How Cyberpunk 2077 Works
Back at E3, CD Projekt Red let members of the press play through a special demo of their hotly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 behind closed doors. What they saw in there was classified and never revealed to the public…until today! Sort of. Just in time for PAX West, CDPR has released a truncated video of the E3 demo, chock full of gameplay tidbits previously unknown.
When you start Cyberpunk 2077, the first thing you’ll do is build your character from a framework of two basic body types, though they are not specifically labeled as male and female. Then you’ll choose a backstory for your character…..they’ll come from one of three subcultures:
Street kid: They say if you wanna understand the street, you gotta live ‘em. Gangs, fixers, dolls, small-time pushers — you were raised by them all. Down here the law of the jungle dictates the weak serve the strong — the only law in Night City is you have yet to break.
Nomad: Roaming the Badlands, locating scrapyards, raiding fuel depots — life on the road wasn’t easy. But growing up in a nomad clan has its perks. Honesty, integrity, and a love of freedom — qualities that few in Night City possess, and no amount of money can buy.
Corporate: Few leave the corporate world with their lives — fewer still with their souls intact. You’ve been there — you’ve bent the rules, exploited secrets, and weaponized information. There’s no such thing as a fair game, only winners and losers.
Nomad is the most interesting as that would mean your character ISN’T a citizen of Night City, which could potentially change a lot about the story. We’ll see.
Next, you’ll identify your strengths and weaknesses by assigning values to five separate statistics: Body, Intelligence, Reflexes, Technical, and Cool. Well, obviously you want to be COOL so you’d turn #5 all the way up, right? Actually by “cool” they mean “even-tempered,” which affects abilities like your aim with a rifle.
All that’s left is your clothes….like in a lot of RPGs, they double as your defense, though they’re not specifically armor by appearance. Wearable items offer four different types of resistances: Physical, Thermal, Chemical, and Electrical. Dressing for success depends on knowing ahead of time what kind of attacks you’ll face.
There is more covered in the video, including actual gameplay if you can believe it. Cyberpunk 2077 comes out April 16, 2020 on consoles and PC, followed by a Stadia release later in the year.