The pen and paper Cyberpunk RPG was set in the distant future of 2013, so this videogame conversion is satisfyingly well-timed. Created by Mike Pondsmith in 1988, it riffed freely on the writing of Neuromancer novelist William Gibson among other science fiction authors, and created such an immense underground buzz that a panicky US government seized the rulebook, mistaking it for a real hacking guide. Imagine Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but a few years on, when human augmentation is a part of life. It's a world where the economic collapse of governments has led to the rise of corrupt mega-corporations, and the population is distracted by tech and celebrity. Must... resist... obvious joke.
"We want to incorporate as much [of the source material] as possible," a CD Projekt rep told OXM. "It's a great vision, and with our technology we will make one of the most kick-ass sci-fi RPGs. Keeping the mechanics intact is an ambitious goal. We even want to make it possible to print a character sheet from the game to play with friends."
What's the storyline? Mostly secret, it turns out. "We want to tell a story of a person from the street who rises against corporations in this almost dystopian society, plagued by drugs, alcohol and braindance addicts - braindance is a new form of entertainment, which allows you to live someone else's life," we're told.
"Augmentations are one of the key features of the setting. And we design special gameplay elements for them. We'll give a wide variety of modifications, which will affect the way you play the game dramatically." How so? "It's Cyberpunk! It's style over substance. So you will have augmentations that give you new gameplay options, facilitate some existing ones, and modifications that change your look. Which doesn't mean it'll only be a cosmetic change."
This high-falutin' tech isn't without its downsides - over-enhancing your body can erode your humanity, to the point where the ol' Skynet instinct takes over, and you go on a human-slaughtering rampage. The problem is, cybernetic implants are pretty popular, even for daft cosmetic reasons, so rampages are common. That's where the Psycho Squad come in: the SWAT element of the corporate police force, tasked with taking down lost humans. Who you play as remains to be seen, though we're told we'll be given a choice of character classes.
The game's recently revealed multiplayer is no less mysterious, but we're reasonably confident that it won't be the usual team deathmatch affair. As with Ubisoft's Watch Dogs, the premise suggests that connectivity could be written into the very fabric of the world. If nothing else, all those augmentations should give the online component a fat, juicy tail.
Hugely promising stuff, then, and while the 2015 release date means we're in for a hellish wait, there's one plus: it'll definitely be a next generation game.
Source: OXM
Thanks to: Rheena.com
"We want to incorporate as much [of the source material] as possible," a CD Projekt rep told OXM. "It's a great vision, and with our technology we will make one of the most kick-ass sci-fi RPGs. Keeping the mechanics intact is an ambitious goal. We even want to make it possible to print a character sheet from the game to play with friends."
What's the storyline? Mostly secret, it turns out. "We want to tell a story of a person from the street who rises against corporations in this almost dystopian society, plagued by drugs, alcohol and braindance addicts - braindance is a new form of entertainment, which allows you to live someone else's life," we're told.
"Augmentations are one of the key features of the setting. And we design special gameplay elements for them. We'll give a wide variety of modifications, which will affect the way you play the game dramatically." How so? "It's Cyberpunk! It's style over substance. So you will have augmentations that give you new gameplay options, facilitate some existing ones, and modifications that change your look. Which doesn't mean it'll only be a cosmetic change."
This high-falutin' tech isn't without its downsides - over-enhancing your body can erode your humanity, to the point where the ol' Skynet instinct takes over, and you go on a human-slaughtering rampage. The problem is, cybernetic implants are pretty popular, even for daft cosmetic reasons, so rampages are common. That's where the Psycho Squad come in: the SWAT element of the corporate police force, tasked with taking down lost humans. Who you play as remains to be seen, though we're told we'll be given a choice of character classes.
The game's recently revealed multiplayer is no less mysterious, but we're reasonably confident that it won't be the usual team deathmatch affair. As with Ubisoft's Watch Dogs, the premise suggests that connectivity could be written into the very fabric of the world. If nothing else, all those augmentations should give the online component a fat, juicy tail.
Hugely promising stuff, then, and while the 2015 release date means we're in for a hellish wait, there's one plus: it'll definitely be a next generation game.
Source: OXM
Thanks to: Rheena.com