Cyberpunk 2077 at E3 2019

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So... We can infer from that that level gated gear has probably made it in again? How very fun to hear.
We can infer it from the fact enemies have levels. What do you think will happen if you're level 5 and shoot a level 18 goon? ;)

Regarding loot and gear, no one has asked so far.

The developers playing the demo unlocked in the Handguns II skill to increase revolver damage


"maximize your immersion" they said.
 
Attributes will be your more traditional stats, which will grow as the player levels up, or through the implementation of cyberware implants. Skills, on the other hand, will determine how adept you are at more specific things, such as hacking, crafting, or using a particular weapon type. The more you do these things, the more these skills will level up, sort of how Skyrim handles things.
Then there’s perks, which players can unlock through two means- they can either do so with XP, or through street cred. Street cred will be gained by completing side quests and side activities in the open world. The more street cred you have, the more side activities you unlock, while the same also gives you access to new vendors who might provide you with better equipment and weapons.
From an article last year.

I wonder how much has changed in that department since then. The progression sounded kind of awesome and quite deep actually, hopefully it's not been dumbed down.
Would be a real shame
 
"maximize your immersion" they said.

Yeah. Guns getting magically more damage from skills because apparently there's no other way; glowing "shoot-this" prolapses hanging out from bosses who repeat a "dodge-this" coreography; level-gated gear (apparently); leveled bullet sponge enemies... I'd wager it won't stop there either.

It's... weird how something with so many good ideas and such a strong foundation, also has so many egregious design decisions that so easily cheapen the feel of the whole thing.

I'll see how big that list grows (if it does... hopefully not), but I've done my share of complaining soon enough. It's tiring and ineffective.
 
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Yeah. Guns getting magically more damage from skills because apparently there's no other way; glowing "shoot-this" prolapses hanging out from bosses who repeat a "dodge-this" coreography; level-gated gear (apparently); leveled bullet sponge enemies... I'd wager it won't stop there either.

It's... weird how something with so many good ideas, also has so many egregious design decisions that so easily cheapen the feel of the whole thing.

I'll see how big that list grows (if it does... hopefully not), but I've done my share of complaining soon enough. It's tiring and ineffective.
yeah, we don't agree on several game designs, except for the fact that what CDPR has done is the worst case scenario. I really can't believe they haven't improved a bit on this from TW3 in 4 years.

It's just a little attention for this kind of details we're asking for, FFS!

And at this point is quite useless to expect a change in the next 10 months: they read our concerns when they showed the subdermal grip nonsense. Goddamn.
 
Nah, then it would be like original Deus Ex. I remember trying to shoot with things with no skill points being PITA then.

Well, that's how it works in Cyberpunk 2020.
Your firearm skills (or cyberwares linked to it) only adds +"something" (2,3,4,ect...), to your accuracy (chance of hit), then the bullets does the same damages depending on it's caliber.

There, they changed the logic of it.
Maxing your handgun skills to be a good shot is something.
There you can max it so your handgun does the same damage as an SMG, which kills the thrill of choosing the "right gun for the job" and hiding it properly, it was balanced.
 
@Vattier - can u tell us more about this: "The developers playing the demo unlocked in the Handguns II skill to increase revolver damage" How it work? Maybe with Handguns II skill you are enhancing your bullet or something, idk


edit: i think this guy from tomshardware confuses skills with perks, from IGN:
  • You can use perk points earned on level-ups to upgrade a number of categories: blades, rifles, handguns, assassination, cold-blood, sniper rifles, engineering, hacking, shotgun melee, two-handed, and maybe one more I didn't have time to write down. The level-up skill tree is a branching thing that looks like a motherboard almost, with cables going out from the center.
So i don't think they changed stuff, the skill / attributes stuff still probably works as it worked last year, and the yourno from tomshardware confusing skills with perks.
 
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https://www.pcworld.com/article/3402076/cyberpunk-2077-e3-2019-preview-keanu-reeves.html

First up: Your character's dead, but not. Named V, you've been implanted with a chip that (supposedly) holds the secret to immortality and everyone wants you dead-dead, not just sort-of dead, so they can steal the secret for themselves. It's appropriate Keanu Reeves plays a character in Cyberpunk 2077, because it sure does sound a lot like Johnny Mnemonic.

Even his name sounds like Johnny Mnemonic. You're also haunted by a "digital ghost," a.k.a. Keanu Reeves's character, named Johnny Silverhand. Which, holy hell, what a name.

The demo started with character creation. There are a ton of options—surface wiring, hair, eyeshadow, et cetera—plus the usual stat allocation. "You really think they give a rat's dick how you look?" says Silverhand when you're finished.

We then explored the district of Pacifica, and specifically a "church" of some sort. Once again, I was struck by the same thought as last year's demo: "Wow, there are a ton of people here." We pushed our way through a crowd of dozens, if not hundreds, of people crammed inside this brutalist building. It's incredible, and I'm still amazed this is apparently a current-gen console game. I'll be curious what compromises CD Projekt needs to make for that to happen.

I was struck by the same feeling when we walked down the Pacifica boardwalk, smog wafting up from the buildings, with a staggering draw distance that showed off skyscrapers, Ferris wheels, and more stretching into the distance. There's also a day/night cycle, which adds even more complexity, riding down the street at sunset as the various office buildings begin to illuminate.

Anyway, back to the story. We went in search of mercenary work, ending up in "Rolland's Butcher Shop," where we met a contact who then led us to yet another location. "You guys aren't exactly great at rolling out the welcome mat for outsiders," said V, and yeah, apparently.

Our contact tells us about the Grand Imperial Mall, which was abandoned—until recently. Another faction, the Animals, moved in and our contact wants to know what they're up to. One problem: Our contact, Placide, wants us to jack into his personal hardware. If you know uh, literally anything about cyberpunk it's that jacking into an unknown deck is a quick way to die.

But we have to, so we do it. Bad news, as Placide embeds himself in our hardware to "keep an eye on us." We'll have to get rid of him later, most likely—unless he's feeling generous.

We get the job though. Placide starts feeding us video clips, giving us background on our task. Meanwhile, there's a scuffle in the background and CD Projekt calls out its "dynamic dialogue," which allows V to comment on these background events at times, a neat touch that could make for some very different paths through Cyberpunk 2077.

V heads off to the Grand Imperial Mall, snagging a motorcycle and cranking the music. This is the aforementioned sunset ride, the city looking even more impressive at golden hour. This is also the best indication we got of Cyberpunk 2077's scale, as we rode past slums hidden under the highway, through the Mall's massive parking lot, and eventually to the front doors. It wasn't a huge distance, but the real-world scale of Cyberpunk makes it feel like a proper journey. Walking feels prohibitive.

That doubles for the mall itself, which is massive. I'm reminded of Dying Light, which also had that real-world environment feel, albeit without the sort of crowds CD Projekt's featured in its demos so far. The scale just feels so much larger and more authentic than the video game buildings I'm used to seeing.

The rest of the demo passed in a blur of stealth and combat. We jacked into a camera system at one point, which is done by way of a minigame. It's ugly at the moment, a grid of numbers awkwardly arranged, but the goal is you'll be able to not only access the cameras but unlock other networked functions as well if you do well enough.

Perhaps you wouldn't want to access the cameras though. After doing so, V notices an enemy netrunner is also watching over the network, and now they know we're here. They might not know where we are, but they know we've accessed the network somewhere.

Making our way through the mall, stealth isn't limited to the usual "Creep up behind someone and snap their necks" stealth kills. There are some really fun hacking-related knockouts—a robot who punches an enemy too hard, a soda machine that ejects cans at high speed, a bench press machine that collapses on its user, and so on.

We also switched over to another, more melee-focused V to see an alternate route. This time we simply forced some doors open, avoiding the cameras and the enemy netrunner entirely.

You've got options. We took a quick look at the perk tree, which is vast and complicated—twelve sections, I think, each with six or seven perks. Most are standard, like hacking, assassination, sniper rifles, engineering, and so on. I think I saw "Cold Blood" though? No idea what that means. It's also beautiful, with a pseudo-motherboard look to it. Entirely impractical for a mouse and keyboard I think, but beautiful.

Per usual, our major choice came mid-mission when we found out the enemy netrunner was an agent for NetWatch, a corporate police force. We told Placide we didn't want to pick a fight with "the Watch," but Placide assured us it would be him picking the fight, not us. Doubtful, but too late. We sprinted through most of the rest of the mission with our laser-garrote, which doubles as a whip in combat.

Then we fought Sasquatch, the "boss," who has a canister of strength-enhancing gas on her back. By damaging it before the fight we gave ourselves an advantage, forcing Sasquatch to drop the massive hammer she was holding. She managed to knock us over though and allowed the enemy netrunner to start hacking us, forcing us to quickly finish the fight or lose control of our body.

And the demo ended in an abandoned movie theater, a Western playing on the screen as we confronted the NetWatch agent. He was able to cut us off from Placide's network, allowing us to make a choice without his eyes on us—to betray Placide and get paid, or continue the mission and free Placide's comrade Brigitte. We plugged into the NetWatch agent, letting Placide breach NetWatch's network (that's a mouthful) and...then he fried our brain.

Oops.

Miracle of miracles, we survived and confronted Placide—punched him in the face, rather. We also met Brigitte though, who promised to help us with the secret biochip lodged in our body. A quick ice bath later, and we got our first look at cyberspace, presumably a large part of the full Cyberpunk 2077campaign.

And on that note, the demo ended.

Bottom line

It looks amazing, same as last year. (We’ve embedded the E3 2018 demo above, since CD Projekt hasn’t made the latest footage available. I'm trying to be skeptical, both of CD Projekt's commitment to cyberpunk's themes (and not just aesthetic), and to some of the technical feats we've seen both last year and this year. But it just looks damn cool, and April 2020 can't come soon enough—if only so we can verify what CD Projekt is saying.

Regardless, it made for one hell of a demo—one among many, with Outer Worlds already in the bag and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 and Dying Light 2 still on our schedule to come. If even half of those are as good as they appear, we're in for an incredible year. Stay tuned.
 
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