Launch

Cyberpunk trailer's big question tells you all you need to know

"Would you rather live in peace as Mr. Nobody, or go down for all times in a blaze of glory?"

Cyberpunk 2077 will finally launch in just a few more days. After an almost eight-year wait that included several delays, the game will finally become a reality on December 10. There are even early reviews and a launch trailer to prove it. As one of the most anticipated games of 2020, the launch trailer doesn't really need to do much to win people over or pique interest in Cyberpunk 2077.

Anyone who's going to buy Cyberpunk 2077 at launch already has those plans lined up, but the new launch trailer does more than enough to stir up even more hype. Part of the gimmick at play in the trailer hints at a provocative question that serves as the thematic focus for Cyberpunk 2077.

"Would you rather live in peace as Mr. Nobody, or go down for all times in a blaze of glory?" The line caps off an exciting trailer that mainly focuses on V, the main character of Cyberpunk 2077, and all of the interesting characters that they will encounter along the way. It's a riff on the "Style over substance." sentiment found in an early chapter of Cyberpunk 2020, the tabletop roleplaying game from which this new video game was adapated.

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Check out the trailer here:

Dex DeShawn, a powerful fixer who players work with during the game, is the one who asks this provocative question. They say this after reminding the player that Johnny Silverhand, who is played by Keanu Reeves, is a digital ghost in V's mind. Obviously, this kicks off an exciting adventure, though late-game story details are being kept under wraps until launch.

The cyberpunk genre often poses profound questions about life and transhumanism. In an increasingly cyberized world where people replace parts of their bodies with cybernetics and even upload their consciousness from body to body, what meaning does life have? While it doesn't seem like players can avoid conflict entirely in Cyberpunk 2077, this trailer puts an emphasis on how players will have to make tough choices over the course of the adventure.

In other words, Cyberpunk 2077 wants V — and the player by proxy — to live boldly and dangerously, because even if you die, it's better to be remembered than forgotten as "Mr. Nobody."

Violence sort of feels like a narrative weapon in a meta, ironic way.

CD Projekt Red

Just like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, almost every quest in Cyberpunk 2077 is filled with a variety of tough choices that players have to make. Some of these might be higher-level choices that can change the course of the main story, but other more minute ones can just have noticeable impacts on the relationships that V has with all of the characters featured in this trailer.

While players might not be able to avoid fighting, they can almost certainly craft V into someone that's humble and nice to others, or someone that's mean and power-hungry. Many of the early reviews for Cyberpunk 2077 praise this emphasis on player choice.

"It’s frequently a slow-paced game full of rich, beautifully presented conversations and an almost mind-boggling amount of choices to make — choice in dialogue options, how to build your character, how to approach missions, and beyond," IGN's positive review of the game boasts. "Cyberpunk 2077 lets your choices have a massive impact on both V’s own story and those of the characters around them."

If you're a fan of massive RPGs with tons of choices for you to make, early reviews and this launch trailer hint that Cyberpunk 2077 should meet expectations. At the very least, in a few more days anybody can opt to go down in a "blaze of glory" when they place Cyberpunk 2077.

Cyberpunk 2077 will be released for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia on December 10.

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