Riley McCallister
Towering skyscrapers, advertisements plastered on every nook and cranny, and criminals that are more metal than flesh are our first introduction to the main setting of Night City in Cyberpunk 2077. The game, developed by CD Projekt RED and initially released on December 10, 2020, was a bug-infested mess. Since that disappointing release, it has been refined, updated, and reworked into a high-action shooter, an entertaining story, and an RPG with an insane amount of customization. The hacks, weapons, and cybernetics your character can have are all enhanced by the setting, Night City. The question, though, is how did they build such an incredible game world for players to explore? CD Projekt RED brings the criminal-infested setting of Night City to life through its slang, combat encounters, and the use of cybernetics.
Choom: The Slang of Night City
From calling cybernetics “Chrome” to calling cash “eddies,” Cyberpunk 2077 is loaded with slang, but one of the terms that stands out the most has to be “Choom.” Choom is what you would call a close friend or acquaintance; someone you are friendly with or have a fondness for. At the end of Act 1 of Cyberpunk 2077, the main character V’s best friend Jackie says the following to them: “Don’t waste your life, choom. Live it. Really live it.” These are some of his final words and are an incredible showcase of how natural the slang of Night City feels within the dialogue. The conversations you have with the people of Night City are part of how the city feels so alive. The slang never feels forced or clunky, and because of that, it is as if each character has been hearing and saying those terms for most of their lives. It demonstrates that the culture of Night City has a genuine impact on its citizens through the ways they speak to each other.
Hacking, Slashing, or Shooting
Along with having excellent dialogue like any good RPG, Cyberpunk 2077 also has a stat system, a variety of abilities to choose from, and enough equipment to fill a military base. Where the combat in the game is concerned, it revolves around the approach you choose to take in the battles you face. For example, you can hack your enemies’ cybernetics to blind them, fry them, or you can just go for a direct approach and make use of the myriad firearms and melee weapons provided to you by the game. Those options—and the way you approach combat—elevate Night City because these methods are also available to NPCs (Non-Playable Characters). You can be fighting someone shooting at you from afar, running at you with a katana, or taking control of your cybernetics to turn you into a walking furnace. Night City is so full of crime that it makes sense why your character and the opponents they face have such easy access to these weapons and methods.
Chrome and Cyberpsychosis
Finally, “chrome” in Cyberpunk 2077 refers to cybernetics, which can range from mechanical arms, enhanced eyes, or even a spinal implant that can enhance your reaction speed to the point that you slow time down around you. Each piece of chrome is obtained from a Ripper Doc, someone who surgically implants the cybernetics for a fee. The sheer variety of pieces you can have added to your character isn’t the only detail that allows the chrome feature of the game to impact your gameplay. Rather, what can happen if you use too much is important as well. There is a side quest where you hunt down people suffering from Cyberpsychosis, an in-universe mental disorder which can develop when someone implants an excessive amount of chrome into their body, causing them to lose their humanity and become far more violent. The use of chrome not only elevates the gameplay but also shows the character of Night City, turning its citizens into walking armories who have traded in their humanity for more firepower.
A City to Burn
As you climb your way up the criminal world that exists within Night City, you can see how each aspect of it was handcrafted by CD Projekt RED to create a world operated by criminals. Each piece of Cyberpunk 2077 demonstrates how RPGs and sci-fi games can be combined through dialogue and mechanics, which allows players to get truly invested in the story and world around them. That’s why it is so important for anyone with the means to give this game a try. Beyond the action, the violence, and the corruption that is seen on every street and dark alley of Night City, there is a story that is defined by your choice of dialogue, combat, and cybernetics. So, as Johnny Silverhand, one of the game’s main characters, says, “Wake up, samurai. We have a city to burn.”
Headline image from WallpaperCave
