Cyberpunk 2077
While I probably won’t be putting all that much more time into Cyberpunk 2077 from here, due to the four(!) different Vs I have already run over the last three years, I did circle back for the 2.1 update which dropped yesterday.
What I was not expecting was that despite its small size and relatively minor additions, that it would hit me quite as hard as it did.
Yes, there are new “game” things. As in, you can now throw knives while on motorcycles and gangs you’ve upset will try to run you off the road. But the more interesting, touching aspect of the game is the “life sim” aspects that it added. Namely, new interactions with romantic partners and the NCART system.
The NCART system took a minute to grow on me, but the more I rode it around, the more I understood that it was just another level of immersion in Night City, one that avoided teleporting, jumping around or reckless driving to get from place to place, letting you see the scope of what I would argue is the best realized open world city in gaming. Then you can get off at your stop, grab a drink at a nearby bar (another new addition) and go back to crime.
But it’s the partner stuff that really hits. I’ve said previously that Cyberpunk 2077 has some of my favorite NPCs in history, namely Panam and Judy, the male V and female V romance choices respectively, albeit they still make great friends if you’re not their type. Here, these two, plus Kerry and River, are available to hang out at a number of your apartments, which involves just talking not them, cuddling, kissing and sleeping together. Like, literally sleeping together, as this is not a “sex update,” which makes the whole thing…surprisingly wholesome, especially when it includes little moments like this:
However, there’s something baked in here that servers to do actual emotional damage to players. In many of your apartments, you can choose to turn on music and dance with your partner. The song? At least the time I did it, it’s “I Really Want To Stay At Your House,” the Rosa Walton track that was always in the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack, but had special significance during the gripping, tragic finale of Cyberpunk Edgerunners, the beloved TRIGGER anime series that aired on Netflix.
With Panam, she started dancing to the normal beat (a bit awkwardly, to be sure) but then once the beat kicks in she starts hopping and man, it’s a lot. I genuinely choked up a little bit.
The song, the return to revisiting these old NPCs I’ve spent three years with now, which I would argue are some of the best realized fictional relationships I’ve seen in a video game. While this patch is small compared to what’s come before it, it shows just how much small details can have a huge impact in a world like this, and I think they did a fantastic job here.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
