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Solving crimes in Cyberpunk 2077 needs to be less like Arkham and more like Paradise KillerWe are so bad at our jobs, Cyber Officer Davey
We are so bad at our jobs, Cyber Officer Davey
It’s got me thinking about the way detectoring is going to be a thing in Cyberpunk, ‘cos I reckon it’ll either be really good or really annoying.
Watch on YouTube
Watch on YouTube
Despite an emphasis on lawlessness and people taking justice into their own hands as gangs run riot and so on, the police do exist in Night City and classify things as actual crime. We’ve seen their special digi-crime scene tape and everything in CD Projekt Red’s Night City Wire streams, there was a crime scene being investigated in the very earliest gameplay video two years ago, and there was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot in the video about gangs that came out last month. (Side question: do cyberteens still get straps for their first guitar that say CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS? Are they digi-straps?).
Whenwe chatted about that first video, former Vid Bud Matthew (RPS in peace) said he’d quite like to be a cybercop. I wouldn’t because I’m not anarcor aloser, but I would like to be a cyber-detective. You know, a private dick but my trenchcoat is two-tone and holographic. Kind of like Phillip Marlowe, but with a hatband made of shimmering pixels and prompts lines like, “From the moment she walked in, I knew that dame was trouble. She had the kind of legs that turn into big robot swords.”
I love the idea of combining higher tech stuff with good ol’ fashioned deduction and pounding the streets. When doing a detect, the key (which almost all games leave off their big chain) is to allow me the capacity to hunt down clues, follow hunches, and still end up coming to the wrong conclusion because I missed something. Think of Frogwares' most recent Sherlock Holmes games likeThe Devil’s Daughter, where you can collar the wrong criminal, or get the right one but decide to let him go. OrParadise Killer, where it’s possible to know exactly whodunnit and why, but not meet the evidence threshold for conviction in your weird magic demon court!
The Witcher III wasn’t perfect in this regard, but if Cyberpunk does a similar thing - where I can be following one quest, the thread goes cold, and then suddenly I come across it again while scratching my arse and doing something totally different in another part of the world - then that’s a solid foundation.
However, there is also the whole “brain-dancing” thing (also known as BD), which was revealed inthe very first Night City Wire. Though it’s apparently a very popular form of entertainment, since it lets you piggy back in and experience someone’s memories and emotions second-hand (the most hellish way to watch an influencer’s tearful apology video imaginable), in the game you’ll be using it to replay crimes and gather those all-important clues. Nat explains it better than me in her news post:
I want to figure out puzzles in a way that, when I have four pieces and I put them together in a certain way, for example, I can still see what the fifth one would look like even though it’s missing. Not because a camera recorded the whole puzzle and I was able to watch it back. That’s cheating.
