Cyberpunk 2077 Demo – All the Details

Cyberpunk 2077 Demo – All the Details

The E3 gameplay demo is the biggest source of info about Cyberpunk 2077 we have so far, and you can find all the main points covered here. All of this information represents a work-in-progress, and it’s likely that details will change before the final release.

Overview

Over the course of the demo, the protagonist V runs a couple of big jobs with her partner Jackie. In the first, the pair rescue a woman who has been kidnapped by a group of cyberware scavengers. In the second they acquire a drone from a group of cyberware-obsessed gangsters called the Maelstrom for a fixer named Dex DeShawn.

Along the way V picks up some new cyberware, the pair get in a car chase, and they end up working with the megacorporation Militech. Of course, working with a megacorp isn’t without complications and they get in an unexpected fight with the Maelstrom before heading off to get paid.

Conversation

V can get into conversations in-person or over voice chat, both of which work the same. Like in other first-person RPGs, the player can choose a variety of responses from a menu. However, in Cyberpunk 2077 these choices are more meaningful than in older games. They are not limited to simple alignment systems and create snowballing consequences throughout play.

For example, the player’s decision to work with Militech leads to them introducing a virus in the Maelstrom gang facility that prevents them from obtaining the drone without violence. If they had found another way to negotiate they may not have been required to kill the gang.

We also see the player engage in conversation while travelling from one point of interest to another, helping to keep traversal sections interesting and lively. This is a notable change from the shot-reverse-shot conversations that were the hallmark of Bioware’s RPGs.

Customization

Cyberpunk 2077 has full character customization. In the trailer, we see that the player will able to customize hair, tattoos, and clothing, unrestricted by gender. At E3 2019 quest director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz also noted that the player will likely be able to customize V’s voice to some degree.

Aside from the cosmetic customization, you’ll be able to customize character stats and equipment, including cyberware. The game also includes a “fluid class system” that will allow the players to freely choose from three skill groups: Solo, Techie, and Netrunner.

Finally, you will be able to choose a backstory for your character. In the demo, we see the backstory options “childhood hero,” “key life event,” and “why Night City?” Because the player chooses “unfinished business” we hear V say that they’re on a crusade during some dialog with Jackie, and we can expect similar custom dialog if the player chooses Keanu Reeves’ character Johnny Silverhand as a childhood hero and meets him in play.

Cyberware

To prepare for the job against the Maelstrom V visits their “ripperdoc” Victor and gets him to install some more heavy duty cyberware in them. One of these is an optical scanner that allows the player to zoom in their vision and get information on NPCs in a way that should be familiar to players of the Watch Dogs series. Another is a subdermal grip that adds information about equipped guns to the player HUD.

During the combat sequence with the Maelstrom, we see V use some advanced cyberware, including the mantis blades that allow them to stab enemies like Wolverine, and double jump and evasion cyberware that allow them to dodge bullets.

Combat

We see plenty of combat in the demo, and there are a few things worth nothing about it.

First, although the Mantis Blades allow you to use melee attacks against enemies, for the most part, it seems like the player will be using guns to fight in Cyberpunk 2077. Guns are classified according to rarity by color-codes, like in Destiny, with epic tier loot having abilites like auto-seeking bullets. It has also been confirmed by CD PROJEKT RED that V will be able to fight with a katana. Overall this seems similar to the style of combat seen in the Deus Ex games.

When engaging in gunplay, we see V use a bullet-time ability called Kereznikov to take out enemies. This seems to be unrelated to cyberware, so it seems likely that any character build will have access to it. Since this gameplay mechanic was first invented in Max Payne it hasn’t changed a whole lot, but like most effects in Cyberpunk 2077 it does look cool.

Cyberpunk 2077 has a cover mechanic, but unlike many cover-based games, it does not have auto-regenerating health. Instead, V seems to use an inhaler to recover health. It’s not yet clear what kind of cool down this ability has.

Finally, we see V use their hacking abilities to disable the Maelstrom’s link to their guns, and we can expect this to be one of the major approaches players can use to overcome enemies, as getting some big guns and blowing through the opposition is not the only way to play the game.