A decent portion of the gameplay is dedicated to driving, and in this respect Cyberpunk 2077 resembles Grand theft auto iv with its viscous vehicle behavior. For added realism, you can cruise through Night City with a view from the cockpit, but it is most convenient to observe the car from the side, so as not to accidentally run over random pedestrians. A car and a motorcycle can be bought or simply stolen if your character has the necessary strength indicator. True, before this it is worth thinking twice, otherwise there is a chance to catch a bullet from high-level policemen – “Cyberpunk” is not quite a suitable game for lawlessness on the roads. During long trips, you can listen to local radio stations offering an excellent selection of music genres for every taste, all of which are skillfully stylistically inscribed in a futuristic setting. As in the case of our beloved Roach from The Witcher, V is able to call his iron horse to him from a distance at any moment – in Cyberpunk this is due to the presence of an autopilot and no longer looks like an archaic convention of game mechanics.
The shooting mechanics are not annoying in the context of the gigantic size of the game, but they clearly fall short of the flagships of the shooter genre. This is especially noticeable in terms of the artificial intelligence of opponents, who, although trained to throw grenades, hide behind shelters, and sometimes go around from the rear, but most often behave like average dummies who happily substitute themselves for your bullets. When going through stealth, you can easily use the classic tactics – put the body of one enemy in a conspicuous place, and new victims will take turns doomed to him. By the way, it is not necessary to kill here – there are always harmless means of warfare, although the path of the pacifist is, as always, the most difficult and confused. In addition to firearms and quiet strangles from behind, in Cyberpunk you can become a master of fistfighting, as well as use all kinds of katanas, batons, and so on. The combat system is well thought out and allows you to deliver fast and strong blows, put a block, parry, counterattack and dodge sharply to the side. To be honest, this method of dealing with enemies turned out to be much more fun than shooting. If you, in principle, disdain to approach opponents, then a hacking system will come to the rescue, with the help of which you can arrange various dirty tricks at a distance: break surveillance cameras, turrets, weapons and even chips implanted into the heads of enemies, making them suffer from pain or attack on their own. Wee, in turn, is vulnerable to hacker attacks by the so-called “netrunners” – specialists in hacking other people’s brains.
Of course, the variability of the passage of dangerous sections is present, but in a much smaller volume than, say, in Deus Ex or Dishonored… This is most likely due to the more straightforward design of the locations, which is understandable given the overall size of the game. A much clearer emphasis is placed on the dialogue system, thanks to which you can avoid unnecessary skirmishes and change the course of the plot. There are no right or wrong answers in the game, often you are not given direct clues at all for a favorable outcome of the conversation, so you have to act independently, trying to choose the most adequate response based on the situation and personality of the interlocutor. Someone should be thoroughly cajoled, someone likes honesty, others are easily deceived, but as a last resort, you can always treat especially stubborn citizens with selective cuffs.
Separately, it is worth noting that CD Projekt RED has finally overcome the affliction of so many RPGs, when the setting of dialogues is reduced to a conversation between two wax statues facing each other. In Cyberpunk, almost every conversation is part of a plot mise-en-scène, where the characters take the most natural positions for a particular episode, for example, if you have an appointment at a bar, then you will communicate with your counterpart while sitting at a table, and not standing in the middle of the room, and in the case a dynamic scene, characters move freely around the location, while the harmony of the dialogue is not disturbed and you can choose the answer options right on the go.
But what about, you ask, the notorious role-playing? I must admit that in this sense, many seasoned fans of “pure” RPGs may be disappointed, because already from the above features it is clear that the game is focused on a very specific story with small deviations here and there. You should not expect complete freedom of choice and the opportunity to be anyone you want, to be rude at a funeral, kill children and resolve issues, bypassing the main plot of the plot, although, of course, many moments have a non-linear form.
The pumping element in this regard works quite simply – for starters, you spend the gained experience points to improve basic characteristics, which gives you access to special skills such as quick opening of doors, terminals, increased chances to intimidate or convince some characters in dialogues, and so on. After that, you can go to the upgrades on the ability tree – there is a whole library of small perks that greatly increase the chances of survival in Night City. We also note that your pumping is not synchronized with opponents, so if at first you will rake with gusto from almost everyone, then in the end, being at a high level, you can, like a terminator, mow down entire units or just pass under everyone’s nose unnoticed.
Summing up the gameplay mechanics, the bottom line is that we have a very interesting picture. On the one hand, Cyberpunk tries to preserve some of the key features of the RPG genre, but on the other hand, with great pleasure, it brings a lot of seemingly completely alien moments into it, such as scripted scenes with vivid effects where you have no control over what is happening, or arcade shots from a stationary machine gun with endless cartridges. Probably, it would be wrong to hang any labels on Cyberpunk 2077 – it is better to just accept the project as it is and enjoy the truly magnificent work of the authors on the plot, quests and the game world.
