This year at E3 2019, CD Projekt RED did not show a new gameplay demo of Cyberpunk 2077, at least not to those who weren’t in attendance at E3. However, they did show a new cinematic trailer which demonstrated just one of the many ways that a particular quest might end depending on the decisions you make with your character. In the cinematic trailer, the male version of V completed a job for Dexter DeShawn, one of the most well known crime bosses in all of Night City. It would appear that V made a wrong decision though, because while he and his partner Jackie were fleeing the scene in an automated taxi, Jackie bled out in the seat next to V. I am beyond excited to play Cyberpunk 2077, and I’ve already planned out multiple playthroughs of the game well before its launch on April 16, 2020. Here are some of the reasons why Cyberpunk 2077 (which will feature Keanu Reeves) is my most anticipated game of E3 2019.
Choices That Have Consequences
One of the things I absolutely love about CD Projekt RED is the way it handles player choice and consequences. Its games are filled with plenty of different scenarios which you, the player, get to choose the outcome. These outcomes are rarely labeled in black and white, but this is part of what makes the player’s ability to choose so great. You will think you made the right decision, only to find out later that you made the worst decision possible, and now you must live with those consequences. Sure you might just be able to load up an old save, but when it comes to CD Projekt RED games, doing that feels like a disservice to the hard working people who developed the game. Why simply load an old save when you can live with your decision and see how it pans out later? To me, that is half the magic of games that allow the player to make decisions in such tense situations. Allow me to elaborate by using a quest from The Witcher 3 (which recently reached another major sales milestone) as an example.
Not long into The Witcher 3 you will enter a town called Velen that is run by a Baron. When you first meet this Baron, you will realize that he is a drunken mess, but soon learn that there is more to this character than meets the eye. He sends Geralt on a quest to find his wife and daughter, which eventually leads to another quest where you must rescue children from three evil forest creatures known as the Crones. At the end of one of the quests you are faced with a puzzle in order to save the Baron’s wife. You must choose between a number of items to solve the puzzle. Naturally, I made the most educated decision possible in that situation, in an attempt to do what I thought was the right thing. I made my choice, but sadly, the Baron’s wife died in the process. The Baron then told me to meet him at Crow’s Perch to receive my payment.
I rode into town to turn in the quest, feeling proud that I had at least saved the children. However, when I went to meet him, a cutscene was triggered which showed the Baron hanging from a tree. It was at this moment that I felt a knot in my stomach. The decision I made had dire consequences, and it resulted in the death of two important characters. I went from feeling like a hero who had saved innocent children, to a horrible person in a matter of seconds, and it was at this point that I realized what kind of game I was playing. Any time a game evokes emotions like that, I feel that it shows the caliber of those who wrote it. CD Projekt RED titles are not as simple as some other games and sometimes there is no “right” decision. This factor alone has me absolutely over the moon to play Cyberpunk 2077. Its world is filled with corporations looking to get an edge over their competition, various different criminal elements with their own agendas, and the citizens of Night City are stuck in between. I am certain my choices will come back to bite me in the ass when I least expect it with CD Projekt RED’s latest game, making it all the more satisfying to try to right my wrongs the second time through.
Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City
Another reason why Cyberpunk 2077 is my most anticipated game of E3 2019 is its open world. Right now in the modern gaming scene there are way too many mediocre open world games. After playing a ton of them, I find myself becoming fatigued with the genre, as many of these games feature a wide open world filled with missions to complete, but very little substance to actually digest. Sure the world is massive, but if I spend most of my time traversing a world that doesn’t leave a lasting impression on me, the experience ends up leaving a lot to be desired. I want to play an open world game not solely because it is massive in scope, but because it is a living, breathing world. Another issue I’ve found with open world games is that a lot of their worlds can feel very similar. Cyberpunk 2077‘s open world does not suffer from this, as it is teeming with life, and its glowing neon city feels rather unique when compared to other open world games’ settings. When I look at Night City, all I want to do is jump in the nearest vehicle and explore every single street that it has to offer.
Superb Quest Design
The final reason that Cyberpunk 2077 is my most anticipated game of E3 2019 is due to its quest design. From what has been shown so far, there are countless different ways that V can interact with the world’s characters. Whether that be through dialogue options, or the way that you choose to approach a job, the quest design in the game doesn’t limit the player to just one path. Players can decide if they want to engage in a gun fight with enemies, sneak in through another entrance to gain the upper hand, or talk their way into a compound by allying themselves with the person who runs the place.
This was shown off in the gameplay demo that CD Projekt RED released to the public last year. V accepted a job from DeShawn to acquire a state of the art combat bot from a local gang. Along the way, V chose to side with a corpo agent, and in doing so was able to infiltrate the compound under the guise of wanting to purchase the combat bot from the gang. Once inside however, things went downhill when it was revealed that the corpo agent had planted a virus in the chip V used to pay the gang. This outcome could have been entirely different if you chose not to side with the corpo agent. Perhaps V could have found an alternate way to sneak into the compound and steal the robot, allowing the player to bypass the gun fights and still complete the objective. The possibilities are nearly endless, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the game to experience its quest design for myself.
Check out our E3 2019 preview of the behind closed doors demo for Cyberpunk 2077 to see how another scenario can play out in multiple ways!
These are just some of the reasons why Cyberpunk 2077 is my most anticipated game of E3 2019. Out of all the games in this year’s E3 lineup, which one is your most anticipated? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
