Cyberpunk 2077 developers CD Projekt Red are no strangers to huge open world games. Their last title, The Witcher 3, featured an in-game world that totaled a whopping 52 square miles. While much of the land was made up of forest and trails, every inch was filled with personality. Be it the animals, raiders, monsters, and small towns that made up the wildlife or the cavalcade of unique races, classes, and characters that lived in the massive cities of Novigrad and Beauclair, not a square inch of the game’s world was wasted.
What is most impressive about the listed above feats is that CD Projekt Red managed to do it all within the boundaries of a game set within a medieval time period. Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t going to have those limits. Instead, it’ll benefit from being able to create its own crazy setting. From what we have seen so far, that creativity will be on full display, making it poised to be one of the most unique open-world titles ever created. Here are a few things that Cyberpunk 2077 may serve as an influence for when it comes to future games in the genre.
Crowd and Community System
One of the main goals of any open-world RPG is to provide a bit of scope. At first, that meant a large map with a lot of different things spread throughout, usually collectibles. Then games started adding bustling crowds, including unique conversations between NPCs among it, in order to simulate a more realistic experience. Quantity versus quality soon became a glaring issue though, one that Cyberpunk looks to fix.
Cyberpunk 2077 will work off a unique crowd and community system. Instead of conversations and actions that only exist because they were triggered by your character’s arrival, the NPCs live their lives in a full day and night cycle. And while many are labeled as simple Dirtgirls or Dirtboys, each has distinct features and actions, ones that don’t solely revolve around the fact that V is present.
Actions Influence the World
Just because the world doesn’t revolve around V, doesn’t mean that it won’t pay attention to their actions. Every choice that is made in Cyberpunk 2077 will likely have some ripple effect, no matter how big or small. One of those effects can be seen in the demo when the gang V and Jackie just ripped off comes after them as payback in the middle of their mission.
The game even has an entire system devoted to progressing V’s reputation, called Street Cred. Street Cred is gained by completing missions, unlocking gear, vendors and unique content based on the word of mouth from V’s actions.
Cyberpunk 2077 certainly won’t be the first open-world title that has a cause and effect system, but it looks like it will be the most realistic. The aforementioned drive-by revenge scenarios make sense in this world given how commonplace crime tends to be in the city. Everything that occurs with the cause and effect system corresponds with the lore Cyberpunk 2077 has crafted.
Lore-Driven Abilities and Gameplay
Lore and world-building can make or break any narrative-driven game, especially an open World RPG. There are a few things in games that exist outside of the world and lore though, not necessarily needing to correspond with the game’s reality. The best example of that can be features like HUDs and health bars. While pivotal to gameplay, it doesn’t make too much sense, diegetically, to be able to see exactly how far away something is or exactly how much health an enemy has left. Cyberpunk 2077 won’t have that issue thanks to the setting it has built up.
The 49-minute demo that CD Projekt showed off recently featured a lot of different instances of gameplay features going hand in hand with the lore they’ve created. One scene in particular shows V getting new augmentations from her Ripperdoc. Those two arguments, a scanner and subdermal weapon grip, show V the ammo count and fire modes. Near the end of the demo, a ricochet targeting system is even shown all, a feature that is justified by the enhancements available in the game.
Interactivity
Games like the Mass Effect, Fallout, and Skyrim series have broken ground on interactivity for open world games in recent years. Instead of having to follow a linear route, these games have allowed players to talk to almost anyone and go almost anywhere they can see. But as games evolve, so does the meaning of interactivity in gaming. Cyberpunk 2077 will feature similar interactions that flow more naturally alongside gameplay.
At the very start of the game’s demo, V can be shown traversing a hallway that leads to her objective. As V and her companion, Jackie, are walking down that hallway, an NPC comes out of a door on the left. Instead of stopping to talk to the women, V is given the option to ignore her or simply motion her to go back inside, never interrupting the fluidity of the gameplay. Cyberpunk 2077 even features ads that will tailor to V when they walk up to them, directing the character where they can go to get products.
Verticality
Cyberpunk 2077 will feature six districts, all with varying characters and landscapes. Just like The Witcher 3, there is no question the game will be large and spread out. But while a 52-mile radius would be interesting, Cyberpunk 2077 has the opportunity to traverse the heights of exploration alongside the width.
In a recent interview with PC GamesN, CD Projekt Red level design coordinator Peter Gelencser talked about the verticality that Cyberpunk 2077 will explore when it comes to the game’s size. “Cyberpunk and Night City are very vertical, so there are a lot of opportunities to introduce depth to your exploration.” If that verticality isn’t limited to traversing a building outdoors, then it will mean a whole new level of focus when it comes to the direction of open world games, quite literally.
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