With Cyberpunk 2077's heavily anticipated release finally approaching, it's about that time where details and information start to trickle out. Now that the game is physically in the wild, it's no surprise that the contents of the physical copies of the game are making the rounds, including a poster of Cyperpunk 2077's map. The map itself isn't exactly new, as it has been shown off in little pieces throughout CD Projekt Red's marketing campaign for the game, but this is the first look at the game's map in its entirety.
[Spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077 & The Witcher 3 below]
Much like Grand Theft Auto V, it appears Cyberpunk 2077 will have an open sort of outskirts area on the outside of the city. Night City promises to be an extremely detailed and dense environment, as opposed to the vast open worlds that have taken hold throughout the industry. It's an overwhelming thing to think about that will surely become easier to comprehend once players are able to physically get into the city and start to move around. But the one thing that immediately stands out is that the map of Night City looks strangely similar the area surrounding Novigrad in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
The Witcher 3's map is fairly large, but for the purpose of this exercise the focus is on Novigrad and its immediate surroundings. Both cities follow a similar pattern along the corner of an inlet with the ocean bordering the western side, while the rest of the surrounding area appears to be fairly barren. It legitimately looks like CD Projekt Red just took Night City and dropped it right on top of Novigrad. Now, the mostly likely explanation for the similarities between the two maps is that the people responsible for designing the maps at CD Projekt Red just happened to subconsciously construct the two worlds in a similar fashion, or just flat out decided to reuse similar landscape ideas. It's really not that big of a deal, but it's a humorous detail to take note of given the natural connection between the two games.
Where Cyberpunk 2077 Will Crossover With The Witcher
Going into Cyberpunk 2077, it's hard not to think there's going to be some sort of a Witcher crossover. In The Witcher 3, after Geralt finds Ciri, she describes her journey jumping between worlds as she eluded the Wild Hunt. In her stories, Ciri goes on to describe a world where people had metal in their heads, fought from a distance and had flying ships; a world that can be no other than that of Cyberpunk 2077. Ciri managed to hide from the Wild Hunt on that world for half a year, more than enough time for her to mingle with the citizens of Night City. There is no doubt that, at some point in Cyberpunk 2077's story, players will be able to find and interact with Ciri in some capacity. It seems like the most obvious crossover in history because it probably is.
And who knows, maybe the reason the maps look so similar is going to be alluded to in the game. Maybe Night City is some sort of wacky alternate universe version of Novigrad, or they take place in vastly different timelines. While it's likely just a coincidence, it's yet more proof of the multiple glaring connections between The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 that has already been, and will continue to be, heavily examined by fans and critics as the coverage ramps up for one of the year's biggest releases.
Cyberpunk 2077 releases on November 19, 2020.