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So many #Cyberbug2077 hot takes, and no one needs another, but this *might* be worth sharing. I play most of the so-called "AAA" open world games and this is one of the few where I'm genuinely interested in simply existing in that open world. I don't need to be on mission --
-- to enjoy the experience. My last play session I barely did anything that earned me real progress besides whatever XP you get from random encounters. I just wanted to walk around, drive around, see it all. To me, it feels like an actual city. It exists without the player.
Little things like the "walk now" that happens at the intersections, ripped straight from Blade Runner. I loved playing AC: Odyssey but I never felt there was much to that world if I wasn't completing missions.
I also love DEUS EX, but that's another world that felt like what it was -- a stealth simulation made to look like a city with interesting story there. CYBERPUNK 2077 is almost like a city-sim that has mission stuff I CAN do, but I don't feel like I need to boot it up and level.
Do I find some of the adverts juvenile? Sure. I could say the same thing about real cities like Los Angeles, the one I live in currently. That's just a hyper-realization of where we are currently. Maybe I'm bothered by how it reminds me of the lowest common denomination nature --
-- of the real world. Unlike Deus-Ex, which again I love, Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't tell you to "this is an issue you should care about" but the issues are present in the world. Just like in this world. You can care. You can not care. Many people don't. Some of us do.
Take the militarized medical care only for the rich. Most games would only have that idea. Sure, they would explore it from every angle, but you'd only get that one concept. Here, it's present, horrifying, and also living next to myriad other dystopian horrors. The game --
-- at least as of now (6 hours in) isn't saying "you must care about this the way we want you to." It's putting me in a world where I FEEL the injustice without feeling like the game feels it with me. That's very close to what reality is like. Was that intentional? I dunno.
Intentional or not, that effect is real and it's rare in my experience with gaming. I COULD just be a shallow, lewd bastard in the game, and it won't red/blue color judge me. It might give me a path to celebration, but it's indifferent to my ethics. In that sense, Cyberpunk 2077
offers a special kind of agency, one that I think is best explored slowly. Not by mission/stat chasing, but by doing and thinking and doing and exploring. I understand if some wanted something else from it. It looked like EVERYTHING was possible with it, but what IS there, to me-
an achievement that feels singular in the "AAA" gaming space. It doesn't excuse the technical issues, and trans friends have explained to me their valid issues with being able to accurately represent themselves in a game that half-extends a hand to them. I understand the crits.
I can't shake the feeling that when the "age of hottakes" is over, and all the clicks, views, followers, patreons have been fed, this will continue to be a game world worth exploring, and likely more fun outside of the spotlight of opinion. Haven't finished it. Maybe my feelings
will change. I dunno. Right now, I'm impressed and more than satisfied with the experience I'm able to have with it.
Sorry for the ramble. Just thought it *potentially* worth a share.
Sorry for the ramble. Just thought it *potentially* worth a share.
