I Hated quest makers in the witcher 3 but I think I would actually like them in Cyber punk 2077, and you might be surprised why.
But first though, Its worth mentioning that while we might hope CDPR do without those markers, producers don't feel the same way about their products as developers do about games or the way games feel about their experience. However, Breath of the wild the new Zelda game recently opened peoples eyes to the alternatives to quest markers, And it is highly regarded, so hopefully developers will stop using quest markers or trails, but the new Zelda game is not Dark Souls in its impact and success I don't think. For an alternative mechanic to be suggested it seems it first needs to prove that it has an audience. And some games do that without quest markers, but they are not necessarily seen to succeed because they don't have quest markers in a similar way to how Dark Souls succeeds because of its difficulty. There is also the problem of genera here.
Quest markers fundamentally change the way you look at space making it feel artificial and kills the surprise of exploration by establishing everything neatly for you with unrealistic omnipresence. And that is particularly bad in games set in before you have GPS as an existing technology in your game setting. So its more reasonable to see the absence of quest markers and an alternative used in games where it makes sense for the setting to use an alternative that isnt so immersion breaking. But in Cyberpunk 2077 the all knowing quest GPS can be adopted into lor as totally legitimate because of the existence of that technology in the setting. Because of this advanced technology we cant do away with quest markers entirely. People would have GPS they would have digital maps so the player should also have one and it would be unreasonable for them not to. This doesn't mean we have to accept quest markers as we know them though.
I think the solution mentioned by
Hoplite_22 is good
Hoplite_22;n8471760 said:
quest markers don't really need to be in the world unless you set one on your GPS.
This is a good one. It preserves a separation between players, the space they navigate and the tools they navigate them with. It holds markers placed from being seemingly omnipresent, and in doing so preserves the surprise we might get from the experience of exploration in seeing something on a map become something real.
But there is also another alternative here that in my opinion is no only better but high concept
In that the omnipresent quest marker changes the way you look at space (making it feel artificial, unsurprising and unable to evoke a meaningful experience because of this unreal omnipresence) The quest maker specifically in the setting of CyberPunk 2077 depicted the relationship characters in that setting have with technology. This relationship is a key element and maybe a themes of the games story but more importantly it is a theme of cyberpunk in general.
Technology in Cyberpunk 2077 can make people go insane, this is something demonstrated in the teaser trailer. For people who have more cybernetic upgrades the chances of loosing it are higher. Quest markers in their extreme simulate this insanity in the inability to reconcile experience as real because of the empowerment of technology. It in effect demonstrates something that cyberpunk and sci-fi as a genera has always attempted to do, which is to represent how people might react to or be effected by to future technologies.
So there is a great opportunity for an incredible synergy between game mechanics and story. All you have to do is firstly have a base line of navigation assistance for the player maybe in the form of a GPS that you can place markers on based on information from the quest giver, and then you hide the omnipresent Quest markers we all hate behind an in game upgrade.
In that the player has to actually have installed a neural upgrade to have omnipresent quest markers, we have turned upgrades, the empowerment of technology, into something that legitimately creates a kind of solipsism or nihilism experienced by characters in the setting. And in that it might motivate characters in the setting to engage in a killing spree this "empowerment" might also motivate players for some of the same reasons to engage in a killing spree.
This also turns the decision not to get the upgrade into something more than just a choice about how you want to play the game. its an immersive choice about you and you as your character in the setting.
This is where you get what is called "Ludo Narrative" which some people might have heard of. Its when Game-play and story work in tandem rather than as opposing elements. And, the best part of this is that any cybernetic upgrade you get in the game can function in the same way. Where players are empowered they come to both desire more empowerment (as characters in the setting might appreciate cybernetics) and because of that empowerment slowly become more divorced from the appreciating or treating the experience as real or as immersive (just like characters in the setting might react to their empowerment).
CDPR have a chance to do something really interesting here, and it is something that is also also be dependent on how they allow players to gain access to new abilities. Whether that be in game by visiting a clinic or by interacting with something supper gamy like an upgrade tree which I think is a lazy approach. I look forward to seeing how CDPR handles things.
