Dear audience, I’m just coming down from the E3 press conferences. While I’m gearing up for the main events, I’ll be supplanting you with tidbits of item-specific information that I couldn’t cram in conference reports. Case in point: Cyberpunk. Here’s a trailer to recap:
So fun fact- did you know that Cyberpunk 2077 is actually based on a pen & paper RPG? Of course you knew. But, fun fact #2- Cyberpunk 2077 adapts not only the world, but also certain mechanics of its pnp predecessor, Cyberpunk 2020, including the character creation process. The last cyberpunkish tabletop-to-video game production, Shadowrun Returns, made an similar design choice.
So of course, you got stats- strength, constitution, intelligence, reflexes, tech and cool, the last one being a stand-in for both charisma and willpower. Coolness, just like in real life, can be enhanced by clothing, hairstyles, tattoos etc. Depending on your cool and “street rep” new dialogue options will become available to you. And, neat fact- the protagonist of Cyberpunk is fully voiced. Thank you Mass Effect for making that the norm.
Of course since Cyberpunk 2077 is supposed to play like an FPS, these stats will likely unlock new options like better weapons and unique abilities, like hacking or using remote drones.
Your character is, as in any good RPG, fully customizable including gender, body type, hair and everything in between. Their past is also something you’ll be able to mess around with. So it looks like the character is not so much the protagonist of Cyberpunk but a “default” protagonist, very much like Commander Shepard was in Mass Effect.
Exciting. It will be interesting to see how CD Project handles its very own Mass Effect, a title that was unimaginably ambitious at the time.