Cyberpunk 2077 developer, CD Projekt Red, has confirmed that the upcoming dystopian RPG will be an exclusively first-person affair, extending as far as cut-scenes and even sex scenes.
Citing immersion as the main motive behind foregoing the third-person viewpoint, CD Projekt Red has made the controversial decision despite widespread backlash from the community.
We’ve known for a while that Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person title and the developer confirmed as much as soon as the title was properly unveiled at E3 2018. Subsequently released game play footage has matched that initial assertion but included cut-scenes where protagonist V was viewable in third-person. This appears to no longer be the case.
Cyberpunk 2077 Cut-scenes Are Now First-Person
A curious Facebook user questioned CD Projekt Red as to whether the first-person view would extend to cut-scenes. The developer responded:
In Cyberpunk 2077, immersion is very important for us, so yes, cut-scenes are FPP.
Probing a little further, CD Projekt Red confirmed first-person extends to sex scenes and going by the rumpus love-making permeating The Witcher 3 – including the sporadic appearance of a magically-invoked unicorn – Cyberpunk 2077 follows in that amorous tradition, albeit within the confines of Night City’s gritty and technology-ridden streets.
CD Projekt Red global community lead, Marcin Momot, took to Twitter to hammer home the point explaining that player characters in Cyberpunk 2077 will be exclusively on show ”in the inventory screen, during driving sequences, in mirrors and, very occasionally, in some of the cut-scenes.”
1/2 Achieving full immersion in an FPP game is extremely important and the decision made by the team to go 100% first person in @CyberpunkGame is something that will benefit it greatly from gameplay and story-telling perspectives.
— Marcin Momot (@Marcin360) September 2, 2019
2/2 That said, players will still be able to see their characters in the inventory screen, during driving sequences, in mirrors and, very occasionally, in some of the cut-scenes.
— Marcin Momot (@Marcin360) September 2, 2019
The Legacy of The Witcher 3
Much of the outrage stems from expectations set by CD Projekt Red’s trilogy of The Witcher games. Players expect any game coming from the Polish developer to have third-person game play as enshrined in the collective gaming psyche by the massive success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Beyond warped expectations, other fans decry the incoherence of having a complex character creator in Cyberpunk 2077 – a feature that is weathering a controversy all of its own – only for the player to catch fleeting glimpses of their handy work. Others point to the inherent contradiction of wanting more immersion and removing a significant part of player agency that evolves naturally from hours spent playing a character they have painstakingly created. Without a persistent reminder that the player has a stake in V’s story, the worry is that detachment will set in and spoil the experience.
Although playing through a CD Projekt Red title in first-person feels contrary to what we’ve grown accustomed to, we would do well to trust that the decision was made with the sole intent of improving the Cyberpunk 2077 experience given CD Projekt Red’s brilliant track record suggests. Cyberpunk 2077 looks incredible and we would do well to remember that CD Projekt Red is behind the snarky diffidence and monster hunting prowess of none other than Geralt of Rivia.
As Momot says;
The decision made by the team to go 100% first person in Cyberpunk 2077 is something that will benefit it greatly from game play and story-telling perspectives.