After an nearly three yr lengthy wait, the primary (and solely) growth for Cyberpunk 2077 is right here. Phantom Liberty presents an entire new storyline to discover, one which sees you getting wrapped up in a political spy thriller as you are tasked with saving the president of the NUSA. It additionally provides in an entire new space to discover, Dogtown, a cordoned off part of Night City that has its personal guidelines and militia. Dogtown is not the largest space in comparison with the remainder of the sport’s locales, however actually? I believe it is higher than all the remainder of the map.
Yesterday I wrote about my emotions on how Cyberpunk has modified with its 2.0 replace, and the way we should not actually be saying “it was all the time good,” as a result of I do assume there are some greater issues {that a} talent tree overhaul and varied different tweaks cannot repair. One of my drawback’s is Night City itself. For a futuristic metropolis, I believe massive components of it aren’t all that attention-grabbing.
As I outlined in yesterday’s piece, there are pockets of attention-grabbing locations to seek out in Night City. In explicit I like Pacifica, as a result of from its design alone you possibly can rapidly garner it is not fairly as prosperous as different areas in Night City. But once more, areas like these that I really feel genuinely fascinated with exploring really feel few and much between; all the opposite monolith buildings exist for no different objective than set ornament.
It’s no shock, then, that I like Dogtown when it is fairly actually located proper subsequent to the Pacifica district. Much like the remainder of Pacifica, it is not likely a spot you possibly can simply go to however you will see that a number of attention-grabbing areas to go to. There’s a membership that has stacks of large taking part in playing cards adorning its entrance, a glass pyramid paying homage to the Luxor Las Vegas on line casino lodge, and even an space that feels closest to Disney’s Epcot.
The structure of Dogtown is what helps it stand out in comparison with the remainder of Night City. At the entrance of Dogtown, or at the least the half that faces the remainder of Night City, you possibly can fairly simply see tall, fashionable buildings much like what you’d see spherical the remainder of the map. Though the massive distinction is that they are unfinished, clearly deserted development tasks left behind because of it beforehand being a battle zone.
Behind all of that you’re going to discover two units of architectural kinds: artwork deco, and brutalism. The two aren’t all that dissimilar, however it’s clear that it is a city caught between two time durations, struggling to maneuver on from its historical past, however one it may well’t handle to do from an apparent lack of funds. Without even taking part in the growth’s story you possibly can rapidly get the gist of what occurred right here.
Because of all that, Dogtown feels much more purposeful of a spot than the remainder of Night City does. It’s extra compact, however you are even given a tiny automotive to assist navigate it. That compactness is a boon, although, as a result of the whole lot feels a lot extra rapidly recognisable to me in a method the remainder of the map hasn’t fairly managed to. It looks like CD Projekt Red actually needed to depart an impression on the participant that that is its personal place, its personal mini-world with its personal guidelines.
Personally, I discover the fixed want for greater and greater maps to be a bit tedious, as a result of it is uncommon that anybody can really pull it off (not each sport may be Tears of the Kingdom). Dogtown is a good argument for scaling again, and choosing one thing extra private. It looks like a personality of its personal, simply as a lot as Solomon Reed and Song So Mi are. Hopefully, that is simply CD Projekt setting the stage for its followup, as a result of if they will pull this degree of element off once more, I’ll need to bounce again into Cyberpunk’s world.
