Cyberpunk 2077 creator CD Projekt Red recently discussed the future of the RPG series and where it still has room to grow in the upcoming sequel. codenamed Project Orion. One of the studio’s hopes for the upcoming sequel is to better push the boundaries of its commentary on social issues.
During the latest episode of CDProject Red’s AnswerRed PodcastDeputy Game Director Paweł Sasko emphasized that despite the game’s nature of not providing players with answers to prevailing social issues, Cyberpunk 2077 did not go far enough in its social commentary.
Dan Hernberg, executive producer of Project Orion, agreed with Sasko that Cyberpunk’s portrayal of social issues is flawed and expressed his optimism that Orion will advance the game’s social commentary in a way that 2077 fell compact of expectations.
“I think the really cool thing about Cyberpunk — and its dystopian future — is that it has such relevance to today, to megacorporations, to people on the margins, you know, people who are just exploited resources, the wealth gap, all of those things,” Hernberg said. “I think 2077 allows us to tell these stories in a way where — at its heart — there are always relationships and people, but we live in a really broken world and we can evoke some of those things.”
In March, CD Projekt Red hired Hernberg, former head of production at Amazon Games and chief product manager at Blizzard Entertainment, as one of the experienced programmers working on Orion at the Boston studio. While details about Project Orion are insufficient, we do know one thing for sure about the sequel, which the creators want to follow in the footsteps of the evolution of The Witcher. This means that CD Projekt Red wants Orion to introduce more improvements and features to the gameplay than its predecessor when it releases. Another rumored idea for the title is that it may feature Cyberpunk 2077’s Abandoned Multiplayer Feature.
IN our review We gave the game a rating of 9/10 for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, writing: “Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty puts a huge twist on CD Projekt Red’s future RPG that launched with the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime spinoff and its latest 2.0 update.”
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
