Cyberpunk 2077: Inspirations Blog Posts (“Recipes for kick-ass cyberpunk games”)

Lately the folks handling the Cyberpunk 2077 blog has been hosting some posts regarding the inspirations for CD Projekt’s upcoming sandbox title:

In these, it looks like the Polish studio is taking in some community feedback and going over specific elements in other video game titles that would make for a “Kick-Ass” cyberpunk game.

Ideas from Popular Game Titles

The Inspiration post lists some of the games, in the Cyberpunk genre and not, that are directly inspiring the Polish studio during development, and the names should please our audience:

Dystopia and Syndicate are, of course, not the only games that we are looking at, though they are obvious inspirations. There are quite few more. I will only highly major features of these games that have guided what we want Cyberpunk 2077 to become, and maybe in the future we will go into more details about how these concepts work together.
System Shock (1994) Great atmosphere combined with non-linear gameplay
Fallout 2 (1998) A character’s development could determine the available dialog options he/she would encounter
Baldur’s Gate Saga (1998-2000) Faithful adaptation of a Pen& Paper RPG system without getting bogged down in numbers.
Deus Ex (2000) Considered by many to one of the best (if not the best) Cyberpunk game. It had an involving story multiple ways to accomplish a goal. One of first games of its time and still one of the very few games where it was possible to finish it without killing anyone.
The Witcher series (2007, 2011) Rich and mature story. Stunning graphics.
Skyrim (2011) One of the best implementations of an open, sandbox world.

Also of note is that CD Projekt is looking at these titles in light of another consideration — to understand which “Pen & Paper mechanics”, the already familiar elements of the cyberpunk genre, would do well in a video game: “We can’t simply add them because they sound cool or work really well when you sit around with your friends”.

Community’s Cyberpunk Game Picks

The rest of the blog posts highlight the best “Cyberpunk dishes” from their readers, the Cyberpunk games that were most inspiring/interesting or simply just good.

Here’s a snip from Part 3 of the blog series:

Master_Drow: E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy.
“Had a great atmosphere and allowed multiple ways to complete any objective. Plus you could buy new cyberware and weapons, get drones.”
YES! I was hoping somebody would mention this game. Now I know it has magic, and like you Master_Drow we do not advocate magic in 2077 as it would make no sense, but this game definitely had some excellent CyberWare augmentations as well as, as you mentioned, a great atmosphere.
Piotr Skorok: Beneath a Steel sky
“One of best cyberpunk stories ever told. And that is an important thing, if you want to create good cRPG…”
Excellent point. We talk about gameplay, weapons and style but people often forget to mention an immersive story that takes you by the nuts and shows you the real, gritty Cyberpunk universe. By the way, Beneath a Steel Sky is available for free at GoG.com and I would highly recommend you guys check it out.
On a sidenote: If you enjoy it, let the nice people at Revolution Games in York know that you are looking forward to the sequel, I know I am.

It’s interesting to see the developer collecting these ideas from the community: after all, some of the best ideas might come from less popular installments, like a point-and-click adventure game from 1994. There is some discussion about the dystopian setting, the immersive story, rewarding exploration, and CyberWare augmentations.

It looks like developers have a lot to account for when it comes to the beloved elements of the genre, but it’s already clear that they are putting a lot of thought into it.