A developer on Cyberpunk 2077 made earnest remarks about some of the sci-fi RPG's shortcomings, including the shortage of homeless characters on its streets.
I really enjoyed Cyberpunk, but I dont think it did enough to make me hate corporations. I wanted to see them activily being terrible, but you mostly just hear about how bad they are and idk, they just weren’t portrayed as villianously as I think the game wanted them to be. Adam Smasher was the only enemy that I like really wanted to get my hands on, and even that was because of Edgerunners.
I did start to notice things during gameplay, like how there arent any animals, save for a few cats, no birds, nothing like that.
Now when I finally to the dive into the tabletop lore, that was when I found all the henious shit that I wanted to. Multiple corporate wars, purposly getting people addicted to cyberware, overthrowing governments (hey Ive seen this one!) And all sort of just vile disgusting actions that make you want to be Johnny Silverhand. Actually made me sad we didnt blow up Arasaka HQ again. Or Millitech for that matter, theyre actually kind of worse imo.
I got the big sad on Judy’s diving quest, she goes on about how tha one corpo inundated the whole place for profits.
Or even the El’Captain quest where you need to go steal a medical truck because the corpos where poisoning his whole neighborhood real bad for years.
I can find more examples of these “small” atrocities, I think they are meant to infuriate you over time, problem by problem, and not display a big single thing you’ll hate forever
Yeah, I’m mid way through my first play through and the lack of birds and animals just feels lazy / a tech limitation covered up by lazy writing, not a real thing to care about that corpos did.
Otherwise the corpos in the story so far don’t seem that crazy bad or evil. Most of the time they enter the story it’s just you stealing something from them and then trying to get it back.
Honestly, GTA V had far more pointed social / political commentary thus far, even if this is a much better overall story.
The cyberpsycho hunts are where you find most of the evil corporation stuff. But that’s all told through notes and environmental storytelling. So it’s there if you’re willing to search for it, but it’s definitely not as big a part of the overall narrative as I expected it to be.
All that stuff you talked about in the tabletop lore is literally talked about in the game. It’s not hitting you in the face in the main quest line, but if you play the side quests you find tons of fucked up shit that the corps are doing.
I dont think it did enough to make me hate corporations
Counterpoint: Biotechnica. Those bastards are almost as bad as scavs. Some of them are worse.
Also, maybe it looks normal for Americans, but what Militech are doing in the badlands definitely ain’t right. (Phantom Liberty kind of ruins it by treating Militech’s puppet president like one of the good guys, though. Night City ain’t part of the NUSA, and it doesn’t want to be!)
And, besides all the relic stuff, Saburo was also seriously considering nuking Night City (properly, not like Silverhand’s half assed job), so there’s that, too.
I really enjoyed Cyberpunk, but I dont think it did enough to make me hate corporations. I wanted to see them activily being terrible, but you mostly just hear about how bad they are and idk, they just weren’t portrayed as villianously as I think the game wanted them to be. Adam Smasher was the only enemy that I like really wanted to get my hands on, and even that was because of Edgerunners.
I did start to notice things during gameplay, like how there arent any animals, save for a few cats, no birds, nothing like that.
Now when I finally to the dive into the tabletop lore, that was when I found all the henious shit that I wanted to. Multiple corporate wars, purposly getting people addicted to cyberware, overthrowing governments (hey Ive seen this one!) And all sort of just vile disgusting actions that make you want to be Johnny Silverhand. Actually made me sad we didnt blow up Arasaka HQ again. Or Millitech for that matter, theyre actually kind of worse imo.
I got the big sad on Judy’s diving quest, she goes on about how tha one corpo inundated the whole place for profits.
Or even the El’Captain quest where you need to go steal a medical truck because the corpos where poisoning his whole neighborhood real bad for years.
I can find more examples of these “small” atrocities, I think they are meant to infuriate you over time, problem by problem, and not display a big single thing you’ll hate forever
Yeah, I’m mid way through my first play through and the lack of birds and animals just feels lazy / a tech limitation covered up by lazy writing, not a real thing to care about that corpos did.
Otherwise the corpos in the story so far don’t seem that crazy bad or evil. Most of the time they enter the story it’s just you stealing something from them and then trying to get it back.
Honestly, GTA V had far more pointed social / political commentary thus far, even if this is a much better overall story.
The cyberpsycho hunts are where you find most of the evil corporation stuff. But that’s all told through notes and environmental storytelling. So it’s there if you’re willing to search for it, but it’s definitely not as big a part of the overall narrative as I expected it to be.
All that stuff you talked about in the tabletop lore is literally talked about in the game. It’s not hitting you in the face in the main quest line, but if you play the side quests you find tons of fucked up shit that the corps are doing.
I think the cat wasn’t real Takemura talks about it.
Bakeneko.
There are a lot more cats than just the bakaneko.
Counterpoint: Biotechnica. Those bastards are almost as bad as scavs. Some of them are worse.
Also, maybe it looks normal for Americans, but what Militech are doing in the badlands definitely ain’t right. (Phantom Liberty kind of ruins it by treating Militech’s puppet president like one of the good guys, though. Night City ain’t part of the NUSA, and it doesn’t want to be!)
And, besides all the relic stuff, Saburo was also seriously considering nuking Night City (properly, not like Silverhand’s half assed job), so there’s that, too.