Month: July 2018

After it closed out the Xbox E3 press conference and wowed the few individuals that saw the behind-closed-doors demo, it seems like all eyes are on Cyberpunk 2077. As the new RPG from CD Projekt Red, the developer behind The Witcher series, it takes influences from the cult-favorite Cyberpunk 2020 pen-and-paper RPG, the studio’s next project builds upon their pedigree of dense RPGs, while venturing out into a drastically different world.

After seeing the private E3 demo and interviewing Cyberpunk 2020 creator Mike Pondsmith, who is working with CDPR on the game, we came away with a clearer picture of what Cyberpunk 2077 is all about. We’ve compiled all the information we have on Cyberpunk 2077 so far: how it came to be, why it’s a first-person game, and more.

What Is Cyberpunk 2077?

Announced in 2012, three years before the release of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, Cyberpunk 2077 is set to be a big change from their past work in the fantasy genre. Moving away from the fiction of Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher series, CD Projekt Red switches over to a new setting based on the Cyberpunk pen-and-paper RPG. Created by Mike Pondsmith, the original Cyberpunk 2020 is set in the dystopian future of Northern California, where corporations, late-stage capitalism, and technology invade all forms of everyday life. While not a direct adaptation of the pen-and-paper game, CD Projekt Red’s new game, Cyberpunk 2077, extrapolates many of its concepts, archetypes, and storylines. In a hidden message from their E3 2018 trailer, CDPR stated that they began work shortly after finishing Wild Hunt’s Blood and Wine DLC.

“It’s been over 2077 days since we announced our plan to develop Cyberpunk 2077. We released a CGI trailer, gave some interviews and… went dark. Normal procedure for these kinds of things — you announce a game and then shut up, roll up your sleeves and get to work. We wanted to give you the Witcher 3 and both expansions first, which is why this period of staying silent was longer than we planned. Sorry for that.”

The story of Cyberpunk 2077 focuses on V, a vagabond hustling their way through life in Night City–the largest metropolis in the Free State of California. While exploring the city’s districts and surrounding areas, taking on odd jobs and rubbing shoulders with the various gangs, tech dealers, and corporate agents, your character will leave their own mark on the metropolis. Over time, you build Street Cred, gain credits, and acquire new weapons and cybernetic enhancements–such as remote hacking, improved optics, and the Mantis Blades, bladed weapons that unsheath from your forearms. But as you make your presence known, you’ll catch the attention of other characters looking to use you for their own ends.

Who’s The Lead Character?

While the Witcher series focused on the exploits of Geralt of Rivia in the Northern Kingdoms, Cyberpunk 2077’s story centers around a character that the players create. The main protagonist is whoever you want them to be, and your choices will decide their place and standing in Night City. Along with gender options, ethnic background, and personal style, you can also choose their backstory, including what brought them to the city or if they’re a local. Playing as V, you’ll be able to make decisions, take out important characters–which will alter or end specific questlines–and upgrade and enhance yourself however you see fit. Much like traditional role-playing games, your character’s background and interests play a key role in their growth and base stats.

During the character-creation segment in the E3 demo, the developers took some time to go through some of the options you’ll have for customizing V. Unlike in the pen-and-paper game, you aren’t able to pick dedicated classes like Techie, Fixer, Netrunners, Rockerboys, or Nomads. Cyberpunk 2077 has an organic and in-the-moment approach to classes: your starting class evolves based on the choices you make and upgrades you acquire. While exploring the city and taking on missions, V will have their partner in crime, Jackie–an imposing but ever-reliable muscle–in tow, who can become a valuable asset on some of the more intense jobs.

What Kind Of RPG Is Cyberpunk 2077?

While still an action-RPG, Cyberpunk 2077 focuses more on making key decisions throughout many of the scripted and dynamic encounters in Night City. When compared to The Witcher series, particularly The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, Cyberpunk 2077 is similar in the sense you have free reign to explore and interact with random characters and hopefully stumble into unexpected missions. However, Cyberpunk 2077 aims to put a greater focus on placing you in the shoes of a character that’s constantly evolving. In V’s case, that’s by taking on cybernetic enhancements and amassing an arsenal of seriously dangerous weapons–the homing sub-machine gun was particular standout.

The new weapons and abilities you acquire will have a significant impact on your individual playstyle. For instance, the Mantis Blades are not only powerful melee tools, but can also be used for freerunning and stealth attacks. The main weapons you have are divided into three categories: power, tech, and smart. Power weapons are mostly standard weapons like generic pistols and shotguns, tech guns have amplifying buffs like bullet penetration, and smart firearms focus on powerful special properties like homing shots. However, as you take on more cybernetic enhancements, you’ll lose some of your humanity–which will affects how certain characters will interact with you.

Despite the clear change from the Witcher series, the developers haven’t forgotten their past work. During our talk with associate design director Kyle Rowley on GameSpot’s E3 2018 liveshow, he spoke about the design techniques they picked up from The Wild Hunt, and how it ended up having an impact on Cyberpunk’s combat mechanics.”We learned quite a lot from the combat in Witcher 3, and we’re translating that to the lessons we learned in the gameplay about how to do melee and try to transfer that to Cyberpunk,” Rowley said. “Obviously it’s very different in the fact that we’re now doing it from a first-person perspective rather than from a third-person, but the lessons that we learned in Witcher, we can definitely translate.”

What Is Night City?

Cyberpunk 2077’s main setting is a bustling, and always busy metropolis where tech has left irreparable impact on the lives of its citizens. From the beginning, you’ll have much of Night City to explore. Whether it’s on-foot, on the back of a motorcycle, in a car, or through the city’s train system, you’ll be able to travel throughout the city and its many regions. While there are some areas that won’t totally accessible, some of which are locked off, there are many locations that you’re free to explore. Having said that, the different regions of the city are set within specific level caps, and there is no level-scaling in the game whatsoever. While you’re free to explore these areas and try to engage in encounters with the gangs that have control of the region–it might be best to steer clear of them until you are better prepared. One gang that we know of in particular, known as the Maelstrom, who have the appearance of neon-lit ghouls, uses extremely powerful weapons and operates out of the Pacifica district.

Here are the six districts of Night City, in CD Projekt’s Red’s words:

• City Center: Night City’s biggest pride, this is the heart of corporations, the cluster of neon, and the quintessence of luxury.
• Watson: A unique mix of Asian cultures, it is a fallen corporate giant now populated by immigrants, hiding various bazaars and markets in a tangle of narrow alleyways.
• Westbrook: Featuring tourist-oriented Japantown, it is a place for the wealthy who like to work hard and play hard.
• Heywood: Living in one of the neighborhoods of the predominantly Latino area means you successfully managed to climb the social ladder — it’s a massive suburban housing district, with an underlying gang problem.
• Pacifica: On the other end of the spectrum, this is the most dangerous part of town, abandoned and overrun by gang activity. Separated from the rest of the city, it’s a place of immense poverty.
• Santo Domingo: All of Night City is powered from here, with its countless power plants and industrial factories, stuck in an endless cycle of modernization.

Why Is It A First-Person Game?

One of the most surprising details we learned about Cyberpunk 2077 is that it’s a first-person game. When fans learned of this, there was a noticeable outcry, with many expressing disappointment. From watching the gameplay demo, almost all of the actions stayed within the first-person view–including dialogue sequences, combat, and general exploration–only breaking away from the perspective during vehicle segments. We spoke with Cyberpunk RPG creator Mike Pondsmith during E3 about the decision to make it at an FPS. Here’s what he had to say:

“This is where I put my designer hat on, and I get to put on both my table and my video game designer hat, both. This is why it’s important. The one thing is the state of the character, the interfaces they use, the drugs they take, the way they deal with their implants–it’s all very, very internal to the head of the character, and if you step out of that out [into a third-person view] it becomes a busy hub that you’re tracking. On another technical level, the world is massively immersive and if you’re stepped back from that into a third person avatar dummy, you are not really part a part of it.”

What Platforms Will Cyberpunk 2077 Be Releasing On?

At this time, Cyberpunk 2077 is planned for release on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The private E3 demo ran on a modern PC, and the developers have not said whether a next-gen version is planned. However, in an interview with vg247, CDPR stated that its proprietary tech running the game, REDengine 4, was designed to scale to new hardware.

When Will It Release?

Aside from the cryptic messages that CDPR left in their E3 2018 trailer, which makes jokes about the long the wait and lack of microtransactions in their single-player focused games, the developers haven’t confirmed an official release date for Cyberpunk 2077. The game was demoed in a pre-alpha state–which likely means there’s still a ways to go for the release. Having said that, there’s some strong speculation that the game could make its way to a 2020 launch, which would tie it up nicely with the original Cyberpunk 2020 game. Regardless, the developers in their cryptic message stated that the game will release “when it’s ready, we mean it.”

Further Info

• Cyberpunk 2077 Is A More Ambitious Game Than You Might Realize
• Why CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 Had To Be A First-Person RPG
• Witcher 3 Helped With Cyberpunk 2077’s Combat
• E3 2018: Cyberpunk 2077 Trailer Has A Hidden Message From CD Projekt Red
• Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City Has Six Districts; Here’s What We Know About Each Of Them
• E3 2018: Cyberpunk 2077’s Character Customization, Class Progression Detailed

When you visit Disneyland or Walt Disney World, there’s a couple of things you probably expect: thousands of people standing between you and a Dole Whip, and, of course, a lot of time spent in line for various rides. Though theme park technology has advanced as far as cutting-edge visuals and over-the-top thrills go, a way to get rid of lines simply hasn’t been invented yet.

A new app from Disney aims to make the experience much easier to handle, though. Play Disney Parks, which will be available on iOS and Android devices on June 30 with support for Disneyland and Walt Disney World, introduces games to play while waiting in certain lines, music to listen to while you roam the parks, location-specific trivia challenges, and even a bevy of achievements to add a competitive edge to your adventure.

For the developers behind the app, Play Disney Parks is all about giving those who want to play a deeper and more interactive experience while visiting the parks. “This app allows our guests to feel a powerful and emotional connection to their favorite parks in a whole new way, which is always our goal,” Dan Soto, Vice President, Digital Experience, Disney Parks and Resort Digital, tells GameSpot.

Ahead of the app’s release, GameSpot was given the exclusive chance to test out Play Disney Parks and speak with the developers to find out how exactly it works, and what it brings to the theme park experience.

What does it look like?

The experience starts with the launch of the app. After you select the park you’re visiting, a map will appear–the game board–which looks very reminiscent of the style of art seen in the ride It’s a Small World. “Mary Blair is a Disney Legend and one of the original Imagineers–she created the iconic style for It’s a Small World and her work was absolutely an inspiration to the design team,” Walt Disney Executive R&D Imagineer Josh Gorin says.

Game on

The biggest feature of the app is the introduction of a series of mini-games themed to specific rides and areas of the park. “A major transformative aspect of Play Disney Parks is turning wait time into play time,” Soto says.

At launch, there are four different games designed to help pass time in line, each themed to individual ride queues–unlockable when near the queues thanks to Bluetooth connectivity. Peter Pan’s Flight, Toy Story Midway Mania, and Space Mountain each have new games park-goers can play at both the Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World. Additionally, Walt Disney World’s new Toy Story Land gets an added game themed to the Slinky Dog Dash Roller Coaster.

GameSpot had the opportunity to play the Peter Pan’s Flight game–Off To Never Land–at Disneyland, and it really does keep you engaged while waiting in line. It’s not a particularly difficult game–none of them are–but they take your mind off of the wait and keep you engaged with whoever is in your group. You search out physical items in the line queue, answer questions with your group, and ultimately unlock a small animatronic experience in line just before boarding the ride.

To make this happen, the app team didn’t just rely on what already exists in the intricately-designed queues. Instead, it added new physical elements to the area, ranging from items hidden throughout the queues that are specifically tied to the app and lanterns that are part of the finale experience. They won’t stand out if you’re not using the app, though. It came as a surprise to learn that these new touches weren’t always part of the queue.

The other games, which are pinned to Space Mountain and Toy Story Midway Mania, are similar in that the goal is more for a fun experience, rather than a difficult challenge. They’re designed to keep you busy and engaged in whatever story the ride is about to tell, rather than browsing social media or staring into space. The added incentive of the in-line physical experiences–Space Mountain has you race spaceships you build against others in line, while the Midway Mania mini-game unlocks a physical effect near the front of the queue–acts as your reward for making it to the front of the line.

The app has also integrated games previously available in various Disney parks, including Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure at Epcot Center and the Colorwheel Challenge at Disney’s California Adventure. Additionally, there are a series of trivia challenges included in the app throughout all of the parks, themed to different lands. They’re not easy, though. Still, if you don’t score well–I didn’t–it’ll just make you want to try again or give another test a try elsewhere in the park.

How to prove you’re the best

With so many games and challenges throughout the app, you might be wondering how you keep track of your score or progress. That’s where the achievement system comes in. Users will get achievements for completing games, winning trivia challenges, riding rides, and even simply walking through various places within the park. The app will track them, but users can also share them via social media. Earning ride achievements is as simple as having Bluetooth enabled on your phone and the app running in the background.

While the app is launching with an initial set of achievements, Gorin says the Play Disney Parks team is planning a more complex set of achievements in time, which will allow repeat Disney parks visitors the opportunity to battle it out with each other to see who can unlock the most. “We have a lot of ideas,” he says.

Songs in the key of Disney

A big component in setting the mood when it comes to Disney parks is the music. Whether it’s songs associated with Disney movies, music from rides themselves, and even unique audio specific to the parks–like Walt Disney’s dedication speech for Disneyland, which is the first track of the Main Street USA playlist.

Thanks to a partnership with Apple Music, users on iOS devices will have access to playlists in the park that are customized to whatever land you happen to be in. “The Disney Music Group and Imagineering music teams were able to tap into Apple Music’s massive library of songs to create a ton of unique playlists of tracks from, inspired by, and evocative of our park lands, attractions, and characters,” Gorin says. There’s even a road trip playlist to listen to on your way to the parks.

Looking to the future

While Play Disney Parks is launching with mini-games themed to rides like Peter Pan’s Flight and Space Mountain, the team is already working on updates to introduce more in-park experiences. While that includes existing rides and lands, Play Disney Parks is also looking toward the future–or rather a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

The upcoming Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the Star Wars-themed section being built in both Disneyland and Disney World, is being designed with the app in mind. “The Play Disney Parks team has been working side by side with the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge team to build these kinds of interactive layers from the very start,” Gorin teases. “We have some very special things planned for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.”

And it’s not just the new Star Wars land that will expand the app’s functionality. “This launch is only the beginning, as we have plans to continue evolving the experience with more content, new technology and expanded experiences–including more in-queue games, new challenges, and achievements,” Soto explains.

The bottom line

Play Disney Parks is launching on iOS and Android devices on June 30 and they are available for pre-order now. To connect to the majority of the games and experiences, you’ll simply need a data connection and Bluetooth capabilities. It’s also not a requirement for enjoying your day in the park.

While it brings a new shade of fun to waiting in line or passing time until a parade begins, the standard park experiences also are not dependent on it. Instead, the entire goal of the app is to bring a new layer of interactivity to those who want to play along–especially as the parks move into the future and continue to integrate it. Just make sure you bring a spare phone charger with you–or you can rent them in the parks.

Images proved by Disney Parks.