Cyberpunk 2077

A game by CD Projekt RED, the creators of The Witcher, based on Mike Pondsmith’s Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop game. The player is sent to the year 2077, where their character, V, must become a legend in the futuristic city of Night City, California, and find a cure for an incurable disease. It’s no easy task: gangs, the schemes of multinational corporations, and everyday conflicts driven by extreme social inequality are tearing the metropolis apart. A wide selection of weapons and a fast-paced combat system make for an exciting gaming experience.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a story-driven first-person action RPG with immersive sim elements. When driving vehicles, the game switches to a third-person view. The story unfolds in the vast open world of Night City, where every corner is full of characters and activities. You can find adventures in abandoned buildings as well as on busy streets. The combat system lets you hack computer systems and enemies’ implants, shoot them in firefights, or slice them up in close combat. The hero’s chosen background—corpo, street kid, or nomad—does not affect the main story, but it gives you unique dialogue options when talking to secondary characters.

The game brings to life the “cyberpunk” setting as imagined by science fiction writers of the 1980s. It isn’t dark, cold, and high-tech, but bright, kitschy, and wild. Humans and machines merge. People are constantly enhancing themselves with cybernetic prosthetics and brain implants. Artificial intelligence is free. The city’s urban landscape is ravaged by economic crisis and wars between street gangs and corporations. Neon lights and glowing symbols illuminate the streets. This is a world where advanced technology exists alongside a society in decline and a low standard of living.

We learned in 2012 that work had begun on a game based on “Cyberpunk.” The full announcement came at E3 2018. After several delays, the game was released in December 2020. Its launch was plagued by technical problems that negatively affected Cyberpunk 2077’s reviews. However, the creator of the universe, Mike Pondsmith, praised CD Projekt for how the developers brought the setting, atmosphere, and game world to life while preserving the spirit and themes of the tabletop game.

Over the next three years, CD Projekt improved the game with a series of patches. They added a new wanted system and vehicle combat. They reworked the AI so NPCs, police, and enemies would react appropriately to what was happening. They completely revamped the skill tree and refreshed the controls. The graphics were also greatly improved. With patch 2.0, the open world, role-playing systems, and interactions with the police finally worked as they should have at launch.

The world of Cyberpunk is very different from our own: technology advanced faster, and electoral democracy was replaced by corporatocracy—the rule of multinational corporations. At the beginning of the 21st century, half of the American states won autonomy from Washington. The United States did not break apart, but instead formed a confederation. Under pressure from circumstances, California split into North and South, with the border running south of Night City.

The city was founded in 1994 by billionaire Richard Night, who wanted to build a utopia without crime, poverty, or government control. Corporations backed him, attracted by the freedom to pursue unethical research. But everything took a turn for the worse when Richard was murdered and the corporations seized power by force. Night City became a symbol of how high technology can be used to increase social inequality and exploit people.

By 2077, economic crises and prolonged wars between gangs and corporations had plunged most of the city into chaos and anarchy. Corporations have abolished human rights and take over any successful business, while street gangs have made human life worthless.

Bright spots in this dark reality are the heroes of the past, such as Johnny Silverhand (played by Keanu Reeves). The leader of the band Samurai actively fought injustice through his songs before ending up in V’s head. Back in the day, he blew up the headquarters of the Japanese corporation Arasaka with a portable nuclear bomb, completely changing Night City. That’s one way the game differs from the tabletop RPG.

The residents have a simple philosophy: know how to sell yourself and stand up for yourself. This has led to more freaks, lunatics, and maniacs on the streets. Night City has become a city of adventurers who come here in search of fame and self-fulfillment. In reality, these are just empty hopes, illusions, and lies that most people give their lives for.

Cyberpunk 2077 has a vast open world consisting of two large, roughly equal areas: Night City itself and the Badlands to the east. The city consists of 6 key districts:

Night City looks beautiful on the surface. Its buildings have rich architecture and unusual shapes. Giant screens, neon signs, and regular billboards are everywhere. Cars fly through the sky. Subway trains zip along the monorail. Nightclubs look like they came straight from a cult sci-fi movie. The people on the streets, the cars, and the buildings all fit the descriptions of their districts. Downtown, corporate types and celebrities drive expensive cars, while on the outskirts, ordinary guys drive beat-up old cars. The same goes for the interiors: a flashy shack with plastic and cheap furnishings in Pacific can’t compare to a luxurious apartment with marble and wood in a glass-and-concrete skyscraper in the City.

When it comes to detailed buildings, Cyberpunk 2077 outdoes GTA and similar games: it has more bars, clubs, shops, offices, and other indoor spaces. There are plenty of open spaces, even if they’re mostly filled with piles of trash and concrete benches. The Badlands also live up to their name, though valuable loot is hidden among the gas stations, motels, power plants, and endless dumps. The life simulation system is standard. NPCs go about their business, run from gunfire, or chase the player for breaking the law. The wanted system is similar to GTA’s star system.

The world of Cyberpunk has the internet and social networks in a form familiar to us. Throughout the game, the player chats, pokes around on computers, visits websites to buy cars or property, and even surfs the web through virtual reality goggles.

The “cyberspace” promised by CD Projekt is presented as a special way of programming and hacking—a visual interpretation of code. Those who use it are called netrunners. The technology is so dangerous that you can’t simply plug a cable into a port in your head to go online: the body works as a single processor and generates a lot of heat. If it isn’t immersed in an ice bath, the body overheats and the netrunner dies.

Fans rushed to tinker with and improve the game with mods, reworking every aspect. Cyberpunk 2077 mods are catching up in popularity with Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition and Fallout 4. The developers actively support the modding community by releasing the necessary tools. You can download the best and latest mods from our mod database for Cyberpunk 2077.

They improve graphics and image clarity , add radio stations for every taste, overhaul machine gun mechanics, let you ride the metro and customize cars, improve vehicle physics, add fan service, such as the Doom sword or the ability to fly.

Attributes —Strength, Reflexes, Intelligence, Technical Ability, and Cool—are the main stats that affect your character. Each has its own perk tree, with perks that can grant abilities, buffs, or improve V’s interactions with the world. For example, leveling up Strength lets you break into cars, force open locked doors, or intimidate people. The higher the attribute, the more perks you can learn in its tree.

Skills —Engineering, Endurance, Hacking, Combat, and Melee—are small upgrades tailored to the player’s playstyle. They level up passively as you perform different actions in the game. For example, using Smart weapons and implants, and crafting items, levels up Engineering. In turn, this skill makes you a little more effective at crafting and using weapons and implants. Every 5 levels (out of 60 total), your character gets a passive perk in one of the skill trees.

The third progression path is cyberware (chrome), with 1 to 3 pieces installed in different parts of your character’s body. It can provide armor and health, speed up regeneration, highlight enemies through walls, increase carrying capacity, and boost damage and defense in melee combat.

You can’t install all the best body modifications—there’s a limit to your cyberware capacity. Its size depends on your Technical Ability. Since Update 2.0, cyberware plays a special role in the game and is just as important as your main progression. For example, the “Sandevistan” implant slows down time and lets you land headshots on enemies.

The game features melee and ranged weapons in all their familiar forms, but stands out with five rarity levels (from common to legendary), damage types (explosive, thermal, electrical, or chemical), and futuristic weapon types.

Conventional guns are called Power weapons. They’re powerful, but their bullets ricochet a lot. Tech weapons, based on railgun technology, penetrate cover but fire slowly. Smart weapons fire bullets that chase their target until they hit. You can add upgrades to guns to increase damage, accuracy, and other stats, while their special features, such as ricochets or homing bullets, only work when combined with implants.

Bladed weapons, including axes, katanas, long knives, and machetes, are ideal for stealth kills, but you’ll have to get right up close to your enemy. Since Update 2.0, katanas and other melee weapons have become more deadly and effective. While hammers, non-lethal weapons, or simply V’s fists are better for melee when you need to stun rather than kill.

All of this lets you build characters in different classes and play the game in completely different ways. A Solo can mow down enemies with a mounted machine gun, Rambo-style. A Netrunner relies on pistols, sprinting, and the blades in their hands. An Engineer may carry an assault rifle, but also makes use of tech and a robot companion.

Playing Cyberpunk 2077 is typical of open-world games: you travel around, complete main and side quests, take on secondary missions, and take part in random events, such as shootouts between the police and gangs. Since update 2.0, clothing has been purely cosmetic and no longer provides “armor”—that role has been taken over by cyberware.

Earning lots of money, getting the best cyberware, and finding legendary weapons are priorities for success. You’ll have to take jobs from fixers, many of which are just as well-developed as the main quest; craft items from scavenged resources to sell them; hack access points; and complete small quests around the world. For example, you can help the NCPD (police) fight crime by taking on city gangs and capturing their bases.

It’s impossible to finish the game without killing anyone. The shooter elements play a major role, but as mentioned above, combat varies for each class. Also, be prepared to take part in races, chase targets, or escape from pursuers.

There are several hub locations: the apartment, where V can rest and store items, and the Afterlife bar, another key location in the game.

Cyberpunk 2077 is more than just a set of combat mechanics and ways to interact with the world; it’s a full-fledged story-driven adventure. The simple premise—V wants to get rich and famous in Night City—turns into a fight for freedom, peace, and capitalism against the control of the Corporations with the arrival of Johnny Silverhand. Keanu Reeves’s character is no saint, but he rejects the material world and tries to prove to V that corporations embody true evil, while the cars, clothes, and cyberware V wants are just tools of control and oppression. The biochip that overwrites V’s mind with Johnny’s personality fuels the conflict between the two.

The story has three main questlines to complete, each with its own events, characters, locations, and activities, all intertwining into one of several endings. The story grabs you right away, packs an emotional punch, and unfolds on several levels. The heroes’ ideological conflict, their struggle for control of V’s body, each one’s ambition to change the world around them, and difficult philosophical questions about life and death, goals, and the value of time—all of this unfolds before the player’s eyes. The flashbacks to Johnny’s world also help you get to know him.

In addition to the main storyline, there are several side stories that also affect the ending and the main playthrough. But it’s up to the player whether they want to do all of them or not. The game will take their choices into account and shape the story accordingly.

The writers do a great job of developing both the main characters and the supporting cast. V will work with or compete against people of all ages, cultures, social standings, and levels of influence. Some will stick around for a long time, like a love interest, while others will disappear after the next mission.