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Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red is so committed to first-person in its upcoming role-playing game, that even cutscenes will be locked to the perspective (and yes, that includes sex scenes as well). It marks a notable change for the studio after its work on the third-person Witcher series.
CD Projekt Red already explained the importance of Cyberpunk 2077’s first-person viewpoint at E3 2018, and has clearly stuck to its guns despite some early backlash. Marcin Momot, the global community lead at CD Projekt Red, recently reiterated the studio’s choice. “Achieving full immersion in a [first-person perspective] game is extremely important,” he said in a tweet. “The decision made by the team to go 100% first person in Cyberpunk 2077 is something that will benefit it greatly from gameplay and story-telling perspectives.” He adds that players will still see their created character in the inventory screen, during driving sequences, in mirrors and, very occasionally, in some of the cutscenes. While the official Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account replied to a direct message confirming that the game’s sex scenes will also be locked into first-person.
Over on the official Cyberpunk 2077 forums, user Shavod translated an interview with senior level designer Miles Tost from the German site Night City Life. Tost offered some insight into Cyberpunk 2077’s level design, comparing the differences between designing for a first-person game as opposed to a third-person game like The Witcher 3. In the latter, Geralt would always enter a house first, with the camera following behind. Because of this, the designers would always have to leave an extra bit of free space by the entrance to any building to avoid Geralt colliding with objects. In Cyberpunk 2077, the first-person perspective means they don’t have to worry about this anymore, allowing rooms to be designed with more authenticity. It’s not something you might ever notice, but it’s an interesting detail about one of the lesser-known aspects of level design.
Tost also notes how convenient the open spaces in The Witcher 3 were for allowing him to expand locations however and whenever he needed to. This isn’t possible in Cyberpunk 2077 with the way the city is designed, but the limitations forced him to be more creative in how he packs a lot into limited horizontal spaces. Despite this, Tost says protagonist V’s greater mobility allows for the level design to be more expansive, offering lots of hidden and alternate paths that V can reach using double jumps and charged jumps. He also mentions that V is capable of climbing the exteriors of tall buildings to reach a lot of dizzying heights.
CD Projekt Red recently showed another 15 minutes of gameplay from Cyberpunk 2077, focusing on combat, customisation, different play styles, and the Night City district of Pacifica.
The upcoming action-RPG has also dropped binary male/female options in favor of inclusivity. “You know, we really want to make a video game that’s really inclusive,” senior concept artist Marthe Jonkers told Metro. “Of course, if you tackle certain subjects then you will expect people to have an opinion about it and we respect that. And it’s good that people give us feedback.”
Cyberpunk 2077 is expected to launch on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on April 16, 2020. The game is also scheduled to release for Google Stadia in 2020.
