Play Cyberpunk 2077 for 10 minutes and you won’t find anything out of nowhere.
Akira’s bike. Ghost in the Shell’s motorcycle. Roy Batty from Blade Runner. Terminator. demolition man. matrix. All this has disappeared like tears in the rain. If you really want it, steal it yourself. The sky was the color of TV, tuned to Dead’s channel. It’s a claustrophobic tale, like being trapped inside the bleeding brain of a freshman in college.
Cyberpunk’s marketing was punctuated with a firm claim to be a “mature experience aimed at a mature audience” (because you can kill people and sometimes have sex). When Phantom Liberty, the planned expansion for Phantom Liberty, is released later this year, I’ll be heading back to Night City to brush off the old English minors, tear up the cyber floor, and relive the story CD Projekt Red has. I looked back at the base. placed.
For many players, myself included, 2077 really impressed me with its romance options, but I was also deeply hopeful about how the game would portray sex and gender in an uncomfortable near future. We’ve been thinking a lot about Panzer in our quest. You probably never thought of a mandatory tank segment in a first-person shooter. Synchronizing your nervous system via his MILITECH, which targets a sideloaded OS on the tank, and feeling each other via computer code is more than just an intimate moment for V and Panam. It helps contextualize the bonds of aldecade veterans, paints black portraits of service in the Unification War, military cyberware-induced orgasms and nerves whitening with tin cans in the California sun. .
In stark contrast to the thoughtful narratives of these quests, the “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to gender that Cyberpunk 2077 employs as a whole is fundamentally that Johnny Silverhand lives in his head. Considering my queer experience, it’s an inexplicable rigidity. his. That’s not what the main quest really acknowledges: how this straight-code brain man is involved in all of your deepest thoughts and desires.
If 2077’s main quest had been a novel in the style of its genre ancestors, it’s hard to escape the feeling that this unspoken tension would emerge as powerful and evocative subtext. I’m not asking for cybermask confessions or anything like that here, but comparing 2077 to the backdrop of cyberpunk fiction makes it all the more apparent that it fails to meaningfully explore sex. The story would really benefit from a little more jarring introspection, both in its approach to sex and violence.
Remember the incredible use of contrasting audiovisual elements in Blade Runner when Deckard shoots Zora. The explosive cracking of Deckard’s hand cannons, the faint synths that evoke the brass of film his noir His keys, the shards of glass that refract and recontextualize LA’s flashy neon into something angelic, this life The tragic weight of a drags down Deckard’s face.
Folks, I’m a big proponent of video game headshots, but Phantom Liberty gives serious weight to death in its narrative, and thematically ties cyberpunk to the works it loves to refer to. It helps a lot.
Taking cues from police training videos, gunfights are the primary way to interact with Night City and its inhabitants. America’s Most Dangerous City is a fertile breeding ground for punishment-worthy sins, but looking back, it’s striking how much emphasis has been put on cyberpunk’s pretty okay shooting. Great to finally get around to adding vehicle combat to Phantom Liberty (after modders have already taken care of it). shoot more Nothing more I want from cyberpunk. Please put more emphasis on the expansion quests regarding skill checks and non-violent outcomes.
2077’s balance throws the relationship between combat and narrative quests into strange places. We also offer options for dialogue-based dispute resolution. Reputation, perks, and skill systems are all meaningfully integrated into conversations that can be drawn naturally, even if your courier shoots first and types questions later. It really helps sell the idea of a living, breathing world that doesn’t rush into dozens of gunfights over conflict.
2077’s dialogue-centric quests are a highlight of my experience, and some standout stories, like the Ray Bradburry-esque Sinnerman quest, are the kind of meaningful side content the Phantom Liberty could hopefully deliver. , ideally there are several more diverse and branching dialogue trees.
Now that I’ve played through it three times, the new music and radio stations are a desperate addition, but the role of music in 2077 is a bit of a contradiction to itself. Despite having one of the best licensed soundtracks in the gaming period, he stands out as an anachronism firmly stepped into our time rather than Night City. Take, for example, the Maelstrom-affiliated Totentanz club that hosts Cyberpsycho headliner Tinnitus. When you get there, it sounds regular industrial techno. The 2023 warehouse rave didn’t let the so-called freaks and cicco thrive at Totentanz all night long.
This highlights one of 2077’s most vexing problems. It’s impossible to know where the culture has moved since then, as the narrow idea of cyberpunk is so rooted in decades of old media’s established work. Still, looking at the original source material and what it’s actually trying to say can help alleviate this problem of cultural and mechanical blindness. Imagine the type of music that could exist in a world without all physical limitations. Are we really playing or making music in 4/4 time?
A samurai song could be easily covered by today’s novice musicians, and Johnny Silverhand and his music resembled a reactionary dud rock rather than a rockerboy revolutionary. Phantom Liberty can really step up by exploring the sound of the near future with a more experimental OST and a curated selection of licensed music.
star power
Idris Elba joins the cast of Cyberpunk 2077 as New United States Agent Solomon Reed. Solomon is his V lifeline in his spy thriller-esque plot, which will have a major impact on the future of Night City’s independence.
Speaking of Johnny, he’s back in engram form. In our review, James Davenport accused Silverhand of being marred by inconsistent focus and characterization. Flashbacks are a good example of this contradiction. Johnny’s portrayal in flashbacks as a severe alcoholic with true emotional immaturity so contradicts this contrasting image of cool guy brain ghost Keanu Reeves Johnny It can feel like the story is really off track because of what it wants to be. Is Johnny supposed to be this voice that draws players into escalating violence and destruction, contextualizing player actions as the gradual death of V’s soul and takeover of Johnny’s engrams? , distinct beings that can break out of this self-destructive spiral, split and live together?
These questions are sidestepped instead of a brain tumor that sounds like Duke Nukem. With Reeves returning to voice the Silver Hand in 2077, I’m really longing for a more nuanced portrayal of our favorite domestic terrorist, ideally asking more questions about how much V is left. increase.
Phantom Liberty’s add-on structure means there’s only so much you can do to mitigate Cyberpunk 2077’s biggest narrative and structural issues, but CD Projekt Red’s success with The Witcher 3 ( actual A mature experience aimed at mature audiences) want to know where the series goes next. It’s a few years behind the nightmare launch of the base game and the massive success of the brilliant Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. (opens in new tab) shows that fans are eager for personal and introspective stories.
I sincerely hope that CD Projekt Red realized that when people talk about 2077, they’re usually talking about Panam, Judy, River, Perales, or any number of characters whose quest didn’t end with a shootout.
