For being 'futuristic', the setting looks really 'retro'

[msxyz]

Matter of fact, several technologies we would today take for granted, or entirely within reach, given the kind of hardware they have in 2077, are absent.

1) 'Better map; with a cyber eye and augmented reality, I would expect a 3D map directly implanted into my own eye complete with directions for reaching a destination. Cars with head up displays have this nowadays, and so do phones with any mapping app.
2) Traditional billboards ads. Really? In 2077 I would expect that by scanning the ads you're brought to the advertiser website to watch a demo video or do some shopping... and this brings me to the third point
3) Why do we have to go a physical store? I should be able to access the net and order something online to be delivered on my doorstep
4) On then subjects of shops... clothing shops should have smart mirrors to give you a preview of how you character will look dressed with new clothes
5) Mega offices buildings... The trend already started a few years ago to have smaller offices with 'hot desks': for most white collar jobs, a net connection and some kind of computing device is enough making those kinds of 'hives' redundant and expensive to maintain.

I could go on, I decided to skip a few others (i.e. self driving cars) but I'm sure I'm not the only one noticing this. I

 

[Guest 4406876]

Matter of fact, several technologies we would today take for granted, or entirely within reach, given the kind of hardware they have in 2077, are absent.

1) 'Better map; with a cyber eye and augmented reality, I would expect a 3D map directly implanted into my own eye complete with directions for reaching a destination. Cars with head up displays have this nowadays, and so do phones with any mapping app.
2) Traditional billboards ads. Really? In 2077 I would expect that by scanning the ads you're brought to the advertiser website to watch a demo video or do some shopping... and this brings me to the third point
3) Why do we have to go a physical store? I should be able to access the net and order something online to be delivered on my doorstep
4) On then subjects of shops... clothing shops should have smart mirrors to give you a preview of how you character will look dressed with new clothes
5) Mega offices buildings... The trend already started a few years ago to have smaller offices with 'hot desks': for most white collar jobs, a net connection and some kind of computing device is enough making those kinds of 'hives' redundant and expensive to maintain.

I could go on, I decided to skip a few others (i.e. self driving cars) but I'm sure I'm not the only one noticing this. I

Well Self driving cars are a thing in CP77 as there's no AI that can actually drive a car.

 

[kittinaa]

Well Self driving cars are a thing in CP77 as there's no AI that can actually drive a car.

Self driving technology 2020:

just in case you need to see it working:

Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability

Learn how to use Autopilot on the Model S, Model X and Model 3.

www.tesla.com

[...]

About the OP:

CP is just a distopia based on a retro view "synth weave" style future, based mostly in necromancer & old SCI-FI movies.

1) 'Better map; with a cyber eye and augmented reality, I would expect a 3D map directly implanted into my own eye complete with directions for reaching a destination. Cars with head up displays have this nowadays, and so do phones with any mapping app.

I agree on this, they could add some VR/Oculus for map, scanning and similar features. maybe they will who knows.

2) Traditional billboards ads. Really? In 2077 I would expect that by scanning the ads you're brought to the advertiser website to watch a demo video or do some shopping... and this brings me to the third point

Agree too, also the "net" inside the computers is too basic. but hey! they dont even have multiplayer so...

3) Why do we have to go a physical store? I should be able to access the net and order something online to be delivered on my doorstep

Its a distopia, the point is that some things in the future are broken, and dont work as they should.

4) On then subjects of shops... clothing shops should have smart mirrors to give you a preview of how you character will look dressed with new clothes

Again, its a distopia, why should a neo capitalism let you test the thing, and buy after? if its a corpo world, they will first sell, then let you test.. kind of... like when you buy a game? and you play it and is not what you excpected? well something like that but only in 2077....

5) Mega offices buildings... The trend already started a few years ago to have smaller offices with 'hot desks': for most white collar jobs, a net connection and some kind of computing device is enough making those kinds of 'hives' redundant and expensive to maintain.

Depends what the corpo owner wants to do, maybe if we keep having leaders like trump, that make buildings like "the trump tower" i would excpect something similar in the future.
I mean the world have a lot of sense...
But if may i add, what it is indeed weird is that you can kill someone, and run away 30km and you are a "free citizen" again. like there is no cameras? a chip in your head tracking you? that doesnt match the distopia. The open world gameplay is restricted, and is a GTA simulator, i did expected much more.
I think assassin creed open world is much more interesting in that kind of aspect, but i still like CP tho. Just... lets wait how they fix the game to let the open world be available once you finish the game.

 

[msxyz]

Indeed, the 'retro futuristic look' may be a deliberate design choice, though some of the points I mentioned would make the game interface/ navigation a bit easier also for 'us' stuck in 2020

 

[djdawk94]

dude the setting is literally the best part about the game. They nailed it

and 2077 isn't going to look like the jetsons irl.

 

[MojoBreaker]

yes the setting is incredible, that's how people imagined future back in late 80s.

 

[SteveQuinn82]

Watch Dogs Legion has self driving vehicles, must not have got to America in the 50 years gap.

Delamaine do have self driving cars but these are pointless as you can't call a taxi in the game. I think that's a shame.

Be cool to see a cab pull up or drive away when we use the fast travel points.

 

[Tanawat_Phadunkiat]

It's an adaptation of style from Bladerunner and Akira. Which eventhough it's futuristic but still weirdly dated.

 

[warbaby2]

Well, it's an 80'ies - 90'ies vision of a cyberpunk future... that's the setting.

 

[Maelcom404]

It's not "our future" it's the game future with a world closer to the robocop's one.

The 4th corp war destroyed most of the tech advancement, so they kinda stagnated for 50years or so.

No holographic ads because of the violence in the streets, you don't want to change your projector every 2weeks because it has graffiti on it or because some drunk punk destroyed it.

Most people are homeless, don't have a home, most of the economy goes through the black market (sometime regulated by the corps in the shadows).

The good stuff of the progress are for the corps/executives and the few people around, the rest just have the small bits that fall out of the table.

Sure, Maelstorm can get high end upgrades and material, but not because they buy it, they steal them.

Same, I've seen people mentioning V vs Jensen.
In Deus Ex, upgrades are seens as something special and rare (you need to take medecine so your body can't reject it), so the scope is way smaller, Jensen can get the best upgrades because he's kinda like a choosen one.

In Cyberpunk, upgrades aren't seen as a transhumanist thing, more like a pratical thing, you can install most of what you can get your hand on, the society is way more fucked because of it, cause no real limits (untill cyberpsychosis).

In Cyberpunk, V would most likely a same level as Jensen, since, given the money he could get the same implants or better ones on black market.

Cyberpunk world is a chaotic world that evolved too fast with high tech available in the early 2000.

 

[Subenu]

I mean the basic setting comes from the cyberpunk 2020 Pen&Paper RPG lore and they need to think and plan out how the development went further, what kind of changes and events took place (e.g. corporate wars) and how everything influenced the future.

It is a ALTERNATE Universe, it's not our earth. The used technology was different.
It's not a future from our 2020 perspective and at the same time it is. Like merging two timelines to think how something in the future could look and be.

 

[Kohagan]

It will all come full circle, by 2077, we may of seen glitches with digital and mass loss of digital data events - vhs and cassettes will make a comeback, physical is king

 

[TigaShout]

Well Self driving cars are a thing in CP77 as there's no AI that can actually drive a car.

The irony is so big it scares my sorry ass

 

[db_rando]

I mean cyberpunk is by definition a retrofuturistic genre lmao. That's like saying "For a soda, my Fanta tastes an awful lot like oranges".

If you just google cyberpunk any results way before this game was made are going to show you a similar setting, decaying old world with tech tacked on top.

 

[Kikinho]

Indeed, the 'retro futuristic look' may be a deliberate design choice, though some of the points I mentioned would make the game interface/ navigation a bit easier also for 'us' stuck in 2020

You do realise you literally argue against the Cyberpunk aesthetic?

 

[kittinaa]

based in mostly:

Ghost in the shell (1995)
Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
Nirvana (1997) - The movie not the music band
Blade Runner (1982)
Total Recall (1990)
The Terminator (1984)

And a few more titles also.
All kind of movies, distopia movies, from fantastic/imaginary futures, that are mostly a critic of what would possible happen if humankind keeps the path of capitalism. Becoming a decadent society, that the primary objetive is producing money, a system that sees and uses people and things like are the same, just products you sell & buy, use it and throw away for get a new one.
Leaving the social & cultural evolution aside, and focusing just in consumption & inmedate satisfaction. Pushing the middle, low & lower classes of society to live like "batteries" for making the whole system to keep working and devoring their souls, living like zombies like dead souls consumed by the same system.

 

[cl656]

Because it's based on a universe that was created in the 80s, and in the 80s, Cyberpunk is how people saw the potential future.