By David Wharton | 8 years ago

Fans of videogames and traditional pen-and-paper role-playing games both had reason to be excited this past June when it was announced that a game was in the works based on the long-running cult-classic RPG, Cyberpunk 2020. Since that initial announcement, however, we haven’t heard much about the project. Now some new hints have arrived courtesy of the game’s official website, and they definitely sound promising.

Created by designed Mike Pondsmith back in 1988 (when it was initially called “Cyberpunk 2013”), the game has gone on to create 20-plus years’ worth of background and detail about its setting, a gritty near-future that fans of Blade Runner or Neuromancer would feel right at home in. That rich source material is fertile ground for a modern RPG videogame, and the fact that it’s being developed by CD Projekt Red, the folks behind the acclaimed Witcher games, just adds to the game’s potential. Even better, original creator Mike Pondsmith is working with the CDPR guys to ensure the game does its source material justice.

Set 50 years after the original game’s setting, Cyberpunk 2077 will build upon the strengths of both the tabletop RPG and CD Projekt Red’s talent for making engrossing games in which player choice makes a real impact on the shape of the game. As you’d expect from a Cyberpunk game, players will be able to fit out their character with tons of weaponry, implants, and other crazy tech. It will also have a “multi-threaded” narrative along the lines of the aforementioned Witcher games, or, if we want to stick in the same general genre, like BioWare’s acclaimed Mass Effect series. Bottom line: whether you’re a fan of the original RPG, CD Projekt Red’s games, or even just science fiction in general, this should be one to watch.

Here’s a few words from Cyberpunk 2077 game director Mateusz Kanik:

While still working on The Witcher 2, we started thinking about creating a huge RPG set in a sci-fi world.We wanted to take the universal values we used in the game about Geralt and show them from a different perspective. On top of that, we had plenty of ideas for features that couldn’t be implemented in The Witcher simply because they didn’t fit in the setting.

So far there’s no official release date or platform listing for Cyberpunk 2077, but hopefully we’ll find out more as we move into the new year. In the meantime, you can watch the official game announcement video from E3 2012 below. You can keep track of the game’s development on the official website and Facebook page.