METROPOLIS NOW
Game Cyberpunk 2077
Developer/publisher CD Projekt (Red)
Format PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Release November 19 (next-gen 2020)
Four hours in Night City is not enough. Sure, we’ve been here before, in a sense. But a hands-off glimpse is nothing compared to being able to inhabit this world; to have first-hand proof that one of the most astounding vertical slices we’ve ever encountered is more than just smoke and mirrors. Being here in the semi-augmented flesh, so to speak, evokes the feeling of visiting a real-world city for the first time, though that initial wow factor never totally goes away – or at least it doesn’t for the duration of our demo. There is perhaps no single revelatory moment to compare with, say, the first glimpse of Rapture seen from Bioshock’s bathysphere, or emerging from the sewers into the world of Oblivion. Rather, this is a place that leaves you regularly shaking your head in quiet disbelief. By the end of our time with Cyberpunk 2077, there’s still no sign of Keanu. But we keep recalling what he said on stage at E3 last year, as we wander around the busy district of Watson. He’s right. It is breathtaking.
It’s also a place that, to a certain extent, looks familiar: Blade Runner has, after all, become something of a set text for science-fiction videogames, and we’ve seen precisely this kind of melting pot of cultures and architecture before. (Watson, in particular, has a strong Asian influence, particularly in sub-district Kabuki.) Yet even taking Los Santos and Kamurocho into consideration, we’re struggling to think of a virtual urban space that has felt quite so convincingly alive, so completely intoxicating in all its mesmerising detail. It’s certainly not just smoke and mirrors, though there’s plenty of both here. Vapour plumes billow from Night City’s manholes as steam rises from a nearby noodle bar. Take a pew and you can almost smell the teriyaki sauce sizzling. You can absolutely hear it, athough it’s just one ingredient in a crowded soundscape: there’s a constant hubbub of chatter and
