Cyberpunk means hi-tech dystopias, neon-lit towns, everything sci-fi. It originates as a subgenre of science fiction. Literature, film, and music have also been influenced by Cyberpunk. Anti-heroes, hacking, cybernetic enhancements, and VR are their rudimentary elements. All this occurs in oppressive structures because mega-corporates own the world.
This article will explore the history of cyberpunk as a genre & its representation in the world of video games, mainly through Cyberpunk 2077 made by CD Projekt Red.
This is a sub-type of sci-fi & it got out in the early 1980s. This game explores the link between humans & technology. It is set in a distant future where high-tech dreams co-exist with low-life conditions.
The works from some authors and cultural movements in the late 20th century are the roots of cyberpunk. It wasn’t until 1984 and William Gibson’s Neuromancer that that era’s cyberpunk genre is typically seen as having begun. In Gibson’s world, people hunt vultures perceptually and send their heads to the bot who controls them with the eyes and mouth, the cybernetic implants are central to the human experience and cyberspace is central: the creation of Gibson's future is futurist in the best sense of the word. His depiction of a jacked-in hacker working his way through the digital world of corporate espionage and the virtual battlefields serves as the template for much of what would follow in the genre.
Over the years cyberpunk has taken on a form all its own, branching off into other branches of media, like film, television, music, and video games. We can see its influence in the iconic movie The Matrix. It is about a world in which the reality is a simulation. Starring Mossman, Hart, and Rottenberg from the production company, the focus on hacking, artificial intelligence, and the fight for freedom, all reworked through the genre's by now classic lenses, neatly distills a lot of what the genre was about, and still is. Correspondingly, anime also embraced cyberpunk with Ghost in the Shell in ‘95. This film examines questions about AI, cybernetic bodies, & consciousness.
Snatcher is one of the earliest examples of cyberpunk games. It is a story about a detective searching for androids in a futuristic city. It was created by Hideo Kojima in 1988. Other options that are worth mentioning are System Shock released in 1994 & its sequel System Shock 2 released in 1999. Cyberpunk meets horror and first-person in these games, in which players scooted into the shoes of a hacker taking on rogue artificial intelligence in a space station.
A more recent example of cyberpunk in video games is the series of Deus Ex. That is a FPS game. The story includes a deep history of conspiracy about government involvement in people’s lives. Like the game's focus on individual rebellion and technological mastery, the players were given the freedom to play missions however they chose: hacking, stealth, or classic direct combat. With the sequel, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the ethical dilemmas surrounding human augmentation were more explored.
Cyberpunk 2077 developed by CD Projekt Red is a great game, to be honest. One of the highest anticipated games in this genre. Its plot is based on the tabletop role-playing game Cyberpunk 2020. Cyberpunk 2077 was released during Corona pandemic (2020). The game is set in Night City, a sprawling urban dystopia where mega-businesses rule & technological progress has led to general cybernetic enhancements.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a model hacker experience. In Night City, cybernetic boosts are widespread, obscuring the line between living beings & machines. The game also will show the consequences of unregulated technological advancements. And, that is- many citizens can suffer from cyberpsychosis. The domination of global companies is another central theme in Cyberpunk 2077.
The summaries are as follows: Cyberpunk has become one of the most influential genres of science fiction that still influences creatives. The theme consists of humanity in touch with technology, its negative attitude toward corporations. The game’s calm post-apocalyptic visions are more than relevant given the current topics such as data protection, surveillance, and the role of large tech companies. Cyberpunk is not only a science fiction genre but also an impact on the world where people discuss technology & society. Thus, issues that this game raises—the problem of identity, freedom, and the feasibility of the distant future from the point of view of such fundamental values as moral or ethical—are becoming more acute with the development of AI, Biotech, etc.
