Altered Carbon and CP2077

[Force58]

I'm new to the CP lore and the first I'd heard of the game was over the past 18 months or so with the trailers and discussion on YT/Reddit. The premise of the game is something I was really interested in, but sadly with the launch of the game being what it was I've had to restart the game twice and finally decided to shelve it until the Jan/Feb updates are available (I play on Xbox One X).

Then the wife and I came across a Netflix series called Altered Carbon that we started watching (I know, we're late to the game). We got through season 1 a few days ago and are completely hooked. I started to notice the similarities with CP2077, the city itself, all the tech, the ripperdocs, etc. and was wondering who came up with the concept first. I'd imagine The Altered Carbon producers took liberties with the CP world as the board games have been out since 1988.

Is there any other influence Netflix could have pulled from to come up with Altered Carbon? I assume most of you have seen some or all of the series, have you wished the game itself were as immersive? I guess it could have been save for the all the glitches. I can't even go 30 minutes without a screen freeze or error where I get shot back to the dashboard.

 

[CS554]

TV series is novel adaption based on book Altered Carbon (2002) by Richard Morgan. It's one of most influential cyberpunk novels written since 80's and 90's.

 

[PR2501]

If you like Cyberpunk check out William Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy: Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive.

He also has a short story book called Burning Chrome with some very cool stories (especially Johnny Mnemonic) and a few I found a little harder to get into. Still a good book overall.

As far as I know Gibson's work is at the foundation of the Cyberpunk genre.

 

[Mobster100]

I'm new to the CP lore and the first I'd heard of the game was over the past 18 months or so with the trailers and discussion on YT/Reddit. The premise of the game is something I was really interested in, but sadly with the launch of the game being what it was I've had to restart the game twice and finally decided to shelve it until the Jan/Feb updates are available (I play on Xbox One X).

Then the wife and I came across a Netflix series called Altered Carbon that we started watching (I know, we're late to the game). We got through season 1 a few days ago and are completely hooked. I started to notice the similarities with CP2077, the city itself, all the tech, the ripperdocs, etc. and was wondering who came up with the concept first. I'd imagine The Altered Carbon producers took liberties with the CP world as the board games have been out since 1988.

Is there any other influence Netflix could have pulled from to come up with Altered Carbon? I assume most of you have seen some or all of the series, have you wished the game itself were as immersive? I guess it could have been save for the all the glitches. I can't even go 30 minutes without a screen freeze or error where I get shot back to the dashboard.

I personally would have liked CP to have been more like Altered carbon and Bladerunner, I think it's slightly to "fine" or what to say, I think it would have been more interesting had it been like twice as dark and sinister.

I reasonably started Fallout 4 again and despite it being a bit old school now and the storytelling not as strong as CP given the better graphics, acting etc. I find the Fallout universe to be much more dark than CP is. Kidnappings and people disappearing is the norm, mutilated bodies is almost more common than living ones. Topics like "racism" against the ghouls, sects and so forth seems to fill this world. Whereas CP is probably slightly to clean in that regards I think. Some of the areas does a good job I think. But overall I think Night city could have been a lot darker and dangerous than it is now. I know there are lots of shootouts in the streets and people being held up etc. But still it feels very "faked" or what to say, because you might have children walking normally around, the police is completely passive, most likely due to the poor AI.

Everything just feels a bit to lawful I think.

 

[Casualclick]

Dystopian visions aren't standardized, thank goodness.

One person's Boogeyman is par for the course in the other.

CP is about Corpos coming to power, which is reflective of the 80s when Pondsmith penned the RPG. FO is the other half of the 80s - that the Cold War gone hot would result in a broken Day After. Notably Pondsmith treats the Cold War as a symptom, not the disease. Nukes are few and far in-between in CP, yet FO has man portable shells that act as mini-nukes being tossed around like candy towards the end game.

 

[RagnaBreaker]

I find more inspiration being drawn from the original Robocop, Judge Dredd , Mad Max, Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell than their modern versions and recent cyberpunk movies/series.

 

[Guest 4375874]

I'm new to the CP lore and the first I'd heard of the game was over the past 18 months or so with the trailers and discussion on YT/Reddit. The premise of the game is something I was really interested in, but sadly with the launch of the game being what it was I've had to restart the game twice and finally decided to shelve it until the Jan/Feb updates are available (I play on Xbox One X).

Then the wife and I came across a Netflix series called Altered Carbon that we started watching (I know, we're late to the game). We got through season 1 a few days ago and are completely hooked. I started to notice the similarities with CP2077, the city itself, all the tech, the ripperdocs, etc. and was wondering who came up with the concept first. I'd imagine The Altered Carbon producers took liberties with the CP world as the board games have been out since 1988.

Is there any other influence Netflix could have pulled from to come up with Altered Carbon? I assume most of you have seen some or all of the series, have you wished the game itself were as immersive? I guess it could have been save for the all the glitches. I can't even go 30 minutes without a screen freeze or error where I get shot back to the dashboard.

I watched Altered Carbon, it was good at least for the first season. I just couldn't get behind the lead character, they should have kept the Asian lead that was his original body. They made the same mistake with the Ghost in the shell live action with Scarlett Johanson in wanting a big name celebrity to carry it instead of the writing. In any case, as many have already pointed the cyberpunk genre has been about for a long time so I don't think the Altered Carbon writer took inspiration from any one source, there are several.

That said Altered Carbon was more about swapping bodies through your stack rather than body modification which was integral to CP2077, although both exist in the story. So there are a few differences but ultimately the story about corporate dominance and the social divide are present in both. Cyberpunk has been done best in animation (anime) than it has live action in my opinion and this was the first game to get it right.

Post automatically merged: Jan 18, 2021

I personally would have liked CP to have been more like Altered carbon and Bladerunner, I think it's slightly to "fine" or what to say, I think it would have been more interesting had it been like twice as dark and sinister.

I reasonably started Fallout 4 again and despite it being a bit old school now and the storytelling not as strong as CP given the better graphics, acting etc. I find the Fallout universe to be much more dark than CP is. Kidnappings and people disappearing is the norm, mutilated bodies is almost more common than living ones. Topics like "racism" against the ghouls, sects and so forth seems to fill this world. Whereas CP is probably slightly to clean in that regards I think. Some of the areas does a good job I think. But overall I think Night city could have been a lot darker and dangerous than it is now. I know there are lots of shootouts in the streets and people being held up etc. But still it feels very "faked" or what to say, because you might have children walking normally around, the police is completely passive, most likely due to the poor AI.

Everything just feels a bit to lawful I think.

The two examples you game are no different though. If anything Altered Carbon was more lawful than Cyberpunk. They had their very own Max-tac group. The lead in Altered Carbon that we follow was one of those very ppl. There was no violence on every corner and it definitely didn't go as far as CP2077 with Dolls, addiction or how stacks could be abused in every day life not just the end of humanity overarching story. Bladerunner glossed over many of these societal issues, you were almost always focused on the protagonists and his philosophical journey but that's also a movie not a video game or series. The novel did a better job there.

 

[Mobster100]

I watched Altered Carbon, it was good at least for the first season.

I agree, I was more hooked on the first one than the second one. And also a bit of time between the seasons didn't help as you tend to forget a lot of details

That said Altered Carbon was more about swapping bodies through your stack rather than body modification which was integral to CP2077, although both exist in the story. So there are a few differences but ultimately the story about corporate dominance and the social divide are present in both. Cyberpunk has been done best in animation (anime) than it has live action in my opinion and this was the first game to get it right.

I think its fine with different views on things, and it's not that the CP universe or lore is bad in anyway from what I have seen. It's just me that is personally drawn to the more dark environments, suffering, corruption and "evil" people and a clear distinction between rich and poor. And CP in regards to mood have a lot of similarity to Altered Carbon especially at night which I like. And I assume that CP is also inspired by it and also from Blade Runner, which makes perfect sense as especially Blade runner is very well known and loved within this genre.

The two examples you game are no different though. If anything Altered Carbon was more lawful than Cyberpunk. They had their very own Max-tac group. The lead in Altered Carbon that we follow was one of those very ppl. There was no violence on every corner and it definitely didn't go as far as CP2077 with Dolls, addiction or how stacks could be abused in every day life not just the end of humanity overarching story. Bladerunner glossed over many of these societal issues, you were almost always focused on the protagonists and his philosophical journey but that's also a movie not a video game or series. The novel did a better job there.

That is correct, at least not what we are shown in the shown. But at least in my opinion I did get the impression that in Altered carbon the society is sort of in decline, with a lot of stuff going on in the lower class of society, whereas those on top live the way they do, so they don't have to deal with all this and sort of "rule" over the lower class.

Maybe when I think about it, it might simply be because CP appear a little to clean during the day, maybe some more smog, vents with smoke coming out of them and maybe just more of a dirty industrial looking city. I don't know, I really like Night city in general and again some of the areas have these things more than others. Also it might simply be because the game have some lighting issues, like the occasional blinding where its like the sun is right in front of you eyes, not sure.

 

[Guest 4375874]

I agree, I was more hooked on the first one than the second one. And also a bit of time between the seasons didn't help as you tend to forget a lot of details


I think its fine with different views on things, and it's not that the CP universe or lore is bad in anyway from what I have seen. It's just me that is personally drawn to the more dark environments, suffering, corruption and "evil" people and a clear distinction between rich and poor. And CP in regards to mood have a lot of similarity to Altered Carbon especially at night which I like. And I assume that CP is also inspired by it and also from Blade Runner, which makes perfect sense as especially Blade runner is very well known and loved within this genre.


That is correct, at least not what we are shown in the shown. But at least in my opinion I did get the impression that in Altered carbon the society is sort of in decline, with a lot of stuff going on in the lower class of society, whereas those on top live the way they do, so they don't have to deal with all this and sort of "rule" over the lower class.

Maybe when I think about it, it might simply be because CP appear a little to clean during the day, maybe some more smog, vents with smoke coming out of them and maybe just more of a dirty industrial looking city. I don't know, I really like Night city in general and again some of the areas have these things more than others. Also it might simply be because the game have some lighting issues, like the occasional blinding where its like the sun is right in front of you eyes, not sure.

Cool, I get that. The dystopian look is what you want to see more of. They could do that but it's not prevalent in all cyberpunk related material. A good example is Ghost in the Shell which is arguably as influential in the genre as Bladerunner but it focuses more on politics and the corporate side so the locations are almost always clean. Even when the lead (Major Kusunagi) visits the poorer locations it has that run down feel but not industrial at all.

I guess it's just a matter of what the devs wanted to focus on and of course the source material. I'm not familiar with the table top RPG that the game is based on so I can't speak on that but the creator was adamant about maintaining as much of his world as possible in this game so I imagine the look of Night City is close to the source. I'm all for adding more grimy locations in expansions but I don't know if I want that to be everywhere all the time in the main game.

 

[Mobster100]

Cool, I get that. The dystopian look is what you want to see more of. They could do that but it's not prevalent in all cyberpunk related material. A good example is Ghost in the Shell which is arguably as influential in the genre as Bladerunner but it focuses more on politics and the corporate side so the locations are almost always clean. Even when the lead (Major Kusunagi) visits the poorer locations it has that run down feel but not industrial at all.

I guess it's just a matter of what the devs wanted to focus on and of course the source material. I'm not familiar with the table top RPG that the game is based on so I can't speak on that but the creator was adamant about maintaining as much of his world as possible in this game so I imagine the look of Night City is close to the source. I'm all for adding more grimy locations in expansions but I don't know if I want that to be everywhere all the time in the main game.

Haven't seen Ghost in the shell, I know of it, but not into it at all. Not all that into the lore of CP either, but at least the creator is very satisfied, so I assume that they nailed it pretty well.

But yeah I like things in this genre that give this sort of mood:

Even the look from CP itself, when it gets more sinister