You walk out of the elevator and into the hallway. It’s cold, dank, and empty. 

Corruption and depression permeate the polluted city air. You are about to embark on your first mission in the year 2077. 

“Cyberpunk 2077” is a first-person role-playing video game set 59 years in the future. The game has video game fanatics everywhere excited, even though it hasn’t even been released yet. 

Created by CD Projekt Red, whose other titles include “The Witcher” series, “Cyberpunk 2077” still does not have a set release date. Announced in 2012, it is expected to come out between late 2018 and 2021, according to pcgamer.com. 

But the release seems to be closer than ever. 

At CD Projekt Red’s E3 panel in 2018, attendees were the first to see an almost hour-long gameplay demo of the game. The preview was also shown at Games.com, and soon after, released to the public. 

In the demo, the narrator states, “Cyberpunk is a mature, visceral experience, and as such it will let you explore a variety of different interactions with the game world, and … its people.” 

The story-driven gameplay is based around various quests within the game itself, but as of now, there isn’t a defined objective to the game. 

But the quests do feature first-person shooting, action packed fight scenes, and high-speed chases through Night City. The fictional city is described in the demo as “a bustling metropolis located on the coast of the free state of Northern California. It’s a dystopian city where violence and oppression are the norm.” 

As of now, players play the female version of the game’s protagonist, V.

Though the demo only showed gameplay with the female version of V, it can be inferred that in the game’s full release, players will be able to change the gender, appearance, and name of their character. 

Players can also customize their character’s statistics, such as strength, constitution, intelligence, reflexes, tech, and “cool,” a trait that’s abilities are yet to be disclosed. How players choose to interact with other characters and objects in the game impacts the way the story plays out, similar to a choose your own adventure book. 

Part of the gameplay includes going to a Ripper Doc, “specialist vendors who offer people the possibility to install or upgrade their cyberware.”

Ripper Docs cybernetically enhanced characters with various body modifications. The enhancements shown in the demo gave V an ocular scanner that allows her zoom in on far away objects, as well as “…analyze objects, [and] get details on enemy weak points or gang affiliation.”  

Cyberpunk has advanced graphics that make the characters seem almost tangible. This was an especially important feature for developers when it came to making the game.

In an interview published on GameMaster Magazine, CD Projekt Red write Stanisław Święcicki stated, “You can’t beat a story which touches on universal human values and emotions such as dedication, sadness, loss, friendship, or love. I personally think these values matter all the more in a world in which the human body is no longer ‘sacred’ and the very meaning of what ‘humanity’ is becomes blurred.” 

The game will more than likely have a mature rating due to its mature language, sexual content, violence, and nudity.