Cyberpunk 2077 in the test: A great RPG update with a test video
Table of contents
Page 1 Cyberpunk 2077 in the test - Page 1 1.1 A Cyberpunk named V 1.2 Two protagonists 1.3 Stories, quests and assignments 1.4 Lively Night City Page 2 Cyberpunk 2077 in the test - Page 2 2.1 What else is there to do? 2.2 In-depth character system 2.3 Collectors and hobbyists 2.4 Audiovisual "light and shadow" 2.5 When evasion becomes a problem Page 3 Image gallery for "Cyberpunk 2077 in the test: A great RPG update with test video"A cyberpunk called V
For everyone who hasn't noticed: The days of Geralt, sorceresses and enchanting fantasy worlds are over for the time being at CD Projekt. For the first time in the company's history, the developers have dared to play a game that is not set in the Witcher universe. Night City, city of contrasts, corporations and brutal gangs. Exactly the right place for a mercenary looking for luck like V. Source: PC Games Instead, Cyberpunk 2077 is going in a completely different direction. A futuristic setting that emerged as a sub-genre of science fiction in the 80s. For example, many people are familiar with the film Blade Runner. During this time, the pen & paper role-playing game "Cyberpunk" was created, which, especially in its version entitled Cyberpunk 2020, served as a template for the game.Cyberpunk is a dystopian vision of the future of humanity in which huge corporations Rule the world, the transplantation of technical components into the human body is the order of the day and the gap between rich and poor has assumed enormous proportions. In this brutal world, you slip into the role of V, a mercenary who tries to make a name for himself in the metropolis of Night City. It is up to you who exactly V is. Before creating your character, you choose one of three life paths. These determine the background story and origin of your character. For each path there is an individual introduction to the game, similar to the Origin stories in Dragon Age: Origins, which with around 30 minutes of play time are by no means as extensive. The origin plays a role again and again in the rest of the game, it affects the dialogues and the behavior of V.
The character editor has a lot to offer, in which you can design V according to your own ideas. That starts with the free combination options of the character editor is incredibly extensive, considering how rarely the character will be seen in the game. Source: PC Games male and female body type, voice and genital organs. In addition, there are of course the usual controls with which facial contours, hair, make-up, scars, tattoos and much more can be adjusted. As usual in games with self-created characters, you can already spend quite a while here.
However, everyone has to ask themselves how much time they want to invest in a character that they rarely play in the game gets to see. Cyberpunk 2077 (buy now € 54.99) is a game from the first person perspective. Except for our hands and the chosen nail design, there is not much to see of V in the course of the game. The number of cutscenes in which the character can be seen from the outside can be counted on one hand. Every now and then there is a look in the mirror and otherwise only the inventory menu remains to look at your own character. It's a shame and wasted potential somewhere, as the developers put so much effort into the customization options. In the first person perspective, dangers to life and limb become an up-close experience and you build an amazing bond with your character. Source: PC Games
Two protagonists
On the other hand, the developer's decision for the first-person perspective is understandable if you look at it from a narrative point of view. The story of Cyberpunk 2077 is even more personal than it was in the Witcher. Everything revolves around V and his / her role in the tough world of Night City. Even if you don't belong to the kind of player who has to identify with a protagonist down to the smallest detail, the perspective has an astonishing effect. By experiencing the story of V as intimately as possible, a bond develops that we only really became aware of at the end of the game.The virtual spirit of legendary rocker Johnny Silverhand is firm connected with our fate and becomes the second protagonist of the game. Source: PC Games Johnny Silverhand, played by Keanu Reeves, also plays a central role. He is almost a second protagonist. Those familiar with the P&P template know that the rocker boy of the band Samurai and part-time terrorist died many decades before the events of the game. But through circumstances that we don't want to go into here, the digital copy of Johnny's mind gets into V.'s head, of course. The latter of course pursues his own agenda and tries to manipulate V accordingly. In flashbacks we learn a detail about the rocker's life and his motivation. On the other hand there is the unconditional will to survive of V. From beginning to end an exciting story develops, which lives a lot from the fact that you can never be sure who you can trust, who is honest about your actions and where the next one Trap lurks.
The game and its story also raise philosophical questions that kept us puzzled. "What exactly is the ME?" "What does it mean to be human?" "Where are the limits of your own mind?" But despite the often gloomy and depressing mood in the story as well as the generally dystopian world without much hope for the future, cyberpunk always manages to open up space for emotional and quiet moments. And they contribute to the strong bond with V.
Stories, quests and assignments
The main story is told in several quest series over the course of three acts. The scope of the actual plot is much smaller than in The Witcher 3. Those who concentrate exclusively on the story missions from start to finish should probably have reached the end credits after around 20 to 30 hours. That would be quite a waste, however, as Night City has so much more to offer that you can easily plan three or even four times the total playing time.When we meet the outcast nomad Panam for the first time, she is up not speaking to us very well. But in the course of their action chain we can win their friendship. Source: PC Games In the course of the story, V encounters many different and very well crafted characters. Many of them will come back to you over time and ask for help with certain things. This usually results in very interesting, well-written subplots and quest chains that accompany you for a long time. You will get to know the characters in question better and maybe even win friends and supporters. This is not just cosmetic, but also has an inverse effect on the events and possibilities in the main story. The type and number of options for shaping the end of the game depends heavily on whether and how you helped other characters.
The relationship between V and Johnny Silverhand is also noticeably influenced by the decisions made during the course of the game. We found it a bit unfortunate that action-relevant decisions are rarely influenced by V's background or his attributes. The corresponding dialog options are mostly only used to obtain additional information. However, decisions are not only made in discussions. How V behaves in missions and which solutions are chosen for quests can also affect later events. And Vs properties then play a significantly larger role. For example, we took a non-violent approach to a quest early in the game thanks to good technical skills and then later in the game met some characters from this quest who otherwise might not have been alive.
Besides the many good ones Elaborated and interwoven side quests with the main story, Cyberpunk also has countless, rather generic-looking jobs to offer. This is mostly about the procurement of an object or a target person for a fixer, or about the support of the police in combating gang activities. Especially at the beginning of the second act, when the whole city area of Night City becomes accessible, one is literally struck by the abundance of orders. The card then resembles a sea of yellow and blue symbols that represent these secondary tasks. Whether it would have needed so many of this rather shallow form of the side quest (we only did a fraction of it ourselves), or whether these have to be thrown at the player's feet in one fell swoop, can at least be doubted . Looking at the map can be overwhelming. The various fixer and NCPD jobs that liven up the game world are hidden behind the yellow and light blue icons. Source: PC Games
Lively Night City
However, these events, also known as gigs, also have a clear advantage. They help to paint the picture of a damn lively game world. The developers succeed in doing this extremely well. Night City feels like a really populated place. In the city center there are so many people as you have hardly seen in an open world game. The numerous NPCs are also characterized by an incomparable variety. You have to search very carefully to find two people who look the same in a short time. You constantly get the feeling that something is going on every five meters. Be it the already mentioned events or just the NPCs who are talking about something here and there.On a street corner we are filing a firefight between cops and a gang. We can get involved in the blast and grab a little Street Cred. Source: PC Games It is also nice that the dynamic of public activity changes depending on the time of day. At night, for example, there is less going on on normal streets, but in the amusement miles the bear paces. The atmosphere is excellent and it also changes depending on the time and the district in which you are. The developers succeed here very well in simulating an active life in the city, even if a lot is very static in the end. So we always meet the same groups of people, always having the same conversations at their predetermined positions. To maintain this illusion, the developers also resort to a few peculiar methods. In the Badlands, for example, we were able to observe that the streets looked very busy when looking towards the Night City. The traffic that was moving towards us just suddenly disappeared because the street right in front of our feet is actually empty. That seems somehow strange if you take a closer look.
It's a shame that nothing more was made of the many fractions of the setting. Various large corporations and criminal gangs cavort in Night City. Most of these, in one way or another, V has to do with over and over again. But whether we solve a quest in a friendly manner or wipe out entire bases, nothing changes our standing. In other words, there is no classic factional system in which we develop sympathies or hostilities through our actions. That is only limited to the already mentioned side quest lines. After all, there is still the so-called Street Cred system. A kind of level system that runs parallel to the character level and is supposed to express V's reputation on the streets of Night City. The higher the reputation, the better the offers from dealers, for example, and the more lucrative the fixers' orders.
