Return to Night City – Cyberpunk 2077 Shadows of the Past
Cyberpunk 2077's mega-expansion, Shadows of the Past, will be released on September 26 this year.
[Text: Mikazuki / Excretion: Iman]
preface
Released at the end of 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 has been busy fixing all kinds of problems, big and small, after a bad start that players can't say enough. During this period, the game also underwent several free updates, and with the launch of the anime adaptation "Cyberpunk Edge Walker" in September 2022, the popularity of this game has once again reached its peak. However, for many players, these fixes and updates are just a drop in the bucket, and what players want most is a reason to return to Night City - a large-scale story DLC, or in official terms, an expansion.
Thanks to CDPR's invitation, UCG had the opportunity to visit CDPR Studio in Warsaw, Poland, where they experienced the opening process of the expansion film Shadows of the Past. This expansion, announced nine months ago, will be the first and final major story update for Cyberpunk 2077, and the question arises, can Shadows of the Past be a reason for players to return to Night City?
V and Silver Hand are involved in another problem (saving the President of the United States) in order to solve one problem (demolition of Relic) this time.
Welcome to Dog Town
Due to the particularity of the ending of the original version, probably many players who have played this chapter guessed from the trailer of "Shadow of the Past" that the plot of the expansion pack takes place in the timeline of the main plot, that is, before the final battle of this chapter, the V played by the player is still looking for a way to keep himself alive. At the beginning of the story, a mysterious person named "lark" asks V for help through Relic, and V is not found because he or she is famous, but because Relic can only find V. The lark entrusts V to go to "Dog Town" to save a high-ranking nobleman, and as one of the rewards of the commission, she will tell V the safe way to remove Relic, thereby saving V's life.
The lark can appear in V's mind as an avatar like the silver hand, and there is also a detail in the demo version that when the lark appears, the silver hand will not appear.
Shadows of the Past takes place in "Dog Town", an area between "new" and "old" for players. It's "new" because it's really a brand new area that doesn't exist in this story, with a new landscape, story, side quests, and even law enforcement agencies and power structures that are very different from Night City; It is "old" because this area is not strictly a new area outside of Night City, but is located within an area that is in this chapter - Dog Town is actually a "city within a city" in the Taipingzhou area.
The area of "Dog Town" and the Taiping Continent in this article can be said to be completely overlapping, according to the official introduction, this area has a rich and complex vertical structure, which is very different from the Taiping Continent that players know (Note: The screenshot is taken from this article).
The Taipingzhou area was originally positioned as a comprehensive resort area, but later due to the fourth enterprise war, the capital chain was broken, and the project has been unfinished since then. Since in the original plan, the company planned to hire homeless people and poor locals as cheap labor, the security of Taiping Chau immediately after the project column quickly deteriorated, becoming one of the most unsafe areas in the Night City. As the central area of the lawless land of Taiping Continent, the de facto ruler of Dog Town is Colonel Hansen, the leader of the mercenary organization "Nether Dog"
He reached a non-interference agreement with the ruling class of Night City, making it a true "three-way area".
There are a lot of tourism projects left over from the year in Dog Town, and I don't know if I can go in and "play two" when I officially play.
The noble man that players need to save is Rosalind Myers, the former CEO of military science and technology and now the new President of the United States of America. The special plane she was riding on was shot down by unknown forces over Dog Town, in order to find out the culprit of everything, and in order not to startle the snake and alarm potential enemies within the government, Rosalind decided to cooperate with V, who did not belong to any force, and the story of "Shadow of the Past" also began.
After the "President from Heaven" incident, the dog town, which no one cared about, suddenly became a battlefield of intrigue between many forces.
New wine in old bottles
Compared with this one, the plot of this work involves many forces such as the new US government, Dog Town, and Night City, which is another side of Night City that is rarely shown in this plot. Whether it is Hansen, who leads troops to hunt down the president while dissociating himself from the media; or Rosalind and Solomon, who are extremely deep in the city; Even larks, who never appeared in their real form during the demo - the successive appearances of these characters allow players to quickly immerse themselves in this spy thriller script.
In addition to some basic settings, the performance of some plots is also very spy movie. For example, the first time he meets Solomon in public, the player is "interrogated" by him holding a gun to his back. The whole dialogue is only heard and no one is seen, and if the player insists on turning back, he will be directly knocked out and carried to the car.
Rosalind and Solomon, who were supposed to be just master-servant relationships, seem to have an unknown past.
As the de facto ruler of Dog Town, if nothing else, Hansen is one of the "biggest villains" of this work.
Similar to this story and similar games, the development of the story will change depending on the choices and actions made by the player. There are several such choices in the demo version, and although perhaps because the prologue choice has little impact, they are all very interesting and effective. For example, shortly after rescuing the president, the two will meet two punks, and if they choose to let them go, these two brothers will become V's little brothers, protect the president when V goes out to do business, and affect a certain plot later; For example, when meeting Rosalind for the first time, if the player's strength is not enough, it will be countered, and if the player does not report his name within the time limit, he will be shot and killed by the suspicious president. In subsequent interviews, the official also confirmed the setting of multiple endings, as for whether it will affect the ending of this chapter, and even the specific plot and performance quality, it will be necessary to wait until the game is released.
Compared with this editor, this work has added a lot of bold performances.
After talking about the plot and performance, it's time to talk about the system and gameplay. Similar to The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt expansion pack "Blood and Wine", "Shadow of the Past" also adds new systems and gameplay based on the original version.
One of the most intuitive evolution is reflected in the skills, the UI interface and skill icons of skill unlocking have been adjusted, and many new skills have been added on this basis, such as after unlocking the skill "Engagement", players can directly use the knife to block bullets (judging from the demonstration, the knife here even includes the mantis knife).
For some players, there is nothing more "cyberpunk" than blocking (bouncing) bullets with a Japanese sword.
The skill slots vacated in this story are also officially unlocked, and players can spend special skill points to unlock unique Relic skills, using powerful skills such as smashing the ground from the air. Judging from the official introduction, the Relic skill covers almost all game styles and is considered the "ultimate move" of each genre. The number of special points required to unlock requires players to advance the main quest before earning.
In addition, the game also improves the police system and vehicle warfare, the former has a more intuitive and realistic wanted system, law enforcement agencies will gradually increase the intensity of the hunt as the degree of arrest increases, rather than "brushing the police out of thin air" as in this article. The latter adds more action, such as direct melee weapons to attack enemies on both sides when driving a motorcycle, as well as new side quests, commissions, and open-world events, which are also standard in this type of expansion. In subsequent visits, officials also confirmed that some of the new side quests and commissions will involve or take place outside of Dog Town (that is, in Night City), and how many new side quests will only be found out after the game is released. It is worth mentioning that the system update is for all players, even if you have not purchased "Shadow of the Past", you can feel the changes this expansion brings to the game.
By the way, in the trial, the author can intuitively feel that the feel of the vehicle has improved, and in the follow-up interview, it was also confirmed that the official has indeed put a lot of effort into this regard.
epilogue
From the perspective of the trial experience, the performance of "Shadow of the Past" is very stable, and it can even be said to be excellent - spy thriller and cyberpunk leave enough suspense for the plot, and the performance is not lacking in highlights; Although the new game content does not make all-round changes to the underlying gameplay, it does greatly enrich the gameplay. Unfortunately, due to the limited playtime, the advantages (and disadvantages) of the expansion pack are not fully revealed.
One thing is for sure, for those who have played and enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077, the quality of this expansion so far is something to look forward to. Even if you don't pre-order or even plan to buy for various reasons, the free updated skills and system changes can bring players a whole new gaming experience. As for the final performance of this game, and whether it can satisfy players, we can only find out after it is released.