In 'Cyberpunk 2077,' the Only Truly Punk Move Is Not to Play
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Re: In 'Cyberpunk 2077,' the Only Truly Punk Move Is Not to Play
#2Is anyone else weary of dystopian sci-fi?
I'd love to see a setting where technology has made the world a practical utopia, and people generally don't have to be wary of each other. It would be tricky to introduce interesting conflict and challenges into such a setting, yes.
There are some anime/manga like that, for example Aria [0], which is basically Venice on Mars and the main characters are aspiring gondoliers, with the story centered on their training or daily life etc.
But you could have a utopian human society and have the conflict come from an alien species or some kind of cosmic cataclysm.
Re: In 'Cyberpunk 2077,' the Only Truly Punk Move Is Not to Play
#3Is anyone else weary of dystopian sci-fi? I'd love to see a setting where technology has made the world a practical utopia, and people generally don't have to be wary of each other. It would be tricky to introduce interesting conflict and challenges into such a setting, yes. There are some anime/manga like that, for example Aria [0], which is basically Venice on Mars and the main characters are aspiring gondoliers, w…
The Culture series by Iain M. Banks is like this, but perhaps set a little far into the future to be easily translated into games or movies.
Re: In 'Cyberpunk 2077,' the Only Truly Punk Move Is Not to Play
#4Is anyone else weary of dystopian sci-fi? I'd love to see a setting where technology has made the world a practical utopia, and people generally don't have to be wary of each other. It would be tricky to introduce interesting conflict and challenges into such a setting, yes. There are some anime/manga like that, for example Aria [0], which is basically Venice on Mars and the main characters are aspiring gondoliers, w…
The closest thing I can think of to a practical, popular example of this was the television series "The Good Place" - nominally about the experience of a person who was incorrectly sent to heaven and their internal discomfort with being in paradise.
Re: In 'Cyberpunk 2077,' the Only Truly Punk Move Is Not to Play
#5There is nothing sadder or more impotent than corporate (cyber-)punk.
The irony of the save file corruption issue being tied to "too much crafting" given the DIY ethos of punk is palpable.
Re: In 'Cyberpunk 2077,' the Only Truly Punk Move Is Not to Play
#6The game tries so hard to be cool — to come off as crass and edgy, to talk tough and play like some kind of anti-capitalist anarchy generator. But you lean too hard into that act and it will always come off more like a desperate pose than anything honest
It's so true honestly. The game has the intellectual depth of a Che-shirt or that Kendall Jenner Pepsi commercial.
What the game reminds me of is Mark Fisher's point about how we've lost the ability to imagine new futures, because Cyberpunk is the opposite of a futuristic game. Cyberpunk's notion of sexuality in the future is basically bolting a penis or vagina onto the opposite sex, everyone's driving around in retro-looking cars or motorcycles, nothing about it is actually novel other than the surface level aesthetic they've put on it, which has been virtually unchanged for four decades. The author is right that the most actual cyberpunk aspect of the game is in fact the development and sale of the game itself, like some sort of unwitting piece of performance art.
Re: In 'Cyberpunk 2077,' the Only Truly Punk Move Is Not to Play
#7Is this what passes for "gaming press" these days? Cyberpunk is not supposed to be some watershed philosophical masterwork. It's a game, bro. And from everyone I've talked to it sounds like it's really fun if you have the hardware to run it, bugs and all.
Re: In 'Cyberpunk 2077,' the Only Truly Punk Move Is Not to Play
#8The game is a little more nuanced than this write up would have you believe. You can tell the Silverhand character that he's a whiny narcissist with over-simplified views that blames everyone for his own problems. I'd argue Silverhand and Yorinobu are not the heroes, but it ultimately depends on how you play and what decisions you make.
You can also make fairly pragmatic decisions to do what makes the most sense in context. I wouldn't call it 'optimistic' sci-fi since the world is pretty gritty, but the techno-futurism, ability for people to upgrade themselves is pretty interesting, and achieving immortality for everyone is pretty optimistic even in that gritty backdrop.
It's worth playing to check it out, I'd ignore most of this over-intellectualized writing about it and just play it for yourself if you want to.
Re: In 'Cyberpunk 2077,' the Only Truly Punk Move Is Not to Play
#9Two years from now, a heavily patched and modded version of this game will be everything and more than 2077 ever promised to be. That's been the origin of all of my greatest action RPG experiences (Skyrim, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Dragon Age origins).
Re: In 'Cyberpunk 2077,' the Only Truly Punk Move Is Not to Play
#10Bugs aside, I’m not sure it’s right to consider any plot in video games too thin. If you played a Doom game you know that even the silliest pretense for shooting and blowing things up is good enough. It’s not a movie script. Yes, you might hold an RPG to a slightly higher standard than an action game in this regard, but I still think the premise of CP2077 (Or GTA) is more than enough to fill an interesting game. I don’t need to “buy” the story if the mechanics are good enough and gameplay is enjoyable. If they could spend another 1000 hours on improving the writing or expanding the game with the poor writing, I’d take the latter every day.