Cyberpunk 2077

This was a game I was really excited for when it was getting ready to come out. I was watching lore videos, I was studying the TTRPG it’s based on, it was on my Steam wishlist. And then, a funny thing happened, I didn’t buy it. Games today are so expensive, and I heard there were a lot of problems with the initial release, so I ended up avoiding it altogether. But my partner has been playing for a few years and the problems have been fixed, with a lot more content being added to the game since its release.

I really love good worldbuilding, and Cyberpunk does a great job at it. From the detailed historical divergences to the way factions work in this brave new world, the commitment to detail is crazy. Like the fact that almost all of the food is functionally vegan, because in this dystopia it was hard enough to keep humans alive, let alone animals. The cybernetics are super cool, I sometimes think it’d be cool to have them in real life until I think about the implications of having hardware in your body that somebody else could manipulate to hurt you, pretty scary stuff. I also really love the aesthetics of the world, the glow of neon features heavily, as does the synth-backed cyberpunk soundtrack that boasts giants from Converge, Refused and my favorite rap duo Run The Jewels.

I haven’t gotten into the story very much yet, I think Johnny Silverhand is a cool character but it’s hard not to just see him as Keanu Reeves. I’ve mostly been running around doing gigs and hacking Tyger Claws with my mind, I also use a sword because my character is a lesbian and it’s our birthright. I picked a Corpo background because it’s the truest to me, a girl who spent her whole time in college networking for jobs.

I also like what the game has to say about the times we live in. In the world of Cyberpunk, corporations have usurped the government as the real power running society, and it’s led to disastrous living conditions for most people. The life expectancy is low and there’s often very little recourse for those who are taken advantage of by unfair systems. It’s a true kleptocracy, spurred on by a kleptocratic government and a series of wars. As cool as the world may sometimes look in this game, I think it’s better to see it as a rejoinder to how society is currently changing, how we might want it to, and what we should avoid at all costs.