Pay Attention to Cyberpunk 2077

Supposedly CD Projekt Red, developers of The Witcher series, are going to give us the first look of their new game Cyberpunk 2077 sometime next week. This is if the words of PR representative Tom Ohle come to fruition. He apparently took to Twitter today stating “"Watching Cyberpunk 2077 trailer again. And again. Aaaaand again. And it's not even the final one." Telling a follower later that the rest of us would be seeing it “...next weekish.” The tweet was caught by his followers and subsequently by CVG, but seems to have been deleted from the account.

That, however, is inconsequential. Cyberpunk 2077 was announced some time ago and now that we have some distance between us and The Witcher 2 -and the new year is here- it's time to pay attention to it once again.

What can we expect from Cyberpunk 2077? If history and Projekt Red's previous work is any indication, it'll be a heavily story driven game with deep RPG elements that are not entirely sacrificed for any console counterpart which may arise. This was the beauty of The Witcher 2. It was one of the few RPG's we have today that did not eschew classic RPG elements for modern streamlining and accessibility. It stuck to those roots like the Overly Attached Girlfriend on a one-night-stand, and delivered an experience rivaled only -at least in that department- by games such as Dragon's Dogma and Dark Souls.

Already the Projekt Red studio has described Cyperpunk 2077 as a "multi-thread, nonlinear story designed for mature players", with a sandbox structure that'll offer "freedom of action and diversity in gameplay", which holds the line with the philosophy of their previous games, and it even opens up further possibilities. A deep RPG sci-fi game with a sandbox structure? Why are images of original Deus Ex and System Shock 2 erupting from my cerebral cortex? For good reason. I for one loved Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but with RPG elements scaled down it ended up playing more like a first-person Metal Gear Solid than the original game we grew up on. If my gut is right, Cyperpunk 2077 might finally scratch that itch.

Entwine this with the fact that Projekt Red have shown themselves to be aces when it comes to talking to the community and offering a product that is entirely gamer-first in its execution. Take the release of Witcher 2 on consoles for example. Not only did they succeed in creating a port that was exceptional, they added in all the DLC from the PC version absolutely free, and even created new content never seen before. All things that could have easily been console DLC for any other developer or publisher was now part of the final product. Projekt Red's close affiliation with GOG.com -a fantastic service that is sort of like a Steam for classic games- should also be noted.

This is all speculation based on history of course, we know little about the game so far and hopefully some of these questions might get answered next week. Right now, however, we might be on course for something exceptional.