[Indie] Cyberpunk 2069

During a play session some folks who are alumni of PSO2's infamous Lobby 7 and I were discussing what an adult cyberpunk game might look like. Mid-musing I made the assertion that the perfect name would be Cyberspunk 2069 and announced my intention to Google this name and report what I find. I was sadly disappointed to find this game. Cyberpunk 2069.

A solid attempt:
Last update was in May 2020 as of this posting. The state of the game can only be described as "playable". This looks like a Unity project for a school assignment where all the real attention was placed on neon asset insertion and music choice. Assuming the coder didn't simply reuse pre-existing music and textures and produced all assets from scratch then I'd grade this game, as it is right now, a C. It suffers from a lack of basic features like a context sensitive HUD or useful menu elements. It is also afflicted with what I can only call GMOD map-itis. As examples: Windows and doors have odd placements, textures are reused and stretched in mind bending and eye bleeding ways and the cyberpunk aesthetic isn't a well planned backdrop with foreground elements so much as an unevenly implemented visual assault. All attempted within a 1 kilometre square "Open World". Though, it must be said, the one dollar admission fee is appropriate. That's not a jab either.

How bad is it really?:
Imagine PC gaming in 1998. There's an excellent example in Ritual Software's SiN demo you can grab of Archive.Org (

Here) that, while dated, still offers a short and fun romp along with multiplayer. As a game on Android CP2069 plays like something from this era with visuals on par with what the Sega Dreamcast would be capable of a year later. It even feels like a poorly built Quake 3 Arena mod (minus multiplayer of course). In CP2069 you have to figure out that opening a door requires you to walk through it as if it's not there. Sneaking up on a soldier for stealth knife kill is impossible. The first hit nets you an abrupt amount of facial lead poisoning worthy of Flint Michigan's water supply as the soldier you attacked and any near immediately about-face and open fire. Even picking up item drops using the clunky UI gives you mixed results. Dropped items only loot sometimes or turn out to not be interactive elements at all. The music also gets repetitive quick and audio queues like voices or gunfire lack any punch.

So what now..:
This game is a Work In Progress. That much is obvious. Considering CDPR's Cyberpunk 2077 is due to release in a few days there's really no need to toss a coin at this coder. BUT... would buying a copy of this Unity made Cyberpunk themed FPS get the Dev to give this project some much needed love? Maybe not. At one dollar on the Google Play Store (Here) I cant's say this is a terrible investment. The likelihood that this game will receive any notable updates is minimal at best though. What would be a brilliant move is if the Dev did spend some time updating this game from a C grade PoC to a B grade Beta release candidate. Splash up some Thank Yous to CDPR for the inspiration (which they got from the R. Talsorian tabletop game) and maybe some links to GoG.Com so folks can buy the real thing from the source. Then we have an homage to CP2077 in Android OS form. This would require a better UI with context sensitive elements, some stealth kill alternatives, removing the setting of the story from Half-Life's City-17 and a more even distribution of the neon assets between the background and foreground. The sounds included so far are ADEQUATE but punching those up would push a release candidate to a proper Beta. This game would then be easily worth the dollar donation for the effort and I wouldn't balk at an in game link to a Ko-Fi page for further Donos.

What of "Cyberspunk 2069"?:
It doesn't exist... but it should. Dammit.