Starfield
Cyberpunk 2077 has a unique visual identity, not just that it’s an FPS RPG, but in that the entire game is first person, including every single cutscene not really being a cutscene at all, but acted out in the game in first person, barring the final moments of a couple endings.
This is of course much different than The Witcher 3, where the melee/magic based game starred a very specific, non-custom Geralt. But when it comes to the announced Cyberpunk 2? That may be a different story. Here’s what CDPR’s quest director Paweł Sasko said on an investor call about the possibility of third person in the sequel, despite having “no regrets” about first person only in the original:
“I wanted to say that the first-person perspective is the main characteristics for Cyberpunk and its perception by the players too. It’s also noticeably different from The Witcher, and this helped us craft the product identity as such…But for Orion we’re yet to see.”
This was in response to being asked about a third person toggle, not switching the entire game to third person. Many games do have this, including most recently Starfield, though it’s option and you can chose to play the entire game in first person if you so choose (which I definitely did).
Starfield
While I suppose it’s okay to have that option there, I would imagine it’s a lot of extra work to make sure combat flows the same way in that mode as first person. I do think there’s a reason some of the best-feeling shooters on the market do not have a third person option, as much of that does not necessarily translate, and I also think that Cyberpunk combat has gotten to the point where its first person combat is insane, and allowing third person would be losing something.
I also think that out of combat, they should maintain what we saw from Cyberpunk 2077, the non-cutscene cutscenes where everything is first person. This produced industry-best first person voice performance from its actors and did indeed help with immersion. I understand the desire to “see your character more” given that it’s a custom character who can look cool and dress up in cool outfits but…I fear the game would lose too much. Just use photo mode! It’s one of my favorite pastimes in the game.
But I don’t know how much I can push back against an option for this, and I’m not CDPR so it’s not extra work I’m doing. I just think that Cyberpunk worked excellently using the first person only system, and I just don’t think it would be as good if it went down the Starfield toggle route. Sometimes you want a fixed storytelling and combat vision in place for a reason.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
