Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red recently discussed the future of the RPG series and where it still has room to grow in its upcoming sequel, codenamed Project Orion. One hope the studio has for its upcoming sequel is to do a better job of pushing the envelope in its commentary on social issues.
During a recent episode of CDProject Red’s AnswerRed Podcast, associate game director Paweł Sasko underscored how, despite the game’s nature of not hand-feeding players answers to prevailing social issues, Cyberpunk 2077 didn’t go far enough in its social commentary.
“I see that we didn’t push the envelope far enough in some places, for instance,” Sasko said. “Like, let’s say, the homeless crisis. When I look at it, I’m like, ‘We weren’t far enough in ‘[Cyberpunk 2077.’] We thought that we were dystopian, but we just touched the surface.”
Dan Hernberg, the executive producer for Project Orion, agreed with Sasko that Cyberpunk’s portrayal of social issues was flawed and voiced his optimism for Orion furthering the game’s social commentary in ways 2077 fell short.
“I think the really cool thing about Cyberpunk—and the dystopian future that it has—is there’s so much relevance to today, of megacorporations, of people on the fringes, you know, of people just being exploited resources, of the wealth gap, of all these things,” Hernberg said. “I think that 2077 allows us to tell these stories in ways where—at the heart of it—there’s always relationships and people, but we’re in a really broken world and that we can call out some of these things.
“I think for me that’s what Cyberpunk is about, exploring those themes but in a very poignant way,” Hernberg continued. “I love the world, and I think that’s what we’re going to try to do with Project Orion. Really continue to lean into that and continue to say, ‘What is [the state of the world ] today,’ and what does it look like in a couple of years.”
Back in March, CD Projekt Red hired Hernberg, a former head of production at Amazon Games and lead product manager at Blizzard Entertainment, as one of the veteran developers working on Orion in its Boston studio. Although details on Project Orion are scarce, one thing we know for sure about the follow-up title is that the company wants it to follow in the footsteps of The Witcher’s evolution. Meaning, that CD Projekt Red aims to have Orion usher in more gameplay enhancements and features than its predecessor once it finally releases. Another rumored idea for the title is that it might include Cyberpunk 2077’s scrapped multiplayer feature.
In our review of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, we gave the game a 9/10, writing, “Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty completes an immense turnaround for CD Projekt Red’s future RPG kickstarted with the anime spinoff, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and its latest 2.0 Update.”
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
