METROPOLIS NOW

Inside Cyberpunk 2077, and the most elaborately detailed future city we’ve ever seen in a videogame

- Chris Schilling

Four hours in Night City is not enough. Sure, we’ve been here before, in a sense. But a hands-off glimpse is nothing compared to being able to inhabit this world; to have firsthand proof that one of the most astounding vertical slices we’ve ever encountered is more than just smoke and mirrors. Being here in the semi-augmented flesh, so to speak, evokes the feeling of visiting a real-world city for the first time, though that initial wow factor never totally goes away – or at least it doesn’t for the duration of our demo. There is perhaps no single revelatory moment to compare with, say, the first glimpse of Rapture seen from Bioshock’s bathysphere, or emerging from the sewers into the world of Oblivion. Rather, this is a place that leaves you regularly shaking your head in quiet disbelief. By the end of our time with Cyberpunk 2077, there’s still no sign of Keanu. But we keep recalling what he said on stage at E3 last year, as we wander around the busy district of Watson. He’s right. It is breathtaking.