In a recent community meeting with CD Projekt Red, new details were revealed about Cyberpunk 2077. A summary of the Q&A can be found on Reddit and it revealed new details about a variety of different things in the game including the story, gameplay, and cyberware, the modifications that can change how V plays.
Comparing the story of Cyberpunk 2077 to The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, Cyberpunk is shorter than The Witcher, but replayability will make up for the shorter story. Sidequests will also be a little different than they were in The Witcher III. While sidequests in The Witcher III: Wild Hunt went more in a straight line, Cyberpunk 2077 sidequests will evolve depending on the choices that were made. Quests can also have an impact on other quests so while The Witcher followed more of a narrative, Cyberpunk 2077 seems to change depending on the choices that the player makes.
It was also revealed that depending on the choices that you make will determine whether or not you will access certain locations in the world. It’s not to the extent of the choices that you make in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings where one choice blocks an area entirely, but some locations in the game won’t be available outside of certain paths that are taken.
Loot is always something any RPG has to deal with. CD’s approach to it is to try to keep a good balance between loot that is useful to the player from loot that a player might see as not worth keeping. CD Projekt Red wants to have players utilize loot to expand the world-building of the game such as including loot that belongs to a certain location.
Talking about the world, the day and night cycle will have an organic impact on gameplay. Some places might be guarded more or less based on the time of day and certain story scenes might change depending on the time of day. Dynamic weather won’t impact gameplay but the world will react to it. Police won’t intervene if they see V committing smaller crimes such as beating someone up but they will act on something like pulling out a gun and firing at bystanders or running over people with your car.
Cyberware requires a ripperdoc to install into V but some modifications can be installed on the spot. For example, the Mantis Blades can be removed and replaced after a ripperdoc has installed the modification.
On the technical side of things, the Q&A revealed that ray tracing won’t only be used as a lighting system. Ray tracing will be used to simulate the way sounds spreads through the area so sounds will be heard differently based on V’s position, distance, and obstacles in the way. Cyberpunk 2077 will be released on April 16, 2020, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and it will come to Stadia as well.