CD Projekt Red's head of Cracow studio John Mamais revealed that Cyberpunk 2077 would no be ignoring open world quests, with around 75 "street stories" being designed for Night City's gigantic map. Open world questing was one of the most consistently praised elements of the developer's last major release in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a feature that many felt made the world feel more like it was alive since Geralt could simply stumble into minor narratives and solve less pressing problems as they sprang up in his travels.
Cyberpunk 2077 was recently delayed as part of the many major announcements regarding some of 2020's most anticipated games. According to some reports, that delay was less about the state of the game itself and more about the limitations of current generation gaming consoles. Consumers were already aware that the scale of Cyberpunk 2077 as a project was going to be even larger than The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt despite containing a smaller game world in terms of pure size - made up for by the fact that Cyberpunk 2077 can go vertical with multiple stories of buildings. That the ambitious nature of the game caused a minor delay was met with acceptance from fans who simply want the best experience possible.
That experience will include Cyberpunk 2077 open world quests, as confirmed by Mamais during an interview with OnMSFT. During the interview, the developer stated that open world elements were actually included quite late in the development process for The Witcher 3 and were added by an extremely small team of two or three people. By contrast, Cyberpunk 2077 has a team of around 15 people doing open world quest design, and that has led to around 75 minor quests called street stories to be made available to players exploring Night City. Mamais had more to say on the subject:
"The street stories are like little quests. There's story but there's not, like, advanced cinematic storytelling sequences so much. They're a way to explore the world and level up your character."
The status of Cyberpunk 2077 open world quests was never really in question - it was much more an expectation than something fans would be surprised and happy to have - but the amount that have been implemented as minor features is frankly impressive. For a game that was already aiming at being larger than the studio's last massive RPG, having a huge number of smaller story-telling moments that still account for narrative beats and character progression is a noticeable win.
While many of 2020's biggest games have been delayed, the discussion around them has remained positive. Cyberpunk 2077 open world quest design, both in terms of quantity and quality, will help contribute to that discourse remaining a place where fans express their gratitude to developers for making games they're excited about while understanding that combating crunch culture - even if it means waiting longer - is well worth it in the long run.
Cyberpunk 2077 will release on September 17, 2020 for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia.
Source: OnMSFT