Cyberpunk 2020 Creator Describes First Experience Playing Cyberpunk 2077
Mike Pondsmith is the creator of Cyberpunk 2020, the tabletop role-playing game on which Cyberpunk 2077 is based. He has been working with CD Projekt Red throughout the game’s development, and he recently got to play the game for himself in Poland. Speaking with Polygon about his experience with Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay, Pondsmith was very positive.
Mike Pondsmith on Cyberpunk 2077 Gameplay
Pondsmith recently visited CD Projekt Red’s offices in Poland, and while he was there, he got a chance to play an early version of Cyberpunk 2077. It’s unclear exactly how much he got his hands on, however, he said of his experience that; “I got to wander through a lot more than was shown at E3”. The Cyberpunk 2077 E3 demo was shown behind-closed-doors to a select audience of journalists and industry professionals. However, it was said to be a roughly 30-minute demo.
“The sequences when you’re going down to the Ripperdoc and all that,” said Pondsmith; “There’s entire neighborhood areas in there where you can walk around and you can listen to people’s gossip. Because it’s in first-person, what I love is you get that stuff peripherally. You could be crossing to go down the street to get something and hear somebody say something [behind you], and you have to turn and figure out who said it in a crowd and where. You don’t have complete situational awareness, which makes it a far more powerful experience.”
Pondsmith has previously voiced his support for the studio’s decision to adopt a first-person perspective. It seems as though his hands-on experience with Cyberpunk 2077 has only reinforced that belief. Speaking of the first-person perspective, he added; “You stop doing your gameplay on a strategic level. You have to do it on a tactical, immediate level, because you don’t know everything. When you’re in third-person, you can look and see the entire battlefield, so to speak. When I’m in [first-person], I’m in it. Stuff that happens around me is coming to me at the speed it would naturally.”