Highlights - New Trailer and Gameplay Footage

The first episode of Night City Wire

As promised by Hollie Bennett, UK Head of Communication for CD Projekt Red, at the top of the episode, we get another tantalizing peak at what is awaiting us in Night City. With all new content, access to the game, and still more to come in the form of a new episode, in “just a few weeks,” there will be plenty of content to keep us interested in Cyberpunk 2077 as we crawl toward release day.

Our first look is the all new trailer, officially titled The Gig, in which we see glimpses of: interesting locations in the city; NPCs, particularly Jackie Welles- a thick, top-knotted, tatted and teched up partner in crime; graphic violence and explosions; and the central theme of the trailer, a heist, intricate and challenging, that you find yourself involved in. All this, as Hollie Bennett explains, just after the trailer, comes solely from the games prologue, which as I understand it has several different entry points, indicating just how massive and intricate this game is.

Immediately following the trailer launch, we get in-depth analysis from Paweł Sasko, lead quest designer for CD Projekt Red, who confirms the trailer being mostly “the first few quests.” He then goes on to introduce some of the Districts of Night City, including The Badlands, the Mox, a gang you will interact with throughout the game, and, sure to be fan-favorite, Adam Smasher. 

Toward the end of the video, Paweł Sasko returns alongside Patrick Mills, Senior Quest Designer, to breakdown the gameplay footage featuring the Braindance mechanic- a virtual reality type experience where the user can inhabit another reality “from the recorded thoughts, memories, and physical sensations of another person.” This particular BD is called a Flatliner, in which, spoiler alert, we occupy the memory of someone who dies. We experience his last moments, as he prepares for a robbery. We watch as we talk with our friend, take his gun, and make our way into the store, all the way up to when we walk out and hear a loud bang. Unlike a person’s thoughts and memories, as we go back in, we learn we can control the camera watching “you” as well as rewind, fast forward, and focus on objects and sounds in the recorded memories. Rather than these be “collectibles” or a certain number you can find in the game, they instead wanted these Braindances to “give a keyhole into the life of the residents of Night City” and to explore complex pasts and ideas in a different way than a typical game in this style. 

Takeaways - Console Upgrades and Anime Announcement

Jackie Welles under fire in Cyberpunk 2077

In a spot of good news, similarly to the previously announced Xbox One and Xbox Series X upgrade, those that purchase Cyberpunk 2077 on PlayStation 4 will be able to play on PlayStation 5 at launch.

Following that announcement, we learn that CD Projekt Red is teaming up with Studio Trigger and Netflix for Cyberpunk Edgerunners, which is, as we learn from Saya Elder, Japan Based Producer and “fixer,” a “stand alone story set in the same universe, the stage is still Night City, but everything else is totally new. New Characters. New story.” Set to launch in 2022, this partnership has been in the works for “some time” according to Hollie Bennett.

As Cyberpunk is already in journalists’ hands, they can now publish their previews and opinions on their early access experience with the game. Everything I have heard and seen so far seems to indicate that this is the vastly complex, overly detailed, and fun game we are counting on it to be.