Cyberpunk 2077 setting details

Following on from the recently released trailer for Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red is revealing more details surrounding their new futuristic IP.

The latest press release reveals information concerning the game's setting, a "dark future" in a bleak and poverty stricken metropolis called Night City (described simply as a place "of filth and sin").

Players will take on the role of an individual trying to pull themselves out of the dark and seedy underworld of a future where: "psychos go on rampages and the streets are filled with junkies addicted to a new form of entertainment - the braindance, a cheap way to experience the emotions and stimuli of someone else, someone living a more exciting life."

It's clear that this new addiction will form an integral part of the game's setting, as it is explained in much more detail:

"Braindances are digital recordings of a person's experience. The viewer can stream a braindance directly into his neural system via special brain augmentations... Braindances allow the viewer to experience all brain processes registered, including emotions, muscle movements and all stimuli perceived by the recording person."

Experiences can be straightforward affairs, with approved content coming from megacorporations, or there's the underground alternative, with people able to experience the crimes of serial killers ("seeing the monstrosity he performs, but also living his lust to kill and fulfillment"). You can see a pdf with more details/lore regarding the fictional tech here.

It's a bleak portrait of the future, where "tech advancement went hand in hand with the decay of society," a future where the lines have widened between the haves and have-nots. It might not sound like a happy place, but CD Projekt Red's vision of the future is certainly a compelling one.