Cyberpunk 2077

A game by CD Projekt RED, the creators of The Witcher, based on Mike Pondsmith’s Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop RPG. Players are sent to the year 2077, where their custom 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—the metropolis is torn apart by gangs, schemes by multinational corporations, and everyday conflicts fueled by stark social inequality. A wide selection of weapons and a dynamic combat system offer an exciting gameplay experience.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a story-driven first-person action RPG with immersive sim elements. Vehicles are controlled from a third-person perspective. The game takes place in the vast open world of Night City, where every corner is full of characters and activities, and adventures can be found in abandoned buildings as well as on busy streets. The combat system lets you hack computer systems and enemy implants, shoot your way through enemies, or shred them in close-quarters combat. The character’s chosen background (corpo, gang member, or street kid) doesn’t affect the main story, but it unlocks unique dialogue when talking to supporting characters.

The game uses a “cyberpunk” setting as imagined by science fiction writers in the 1980s. It’s not dark, cold, and technological, but bright, kitschy, and wild. Humans and machines have merged. People are constantly augmenting themselves with cybernetic prostheses and brain implants. Artificial intelligence is free. The metropolis has an urban landscape ravaged by economic crisis and wars between street gangs and corporations. Narrow streets glow with neon lights and hieroglyphs. This is a world where high technology exists alongside a society in decline and a low standard of living.

We learned that work had begun on a game based on Cyberpunk in 2012. It was fully announced at E3 2018, and after several delays, the game was released in December 2020. The release was accompanied by technical problems that negatively affected Cyberpunk 2077’s reviews. But 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 3 years, CD Projekt improved the game’s overall condition with a series of patches. They added a new wanted system and vehicle combat. They reworked the AI, teaching NPCs, police, and enemies to react appropriately to what was happening. They completely revamped the skill tree and refreshed the controls. The graphics were significantly improved. With patch 2.0, the open world, RPG system, and police interactions started working the way they should have at launch.

The world of Cyberpunk is very different from our reality: technology developed more rapidly, and corporate rule—the power of multinational corporations—replaced representative democracy. At the beginning of the 21st century, half of the American states gained autonomy from Washington, but the United States did not break apart; instead, they formed a confederation. Due to circumstances, California split into North and South, with the border between them 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 supported him, attracted by the freedom to pursue unethical research. But everything went the other way 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 metropolis 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 heroes of the past, such as Johnny Silverhand (a character played by Keanu Reeves). The leader of the band Samurai fought injustice through his songs before ending up in V’s head. At one point, he blew up the headquarters of the Japanese corporation Arasaka with a portable nuclear bomb, completely changing Night City. That’s one difference between the game and the tabletop RPG.

The residents’ ideology is simple: know how to sell yourself and stand up for yourself. This has led to more freaks, crazies, 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 huge open world, made up of two large areas of roughly equal size: Night City itself and the Badlands, the wastelands to its east. The city consists of 6 key districts:

Night City looks beautiful on the outside. Its buildings feature rich architecture and unusual shapes. Giant screens, neon signs, and regular signs are everywhere. Cars fly across the sky. Subway trains zip along the monorail. Nightclubs look like they came straight out of a cult sci-fi film. The characters on the streets, the cars, and the building designs all match the descriptions of the districts. In the center, corporate types and celebrities drive expensive cars, while out on the edges, regular guys drive beat-up cars. The same goes for the interiors: a shabby shack with plastic and cheap furnishings in Pacific is no match for a luxurious apartment with marble and wood in a glass-and-concrete skyscraper in the City.

When it comes to the detail put into buildings, Cyberpunk 2077 outdoes GTA and similar games: there are more bars, clubs, shops, offices, and other interiors. There are plenty of open spaces, even if they are filled with little more than piles of trash and concrete benches. The Badlands live up to their name, though valuable loot is hidden among the gas stations, motels, power plants, and endless landfill. 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 works much like the star system in GTA.

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

CD Projekt’s promised “cyberspace” is realized as a special way of programming and hacking—a visual interpretation of code. Those who use it are called netrunners (network runners). The technology is so dangerous that you can’t simply connect to the network by plugging a cable into a port in your head—your body acts as a single processor and generates a lot of heat. Unless you’re immersed in an ice bath, your body will overheat and the netrunner will die.

Fans rushed to polish and improve the game with mods, reworking every aspect. Cyberpunk 2077 mods are nearly as popular as those for Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition and Fallout 4. The developers actively support the modding community by releasing the tools it needs. You can download the best and latest mods for Cyberpunk 2077 from our mod database .

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

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

Skills —Engineering, Stamina, Hacking, Combat, and Melee—are minor improvements that support the player’s playstyle. They level up passively as the player performs various actions in the game. Yes, by using smart weapons, installing implants, and crafting items, the player levels up Engineering. In turn, this skill makes them a little more effective at crafting and using weapons and implants. Every 5 levels (there are 60 in total), the character gains 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 the character’s body. They can add armor and health, speed up regeneration, highlight enemies through walls, increase carrying capacity, and boost damage and defense in close combat.

You can’t install all the best body modifications, as there’s a limit to the number of cyberware points available. This number is determined by how much you develop the “Technical Ability” attribute. With update 2.0, implants play a special role in the game and are just as important as leveling up. For example, the “Sandevistan” implant slows down time and lets you dish out headshots to enemies.

The game offers melee and ranged weapons of every familiar kind, but also stands out with five rarity levels (from common to legendary), damage types (explosive, thermal, electrical, or chemical), and futuristic weapon types.

Standard firearms are called Power weapons. They’re powerful, but their bullets ricochet heavily. “Tech” weapons use railgun technology to penetrate cover, but fire slowly. “Smart” weapons shoot bullets that pursue their target until they hit it. You can add upgrades to guns to increase damage, accuracy, and other stats, while features like ricochets or intelligent bullets only work in combination with implants.

Bladed weapons, including axes, katanas, long knives, and machetes, are ideal for stealth kills, but you’ll need to get right up close to your enemy. With update 2.0, katanas and other melee weapons became more lethal and effective. For hand-to-hand combat, when you need to stun rather than kill, you can use hammers, non-lethal weapons, or simply V’s fists.

All of this lets you build characters with different playstyles and complete the game in completely different ways. A Solo can mow down enemies with a machine gun, just like Rambo. A Netrunner relies on pistols, sprinting, and the blades in their hands. An Engineer may wield an assault rifle, but also makes use of technology and a robot companion.

Cyberpunk 2077 follows the usual open-world gameplay loop: travel around, complete main and side quests, take on secondary missions, and participate 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 implants.

Making lots of money, getting the best implants, and finding legendary weapons are key to success. You’ll need to take jobs from fixers, many of which are as well-developed as the main quest, craft items from scavenged resources to sell them, hack access points, and complete short quests around the world. For example, help the NCPD (the police) fight crime by battling city gangs and capturing their bases.

It’s impossible to finish the game without killing anyone. Shooting plays a major role, but as mentioned above, combat varies for each class. You should also be ready to take part in races, pursue a target, or escape a chase.

There are several hub locations: an apartment where V can rest and store items, as well as 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 adventure. The simple premise—V wants to get rich and famous in Night City—turns into a fight for freedom against the Corporations’ rule, and for peace and capitalism, when Johnny Silverhand appears. Keanu Reeves’ character is no saint, but he rejects the material world and tries to prove to V that corporations represent true evil, while the cars, clothes, and implants V desires are merely tools of control and oppression. The biochip drives the inner conflict between the protagonists, overwriting V’s consciousness with Johnny’s personality.

As part of the story, you need to complete three main questlines, each with its own set of events, characters, locations, and activities, all weaving together into one of several endings. The story draws you in right away, packs an emotional punch, and unfolds on several levels. The protagonists’ clash of ideals, their struggle for control of the body, each character’s ambition to influence the world around them, and complex philosophical questions about life and death, purpose, and the value of time all flash before the player’s eyes. And the flashbacks to Johnny’s world help you understand him better.

Besides 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 to do them all or not. The game takes your choices into account and shapes the story accordingly.

The writers skillfully bring both the main characters and the supporting cast to life. 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 as love interests, while others will disappear at the end of the next mission.