SQYD.studio

Happy new year anyone and everyone! I haven’t touched game dev in the last two weeks. I had some time off work, spent time with some friends and family, got COVID and recovered from it,  then I spent a week doing whatever the heck I wanted. It was a great way to roll into 2025- but now I’m itching to get back at it. 

One of my resolutions this year is to post something- anything– to this blog every week. In order to accomplish this I have to let go of my expectations and grand plans. It doesn’t have to be good- it just has to be honest and human. I can do that- I can write like a human (maybe? Your mileage may vary). Here we go:

I Played Through Cyberpunk 2077 – Minor spoilers ahead

Game is great. Best time I’ve had with an RPG like this since Fallout: New Vegas. Good shooter action (i.e. juicy animations, fluid movement, cover peaking mechanics, makes you feel like a badass), engaging stealth gameplay (i.e. lets you mark enemies to see their position through walls, alerts you when you get spotted and gives you plenty of time to hide, has lots of blind spots in patrol routes so you can usually sneak past without killing anyone), and- maybe most of all- rich human stories (i.e. all the politics you’d expect in a dystopia story, night city is overstimulating as anything, there’s a sense of dissociation from humanity that plays in nice with the major character plots*).

I’m happy I waited until they recovered from their buggy launch (I did have the game crash on me, but only once) but dang, if you like this kind of game and are sleeping on Cyberpunk 2077 you are missing one of the GOATS. 

All that said, there’s something that’s been bothering me about the game:  V is a  sociopath. By the time I finished the game I had piled up so many bodies that it was hard to roleplay as anything but an emotionless killer. To Cyberpunk’s credit it mostly lets you do this. One bit that stood out to me: you get a text from one of the characters you’d done a job with (i.e. probably killed at least a few people with) asking if you’d like to hang out sometime without any violence involved- and you can respond “…But that’s what I’m good at.” I chose that option, but I have a hunch that ended a romance subplot. I was fine with that (I’ve never been one to pursue romance in my RPGs, but that’s a topic for another time)- honestly I can’t see V being emotionally vulnerable enough for love because of all the casual murder.         

I’m not the first one to point this out about story-driven action games. Extra Credits has a way old video about ludonarrative dissonance in Bio-shock Infinite. There’s a tension between how to make satisfying action gameplay and how to make characters that have the depth of “real” people. We know how to make a good shooter- but while a good headshot can be cathartic- the act, when viewed without the lens of game logic, is deeply troubling. When there’s such a focus on emotional writing this creates a tension that sticks out. Game designers need more tools in their kit than the tried-and-true combat gameplay loop for tackling these kinds of themes. 

To its credit Cyberpunk seems to be aware of this tension. There were at least a couple of times when the faceless goon I was stalking would take a touching phone call from a loved one- it never saved them- but it always felt like the designers hanging a lampshade on the tension. 

Don’t get the wrong idea. I wouldn’t want Cyberpunk 2077 to be any different than it is. I love a good shooter and the game hits a near perfect balance between action and story beats- but there’s always a bit of conflict between the two. I don’t know- this is just something for us game developers to think about I guess. 

TLDR: play Cyberpunk 2077. It’s great. Good shooty, top stabby (fun driving too!) Made me feel things. There’s tension between the gameplay and the story that feels unresolved- even though it gets addressed.     

*Footnote: I’m still getting my head around the themes in the game, but I have a hunch that all the major characters are trying to reconnect to their humanity in some way- Silverhand very literally through his body sharing arrangement with V. Judy with her grief and guilt over Evelyn, Rogue with her past and how she’s changed as a person, Panam with her family and the responsibility that entails, etc. I don’t know- I’ll keep working on it, maybe share a B+ high school essay about it when I get my thoughts together.**

**Footnote on a footnote- I know there’s a lot of parentheticals and asides in this post. I think that’s just how this blog has gotta be. Every one of my thoughts comes with bonus content. If I want to blog every week I don’t have time to make it short.***

***Footnote footnote footnote: Thanks for reading. Happy new year again. Till next week 🙂