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Cyberpunk 2077 Developer CDPR Wants Each District of Night City to have "Its Very Own Atmosphere and Vibe"


Cyberpunk 2077 promises to feature a well-developed open-world setting, the Night City, and developer CD Project has recently shared some information about its incredibly detailed world. Speaking to Gamesradar, Marthe Jonkers, Senior Concept Artist and Co-ordinator of the concept team at CD Projekt Red, talked about their approach to develop Night City.

"The city is really the core of Cyberpunk 2077. We approached it very holistically; we started with very big ideas of the city and then went into detail and detail and detail and detail," Jonkers said. "We have an urban planner in the team, for instance, which really helps us with the map and the layout to make the city feel very realistic."

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Credit: CD Projekt Red

"We now have this option of vertical exploration that we didn't really have in The Witcher, which was more of a spread-out map," Jonkers added "We really take advantage of that, and we have a lot of ways of going up and down."

Jonkers went on to describe the six unique districts of Night City, and how they are diverse in their own way. "You don't want a city to be repetitive and boring and just have buildings," he said. "We really wanted to make sure that every district has its very own atmosphere and vibe, and they all have different people and their own different history." "You don't want a city to be repetitive and boring and just have buildings," he continues. "We really wanted to make sure that every district has its very own atmosphere and vibe, and they all have different people and their own different history."

The first gameplay demo featured the Watson district, and Jonkers said that it's where buildings were once home to the bigger corporations but "have since become more run-down and bustling with life, with strong Asian cultural influences."

"Pacifica, on the other hand, is really like this abandoned sort of eerie, mysterious district," he said. The half-finished big money resort area is home to the Voodoo Boys gang, with people hustling to make a life for themselves amid the unfinished dreams of the rich."

Then there's the City Center, where rich corporations and tall skyscrapers are found.

Heywood is where much of Latin American influences are found, and Jonkers described it as one of the liveliest parts of Night City.

Night City's Westbrook is a rich district where you can expect the neokitsch style. "It's a newer style from the later history of Night City. The gap between the rich and the poor got bigger and bigger, you get these super-rich people," Jonkers told Gamesradar "They have their own sort of visual language, visual style, and that's neokitsch. Neokitsch is really defined by being very colourful, but also using expensive materials, because they're really rich. Usually, that means very natural materials, animal prints and things like that."

Finally, Santo Domingo is the industrial part of Night City, and Jonkers described it to dangerous and polluted. "Not only does it look different, but it's also dangerous in a different way," Jonkers said. "If you go to Watson at night in the streets, you will probably run into some gang. But in Santo Domingo, and especially in the factory areas, it's really dangerous because it's so polluted."

It's clear that CD Projekt Red didn't make Night City to be just some kind of generic futuristic city; it's well-developed, diverse, and populated by different people with their own agendas and cultures.

Here's a description of the Cyberpunk 2077 game:

"Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure story set in Night City, a megalopolis obsessed with power, glamour and body modification. You play as V, a mercenary outlaw going after a one-of-a-kind implant that is the key to immortality. You can customize your character's cyberware, skillset and playstyle, and explore a vast city where the choices you make shape the story and the world around you."

Cyberpunk 2077 is set to release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on April 16, 2020.

Related: Cyberpunk 2077 Will Have One Absolutely Crazy Side-Quest

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