Gamescom was disappointing in terms of Cyberpunk 2077 news. While journalists got to see the real deal in action, the public sat in silence. Fortunately, out of the blue, CD Projekt RED treated us to 48 minutes of gameplay footage, showcasing a heap of features in their latest open world title. Oh, and a word of warning – the following footage contains extremely crude language, gruesome scenes of violence and multiple scenes of nudity.
Now there was a lot and I mean a lot of details snuck into the video. Luckily, I’ve gone back and picked out some of the biggest features you may have missed when watching. Bear in mind, some of these features may be removed in the final product.
Commands
At the beginning of the video, V and Jackie are walking through the corridor of an apartment block. As they make their way to the end, a woman is seen calling out for her son. For a split second, an option appears to force the woman back inside which causes V to bang on the wall. This shows us that Cyberpunk 2077 is a living world giving you a chance to assert your dominance over the digital populace.
Environmental Takedowns
It seems taking down enemies won’t be a case of silently choking them or shooting them in the back of the head with a suppressor. From the video, we can see takedowns could be affected by where the enemy is and what environment they’re in. A pretty neat touch if you ask me. After all, who wouldn’t want to kill an enemy silently by shoving their head into a water-filled freezer that houses body parts?
Kereznikov
Before entering a room of a room of enemies, V took a reflex booster which gave her Kereznikov, allowing her to slide around the room Max Payne Style all the while slowing down time to ensure some clean shots.
Destructible Environment
The ever so popular destructible environment feature evident in Cyberpunk 2077 as V manages to remove massive chunks out of a wall.
Shutter Control
During the scene after the scavenger mission, V heads over to a virtual shutter control system. Not only does it let you open and close the shutters but it also has the option to check new messages and read the latest news (presumably a way of the developers drip feeding you lore that happens as a consequence of your actions). What’s more, it doubles up as a thermostat. Pretty neat, eh?
Interactive Advertisements
In the video, V interacts with an ad which leads her to a vending machine to buy cola. According to the narrator, this is a common occurrence and will appear throughout Night City. A pretty handy feature if you need a quick fix before blowing someone’s brains out.
Minigames
This one is pure speculation but what are the chances that V can take part in a boxing match as seen when walking through Night City? Furthermore, what if partaking in these physical activities granted boosts to your character? What are the odds there’ll be an Anthony Joshua easter egg? and more importantly, it doesn’t have to stop at sports; we’ve already seen a pool table in the trailer, so this is a feature that could be leaning towards being real.
The World is Alive
Also according to the narrator, Night City features a living world. Everyone has somewhere to go or something to do. His claims can be verified as V walks towards Jackie as multiple people can be heard discussions can be heard about the latest Silverhand album and even cancer. CD Projekt Red has a track record of immersion in their Witcher series so it’s great to see that captivation has been translated into the Cyberpunk world.
Multiple Approaches
Throughout the video, the narrator reveals each situation can be handled with multiple options. This is also evident in the dialogue options where we can see the player has multiple choices with different characters that can lead to either passive or aggressive conflicts, even with the friendly characters. Even romance is an option, with V having the ability to inquire about the Ripperdoc’s and Misty’s relationship.
Ripperdocs
Ripperdoc’s are upgrade vendors who can offer better tech in exchange for Eddies. In the footage, multiple upgrades could have been purchased for the right price.
Road Combat
During the driving scene, V gives Jackie the wheel and begins to open fire on the van in front after it opens the back door and reveals scavengers. This sequence happens at an incredibly fast pace. The question is can you do this when free-roaming or is it activated by participating in quests?
Inspection Mode
Cyberpunk 2077 will allow you to inspect items you pick up in the game world in exquisite detail. As seen in the footage, V checks out the activation chip for the spider bot she picked up from a dead gang member. As she inspected it, individual parts of the chip lit up and offered some details. We’re not sure if this will be available for other items such as guns and boosters but either way, this is a neat touch.
Weapon Modules
By far the coolest feature was shown off in the video, weapon modules radically change combat. V uses her ricochet targeting system to hit enemies in cover by shooting adjacent walls. It seems each weapon has a different module as the SMG V picks up later allows her to use bullets that track enemies. I’m not even sure what it means but it sounds awesome! Also shown in the video is the wall detection system which manages to reveal enemies through walls, allowing those cheeky wallbangs.
Neural Socket Connection
Forget the feature previously mentioned, this is the coolest feature in Cyberpunk 2077. V will be able to hijack enemies by connecting to their neural systems and to their affiliation’s internal network. Players will then have the option to install software that cripples nearby enemies. In the video, V chooses to jam a gang members gun, causing him to freak out before getting sliced by V’s blades.
The video finished with an epic boss fight between our two heroes and Royce, the Maelstrom gang member before wrapping up with the pair heading into Night City. It was a tearful sight seeing what could be the greatest gameplay footage I’ve seen since No Man’s Sky gameplay E3 demo but at least we got a look at what is coming our way sometime between now and 2077.
Hopefully.