You can toggle from first-person to third-person for driving—thank god!—and as you go around the city, CD Projekt Red says you’ll run into random encounters. In this demo, those gang members from earlier came and chase down V’s car, leading to an intense action sequence where Jackie takes the wheel from the passenger seat while the player has to shoot at enemies out the driver window.

Advertisement

Eventually V and Jackie get to a meeting with an agent belonging to a generic “Corporation”—one of Cyberpunk 2077's faceless evil organizations—and get into a tense encounter. During each of these encounters, V is barraged with dialogue options. She can choose to be amicable or aggressive at just about every turn, and CD Projekt Red is promising many ambitious narrative choices and branches. The agent offers V a great deal of money—which she’ll be able to use to reclaim the spider-bot—if V will implant a chip in the thieves’ computer terminal. In the demo, V says yes. CD Projekt Red says you’ll also be able to say no, or run away with the money, or who knows what else.

Then we get to the main quest, a standoff between V and thugs belonging to a “psycho-gang” (so much lingo) called the Maelstrom. Long story short: that agent’s chip was a trap, and it shuts down the Maelstrom’s entire system, leading to a brutal shoot-out. V gets the spider-bot, then makes her way through the gang’s complex, shooting enemies and snagging gear along the way. It’s all gorgeous, impressive, and looks like a lot of fun to play.

Advertisement

A few other notes:

Advertisement
Advertisement

CD Projekt Red is promising that Cyberpunk 2077, like The Witcher 3, will be full of branching scenes and bazillions of possibilities. After The Witcher 3, I have a whole lot of faith that they’re telling the truth.