CD PROJEKT RED Team Begins Cyberpunk 2 Pre-Production

[AleksandarK]

CD PROJEKT RED has confirmed that Cyberpunk 2, previously known as "Project Orion," is now in pre-production. This move follows weeks of initial planning, and the development team is shifting focus toward concrete concept work. During this phase, designers and writers will refine story outlines, build environment layouts, and establish technical specifications before full production begins. One of the goals for Cyberpunk 2 is to expand beyond Night City. According to series creator Mike Pondsmith, players can expect a second city inspired by a ruined, dystopian version of Chicago. This new urban area is intended to evoke a sense of oppression and weariness yet remains rich in detail. By adding another metropolis, CD PROJEKT RED hopes to enhance the game's sense of scale and introduce new social dynamics that contrast with Night City's neon glow.

On the gameplay side, Cyberpunk 2 will deepen its focus on cybernetic enhancements. Drawing on ideas from the original pen-and-paper role-playing game, developers plan to incorporate body modifications that were not included in Cyberpunk 2077. Gamers can look forward to a broader selection of implantable upgrades, ranging from neural interfaces to advanced prosthetics. These new options should diversify character builds and provide players with more freedom when crafting their playstyles, ranging from stealthy infiltration to all-out combat. Despite the excitement, a release date remains far in the future. At this stage, only 96 developers are assigned to Cyberpunk 2, while the majority of CD PROJEKT RED is working on The Witcher 4, which is already in full production. A realistic launch window is around 2030.



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[AusWolf]

This new urban area is intended to evoke a sense of oppression and weariness yet remains rich in detail. By adding another metropolis, CD PROJEKT RED hopes to enhance the game's sense of scale and introduce new social dynamics that contrast with Night City's neon glow.

The underlined parts were the main points of the first game, too. This is why I didn't get all the criticism against it.
"GTA is much better." - "Guess what, this isn't GTA."
"The city is so empty, there is no social interaction." - "Have you ever set foot in any modern city and actually interacted with every human being you saw?"

Yes, Cyberpunk is bleak. So is modern urban life. It's a satire, a highly underappreciated form of entertainment these days.
Bring on Cyberpunk 2!

 

[tfdsaf]

Cyberpunk 2077 and its expansion is way more shooter game than an RPG. When they announced the game I thought it would have a lot more RPG elements, a lot more dialogue options with characters, be focused on leveling up and gaining enough charisma to talk your way into a building or out of a bad situation, rather than just shoot everything that you see.

The game is way too fast paced and shooter based, they focus too much on smaller quests that do not have a lot of variety in them and are there to just provide more content rather than an engaging experience and just get passed usually by killing everyone. Bigger missions with their own story and interactive options where you can change the outcome of characters and stuff, where you can fail the mission, but the game continues, where a character can die depending on how you did the mission.

 

[AusWolf]

Cyberpunk 2077 and its expansion is way more shooter game than an RPG. When they announced the game I thought it would have a lot more RPG elements, a lot more dialogue options with characters, be focused on leveling up and gaining enough charisma to talk your way into a building or out of a bad situation, rather than just shoot everything that you see.

That didn't bother me, personally. Kind of like The Witcher, which is an RPG in a sense that you develop skills, but you don't have a choice in what kind of character you have.

The game is way too fast paced and shooter based, they focus too much on smaller quests that do not have a lot of variety in them and are there to just provide more content rather than an engaging experience and just get passed usually by killing everyone. Bigger missions with their own story and interactive options where you can change the outcome of characters and stuff, where you can fail the mission, but the game continues, where a character can die depending on how you did the mission.

That I agree with. The bazillion mini-missions, and their pointers on the map annoyed me a bit.

 

[Tomgang]

Well i hope they have learned that releasing a messy game that felt like preproduction version is a no go.

I first got cyberpunk 2077 around a year ago, because before that, it was a messy bug plague crap. But now it runs great and i really enjoyed playing throw it.

So as long they this time release a good running game, im deffently down for a round 2 of this games. But if they release the same messy crap as cp 2077 was at start. Well then they can suck it. Im not supporting messy production software....

 

[NSR]

I like the 1st game but basically everyone agrees it was never the RPG that was promised and it seems to me like they're moving away from that vision. Next game will be UE5 too so they probably have to consider how that changes things.

I suspect they'll use what worked in CP77 and make another story-driven shooter with some open world interaction but not necessarily RPG.

 

[Apocalypsee]

Please at least made ONE good ending, not everything needs to be edgy, gritty etc.

And for the love of God make us continue AFTER the main quest ends and put more sidequest after that.

 

[thesmokingman]

My kid who was joking that it'll be 2030 before we see it and lmao it's right there, won't release till 2030. He joked again and said maybe we'll see CB3 by 2077, lmao.

 

[AsRock]

The underlined parts were the main points of the first game, too. This is why I didn't get all the criticism against it.
"GTA is much better." - "Guess what, this isn't GTA."
"The city is so empty, there is no social interaction." - "Have you ever set foot in any modern city and actually interacted with every human being you saw?"

Yes, Cyberpunk is bleak. So is modern urban life. It's a satire, a highly underappreciated form of entertainment these days.
Bring on Cyberpunk 2!

As long it's not on the Unreal Engine i be keeping a eye on it for sure, but with the witcher 4 being on that engine there is good chance it will be as well.

Got the 1st one late due to all the crap went on and ended up completing it 4 times with a bunch of different endings and it was worth every penny which is more i can say for baldurs Gate 3, i like ai that have preferences, shame too.

 

[Gigaherz]

Why not finish CP1 first? Still missing advertised features.

 

[[crs]]

As far as I remember the upcoming Witcher 4 game will be running UE5 so it's very likely Cyberpunk will be as well.

 

[Dirt Chip]

By 2030 I hope cb2077 will be given for free somewhere so I can experience it.
Still waiting for the opportunity to free play Whicher 3.
No rush though, many untouched freebie's are in my library still.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Finally by 2030 will have an x080 card capable of running UE5 engine games @100fps with all the Ray tracing goodies.

 

[Chrispy_]

CP2077+Phantom Liberty, aka CP2077 version 2.0 is a great game, but it existed only as a hardware benchmark in my Steam library. I bought CP2077 in 2020 and didn't play beyond the first mission for three years because it was honestly released three years too soon.

Hopefully the bosses at CDPR learned something from the terrible launch of CP2077. Most importantly, they lost ALL revenue from the current-gen consoles at that time, and there's no doubt that today's version of the game would have run just fine on those consoles had it not been an complete mess.

 

[Bomby569]

They wont be getting my money this time, instead of day one purchase, i will sail the high seas. This is one you, you won't cheat me twice.

 

[Rightness_1]

Finally by 2030 will have an x080 card capable of running UE5 engine games @100fps with all the Ray tracing goodies.

nGreedia would have abandoned the consumer market by then, unless the A.I. bubble bursts.

 

[Vayra86]

Cyberpunk 2077 and its expansion is way more shooter game than an RPG. When they announced the game I thought it would have a lot more RPG elements, a lot more dialogue options with characters, be focused on leveling up and gaining enough charisma to talk your way into a building or out of a bad situation, rather than just shoot everything that you see.

The game is way too fast paced and shooter based, they focus too much on smaller quests that do not have a lot of variety in them and are there to just provide more content rather than an engaging experience and just get passed usually by killing everyone. Bigger missions with their own story and interactive options where you can change the outcome of characters and stuff, where you can fail the mission, but the game continues, where a character can die depending on how you did the mission.

What you see in Cyberpunk is just piss poor project management. There is no direction beyond the narrative/story missions. Its a game with an identity crisis that makes itself known everywhere you go outside of a story mission. From the open world and its markers and collectibles, to the utterly broken game economy/store systems, to the move and skillsets you get that are focused on stealth and mobility, except there is barely a playing field for all of that to fit it well (guess what: the free vertical movement offered suits an open city best... except there's nothing to jump to). The game has got a few rare sequences of it, and they are all heavily scripted or super limited.

Its basically a game that should have been on-rails and linear. The same problem already pops up in the introductory mission. Are you a corpo? A thug? ... well... who gives a flying fuck? The concept is not re-used other than a few dialogue options that have no impact whatsoever. And this trend continues throughout the game. Aimless features that are clearly designed with intent... but don't form parts of the whole.

The only saving grace here is if CDPR does evolve this franchise into a GTA-like clone in terms of sandbox elements. Otherwise? Make it linear. Or this is just history repeats, and it won't end well. They need to do less and do it better. They can't do both at the same time.

Why not finish CP1 first? Still missing advertised features.

Yeah this smells badly too.

CDPR is trying to hide the change, but they're turning into a corporate shithole much like the rest. Everything Witcher and Cyberpunk is gonna get milked to the max and we can all see it. That's not generally a healthy driver for great content.

Not holding my breath over this sequel, especially given the fact there's also a TW4 in the works. Ubisoft comes to mind.

 

[Macro Device]

"A ruined, dystopian version of Chicago."

Meaning, just CTRL+C and CTRL+V?

 

[csendesmark]

CP2077+Phantom Liberty, aka CP2077 version 2.0 is a great game, but it existed only as a hardware benchmark in my Steam library. I bought CP2077 in 2020 and didn't play beyond the first mission for three years because it was honestly released three years too soon.

Hopefully the bosses at CDPR learned something from the terrible launch of CP2077. Most importantly, they lost ALL revenue from the current-gen consoles at that time, and there's no doubt that today's version of the game would have run just fine on those consoles had it not been an complete mess.

I also bought it on the 3 years anniversary, it is good game.

 

[JustBenching]

itself known everywhere you go outside of a story mission.

Yes, but if you just play it as a story game, it's great. Not a 10/10 RDR2 / witcher 3 game, but an easy 8/10. 9 if you like the setting.

 

[AusWolf]

Finally by 2030 will have an x080 card capable of running UE5 engine games @100fps with all the Ray tracing goodies.

I've just watched a gameplay video of The Witcher 4 where the devs said it runs at 60 FPS on a PS5 with ray tracing on.

 

[JustBenching]

I've just watched a gameplay video of The Witcher 4 where the devs said it runs at 60 FPS on a PS5 with ray tracing on.

Pipedream. Probably dynamic resolution dropping to 500p or something.

 

[Vayra86]

Yes, but if you just play it as a story game, it's great. Not a 10/10 RDR2 / witcher 3 game, but an easy 8/10. 9 if you like the setting.

Absolutely, but that's not how the game presents itself - it makes a big effort to make you think there is more.

And if you look at this press release... it still oversells itself apparently. Or are they gonna deliver now? I have my doubts. The scope is too big. Basically CDPR painted this franchise into a corner, because they can never 'scale down' into a narrative driven game (imagine the shitstorm then), there will be another open world attached to it. Its part of the reason it keeps selling: muh city, the vistas, the screenshots, the path tracing, omg omg graphics. That's the whole game outside of the story. I've never seen real talk about gameplay outside of the story. Its whateverland, for most. There's just a city, some side missions, and scenery, people like to drive cars through it. And that's just about all it has to give. But its not enough to feed part 2.

Perhaps they bank on AI giving them the production quantity while they add the quality. That might be viable, but otherwise? Not seeing it - unless they just re-use Night City entirely.

 

[AusWolf]

Its basically a game that should have been on-rails and linear.

That much I agree with. I played the game with that mindset (combined with taking random walks on the street), and it was excellent.

Pipedream. Probably dynamic resolution dropping to 500p or something.

If that's true, then it's crap.

 

[Pepamami]

I hope this time main character will be less "cringy". And u will actually be able to choose background, instead of Street Kid 1, Street Kid 2 and Street Kid Deluxe