I’ve been playing quite a lot of Cyberpunk 2077. I know that there are issues, but those bugs and everything else that’s wrong with the game have been talked about to death. I’m sick of it. So instead, I want to talk about how the game subverts your expectations before you’re even properly playing it. At the time of writing, I’ve just completed the initial ‘heist’ mission at the start of the game. It sets up the rest of the story, so I won’t spoil it for anyone. What I will tell you, whoever is reading this and has yet to start the game, is that the game has barely begun even when you’re done with this mission.
This mission I’m talking about can take place a good few hours into your playthrough. If you’re like me, you’ll have spent a long time exploring the world before following all the main quests. This just pushes back the moment when the game tells you that things are really starting though.
There’s an opening act to the game, one that sees you meet up with a key character and get into Night City. This is what you’re meant to think of as the game’s opening. It’s not until you’ve finished this second major mission though, that the intro credits roll and you’re introduced to the game proper.
I love it when games do this. My favourite example is Assassin’s Creed 2. That game has a few hours of gameplay prior to the intro credits, and it makes you feel like there’s a huge amount of content to come. There is, which is why this elongated intro method works so well. A few other games have tried it, but they’ve never been as impactful as Assassin’s Creed 2.
In Cyberpunk 2077, things are completely turned on their head. The intro is the point at which you think you’ve taken a wrong turn and ended the game early. It’s such a nice way of doing things thematically that puts Cyberpunk 2077 in the same league as older James Bond movies, when the intro sequence wouldn’t roll until an action-packed opening set piece. I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did when you play.
