We had already figured this would be the case, but now developer CD Projekt Red has confirmed it. Compared to The Witcher 3's open world, which is pretty darn big, Cyberpunk 2077's map is set to be smaller. However, as you'd expect, Night City is supposed to be much more dense than the fields, forests, and valleys of Geralt's adventure.
Talking to GamesRadar, producer Richard Borzymowski elaborates: "If you look at pure surface [in terms of] square kilometers, then Cyberpunk 2077 might even be a little bit smaller than The Witcher 3, but it’s the density of the content, taking the world of The Witcher and squeezing it right in, deleting the wilderness between."
Borzymowski continues: "Obviously [...] in The Witcher we were an open world with vast lanes and forests in between smaller cities and larger cities like Novigrad, but in Cyberpunk 2077 we’re set in Night City. It’s an integral part of the setting; it’s essentially a protagonist if you want to call it that, so it has to be denser. It wouldn't give us the end effect we wanted to achieve if the city wouldn't be believable [...] so we packed it full of life."
It's also worth noting that Night City is going to be much more vertical as well, with locations like apartment buildings and corporate skyscrapers playing an obvious role. The Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay that we've already seen showed absolutely heaving crowds of people and bustling interiors, so we're already expecting a decidedly dense experience.
Do you prefer vast open worlds with plenty of room to breathe, or more densely packed settings like Night City? Check out what's around the next corner in the comments section below.
[source gamesradar.com]
Comments 21
This game IS gunna be pretty great to be fair!
So slightly smaller, but much denser. Exploring the city is going to be so good.
Makes sense since it's a cityscape with more vertically compared to Witcher's vast countryside, waterways/oceans mixed with towns and old structures.
we like a bit o dense. dnt we?
Vast swathes of space are a better fit for more rural areas with dense wilderness anyway. Urban environments are best when they're a bit more compact.
Denser > more raw square feet
Pre-order cancelled.
not really
I loved the part from the 2018 gameplay demo where V goes to see her ripperdoc. That dimly lit neon, incense smoke filled clinic of his looked scrumptious.
Id much rather a smaller setting that i can intuitively learn than unecessary open world. Lets be honest, do most of the big games NEED to be so big? It seems only to serve to get a bullet point on the back of the box.
I much prefer gta3's liberty city and vice city, than gta 5's. I can still remember the streets like the back of my hand. Gta 5 i spend most of my time staring at the minimap getting annoyed it takes so long to get from a to b
So yes. This is NOT a problem in any way
@Rob_230
"...smaller setting that i can intuitively learn than unnecessary open world"
This, 100%
Actually end up walking the world and not fast traveling to skip the miles of needless trees and random killer turkey.
@Agramonte That sounds like a dream! Its one of the reasons ive never really bought into stuff like just cause, and tired of things like assassins creed. Once you get too large, you have to find things to pad out all that open world. It doesnt work unless your world is truly interactive like red dead 2. And even then i felt the world was too large given the amount of time you spent trecking from one place to the next
I think games have gotten unnecessarily big. Yes I love to explore and find things, but these days it feels like I roam and roam and roam and find nothing of interest more often than not. They get so big that that I tend to miss the small things to find. Too many "what's back here? oh...nothing". So smaller and more focused allows you to find things with out burning out from empty world fatigue.
Both vast open worlds like the Witcher 3 and densely packed cities with fully explorable skyscrapers have there place and I have no preference at all - its more about keeping with the setting and story and doing what us best suited.
This is why there is a difference here because the aesthetics and world that each game requires is of course different and Cyberpunks world design wouldn't be right for the Witcher 3 and vice versa. CDPR at least have had some experience of creating a busy city with Novigrad - OK so a lot of the buildings were closed off and the ones you could enter only had 2-3 floors but they still felt alive and right for the setting.
It makes sense to expand out if the world is quite 'flat' and by flat I mean without much verticality (and hills/mountains don't count) and if you have a lot of verticality, you can shrink the map-size down. With enough verticality, you can match (if not exceed) the 'floor' space and it may mean that CDPR actually have a 'bigger' area to explore.
Anyway, I have no preference as to the type of open world design as its very much dependent on the story, the setting etc.
I hope more games do this. Very few games felt alive this gen. Just really big and repetitive. Not all of them but a lot imo. And games like FO4 for example....nothing like going to the games most populated city and 27 people live there lol. I really hope SEs approach to FF7 pays off because they look to be making midgar a crazy lived in place
GTA SA was huge, even 100+ missions wasn't enough to cover every single part of the map. Though I have to say the game was great just because of the amount of missions.
I remember playing the MP mod quite a lot when it first came out as well. 200 players still didn't fill the huge map.
Depends on the game i loved Horizon Zero Dawn with their big world because of the hunting. Finding collectables uncovering the story. Climbing to get too the glyphs and enjoy the view.
I definitely like a wilderness more. Its the same with gta san Andreas and gta 4, i still play gta sa because of the open feeling. But to each its own, I never expected a witcher like experience from cyberpunk
@Neolit true the Fallout 3 world was much more fun to explore than F4's, I think they chose the wrong formula for the style of game/setting.
Open Wilderness is perfect for The Witcher, RDR etc and a slightly smaller but more dense Metropolis will be perfect for CP2077! Its going to be amazing!
I love simple layouts where traversing between areas is a breeze. On the other hand I love exploring confined spaces. Hopefully this will tick both those boxes. That open world "only one hard-to-find entrance to this huge area" nonsense always gets on my nerves
The one reason I like deus ex's world. Its busy enough you have to learn it but not stupid enough you are constantly relying on your map or wanting to fast travel due to boredom.
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