December 10th 2020 is a day that will undoubtedly be forever Remembered in video game history as both a stark reminder and a warning for developers and consumers alike because this was the day that the long- awaited cyberpunk 20177 finally released after over 7 years of waiting and it ended up being one of if not the most abysmal and broken launches of a AAA video game to date while the internet and journalists were bashing the game and rightly pointing out all of its many many many technical flaws bugs and the straightup lies that came from cdpr about the last gen console performance I decided to still try and give the game a shot unfortunately all I had at the time was an Xbox One and that certainly wasn't going to cut it as we all soon found out so my only real option was to boot up an early version of GeForce now on my 2018 MacBook Pro just so that I could maybe experience a taste of night City for myself and it was on that little laptop playing the game which some people you know bought a brand new GPU for at a highly unstable 1080p like 30 to 40 FPS through a streaming service where I would get constant lag input it was not the best um by any means but it was there that I first stepped foot into the harsh unforgiving yet alluring streets of KN City and three years later over 3 years later in fact those streets are still on my mind I am seriously not exaggerating when I say that not a day has gone by since cyberpunk 2077 is launch that this game and its world has been on my mind cyberpunk 2077 is my Roman Empire okay like no joke from listening to the soundtrack to that temptation to start just one more playthrough that I know I won't finish to listening to reviews online and by reviews I mean like hour 2hour long video essays to watching cyber Punk Edge Runners and getting my heartbroken cyberpunk 2077 has gripped my mind and soul unlike any other video game I've ever experienced and bear in mind I've played like some of the greats like outer Wilds which you know as a standalone experience undoubtedly had a more profound immediate effect on me but you know because of the nature of the game for those who know it's not really unfortunately when I can re-experience and continue to delve into as much as I wish I could so this is a video really for me is I just cannot seem to let go of this dark dystopia of night City and I I wanted to explore why that is from its world to its characters to Edge runners in Phantom Liberty this will be a very biased retrospective of everything I love about this game in an attempts to satiate my mind and perhaps to let go of this game once and for all but something tells me that that quite won't be the case much like Skyrim has gripped many for years and years I feel like cyber Punk will will be that game for me and this is a video about why that is and more so just why this world and its characters and everything about it is one of the greatest of its generation so whether you're fresh meat for the night City gonks or season Chum join me as I take a look at what makes this game in this world so incredibly alluring and I try to understand why it is I just can't move on from cyberpunk 277 and night City waits for no one so grab a cup of coffee and strap on your favorite Chrome because this is is going to be a one Wild Ride Samurai join me for another day in our city of streets to understand where my love of this game began there is no better place to start than here on the streets of night City these Sleek highways and dirty back Alleyways all whisper the same promise to those who walk them the promise of a better future the promise that if you come here to night's City your dreams can come true it calls itself the City of Dreams where anyone can become anything they want where you can make it rich and attain your deepest desires for those who live here though they know the truth the reality is that this is a city that can and will chew you up and spit you out infinitely worse than when you arrived if you let it the reality is that Eddie is in power a king and even the top fixers know that their livelihood can be stopped in an instant by one of the ever looming megga Corps either arasaka or milch and for those scraping by this city of Dreams is really a city of debt and despair so much so that say if you were badly injured and couldn't afford the fastest tier of medical assistance you'd be left to die with your loved ones not even being able to afford a proper burial the promise of Fortune and glory is pushed by these Mega corpse that run every aspect of the city and get rich off Street kids trying to make a living and everyone here knows that and they're simply trying to make it another day without the city swallowing them whole this false promise is presented to us right from the beginning of the game in the three different life paths you can choose when creating your V while yeah these life paths don't serve as much of a real impact throughout the story they do serve to show us the three main situations people in night City find themselves in every single person in in this world no matter how reserved or stoic or Harden they may seem on the outside is simply trying to survive another day to make their job work to pay off debts to reckon with the loneliness inherent within this city it is a city where life and loneliness are just a stacked on top of each other as the corporate Mega buildings and slum Apartments this is something I'll get into more later but is part of why the relationships V forges on their Journey feels so real and have made such an impact on me because even though many people you meet seem to be tough and hardened by the city on the outside there is a vulnerability beneath each that is so incredibly satisfying and often heartbreaking to uncover I mean Judy is a prime example someone so hardened by her job in the city in the outside but if you follow her story path you come to see her true vulnerable self a terrified woman who just wants to survive but again more on that and the characters later the reason I took the time to fully describe this city to you is because as futuristic as it looks and feels I I think that's only part of why it's immersive in describing the disparity between rich and poor at night City and the weight money holds on the society it might have begun to seem a little too familiar to you because as futuristic as this dark future in this cyberpunk genre as a whole may seem it is one that is always incredibly grounded in the realities of our [Music] world the cyberpunk genre cons consist of two opposing ideals to their extreme we have the Cyber side aimed at kind of the glory of future technology and blurring the lines between what it means to be a human and the punk side which focuses on rebelling against the system and the evil of Mega corporations controlling everything and taking back your Humanity this genre was kind of first defined in 1980 by a writer named Bruce Beth I out of messed up that last name whose goal was to kind of make a genre that combined the cybernetic science of replacing human inunctions with computerized ones in the nihilistic Rebellion Punk culture of the late ' 60s and' 7s and it's interesting because both of these ideas just sit smack up against each other but when it's translated well always provide some of the most interesting commentary on our society that I personally find in media as well as where things could go in the future on the whole 2077 does an okay job at this honestly it certainly asks many questions regarding what it means to be human how far is too far with chrome and Tech Tech ology and what really matters but I don't think it honestly offers as much of a new or unique perspective on all these Concepts as other pieces of media in the genre like your Blade Runners or Ghost in the Shell or even something that's not technically cyberpunk but touches on a lot of those themes like even gallon one way that 2077 does not so subtly convey sides of these themes is through the insane advertising the ads app plastered on nearly every vacant space in night city streets are honestly some of the most blatant representations of society's ideals and corporate control of the city yet they're honestly kind of all genius in their own ways so we're going to get on a little bit of tangent from the Cyber side here but because the ads of night City are ultimately heavily exaggerated versions of ads that are present in our society today I think because if you know anything about marketing the mark of a good ad is one that hits a deep human desire but does so in a outwardly subtle way here in night City that rule is pretty much forone and all the ads just get straight to it uh resulting in some of the most brutal and twisted representations of products aimed at exploiting the deepest human desires many of which are at the core of the cyberpunk genre money power sex more power more money a better job a better life all of that these are front and center of nearly every ad promising that if you just had this your body would be better or you just had this job your romantic relationships would be more fulfilling if you just had this these are the desires and dreams of everyone in KN City because that is why people come here for the promise of a better life and obviously like I said this is all exaggerated to the tea but if you think about it in night City and in real life who promises these things the corporations the same corpse creating Those ads to sell this stream to get people in the city to then see those ads and then it just cycles and ultimately makes money for those in charge whether we like it or not this is kind of a reality of our daily lives even more so for those of us who are clinically online and it is just kind of shown to the extremes here in night City between the unhinged ads the tech and the mega corpse showcasing a exaggerated power dynamic between like the rich and the poor I think night City really represents the sociological like economic structural and even political state of today's world presented obviously in a more Wild wildly exaggerated way and that on its own could really be the topic of an entire series of video essays but I just wanted to touch on it here because it certainly impacted how I fell in love with the game and the immersive nature of it and getting back to the Cyber aspect of this game and genre we have of course the actual cyberware I don't necessarily have too much to say on this topic but as futuristic technology is ingrained in the genre it would be remiss of me if I didn't include it particularly because of the advances in certain technology even our last couple months with the Apple Vision Pro making leaps in VR and AR Tech that will certainly change landscape in the coming years to elon's neurol link which I mean albeit we don't really know if that exists or it's just him tweeting random nonsense again but either way the fact that a piece of tech of real cyberware is being discussed and possibly tested is absolutely insane and for me really has made 2077 reality that much more invisible this is a world that feels incredibly believable to play in even though it is not one I would want to live in and all those questions regarding humanity and what is worth living are the ones we will come back to later but for now we need to briefly discuss the other half of what makes this genre unique and why I kind of really have learned to love the genre and 2077 as a whole and that is the punk [Applause] side this aspect of the genre is one that isn't typically explored in the film and TV mediums of cyberpunk and as such was side that I was honestly pretty unfamiliar with and wasn't really that interested in when I first played 2077 but in some of my more recent playthroughs I've really delved more into it through the street kid life path Johnny's quest lines with Rogue and just appreciating how the game really Blends both sides now I have found I really do love this part of 2077 and it's even more interesting because of the history the punk genre has this genre of media really came about in the 70s and ' 80s kind of brought on by the rebellious anti- authoritative movements where the Young generation was disillusioned with Society the ideal of sticking it to the Man and fighting against corporate greed inequality and letting Corps or your jobs rule individual lives were Staples of the punk movement even though it was a short-lived one this movement in way of thinking was and is so incredibly influential in so much media even now music of course is one of the obvious examples you have so many different offshoots of punk music but also the more recent Sentiments of millennial age workers not taking crap from bosses or jobs anymore and trying to fight for what they believe is a better life ultimately but back in this Punk era of society the Cyber Punk genre was born taking a unique Twist on Punk ideals and setting them against the most appropriate backdrop one of the future where the lines between Chrome and music clash and Tech and life blur the cyberp punk genre was born out of this Punk ideal mixed with the'80s worries about where advancing technology would take us and here in 2077 I argued that this game's themes and messages really heavily lean more into its Punk Origins than the Cyber future side which makes sense considering every most everything in the game and its characters are based off the original tabletop RPG which I believe came out in the 9s I could be wrong I didn't actually fact check that I just kind of thought of it as I'm recording and one of the characters that really exemplifies this is none other than Johnny silverhand the character of Johnny silverhand is the embodiment of the punk movement in cyberpunk 2077 as he is literally a rocker boy Terrorist hellbent on screwing the corpse that ruined people's lives and his soul just so happens to be stuck on an Ingram that V slots into her brain and look I'll admit on my first playthrough I kind of didn't care for Johnny or his motivations and largely ignored it anytime it came up in quests but as I mentioned my recent playthroughs have changed that and my current V has really taken a liking to His Rebel Without a Cause mindset because yes while Johnny's actions were a bit drastic he was absolutely warranted in his views and I kind of see that and understand that now maybe part of it is because I've gained a few years of life between 2077 release and now I can appreciate his distaste to put it lightly of big corporations not treating citizens or employees as they should and feeling like there's nothing you can do to change those big systems that run Society his character as a whole plays a huge part in 2077 messages and the core aspects which I will be absolutely diving into a bit later but before that we need to discuss how absolutely breathtaking the characters of cyberpunk 2077 are they are my favorite part one of the reasons I keep [Music] returning aside from the densely packed live streets brimming with character the other main reason I love this game and can't seem to let it go is because of how incredibly real the actual characters are nearly every single voiced NPC you come across and either the side content or optional main content are some of the most memorable characters in any game I've played their stories their motion capture and voice performances are just out of this world and these involvement in these character lives are all just so well written and these aren't just the main quest characters because most of the biggest memorable characters in night City are technically optional content you've most likely heard of PanAm Palmer Judy Alvarez and River War to name a few all of who yes are romanceable characters but whose quest lines are on the whole technically optional other characters you interact with that are just dripping with love in on writing is Rogue the paralysis K don't get me start on that mission Angel sky and dozens and dozens of others I have not yet played The Witcher 3 but I know its reputation for a memorable cast and Siri yenifer the Bloody Baron and so many others but the difference is for those few I believe their major part of the main story that you usually have to interact with in some way but here in 2077 some of those most impactful moments are in content that is straight up optional making the first time experience just that much more memorable one of the obvious exceptions of this is Jackie Wells H man Jackie for a character who's only in the First Act of this game cdpr really manages to make you care about Jackie more than some games have made me care about characters in 30-hour playtimes Horizon zero Dawn we immediately get a sense of who he is his goals his wants and his like genuine Han Solo esque spirit in nature that shines as a beacon of optimism amongst night cities Darkness a beacon that is sadly snuffed out too soon the level of care and love from the developers in crafting Jackie extends to every other single main side and random voice character you interact with throughout the game all are just so unique and memorable that feel so real and right in this world because none of them really feel out of place and each one kind of adds to this lived in real immersive feeling of playing the game I mean you have people texting you calling you sending dumb stupid messages like this one from talken mura sending flirty messages and having the strangest problems that they just need a Merc to help with I could spend so so long going over all of them but this isn't a review of cyberpunk 2077 I just wanted to share the ones that really have stuck with me the most and let me know in the comments what characters and moments stuck with you the most and why I would absolutely love to hear your stories the ones that come to mind for me are sitting by the fire with PanAm and the aloc caldos comforting Judy on the rooftop after failing to save Evelyn going to the drivein with Rogue as Johnny meeting sky or Angel and getting a completely unexpected introspective look into V or diving through an underwater town and seeing things lost of time with Judy and of course sitting on the rooftop with Johnny where you decide both of your Fates each of these are moments where I forgot that I was just playing a video game I forgot I was just controlling a character and was V moments that in night City would be lost in time Swept Away in the harsh streets like tears in rain I was making these choices seeing my friends laugh and cry and deciding what to do with the man who had saved my life but the most memorable moments for me I think are not found in the base game but are found in the most recent DLC in 2077 take on a spy Thriller Phantom Liberty you play grown up games [Music] consquences [Music] I can honestly say that I have never played an expansion like Phantom Liberty it was not at all what I had expected based on the trailers leading up to its release I expected this high-intensity spy Thriller with action tense fights and bond-like chases mixed with these character focused moments of from the based game and while there are certainly these nail-biting action moments in both the opening and ending missions that r rival anything in the base game the majority of the expansion was not b instead Phantom Liberty's most tense and nail-biting experiences are within its seemingly Quiet Moments with easily the most complicated characters I've ever met in a video game moments that would maybe quickly be passed by and say a mission impossible or something aren't rushed here and some of the most intense moments like I said are just character ones being introduced to read president Myers and SOI and getting to learn about who they are or rather who they present themselves as all really culminates in the second to last mission where you choose one of two paths that Branch into two other paths resulting in four different yet equally heartbreaking and incredible endings through its overall slow methodical Pace I found Phantom Liberty just really allowed these brand new characters to breathe and makes you question if you can really trust anyone without a ton of high action but just in the characters and that and the voice acting and all the questions that are posed and those answers of whether or not you can trust anyone kind of ultimately comes down to like not really because each character in Phantom Liberty has their own complex motivations and goals that they only kind of have tell you about until you really confront them or certain endings occur in any of the four endings you find that both Reed and Songbird were keeping things from you and at their own motivations just if it wasn't clear spoiler territory here so please continue at your own risk or don't continue and skip to the next section if you haven't played the ending that I chose and the one I personally find to be the Canon one was where I sided with Reed at the branching point and eventually was haunted by the black wall corrupted song bird while seeing all of her past and what led her to this point this was some insane storytelling and had me on the edge of my seat and crying at the same time because in Phantom Liberty's deliberate methodical Pace I had come to love both Reed and so me but still not trust either of them fully we see both of these characters believing that they are right in their actions Reed having cared and loved for SOI yet still willing to put her down because of his blind loyalty to the N USA and SOI being so blind to her fears and conditioned by Reed and the N USA that she reaches so far beyond the black wall and becomes overtaken by its power having to choose who to side with here was extremely difficult but what really broke me the most was when upon reaching song bird after seeing how she was rescued by Reed in the past and put into the N USA to give her a better life life that ultimately led to where she is now V has the choice to let her continue on her path past the black wall or to listen to so me please and pull the plug and her suffering when reaching this moment after surviving that horror Mech level I legitimately just sat on the choice screen in shock and the realization that I had to make a choice hit me and then as a realization of what choice I knew I was going to make set in tears just began to roll down my face because as much as I wanted to save so me she was so far corrupted that the best thing I could do was set her free and Grant her her last wish and it genuinely took me a good 5 minutes of just sitting and listening to this haunting music playing and so's face in my hands staring at this Choice before I had the courage to do it thank you and and I'm sorry for everything this was another huge moment where I was not just playing a game I was truly V and for my V this was what she believed to be right and in night City sometimes that's all you can do no matter the consequences I want to briefly touch on one other aspect of cyberpunk 2077 that really I think cemented my love for this world and that was the companion anime Edge Runners now where I to go in depth here this could be its own video much like a couple of the previous sections but this is just my personal experience with the show and for those who haven't seen the show I might have given you PTSD with that song you're welcome and for those who haven't count yourself lucky when this show was first released I didn't really want to watch it despite my love for 2077 because of some of the more mature aspects shown off in some of the trailers but eventually I did after learning most of those were few and far between and I fell right back into the world of night City and one of the things that really helped with that is that it was set in night City with some of the same shared characters music and the sound design so many of the the city ambient sounds that I heard dozens and dozens of times in my playthroughs were all present in this show and that was just honestly incredible and automatically allowed me to connect with the show despite it being new characters and is something that game adjacent shows should absolutely do more but thematic wise Edge Runners is a darker take on 2077 messages and a deeper look into cyber psychosis and the impact of chrome than the base game personally I loved how the show expanded on the same thematic elements of 2077 the ideas of doing what it takes to survive going out in a blaze of glory or a quiet life Lucy and David are such a tragic story because of how David loses himself despite Lucy's please to kind of take the quiet Road and he ultimately pays the cost for himself and almost all of his friends this darker more greedy take on things that were already present in the base storyline of 2077 I think were a bit of a implication of things to come in Phantom Liberty because they really doubl down on the consequences of actions in this world and that they're real and all of that just man it just makes you feel so bad or good or whatever when making decisions within KN City when the time comes it'll be my life for yours I'll agree to get white I just want the world to know I was here that I mattered here for folks like us I have said a lot about cyberpunk 2077 in this video about its world and the characters that inhabit it about the story and music and emotional moments that will undoubtedly stay with me for a long long time and despite this world and game being such a dark and dangerous one that many would find depressing to play it is one that I have found Hope in I've dealt with depression for the majority of my adult life over the last five or so years and in that time I found myself connecting with darker Bleaker stories more and more like this and death stranding because in many of these settings there's always a massive emphasis on the importance of trying to find joy and hope despite how dark things may seem seeing V struggle against time to save her life to live with a literal voice in her head and being a bit of an embodiment of mental illness allowed me to fill her shoes that much easier seeing how messed up her and other characters lives get throughout the story and their perseverance despite it all really helped give me some comfort that I wasn't alone that hey if V can keep pushing on or if Judy can pick herself up with the help of a friend after a tragedy so could I I saw much of myself in these characters fighting for a better world and struggling to make it day by by day in Pan's boldness and longing for family and Judy who presents a put together exterior yet is incredibly vulnerable and just wants to be known and in Songbird and Reed both who find themselves living lives they never wanted serving A system that they can't seem to get out of even though these are fictional characters in a game they were created by people who put their experiences and hearts and souls into them and I know I'm not alone and feeling so connected and comforted by a world that does not care for those walking on its streets because this is a sentiment I've seen many many people's share of cyberpunk over the last few years and even more recently with the release of phantom Liberty and people hopping back into the game and even as someone who is a Christian who doesn't necessarily agree with many of the more risky aspects of the Cyber Punk genre in this game is still one that I can love because it's one that has some truly beautiful messages within its dark pages that everyone can find Hope in that despite how awful life can seem how hardpressed on every side and how despairing your day-to-day may seem there are always moments worth living for moments of joy of laughter with Newfound friends moments of love and moments that will eventually be lost like tears and rain so as 2023 is famous rocker boy once said never stop fighting there is good in this world and it is always worth fighting for and I believe that there is hope for those who seek it whether you're a street kid struggling to get by or a corpo stuck in a jog you desperately want out of there's certainly hope despite how dark a future may seen and whether you want a quiet life or a blaze of glory and your name to be known the world of night City will always be one that I love and fall back into and you know at the end of the day I think I'm okay with just not being able to let go of cyberp punk 2077 good night Valerie today was a good day