Unlike the Witcher franchise, Cyberpunk 2077 will place a large focus on verticality because of the way in which Night City has been designed. That was confirmed from the start since players will be running through multi-floored buildings placed throughout the game. What was never pointed out before was that players should expect to run across rooftops as well.
Speaking with German publication NightCityLife in a recent interview, senior level designer Miles Tost teased that players will be able to climb skyscrapers from the outside in Cyberpunk 2077. He though added that being able to scale buildings will likely be linked to a quest or side activity, suggesting that Night City will not serve as a sandbox for players to treat every high-rise building as such.
Yes, V can climb skyscrapers and we often try to link this to a special context, e.g. within a quest or side activity. However, when climbing you will look less like King Kong or Spiderman, but just like V.
However, when asked to compare Cyberpunk 2077 with Mirror’s Edge, Tost stated that the comparison was “not too bad” since players will more often be moving over rooftops. He further teased that players “will certainly experience dizzying heights” when exploring Night City.
Such a complicated world design naturally warrants that players have abilities or traits to move around with ease. Tost stated that designing the world of Cyberpunk 2077 was pretty challenging. For players questing to the top of a skyscraper, there needs to be a way for them to quickly head back to the ground. The same goes for when players need to backtrack. An elevator, for example, can be used but Tost hinted that there will be other ways to approach the same issue.
At the very least, Tost reminded everyone that the protagonist V will be more manoeuvrable than Geralt. Unlike Geralt, V will be able to double-jump, charge-jump, climb, and such to reach places Geralt would have taken much longer. The added freedom is something CD Projekt Red used to give players alternative paths in the game.
Cyberpunk 2077 has unfortunately been delayed for a second time and will now release after an additional couple of months. The extended development time will mostly be used on polishing the base game and its expansive, complicated world.
Cyberpunk 2077 was originally scheduled for a release on April 16, 2020. The release date was then pushed back to September 17, 2020. Cyberpunk 2077 will now release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on November 19, 2020.
