Without question, the big winner of E3 2018 was CD Project Red's upcoming epic game 'Cyberpunk 2077'. We got a first look at their trailer early on in the E3 process, and it looked fantastic, with the voiceover narrated by a guy who sounds like Triple H, making it that much cooler. But then, a few days or so later, they began showing a select group of people a highly classified, and much longer, Demo video. This video wasn't just much longer, more like 45 minutes to an hour in length instead of a minute and a half or so trailer, but it revealed things that simply couldn't be shown in a trailer. The response to this much longer, and much more detailed, Demo video, has been overwhelmingly positive. While your friend and mine, Sir Gladiator, has not yet viewed this Demo (although he is hoping to do so in the not too distant future), so he cannot yet give a first hand account, from what he has heard from others who have viewed it, it is an absolutely mind blowing experience. And it's really not that hard to imagine why, just by looking at the original trailer that we first saw a week or so ago.
Before I go into more detail about what we know and why that makes this game so potentially incredible, I'd like to address a topic that a lot of fans have been discussing, and I would be remiss if I didn't address it as it is very important, and particularly important to many fans. I'm referring, of course, to the 'First Person vs Third Person' debate, and how Cyberpunk 2077 is going to be a First Person Game. First, just to make things super clear and accurate, there 'will' be some third person in the game, as when you're driving a car you will have the choice of doing so in first or third person view, so the entire game will not be first person if you don't want it to be. But yes, it is disappointing, in theory, that the game doesn't have a third person option, I'm someone who always uses that option, even if it makes it harder to play the game, such as making it harder to aim and such. I just prefer playing in third person, that's my thing, and I know it's many of yours as well. However, there is something important to keep in mind, and that is that this is a highly, highly unique game, and if the Developers of that game feel that it absolutely must be experienced in First Person, then it's worth not just considering, but also noting that there really is no evidence that they're wrong. We've never played a game like this before, we have no way of knowing that in fact third person would be our preferred way of playing this particular game. So certainly for now, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and let them continue to demonstrate why their judgement, which has been proven to be very strong in the past, is correct in this particular case. To be clear, I would welcome their adding some kind of third person option, and an idea that I had would be to enable third person viewing when paused. For example, you pause the game, then select the third person option, allowing you to look around the area in third person view, then once you resume the game it goes back to first person mode. This would allow you to view your character whenever you like, as well as giving you a unique extra view of the various beautiful areas of the game, while still maintaining the full First Person experience within the game play itself. It's an idea that I am hopeful that the Developers will consider, and add if they are so inclined, as I feel it would be a 360 win.
Now to discuss the many, many amazing aspects of the game, I'd like to start with the graphics. They aren't simply lifelike and incredible, you can see that for yourself, and it is indeed very self-evident. One thing I heard is that there are an absolutely massive number of unique looking 'random' city dwellers in the game. That is, characters that don't give you quests or really interact with you in any way, they're just sort of there to make the city that much more realistic and lively, it's easy to have characters look like each other, but I'm hearing that there is absolutely massive uniqueness with these characters, which is a lot cooler than it might sound when you first hear about it. Once you think about it, and certainly once you see it, you'll realize that while this might sound like a small thing, it really could make a huge difference, making the game that much more awesome.
One thing you probably already know, certainly it was always reasonable to assume it, and it has now been confirmed, is that you have the ability to fully customize your character, including the ability to play as either gender. It has been confirmed, you choose whether your want to play as a Male or Female character, and either way your name in the game will be V. I believe they've stated that you can give your character a unique name in addition to that, but everyone will call you V, much like Piper would call you 'Blue' in Fallout 4, folks would call you 'Hearld' in DA3, 'Shepard' in Mass Effect, etc. So you will be playing as V, and V is something of a Mercenary. You will of course have the option of playing as a good or bad character, lots of choices can be made, so many powerful choices that have real meaning and consequences, and as we learned in The Witcher 3, sometimes our choices can not only have huge impact, but that impact can show up not just immediately, but much further down the line than you might expect, which is extremely cool.
Another aspect of the game that has been Declassified, we have it with absolute confirmation that there are Romances in the game. Without any question, Romances can be some of the coolest aspects of many games. Certainly the best part of Fallout 4, a game with lots of fun and cool aspects to it, was the romance with Piper, Dragon Age 3 was surely made a lot better with the Sera and Cassandra romances, go all the way back to Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and what would it have been without the Bastilla romance? A good game, sure, but not the legendary one that it still is today. In The Witcher 3, of course, you had the option to romance Triss and/or Yennifer in deep, meaningful romance storylines, as well as have something like a 'one night stand' with various women. Both types of romances are, it appears, returning in Cyberpunk 2077.
The combat in Cyberpunk 2077 is another aspect of the game that is highly futuristic, and unique. One aspect, which ties in with your character directly, is the fact that you can augment your character's body itself with certain 'upgrades', technological breakthroughs that enable you to improve your body in certain ways, that allow you to do things that normal humans cannot do at this particular moment in time. For example, an implant placed into your eye, that allows you to zoom in, like a camera. Pretty neat, eh? Of course what futuristic game's combat system could be complete without cool weapons, and we have a wide range of weapons, including a pretty wide range of guns, as well as other up close, melee type weapons. This of course isn't all that surprising, but it's confirmation is of course yet another very cool addition to the already impressive arsenal of awesomeness.
For a more in-depth description of the Character Creation system, from the gameplay standpoint, another important Declassified aspect of the game is its Stats system. Your character will have the following stats: Intelligence, Strength, Constitution, Reflexes, Tech, and something called 'Cool'. At Character Creation, you will put points into whichever categories you like. I'm sure we'll learn more about these categories in the days, weeks, and months to come. Certainly while some of them are standard to RPGs, others, in particular that last one, definitely are a new and really cool addition to the list, and I'm especially interested in hearing more about it and how it works!
There's so much more to discuss, but this has already been a pretty long post, and choc full of details. So stay tuned for even more Cyberpunk 2077 info, as well as all sorts of cool Gaming info, from your friend and mine, Sir Gladiator, right here on the Gladiator Blog!
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