This is a bit off topic, but I wanted to share it anyway:
Recently I got Cyberpunk 2077. I like the setting, I am a big fan of dystopian future. I am also a little radical about public transport in real life. I love to use it, I hate handling cars, I hate looking for parking.
One of the mayor things I noticed playing CP77 was the lack of public transport. I haven’t played a triple A ever and was surprised by the amount of NPCs. Everything felt so right in Night City. Urgency, dirtiness, people everywhere. Now it is coming with the next update. Thinking about it makes me not want to use the in-game car. It just pops up (hardly any waiting involved, weird) and you cannot really park it anywhere. It is just as useless as real life cars, handling is bad (maybe I am a bad driver but still). I love it. Yes, I can fast travel, but for immersion it is great.
Night city is unironically more walkable than many cities I’ve been in. Many footbridges, wide sidewalks, and well defined crosswalks.
I think another reason it’s often more enjoyable to walk, besides driving being quite hard, is that you’re always stuck in traffic.
Cities in games like (unmodded) GTA, in part due to system limitations, were often comparitively empty. Which inevitably makes driving far easier and more enjoyable.
Cyberpunk has relatively(!!!) realistic levels of traffic, so you’re far more likely to get stuck in a traffic jam. That’s also why a lot of people enjoy riding the bikes more, because you can more easily lane split.
Good walkable cities AND decent transit? Doesn’t sound very dystopian to me.
I was just reading that metros are coming in the next update, so you’re in luck.
Which is funny since the first trailer they released starts off in a one. You folks think they are done after this or are they going to add more stuff still? Cause I kinda want to finally play the game, but I like to play games that are actually done.
I didn’t buy the game at launch because, y’know, [gestures broadly]. However, I picked it up during the sale with the 2.0 update. There are still some janky glitches and oddball moments that happen every now and then, but overall, Night City is a nice place to be. I can look past its quirks because I like being in the world CP2077 offers.
Even if CDPR is going to add more, I think you should wait for the next sale and pick it up. Plus, the mod community has tons of options to fill in any gaps CDPR leaves.
There’s a really nice mod on Nexus that allows you to hold the “R” key to dismiss your car, allowing it to drive off by itself just as it pulls up when you request it, and I find it so immersive. If the cars can fully drive themselves, then why can’t they be your automated valet?
Probably an unpopular opinion but I think Watch Dogs Legion did a bunch of Cyberpunk things better than Cyberpunk 2077 did and automobiles was the biggest one for me. Putting them in self driving mode while you handled other hacking, remotely operated drones, or just enjoyed the ride was the coolest thing. I have no idea why CDPR never implemented a self-driving mode for cars, but THAT’S the one thing I want.
Never played Watch Dogs, but that sounds like an absolutely amazing feature. It seems like a missed opportunity, especially since not only is there an AI cab company in the game, but you literally receive one of the cabs during the related quest line. It seems glaringly obvious, yet to this day, is still a massive oversight.
Yeah it’s really fun! I didn’t care much for the main game but some of the tech/hacking mechanics made it actually a pretty decently fun sandbox minigame
Final Fantasy XV let you do something similar, where you could just auto-pilot the car as you drove to your destinations. I found it to be really relaxing and fun. Sometimes I do want to take my time getting somewhere.
Im curious how the game feels if you completely disable fast travel and navigation paths. Should be quite nice now with the metro system.
IMO the game is much more enjoyable without fast travel and without the navigation paths. You actually have to learn the routes, follow street signs and pay was more attention to the city as you explore. Just like a real city when you don’t have gps.
That said IME it’s better in a motorbike than a car as it’s so much easier to nip about. The metro will be a great addition to open up route choices.
Public transit in games is kinda weird.
I loved using trains in GTA IV, but in GTA V it sucked. Although I think it maybe has to do with the real life cities those games are based on.
Sadly, none had working buses
Sadly, none had working buses
In a future where the traffic is so awful that cars are pointless, buses are also pointless because they also get stuck in the traffic.
Just like most US cities then.
I remember that I loved taking the tram in mafia when I played it as a kid.
As much as I have been excited about the idea of trains in Night City, as a final-stage capitalist society it makes a fuckton of sense that there was no public transportation.
In a capitalist system an inadequate amount of public transport makes sense. It gets people in the lower classes into the upper class areas to work but it puts them out because they have to get in early or run late and risk their jobs.
The poor have to use a large amount of their own personal time getting in to work and get home late. They have to pay more to live near transit hubs in squalor just to make sure they have less connections to get to work. They have to get food from what little food choices are available close to home or pay more for food near work during their down time.
It is perfect for a dystopian capitalist hellscape.
Riding the monorail was one of my favourite things to do in the original watch dogs. I really hope they actually let you ride it and it’s not just a fast travel mechanic.
I don’t have a source for this, but I read in an article that the option to fast travel would still be there, but you could also just ride the tram in real time. The VR mod for this game just got that much more tempting to try.
The Ascent had a pretty cool metro loading screen where you actually had to ride in the train with other people and the only other option for fast travel was to pay for a flying taxi.
I think the deeper message of dystopia is better made with poor transport. Make the badass hero pay for parking at the enemy’s lair.
But if we’re just talking about fun, gimme a tram
