Cyberpunk 2077was once best known for being so buggy on last-gen consoles that it was removed from the PlayStation Store. These days, however, Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t just picking up award wins left and right, orachieving Steam’s top review badge, it’s being talked about as one of thegreatest RPGs of all time.
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Following the release of Cyberpunk 2077’s only expansion, Phantom Liberty, last September and its subsequent2.1 updatein December, CD Projekt Red is finally gearing up to begin work on a sequel that is currently codenamed Project Orion. As the studio enters a new era, I thought it was only right to sit down with Pawel Sasko, the lead quest designer for Cyberpunk 2077 and associate game director for its upcoming sequel, to discuss this monumental RPG’s rise.
A Humbling Lesson
These days,Cyberpunk 2077 is adored by manyfor being a detailed and immersive RPG, but it’s been a long, uphill battle for CD Projekt Red. After finally receiving positive recognition after 4 years of hard work, Sasko says it’s something he was really hoping for. “I knew we were putting a lot of effort into building it,” he tells me. “I’m really, really thankful to the players, the community, journalists, influencers and media people that actually go back to the game and report on it, just taking an interest in any way.”
With smash hits such asThe Witcher 3already under the studio’s belt, dedicating years of hard work to re-build the community’s trust was not something CD Projekt Red was used to. “I remember how it is when everyone celebrates your game, when everyone says, ‘you guys did such a great job’,” Sasko explained. “I had a feeling that we’d been doing even better than The Witcher 3, and it just didn’t work out the way we wanted.”
It was a launch that brought the studio back down to earth, completely omitted from all award conversations, but Sasko tells me that it “was a very humbling lesson” and not one that the studio intends to hide from. “I believe that true growth is understanding and acceptance, and really going through your pain, rather than trying to pretend that it didn’t happen.”
CD Projekt Red’s Hardest Days
“I think the hardest moment was probably patch 1.2.” He went on to explain how the studio experienced a massivecybersecurity attack in February 2021, which took place during the development of Cyberpunk 2077’s 1.2 update. “Despite the fact that we were going through such a hard time, there was also this factor…it made it so much harder for us to work.”
Not only was the studio experiencing huge issues internally due to the attack, but Sasko tells me that things were made even worse by the outside perception that the team just wasn’t doing enough. “I think that was probably the hardest moment. When the things we were doing weren’t enough. It felt like it just wasn’t enough for people outside.”
But despite the setbacks and initial reception to Cyberpunk 2077, Sasko never saw the team lose motivation. Instead, he tells me that they bonded through the hard times and that most of the team was eager to go back and fix the issues. But while the team remained motivated, Sasko admitted to me that it was hard. “To keep going without losing this heart and enthusiasm towards it, the belief. More and more as we went further and further, it was hard.”
“It was easy to doubt if it would ever work out.”
CD Projekt Red continued to work on new Cyberpunk 2077 updates following the release of patch 1.2, but it was patch 1.5 where he expected to see players return to the game. “It was a proper release on the new platforms. We had everything updated, there was just so many things patched,” he explained. “I was hoping that a lot of players would come back to the game then and they would see and be like ‘holy shit, how many things have been changed, this looks so much better'.”
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, as Sasko tells me that the patch only saw a small number of players return to the game. “I was really disappointed by the reception of patch 1.5. Because so many things had been changed and updated, plenty of new content had been added,” Sasko admitted, before telling me that this was the point where he began to have doubts.
“That was the moment when I had doubt, when I was like ‘maybe this is just impossible at this point to turn around, maybe there’s just no way to do it’.”
The Studio’s Biggest Achievement?
There’s no denying that CD Projekt Red experienced numerous setbacks and hard days, but while most studios would have likely called it a day after a handful of updates, the Warsaw-based studio remained determined and focused to make Cyberpunk 2077 the game that they had promised fans.
So after 4 years of post-launch work, I was eager to know whether or not Sasko classified this accomplishment as CD Projekt Red’s greatest achievement. “I would say it was definitely the hardest-earned achievement we have.”
The lead quest designer then went on to compare Cyberpunk 2077 with the studio’s last big release, The Witcher 3, saying that he “loves them both,” but from his personal perspective he “[feels] it’s a bigger achievement.”
Sasko also took into account how difficult it was to rectify Cyberpunk 2077’s issues, saying that if the game was good from the get-go, he could “maybe feel like The Witcher 3 was a bigger achievement,” but due to the uphill battle of Cyberpunk 2077, “it’s probably justified.”
“We put ourselves through such an incredible, difficult path to get there,” Sasko said. “Therefore, yes, I think it makes sense. It does feel like a bigger achievement. It does feel like our biggest achievement to work our way up to where we are now.”
“You’re Breathtaking!”
Keanu Reeves is, undoubtedly, one of the most beloved actors in the whole of Hollywood. From The Matrix to John Wick, Reeves has been winning over the hearts of viewers with his high-octane action flicks for the last 3 decades. But Reeves entered the world of video games in 2020 when CD Projekt Red approached the veteran actor to portray the role of Cyberpunk 2077’s Johnny Silverhand. As you can imagine, Reeves accepting the role was a huge moment for the team.
“The moment when I found out that it was actually working out and we could make it work, it was a huge boost for everyone,” Sasko said in regards to getting Reeves on board. “In some way we were used to working with stars, but to have a star of this magnitude, to come in and say yes, was somewhat of a surprise.”
While Sasko tells me CD Projekt Red was prepared for Reeves to decline the role, he noted that he likes to think the team is “humble enough to understand” that Keanu Reeves is the biggest star in the world, so he would, of course, be in a position to say no to the offer. But Reeves apparently became so invested in the role that he wanted to have a “meaty role” in Phantom Liberty.
“He wanted to have a meaningful, meaty role in Phantom Liberty.” While Sasko noted that Keanu’s character still played a huge role in Phantom Liberty - even before Reeves expressed wanting to play a bigger factor in the DLC - the lead quest designer told me it was “an encouragement” to see the star so invested in the character.
When Reeves returned to lace up Silverhand’s rocker boots once more, his performance as the character had also come on leaps and bounds. “When we were working with [Keanu], we could see, in time, his performance was improving. Performance being his understanding, the way he played Johnny specifically, the way he put emphasis on words, how deeply he understood the character.”
Sasko then explained that while CD Projekt Red had “learned how to write [Johnny Silverhand] better,” he was also able to see the growth of the character through Reeves' performance. “He understood it on a much deeper level,” Sasko said.
Dogtown Is A Unique Collage Of Influences
While Sasko was, rightly, thrilled by Keanu Reeves' evolved performance in Phantom Liberty, the gigantic expansion had plenty to shout and ball about. While the concept of Night City was originally created by Cyberpunk 2020 (the table-top RPG which 2077 is based on) creator Mike Pondsmith, the location of Dogtown was created entirely by CD Projekt Red, which meant the team could get creative.
Controlled by ex-Military Colonel, Kurt Hansen, Dogtown is drastically different yet familiar to the rest of Night City. When I asked Sasko about the influences behind this new location, he said the team did a lot of research. “[We looked] specifically at art references when building Dogtown. We were trying to make sure that we provided something that would be unique, different, and special for the player.”
Cyberpunk 2077’s lead quest designer went on to explain that Dogtown is “a collage of references” with elements of Nicaragua, the favelas, and Mexican architecture.
Dogtown’s influences and design tell the story of this location’s history, but it was the town’s gigantic gate that was “super important” to CD Projekt Red. “We enlarged it like three times or something. When we were building it, it was just becoming bigger and bigger,” Sasko said between giggles.
New Game Plus Wouldn’t Have Made Sense
Between Phantom Liberty and Cyberpunk 2077’s 2.0 update, fans had a plethora of reasons to return to Night City. But many members ofthe community were disappointedto see that CD Projekt Red had no interest in developing a New Game Plus mode, a popular mode that has become somewhat of a standard in the RPG genre, allowing players to restart their game with their loot and perks still intact.
When I asked Sasko to expand on why the team never implemented the mode, he explained that there was a couple of reasons. “It’s really important that when you have components in a game, they all work together and they all work well and they all make sense…Cyberpunk is very specific when it comes to its construction.”
“It’s incredibly difficult to figure out a way where NG+ could be done in a setting, in a way that doesn’t completely break the way the game is constructed,” Sasko said. “By design, it would require major changes to the construction of the game to really do it well.”
Ultimately, Sasko said “the design answer” comes down to consistency, cohesiveness, and the overall design of the game. He also explained that Cyberpunk 2077 is “designed to be replayed,” such as trying different life paths, romances, builds, and more. While Sasko acknowledged that this “might not be a good enough answer” for the community, he said “it’s the whole truth.”
Is This The End For Cyberpunk 2077?
Since its initial release in 2020, CD Projekt Red has fixed many of the bugs and glitches within the game, released a massive, content-filled expansion in Phantom Liberty, and even overhauled the game’s skill tree and combat system. And that’s not including the countless updates in between that were filled with new content, such as a metro system and the abilityto change certain vehicles' paint color. So, what’s next?
Late last month, agraph released by CD Projekt Redindicated that nobody at the studio was working on Cyberpunk 2077 anymore. While the studio has already confirmed that there will be no new content coming to the game, fans were sent into a frenzy as they were led to believe that there would be no further bug fixes and stability patches released, but Sasko assures me that’s not the case.
When I asked Sasko if there was still a small number of people at CD Projekt Red still working on 2077, he said, “That is true for every game that we have ever made that there are people who are looking into stability, into securing things.”
“So absolutely there are always people always looking at all of our games, 2077 included, to be sure that the game is kept in a good of a state of possible,” Sasko explained to me. “We are always looking into things, if something is incorrect, we are looking into it. If our players are having problems, I cannot imagine a scenario where we are not looking into it.”
It’s been a long journey for Cyberpunk 2077, and one that Sasko says was “very difficult” to step away from. But the future is looking bright for the company, with multiple Witcher projects in the works, and a new office in Boston dedicated to Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel, I can’t wait to see what the studio produces next.
