-doesnt-think-cyberpunk-2077-is-cyberpunk-enough/
12 Jun 2018 ~ 4:26pm Requit

@Cliff_Forster said:

Actually I feel the same way looking at the trailer. Cyberpunk as a fictional genre peaked 20 years ago and I'm not sure this game looks like one of the better representations of the genre. The author of Neuromancer isn't that compelled either.

https://www.pcgamer.com/william-gibson-doesnt-think-cyberpunk-2077-is-cyberpunk-enough/

Reading that link gave me some old-timer "get off my lawn" vibes. Not saying he's wrong, the trailer that was a video and has no gameplay whatsoever does look like a reskinned GTA. I loved GTA though, so that doesn't turn me off in the slightest.

I'm also not sure about that stance on cyberpunk. The setting's only been a thing for, what. 20, 30 years? We're hitting a point where the general public is aware of the genre so they won't reject it outright, but haven't had as much exposure so it's still new and shiny. Especially with the heft of Witcher 3 bringing in high fantasy nerds, this could trigger a bunch of new interest and therefore content which I'm all for.

Shame we'll have to wait another 59 years for it to come out.
12 Jun 2018 ~ 5:02pm primesuspect
Yeah I mean you can't make the argument that "cyberpunk" as a video game setting/aesthetic/genre is somehow "overplayed" in a world where we have 50,000 games based on world war 2 and 150,000,000 games based on "high fantasy".
12 Jun 2018 ~ 5:18pm Thrax
And, like, 2 notable games based on Cyberpunk.
12 Jun 2018 ~ 9:05pm fatcat
just some boring tank, healer and dps classes. nothing to see here
12 Jun 2018 ~ 9:07pm Cliff_Forster

@Thrax said:
And, like, 2 notable games based on Cyberpunk.

All depends on how you classify cyberpunk as a sub genre of science fiction. I'd say there are many titles that can be lumped in with it, but only a few that truly capture the essence of the genre while being any good. System Shock, Deus Ex come to mind.
12 Jun 2018 ~ 9:11pm Ilriyas

@fatcat said:
just some boring tank, healer and dps classes. nothing to see here

Loved the hell out of Cyberpunk 2020, currently debating if my first playthrough is gonna be a C-Swat officer or a Trauma Team member. Rockerboy is a must play if they have the classic roles.

MAXIMUM LAWMAN ON THE MEAN 21ST CENTURY STREETS.

EDIT: This is the shit that I live for:

"If you're really unlucky, you might draw PsychoSqaud detail. PsychoSquad guys get the job of hunting down heavily armed and armored cyborgs who've flipped out. Sure the PS guys have access to railguns, gyros and AVs. But a cyberpsycho can walk through machine gun fire and not feel it. A lot of the PsychoSquad detectives are crazy themselves. They load up with boosted reflexes, get some monstrously huge guns, and go hunt the cyborgs solo. But you're not that crazy."
12 Jun 2018 ~ 9:45pm primesuspect
OH MY GOD I'M HERE FOR AN RPG WITH JOURNALIST AS A PLAYABLE CLASS holy shit
12 Jun 2018 ~ 10:22pm CB
I said "stagnant" not "overdone". What I mean is that no one is doing anything new with it. It's the dystopian world of the future viewed from the 1980s instead of from today, and it's lost much of what makes it meaningful (like the focus on anti-consumerism), has retained some of the stuff that makes it problematic (like the asian fetishism and embedded misogyny), and the aesthetics haven't evolved at all (again, still feeling like a projection forward of 80's fashion trends)

Few people are doing anything new with High Fantasy or WWII either, but that doesn't make this failure less significant.

Don't get me wrong though. Imma still play this game, no question. I love sci-fi RPGs, and will gladly play one over yet another elves and orcs fiasco, but I can still wish it were more than it is.
12 Jun 2018 ~ 10:24pm Ilriyas

@primesuspect said:
OH MY GOD I'M HERE FOR AN RPG WITH JOURNALIST AS A PLAYABLE CLASS holy shit

One of my favourite experiences in Cyberpunk 2020 was running a low credibility journalist who snuck into guarded corporate warehouses trying to get footage for his conspiracy channel. The one time he actually found something of substance and published it he ended up being put on a Militech hit list and sold his integrity/dignity to their competitor in exchange for protection.

Fun game
12 Jun 2018 ~ 10:42pm fatcat
13 Jun 2018 ~ 12:20am Ilriyas
Mike Pondsmith not only made Cyberpunk 2020 but he was the lead contributor of its best expansions and supplementary books.

The fact that he's a lead designer/consultant on 2077 is one of the best things about it in my mind, if you haven't I suggest reading some of 2020s fluff sections the man is incredible.
27 Aug 2018 ~ 8:32pm Requit
27 Aug 2018 ~ 9:59pm primesuspect
I'm gonna pull a That Guy™ for a minute and say that the writing is overly edgy, into "it seems like an emotionally stunted 14 year old wrote the dialog for this game" way. Like, swearing just to swear a lot. "No guys, this game is SO ADULT it's TOTALLY FOR ADULTS so we're gonna swear a lot because that's what ADULTS do"

"Hey guys I totally saw a drug deal on TV once and so this is what it looks like", etc.

I really wish we could start seeing more actual maturity in AAA video game writing. Gamers (and luckily, indie games) are getting older and more sophisticated but I swear it feels like they're still creating a lot of AAA titles for 16 year old edgelord boys.
28 Aug 2018 ~ 5:39am CB
This additional information has done nothing to change my sarcastically phrased opinion

@CB said:
Because what our gaming landscape really needs right now is another gruff white dude protagonist in a dystopian society with a fetish for the pseudo-exotic.
28 Aug 2018 ~ 6:17am Ilriyas

@CB said:
This additional information has done nothing to change my sarcastically phrased opinion

@CB said:
Because what our gaming landscape really needs right now is another gruff white dude protagonist in a dystopian society with a fetish for the pseudo-exotic.

Like the fact that the protagonist in the trailer 48 minute gameplay video is a woman?
28 Aug 2018 ~ 7:26am UPSLynx

@CB said:
This additional information has done nothing to change my sarcastically phrased opinion

@CB said:
Because what our gaming landscape really needs right now is another gruff white dude protagonist in a dystopian society with a fetish for the pseudo-exotic.

Did you watch the upload? In the first minute and a half they showcase the character creation system and it's everything but "gruff white dude". Cmon man.

Y'all can complain about too much swearing all you want, even though I think that's absurd but whatever. But complaining about a white male protag? They go way out of their way to show you that this isn't a forced white male flex on the haters type game. They literally show you that you can change sex, skin tone, body type, and other features, in addition to back story, origins, and situational effects on the character.
28 Aug 2018 ~ 8:21am CB
It's nothing to do with the actual gender and color of the protag, it's that the story was clearly written for white dudes. It's not the swearing that makes it bad and immature. It's just not very good. It's not compelling or interesting. It feels like it'll play, for me, like GTAV plays.

I'll probably play it, but only for the missions and the tech, unlike an Elderscrolls game, or a Fallout Game, or an Assassin's Creed game, which I play for the missions, the tech, the story, and because I genuinely care about the characters.

I just don't see myself caring about anyone in this over-dark, juvenile, male-power-fantasy centered world. Also, I'll prolly have to turn the Gamma way up, and keep the room dark, and that's irritating.
28 Aug 2018 ~ 3:31pm Requit

@CB said:
It's nothing to do with the actual gender and color of the protag, it's that the story was clearly written for white dudes. It's not the swearing that makes it bad and immature. It's just not very good. It's not compelling or interesting. It feels like it'll play, for me, like GTAV plays.

So it doesn't matter that you can be a scumbag of any race, gender, creed, and origin. The fact that it's got guns, swearing, and violence makes it a white dudes game. Interesting point of view. I guess I can't be surprised a game developer in Poland would make games that cater to the white male fantasy.

@CB said:
I'll probably play it, but only for the missions and the tech, unlike an Elderscrolls game, or a Fallout Game, or an Assassin's Creed game, which I play for the missions, the tech, the story, and because I genuinely care about the characters.

I'm glad somebody likes the story in those games. I myself enjoyed the plotline of GTA V, so nothing here has dampened my gusto. I'm a simple guy who like guns, explosions, and recently iced nipples. What can I say?

@CB said:
I just don't see myself caring about anyone in this over-dark, juvenile, male-power-fantasy centered world. Also, I'll prolly have to turn the Gamma way up, and keep the room dark, and that's irritating.

What would you like to see changed? Personally, I'd have liked the option to trade a freshly baked cake for the drone, to live out my female-power fantasies. Perhaps with freshly sliced strawberries! That would be cool.
28 Aug 2018 ~ 3:55pm CB
Look at the coding: White skin means normal person. Brown skin means thug or exotic. All men are buff and stoic, and if they are not, they are mockery. All women are either sex objects or in need of rescuing, or both. The opening scene is full of dead naked women. TITILLATING!

This is white male power fantasy. Allowing the player to change the color and gender of the protag doesn't change or excuse any of this other stuff. Also, it's just bad, hackneyed writing. The more I think about what I've seen of this game so far, the more I think I won't play it after all.
28 Aug 2018 ~ 4:11pm primesuspect
I totally understand where CB is coming from. What I think he's saying is that the game seems to be, from what I've seen in the trailer (and I did watch almost all of it), written with white male power fantasy tropes at its core, and having "diversity" shoehorned into it with character creation and "strong badass female leads" doesn't change that. Again: imagine a bunch of 16 year old boys writing this, and they feel like they "have to include" "diversity", and this is kind of what you'd get.

It just seems juvenile. Not offensive, or "non-pc" or non-diverse. It just seems kinda immature.
28 Aug 2018 ~ 6:38pm Ilriyas
Would it have been better if there were only dead naked dudes? Or if they were clothed? Would you rather not have that scene in the game at all? Rippergangs are a cyberpunk equivalent of modern-day organ harvesters they don't care about who they target and yes, people are kept naked in ice tubs so they don't rot. Trust me man my dick isn't getting hard because there's naked boobies and dicks all over the place (You know all 4 bodies in that scene which were 50-50) As for the 'target' being a woman, you were hired to find her rich women and women in general are kidnapped more than men. Maybe they should ax the entire mission or rippergangs altogether because its cliched.

As for women as sex objects or in need of help if you'd watched the entire video (Or even skipped around like I did) you'd know that's not true, there's a scary fucking corporate lady who holds you at gunpoint and then LITERALLY hacks your brain, I'd be pissing my self and I'm a big strong manly man, but then I guess because the MC is a lady its just reinforcing the trope. Would the game be better if there was no character creator or would y'all just complain about muh gruff white man?

On white v brown, there's people with Chrome plugged into their goddamned skulls, there's white dudes in the video who have their eyes replaced with shit that makes them look like glowing, angry flies. There's an entire ripper gang of Russian dudes who are mostly made of red chrome and metal, no one in this universe looks normal especially when you can buy muscle grafts for less than a week's rent.

This is based off Cyberpunk 2020, Mike fucking Pondsmith is the lead content advisor/contributor. 2020 is a universe where there's a goddamned criminal gang who got plastic surgery to look like the Brady Bunch.
28 Aug 2018 ~ 6:55pm primesuspect
You seem to want to drag this into a "political correctness" or #NotAllMen argument. No, it would not be "better" if it were dead naked dudes, because you're missing the point entirely. It's not about dead naked women or naked anybody, or women heroes/villains/badasses in the game. It's about the immaturity of the writing.
28 Aug 2018 ~ 7:18pm Ilriyas

@Ilriyas said:
Rippergangs are a cyberpunk equivalent of modern-day organ harvesters they don't care about who they target and yes, people are kept naked in ice tubs so they don't rot.

It may be 'immature' but its based on a real thing that really happens and to think that harvesting operations wouldn't be expanded to multi-thousand dollar cybernetics is absurd. Imagine how much someone would pay for all the shit Adam Jensen was hard-wired with in Deus Ex. I'd be upset if they left it out because Rippergangs are a huge thing in the original source material to the point where there's a cop focused adventure around going after one.
28 Aug 2018 ~ 8:01pm primesuspect
This train has gone off the rails. We're having two entirely different discussions here
28 Aug 2018 ~ 8:27pm GHoosdum

@primesuspect said:
This train has gone off the rails. We're having two entirely different discussions here

FWIW, Google Image Search has surprisingly poor results for "derailed steampunk train"
28 Aug 2018 ~ 8:41pm Requit

@primesuspect said:
It's not about dead naked women or naked anybody, or women heroes/villains/badasses in the game. It's about the immaturity of the writing.

That I buy, but again. What would you have rather seen? Instead of rescuing a person and a robot, should the protagonist been driving a schoolbus of pre-teen cyberpunks to band practice? As funny as it'd be to see someone with cybernetic augmentations try to catch whoever shot that spitball or tracking down the tween that won't stop twooting on the flute, I'm not sure it'd be worth a full fledged game.
28 Aug 2018 ~ 8:45pm primesuspect
You seem to assume that I have an issue with the dead naked people? Where are you getting this? Are you confusing me with CB?
28 Aug 2018 ~ 8:58pm Ilriyas
I mean I acknowledge that constant swearing and the like is immature, I wouldn't mind if they were to tone it down a bit. But at the same time that sort of over-the-top language is characteristic of Cyberpunk 2020 and I don't see my enjoyment suffering because of how much I enjoy the genre and the source material. I guess it just doesn't bother me because for me this is a genre of game I've been looking forward to for a long, long time, I love Pondsmith's work (And the fact that he's so heavily involved is amazing to me) plus I like CDProjektRed's work as the cherry on top so we'll just have to agree to disagree.
29 Aug 2018 ~ 3:52pm Ilriyas
The only thing I'm disappointed about is that you won't actually be able to join Trauma Team as a paramilitary EMT.
29 Aug 2018 ~ 4:57pm BuddyJ
All this just makes me want to play Shadowrun again. Because sometimes all grimdark needs is a little magic.
30 Aug 2018 ~ 1:28am Massalinie
I had to laugh because after reading this conversation, I skipped around to find the player rescuing a naked lady from a bath tub, and then the "scary corporate lady" wearing tight-ass leather skirt and heels. Tough sexy lady beating you up; I mean, that could be some women's fantasy too but I don't see as much in video games that falls into my nerdy, unfeminine, hetero girl fantasy (though I did enjoy nearly 500 hours of Geralt's fine ass). Being able to take your own make-up off in a first-person game doesn't really improve the immersion factor at all. It's also nothing really to do with playing a character that looks like whatever you want and everything to do with meeting a wide variety of different characters in the game; that's what makes it interesting and fun. Tough, manly guys and women in form fitting or revealing clothing and impractical footwear doesn't feel unique or interesting. You need NPCs which are diverse, in personality and lifestyle as well as skin color, not just the character creation options.

The setting looks super cool to me though, I will definitely play it and probably enjoy it (scoffing at unnecessarily placed naked ladies counts as enjoyment). Side note; why did they blur out all the naughty bits in the character creation and then show an entire nude lady five minutes later? I feel like we missed the only opportunity to catch full frontal male nudity here.
30 Aug 2018 ~ 1:41am Ilriyas
I've got no idea why they blurred out CC but not the rest of it, as for the nude lady she's in an ice tub surrounded by surgical tools so I wouldn't say its unnecessary and if you really want some cold, dead man ass there's a corpse on top of her at like 4:30 I doubt it measures up to Geralt's though
30 Aug 2018 ~ 2:46am Massalinie
Oh I just meant in general, not necessarily that specific scene. Surprising how many times nude or mostly nude ladies pop up for no apparent reason in games, especially random cleavage and ass shots. :-P
30 Aug 2018 ~ 3:05am primesuspect
Yeah it's a total mystery how that happens
30 Aug 2018 ~ 2:48pm GHoosdum
It's almost as if the generation that grew up with Duke Nukem 3D informing our teenage years ended up trying to design games that capture that childhood magic.