About Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is a 2020 action role-playing video game developed by CD Projekt Red and published by CD Projekt, and based on Mike Pondsmith’s Cyberpunk tabletop game series. The plot is set in the fictional metropolis of Night City, California, within the dystopian Cyberpunk universe. The player assumes the role of V (voiced by Gavin Drea/Cherami Leigh), a mercenary who accidentally gets imbued with a cybernetic “bio-chip” containing an engram of legendary rockstar and terrorist Johnny Silverhand (voiced by Keanu Reeves). As Johnny’s consciousness begins overwriting V’s own, the two must work together to separate and save V’s life.

The game’s development began following the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine (2016). The game was developed by a team of around 500 people using the REDengine 4 game engine. CD Projekt launched a new division in Wrocław, Poland, and partnered with Digital Scapes, Nvidia, QLOC, and Jali Research to aid the production. Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith was a consultant, and actor Keanu Reeves had a starring role. The original score was led by Marcin Przybyłowicz, and featured the contributions of several licensed artists. After years of anticipation, CD Projekt released Cyberpunk 2077 for PlayStation 4, Stadia, Windows, and Xbox One on 10 December 2020, followed by PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 15 February 2022.

Cyberpunk 2077 received praise from critics for its narrative, setting, and graphics. However, some of its gameplay elements received mixed responses while its themes and representation of transgender characters received some criticism. It was also widely criticized for bugs, particularly in the console versions which suffered from performance problems. Sony removed it from the PlayStation Store from December 2020 to June 2021 while CD Projekt rectified some of the problems. CD Projekt became subject to investigations and class-action lawsuits for their perceived attempts at downplaying the severity of the technical problems before release; these were ultimately cleared with a settlement of US$1.85 million. By October 2023, the game had sold over 25 million units. An expansion, Phantom Liberty, released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on 26 September 2023, which sold 5 million units in 2023.^[1] Its total cost to develop and market (including updates and DLC) is reportedly over $436 million, making it one of the most expensive video games to develop. A sequel, codenamed “Project Orion”, was announced in October 2022.

Cyberpunk 2077 System Requirements

Minimum

OS: 64-bit Windows 10
Processor: Core i7-6700 or Ryzen 5 1600
Memory: 12 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or Radeon RX 580 8GB or Arc A380
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 70 GB available space

Cyberpunk 2077 System Requirements

GAMEPLAY

Cyberpunk 2077 is an action role-playing game played from a first-person perspective as V, a mercenary whose voice, face, hairstyle, body type and modifications, background, and clothing are customisable. There are also five attributes (Body, Intelligence, Reflexes, Technical, and Cool) that can be customized to suit the player’s gameplay style.

The gameplay is flexible: the three primary play styles are Netrunner (hacking), Techie (machinery), and Solo (combat). V has a number of maneuvers to reposition in combat, including sprinting, taking cover, double-jumping, and sliding; many of these abilities can be unlocked or upgraded through cyberware implants installed by a “ripperdoc”. Weapon use increases accuracy and reloading speed, which are reflected in character animations. Equipment, such as weapons and armor, is governed by a coloured tier system and is split into melee and ranged options. Melee strikes can be dealt with close-combat weapons. There are three types of ranged weapons, all of which can be customised and modified—Power (with ricocheting bullets), Tech (which penetrates walls and enemies), and Smart (with homing bullets). The game has four types of damage that can be inflicted and resisted—Physical, Thermal, Electric, and Chemical. The game can be completed without killing anyone, with non-lethal options for weapons and cyberware.

The open world metropolis of Night City consists of six regions: the corporate City Centre, immigrant-inhabited Watson, luxurious Westbrook, suburban Heywood, gang-infested Pacifica, and industrial Santo Domingo. Its surrounding area, the Badlands, can also be explored. V navigates these locations on foot (in first-person view) and in vehicles (in either a third- or first-person view). V owns an apartment and a garage, and can purchase additional apartments throughout the city. There is a full day-night cycle and dynamic weather, which affects the way non-player characters (NPCs) behave. Depending on the location, law enforcement may be alerted if V commits a crime. Pedestrians are vulnerable to vehicular collisions. Radio stations are available to listen to. Night City features many non-English-speaking characters, whose languages can be translated with special implants. V also periodically uses a “Braindance,” a device that allows one to undergo other people’s experiences.

Branching dialogues enable interaction with NPCs and actions in quests and the player’s in-game choices can lead to different endings. Experience points are obtained from main quests and used to upgrade stats; side quests yield “street cred”, unlocking skills, vendors, places, and additional quests. Quests are acquired from characters known as Fixers. Throughout the game, V is aided by various companions. Consumables, such as food, drinks, and drugs, are used for healing and temporary enhancements, and objects can be inspected in V’s inventory. Minigames include hacking, boxing, auto racing, martial arts, and shooting ranges.

STORY

The game begins with the selection of one of three lifepaths for the player character V (Gavin Drea or Cherami Leigh): Nomad, Streetkid, or Corpo. All three lifepaths involve V starting a new life in Night City with local thug Jackie Welles (Jason Hightower) and working together as mercenaries with a netrunner, T-Bug (Cynthia Kaye McWilliams).

In 2077, local fixer Dexter “Dex” DeShawn (Michael-Leon Wooley) hires V and Jackie to steal a biochip known as “the Relic” from Arasaka Corporation. They acquire the Relic, but the plan goes awry when they witness the murder of the megacorp’s leader Saburo Arasaka (Masane Tsukayama) at the hands of his treacherous son Yorinobu (Hideo Kimura). Yorinobu covers up the murder as poisoning and triggers a security sweep in which Arasaka’s netrunners kill T-Bug. V and Jackie escape, but Jackie is fatally wounded in the process, and the Relic’s protective case is damaged, forcing V to insert the biochip into the cyberware in their head.

Furious at the unwanted police attention, Dex shoots V in the head and leaves them for dead in a landfill. Upon awakening, V is haunted by the digital ghost of war veteran turned iconic rock star and terrorist Johnny Silverhand (Keanu Reeves), believed to have died in 2023 during his own thermonuclear attack on Arasaka Tower. V learns from their ripperdoc Viktor Vector (Michael Gregory) that Dex’s bullet triggered resurrection nanotech on the biochip, repairing the damage to V’s brain but starting an irreversible process that would overwrite V’s memories with those of Johnny, whose memory engram is stored on the chip, leaving V only a few weeks before the process completes. The biochip cannot be removed without instantly killing V, so V must find a way to remove Johnny and survive.

Through reliving Johnny’s memories, V learns that in 2013, Johnny’s then-girlfriend Alt Cunningham (Alix Wilton Regan) had created Soulkiller, an artificial intelligence able to copy netrunners’ minds through their neural links. However, the process destroyed the target’s brain. Arasaka kidnapped Alt and forced her to create their own version of Soulkiller, which would store the minds of its targets in Arasaka’s digital fortress, Mikoshi. Johnny led a rescue effort to save Alt, but failed to find her before Arasaka used Soulkiller on her; Johnny’s later thermonuclear attack was a cover to free Alt’s consciousness from Arasaka’s subnet, but Arasaka’s head of security Adam Smasher (Alec Newman) captured him and used Soulkiller on him as well.

By 2077, Arasaka was advertising a “Secure Your Soul” program and conducting secret research into writing a digital copy of a mind into a living human brain, from which the Relic arose. Eventually, V must decide whether to mount an attack on Arasaka Tower to gain physical access to Mikoshi and use Soulkiller to remove Johnny from their body or to make a deal with Arasaka to extract the Relic.

Depending upon player actions throughout the game, V can choose different options to conduct the attack. V can allow Johnny to take over and stage the attack with his former crew, suppress Johnny and mount the attack with Nomad or Arasaka allies, mount the attack solo, or simply commit suicide. Regardless, after beating Smasher and either successfully using Soulkiller or after having Arasaka perform surgery on them, it is revealed that the damage to V’s body is irreversible. Depending on player choice, V either requests Arasaka upload them into Mikoshi until a suitable host body is found, remains in their body with an uncertain life expectancy, or allows Johnny to take over permanently. If the last option is taken, Johnny pays his respects to his friends and leaves Night City to start a new life.

DEVELOPMENT

Preliminary work on Cyberpunk 2077 began following the release of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition (2012). CD Projekt Red—CD Projekt’s internal development studio—approached Mike Pondsmith, the writer of Cyberpunk and founder of R. Talsorian Games, in early 2012, sending him a copy of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (2011). Impressed with the studio’s unparalleled knowledge of the Cyberpunk universe at the time, Pondsmith and CD Projekt Red reached an agreement to license Cyberpunk‘s story from the year 2077 onward to CD Projekt Red, while Pondsmith retained the rights for media in the Cyberpunk universe set up until the year 2077. To ensure Cyberpunk‘s story remained cohesive during development, Pondsmith served as a consultant on Cyberpunk 2077. Pondsmith’s experience at Microsoft developing games such as Crimson Skies (2000) and Blood Wake (2001), and at Monolith Productions developing The Matrix Online (2005), provided valuable wisdom to CD Projekt Red, in comparison to Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski’s indifference towards the studio during the development of The Witcher (2007) and The Witcher 2.