CD Projekt Red Reveals Cyberpunk

[Keava]

Have to wonder, though, if Pondsmith thought about doing this, or decided to do this, based on the response for Shadowrun Returns (which has already claimed my money in quantity).

Well CDP RED was building a team for that project long before KickStarter became a thing in video game industry (as in prior to DoubleFine's KS) really, so I doubt it's in anyway connected to Shadowrun's success. I'd guess they would need an OK from Pondsmith to even begin planning on it seriously.

I'm guessing it's mostly the fact that the good "old" cybeprunk setting was pretty much dead for last 15 years or so. Sure there been games and movies that brushed against the setting, but the cyberpunk of 80s and 90s had that very visible "punk" influence that got diminished over last decade. If you look at games like DeusEx, they were much more focused on hi-tech agents rather than the dirty and gritty aspects of low-life's pumped with cyber-implants, going crazy from the amount of tech in their bodies coupled with that punk/glam rock aesthetics.
There was no one like Johnny Silverhand in those recent titles.

If they manage to actually replicate some of the mechanics and world from CP2020, especially whole netrunning (hacking), with turn based attacks on firewalls, all those fancy apps that could turn netrunner into braindead plant by frying their brain, it could be really good game. Question is, how much of that can be fit in a single game.

 

[Pinkamena]

Interesting. I really like the cyberpunk genre.

 

[Paladin2905]

Wow, Mike Pondsmith. Don't think I've heard that name since the late eighties.

CD Projekt Red is probably an excellent choice for this sort of thing, they seem to have that Troika gift for putting together interesting games, and I appreciate their attitudes towards the business in general.

 

[johnnnny guitar]

oh hell yes bring it on CD Projekt just tell me where my money goes

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

This sounds like the awesomest thing evar.

Now they just need to write a story as good as Rise of the Dragon and we will be good to go.

 

[Fudj]

I used to play the Pen and Paper version of this, so i hope this goes well for them and i very much looki forward to it

(also having just played witcher 2 and really enjoying it this is even better news)

 

[Nerexor]

As long as this isn't "Geralt in CYBERSPAAAAAAACE" then I'll probably be very happy with this.

Also for those who have played the pen/paper game, is combat likely to be gun focused or melee? I ask largely because my biggest issue with CDProjeckt games is that I loathe the melee combat system. Which also happens to be the ONLY combat system...

And maybe they could actually do something trippy with the cyberspace side of Cyberpunk, which most games seem to ignore. Playing through something like the Straylight Run out of Neuromancer could be pretty awesome... dammit! Must... stop... getting... excited... about... game...

 

[Slycne]

Alright everyone, Cyberpunk [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk] is a genre science fiction. Cyberpunk [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk_2020] is also the name of a pen and paper RPG. The game is based on the pen and paper game, hence the title.

 

[GiglameshSoulEater]

Ohh, cyberpunk. How nice.
Though another game set in America. Why, god, cannot we have more variation?
Set it in, I don't know, Germany or Britain or something. Maybe Russia, that would fit the cyberpunk genre very well. Anyway but more American protagonists fighting for America.

Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. I'm in desperate need of a good cyberpunk RPG.

HAve you played System Shock 2? A very old cyberpunk game, but an amazing one.

 

[mattaui]

...The modern world is so much weirder than cyberpunk envisioned. To be clear, I'm not at all down on the idea of the game. I love it. But do you think they should go for the nostalgia kick and do it all in true 80s style, with the concerns and relative ignorance of the day? Or do they update and work to bring the similiar themes to bear on modern technology. I feel like Deus Ex : HR took a reasonably good stab at the latter option, for good or ill. I'd like to see an attempt to make cyberpunk back in the day, when the net was a neon tron rip off (

Plus, so help me, it would be hysterically awesome to play a rockerboy when the idea was inspired by the Moscow Music Peace Festival and people actually thought musicians could make a difference Go Johnny Silverhand! Wooo!

I think you make some good points, though I'd argue that it's less that those trends they were writing about became irrelevant and more that many of them came true, along with some interesting twists. The focus on Japan ended up being misplaced, but the idea of corporations becoming globe-spanning monstrosities wasn't. They're just not constrained by minor concepts such as nationality and keep their cash where it's taxed the least. Unlike most cyberpunk futures, we got both very powerful corporate interests and very powerful national governments. State power, rather than waning, has never been greater. The old Cold War might be over, but Russia hasn't gone away, and the West has been pinned down in minor but intractable conflicts for most of the last 20 years.

Most crucially, the theme of technoshock is still very much alive and well, even if it's less about remaking individuals and more about remaking society, though our individual behavior has been altered by it a great deal. As you noted, it's weirder in so many ways.

I do hope they go the retro route, though. So much of it is the look and the feel, and if they're bothering to use the old Cyberpunk RPG, they'd just about have to. If not, they'd be better served by starting from scratch.

Can't leave out the Rockerboys, though. They're like Bards, only with synthmetal tunes and SMGs.

 

[Keava]

As long as this isn't "Geralt in CYBERSPAAAAAAACE" then I'll probably be very happy with this.

Also for those who have played the pen/paper game, is combat likely to be gun focused or melee? I ask largely because my biggest issue with CDProjeckt games is that I loathe the melee combat system. Which also happens to be the ONLY combat system...

And maybe they could actually do something trippy with the cyberspace side of Cyberpunk, which most games seem to ignore. Playing through something like the Straylight Run out of Neuromancer could be pretty awesome... dammit! Must... stop... getting... excited... about... game...

There is both in Cyberpunk. Most of the time there are guns. All sorts of guns. From the more traditional bows, pistols, rifles, LMGs, SMGs, shotguns, etc. to more exotic like microwave, laser or railguns. There is as well huge selection of melee weapons like knives, vibroblades, chainsaws, monowhips and whatever else you mind find handy in given situation. If you like heavier stuff there of course are also mortars, rocket launchers, explosives, autocannons and miniguns.

Of course we have no idea at this point what will be in the game.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I'd be super intertested just for the IP alone. The fact that CDProjekt is the developer just adds the icing and cherry on top. Despite wanting to tell myself it's too early to get excited yet.. I just want them to take my moneys now.

 

[Fearzone]

Good company with a good IP. Me want. Remember playing that on tabletop during the day. I wonder how they'll factor in cyberpsychosis?

I never really could get into dark "mature" fantasy, so the Witcher universe is something I never wanted to be in, regardless of how good the game was, and I heard mixed things about that. I mean, renaissance faire talk and wizards with pointy hats casting magic spells, there is simply no way to make that hip.

Except for the "Dying Earth" series, which had a good tongue-in-cheek grasp of its own nerdiness and never really tried to be adult like the Witcher series does, so the adult content fit in fine.

Oh yeah, Game of Thrones. Anyway. Witcher was just trying too hard to be cool and not fantastical. Song of Ice and Fire knows its audience and embraces nerd-dom.

Bring on Cyberpunk.

 

[Slycne]

Also for those who have played the pen/paper game, is combat likely to be gun focused or melee? I ask largely because my biggest issue with CDProjeckt games is that I loathe the melee combat system. Which also happens to be the ONLY combat system...

It's mostly guns. There are certainly melee weapons like cybernetic claws ala Wolverine, but in general you'd get your head shot off by some reflex wired solo with a smart linked gun.

 

[DirtyJunkieScum]

Holy fucking shit! This is the best news I've heard in a long time. I don't suppose the game will have quite what the RPG had but I'm really happy about this.

I just hope that Pondsmith isn't involved in the writing, unless they're going back to the system/setting's earlier versions because Cyberpunk V3 sucks sewage by the ton. Would've been better named 'Glee: The Tabletop'. If they stick with the 2013-2020 area, then I'm hopeful for a halfway decent game.

Have to wonder, though, if Pondsmith thought about doing this, or decided to do this, based on the response for Shadowrun Returns (which has already claimed my money in quantity).

And really... all those folks harping about the name, look it up; The original tabletop RPG was called Cyberpunk. The second edition was called Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0.

I second this sentiment, I don't see why they'd make it about V3 though, that bombed so hard. 2020 is the setting everyone knew and loved.

 

[aegios187]

Hope they use the 2020 setting and that the game is based in Night City! I'd love to see Night City in digital form finally. So many awesome table top games were had with Cyberpunk 2020.

 

[csoloist]

:O
Wow, just wow.

Capital 'C' Cyberpunk, couple years ago I wouldn't have thought it possible... Now we've got multiple MechWarrior titles in the works, a lightweight Shadowrun coming, the WoD MMO in development, Double Fine and Telltale proving that adventure games still have a place, saw the new Humble Bundle right before this article...

Is the world ending in 2012 or some shit? I'd thought the gaming gods had forsaken us. If someone announced a new Elite or Wing Commander the universe would implode from the accumulated weight of awesome.

 

[Stormz]

The Witcher series are some of the best games I've ever played so needless to say I'm looking forward to seeing more about this game.

 

[Tien Shen]

The only thing that could ruin this was if EA or Activision acquired CD Projeckt in the middle of development.