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Comment by platz | Hacker News Reader

cyberpunk that isn't edgy, daring or truly political doesn't deserve the moniker. It needs to be taking some kind risk. Going through the motions of tepid imitation (read:unoffensive to the largest target market, follows precedents from similar open world games) isn't true to the genre.

Tell me, what kind of statement do you think this game could possibly make that would be memorable? or is it simply a skin on a familiar game mechanic and engine.

Blade Runner had nice visuals, but it wasn't just about the visuals. It also presented a provocative question and politics that all those nice visuals were centered on.

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It's rare to see something as mass market and expensive as a modern AAA open world game making a "statement" that isn't extremely watered down and tepid - there's just too much at stake. And a piece of media that's fully embedded in multinational corporate culture is unlikely to seriously challenge that culture either. You'll have to look to the indie space for that.

Blade Runner was provocative, but it was also a box office bomb. Both times. The aesthetics of cyberpunk have broad mass market appeal - that much is certain. Yet the more philosophical, political and artistic questions and themes that define the genre, maybe not so much.

Looks like both versions were profitable (according to Wikipedia), but maybe there's more to it than that?

Well, some people were surprisingly upset that in the game (set in a world where body modification was commonplace) gender selection, body shape and voice were not linked together, so players can mix and match.

Unfortunately when called out on it, the developer defended it as a simple development convenience.

That said, most cyberpunk is rather light on the social upheaval and philosophical questions, and are mostly just repeating the same questions from the 1980s updated where real life tech has already overtaken 1980s futurism.

Cyberpunk will provoke the fantastic question of ‘what if we take the current trend towards multinationals consolidating to the logical extreme, and make them rule the world’.

Do you think this game is going to explore that question in a way that changes or challenges you, or is it going to simply make a facile nod & gesture, while portraying some kitschy logos.

Do you think its actually going to attempt to challenge corporate culture?

Thing is, real life also provokes that same question.

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