In addition to a new trailer and other announcements, the bulk of the Cyberpunk 2077 focused on a new gameplay feature called Braindance. As seen in the gameplay, the player’s character V is virtually transported into the viewpoint of a local street thug who died holding up a convenience store. From the player’s perspective, they’re placed into the shoes of the NPC character to experience what went down. It’s similar to a detective mode that has been utilized in games from the Batman Arkham series.
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Following the death of the NPC, players get access to the Braindance recording tool to go over what exactly happened. The player gets complete control over the camera and editing tools such as pause, fast forward, and rewind. They can also change the layer being viewed from the normal playback, to the audio layer which highlights points of interest, and even an infared view. Objects and points of interest can be scanned to unlock more of the events.
Ultimately, players will utilize this feature to experience some one else’s life and live through their memories. CD Projekt RED is using this technique as an important storytelling device to showcase many aspects of the game from the different factions to the game’s universe in general.
Interestingly enough, this concept isn’t a tool made up for the game. It’s based on an actual mechanic used for the original RPG tabletop experience. According to the lore of the universe, Braindance was created at the University of California at Santa Cruz back in 2007 as a way to assist in trauma therapy among other things. Naturally, CD Projekt RED has taken this device a step further for their game and has turned it into this mass market VR tool that lets people experience what it’s like to be someone else or take part in something. This escape has also been adapted by the blackmarket to partake in some things that may not be quite as legal.
In addition to the Braindance reveal, CD Projekt RED also showed off a new trailer that made made up of footage entirely from the prologue missions at the start of the game. Players also saw a brand new area of the world called The Badlands, which exists outside of Night City and looks to be a desert wasteland home to nomads. Finally, the Night City Wire steam also confirmed Cyberpunk Edgerunner, a new anime series coming to Netflix.
Cyberpunk 2077 releases November 19 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with PS5, Stadia, and Xbox Series X versions also in development.
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