Cyberpunk 2077’s developer CD Projekt Red is using its extra development time to create a more realistic melee combat system from the ground up.
In the build-up to the release of Cyberpunk 2077, developer CD Projekt Red has been releasing more in-depth trailers, known as the Night City Wire series – and this week the topic of how combat will work in the game was explored. While there seems to be a myriad of guns and weapons available for players to use, according to CD Projekt Red, the melee combat options are still under development.
Developer CD Projekt Red has been releasing all-new footage of the game on Twitch, with each video focusing on a different element of gameplay and storytelling. So far only two episodes have aired, with the first episode focusing primarily on the prologue of Cyberpunk 2077 and the choices players will make going in.
The new footage gives a glimpse into just how vast the options for combat and weapons will be. The developers have really focused on keeping the theme of RPG in the combat, only adding in shooter type elements on top of the RPG elements instead of the other way around. Following the live stream, VG247 spoke with senior gameplayer designer Pawel Kapala, on just how the combat systems in Cyberpunk 2077 have been progressing. Since the game has been delayed a number of times, the team at CD Projekt Red has been hard at work fine-tuning each element of the title. Kapala explains in the interview how the team is using this time to work on the melee combat and bring a more realistic feel to each melee weapon.
“We’re still a couple of months before release, and I’m actually right now working on melee. We’re spending a lot of time trying to perfect that, and we basically, we’re not 100 percent happy, mostly with visual feedback on the hits, on the melee. So, we’re still working on it. We’re continuing to work on it. And I’m happy to say that, even right now, it’s much better than it was. And it’s going to get even better. And we acknowledge that this is something that we need to perfect, basically. But as you said, melee in a first-person game is extremely difficult, from the get-go. So, it wasn’t an easy task, since we basically come from a pedigree of creating TPP games. It was also a big part of our development to actually figure out, how do you do melee in a first-person perspective? We’re working on it.”
With Cyberpunk 2077 being mostly an RPG at heart, character customization options, in the form of augmentations, will factor heavily into combat. Which cyber augmentations players choose to install in their own character will alter how players approach combat situations. Those who are looking to build a pure melee character will find that these augmentations will be the key to surviving in Night City. However, those who intend to purely use melee weapons will face some issues in certain encounters as the A.I. won’t just let players approach and kill them. Not relying on guns and abilities in an encounter will prove to be difficult, with enemies in the game using what they have at their disposal to take out players, as Kapala explained in the interview.
Kapala is confident that the team will be able to bring out the best melee combat experience they can in the time they have left, with the current build of the game already lightyears ahead of the preview provided to journalists just a few months ago. As a whole, Cyberpunk 2077 is looking to be the biggest RPG to hit the scene in 2020, with CD Projekt Red taking some much needed extra time to put in some final touches to the game before release.
Cyberpunk 2077 will be available for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia on November 19, 2020. It will launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X in 2021.
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