'Cyberpunk 2077' First-Person View Is The Right Choice, Says Developer

Despite possibly being the most anticipated release of 2020, CD Projekt RED's impending sci-fi RPG Cyberpunk 2077 still seems to be rubbing certain fans up the wrong way, predominately as a result of the fact that the game will be entirely in first-person. It seems that many of the gamers who were initially intrigued by the idea of a new RPG from the studio who gave us The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt were expecting a return to the third-person perspective we had in 2015's fantasy epic. Yes, it is silly to be annoyed by something like that, you're right.

Unfortunately, the sheer amount of criticism Cyberpunk 2077 has faced simply because of its chosen perspective has forced CD Projekt RED to justify its decision. Speaking to VGC at the Tokyo Game Show earlier in the week, Level Designer Max Pears said that once people have the game in their hands, hopefully they'll understand why CDPR felt first-person was the best - and only - choice for Cyberpunk 2077.

It's seen better days

"I hope people understand that we have thought about this and there is logic to our process," he said. "We've not just thrown this in randomly: there is a lot of thought that's gone into it. In last year's demo you saw the interactive dialogue system, where somebody pulled a gun on your face. I don't think you would necessarily get that same impact in third-person. It's moments like that which make it feel like it's your story and your character"

Pears acknowledged that there are some people who clearly feel... "passionately" about the game not being in third-person, but stressed that it was the best possible way to make Cyberpunk 2077 as immersive an experience as possible. Indeed, more than The Witcher 3, in which we played as an already-established character, Cyberpunk 2077 is a game that wants us to create our own experience and tell our own stories, as has been made clear by the diverse character creation system and multiple possible origin stories and lifepaths for our character.

Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077

Earlier this month, it was revealed that most, if not all, of Cyberpunk 2077's cutscenes would also be in third-person, despite various demo cutscenes showing us our character from a third-person perspective. In answer to a curious fan, the game's official Twitter account wrote that "In Cyberpunk 2077 immersion is very important to us, so yes, cutscenes are fpp." That includes the game's sex scenes, if you were wondering. I know you definitely were.

Topics: bandai namco, Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red