Spoiler Warning: This text options minor spoilers of an enemy which seems in a late sport mission of Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty growth.
Beloved fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings is probably not an apparent inspiration for dystopian role-playing sport Cyberpunk 2077, however it influenced developer CD Projekt Pink regardless.
Chatting with IGN at GDC 2024, affiliate sport director Paweł Sasko additional defined CD Projekt Pink’s philosophy of designing particular quests with sure genres or themes in thoughts. It has used this idea on a grander scale beforehand, like imagining The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as a horror sport to create the Hearts of Stone growth, or seeing Cyberpunk 2077 within the espionage style to create the Phantom Liberty growth as an entire.
It was on this chunk of recent story content material that CD Projekt Pink carried out this philosophy on a extra intricate degree, nevertheless, and it pulled from myriad widespread works to take action, together with The Lord of the Rings. Sasko referenced Considerably Broken, a quest late within the Phantom Liberty growth, and the enormous spider-like robotic monster known as Cerberus the participant should escape.
“Getting into the Bunker was like coming into the layer of a monster,” he stated. “And even that scene when Cerberus reveals up, it sort of bears resemblance to the second when Shelob seems in The Lord of the Rings, when she hangs over you, this looming type of a shadow.”
Simply as Shelob skulks across the darkish cave whereas stalking Frodo in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Cerberus will be seen doing the identical at midnight subterranean bunker the place the participant finds themselves in Considerably Broken. The mission will be seen within the gameplay video under, which incorporates full spoilers for your entire mission, however the Cerberus scene comes on the 15 minute mark.
“So that is what we began doing, as a result of whenever you outline a style theme and people guiding rules to your content material, it is a lot simpler to information your designers about what they’re speculated to do. And there is so many choices they’re making themselves. It isn’t administrators or leads who’re doing it, it is designers who’re making these choices every single day.”
Phantom Liberty arrived alongside the game-changing Replace 2.0, which fully revamped Cyberpunk 2077 with options akin to a brand new perk system and improved AI. It additionally introduced closure to an Elon Musk fan principle, a reference to the late racing legend Ken Block, and weird additions to the sport’s largest thriller. Replace 2.1 later added a full metro system, romantic associate hangouts, new automobiles, and extra.
In our 9/10 evaluation of the sport, IGN stated: “Cyberpunk 2077 throws you into a stupendous, dense cityscape and gives a staggering quantity of flexibility in the way you select to take it from there.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll speak about The Witcher all day.