Anticipation is building for “Cyberpunk 2077”, CD Projekt Red’s upcoming project to follow the massively successful “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.” Originally announced in 2012, details about the science fiction title have finally been revealed along with a release date. 

Trading fantasy for science fiction, “Cyberpunk 2077” is shaping up to be CD Projekt Red’s most ambitious game to date, according to IGN.com. “Cyberpunk 2077” is developed using the REDengine 4 game engine, with around 500 people, exceeding the number that worked on the studio’s previous game, “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.”

“Expectations are high considering ‘The Witcher 3’ is widely regarded as one of the best open-world games of all time. Though ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ is an RPG (role-playing game) much like ‘The Witcher 3,’ it is a new style of play the developers have never done before – a first-person shooter,” junior Seth Chaplin said. 

“Cyberpunk 2077” is set in the universe of 1990 pen-and-paper RPG “Cyberpunk 2020.” That game features high-tech weapons and cybernetic alterations that players can make to their characters as well as a 1980s-style retro-future aesthetic, except the year is 2077.

“This is one of my most anticipated games of the year, but I am highly skeptical. It seems to be really ambitious, much more ambitious than ‘The Witcher 3,’ in fact, which is hard to accomplish,” junior Zachary Czarnik said. 

In Cyberpunk 2077, the player plays as V, a young cyberpunk living in the metropolitan Night City. Though locked into its name, V is a player-created character that can either be male or female. Upon creating the player’s version of V, they can choose from three origin stories, referred to by CD Projekt Red as “lifepaths.”

“I am very interested to see how the decisions made in the game influence the overall story. CD Projekt Red has said that your decisions will impact the NPCs attitude towards you, and that could be a really cool mechanic,” senior Dalton Ottewell said. 

During their E3 2019 press release, CD Projekt Red said that the player’s lifepath will influence how you are perceived and treated by NPCs. 

“Cyberpunk 2077” will be released September 17 on the Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC.