Despite its shaky release back in 2020 on the current generation of consoles, Cyberpunk: 2077 a highly-anticipated action RPG from CD Projekt Red, the Polish studio behind The Witcher franchise, managed to rise to prominence thanks to its choice-based narrative and expansive open world.

Among its highlights were Johnny Silverhand, the rock musician and anarchist played by Keanu Reeves, alongside a sprawling vision of a dystopian Los Angeles in which corporations ruled the world with dire consequences for the people living in it.

Mixed Reactions to a Crucial Change in Project Orion

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Cyberpunk 2077 took its players on a wild ride through Night City back in 2020.

While CD Projekt Red may be hard at work on their new Witcher title, the studio’s new Boston-based studio is set to work parallelly with their European counterparts on Project Orion, a codename for the upcoming sequel to Cyberpunk 2077.

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While the studio is certainly thrilled with their move to America, highlighting the way in which it could help address issues surrounding authenticity in their sequel while working with a new talent pool from top-tier American institutions like Harvard and MIT, some Cyberpunk fans aren’t too thrilled with the change.

A More American Cyberpunk Sequel Doesn’t Seem Exciting to Its Fans

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Reeves’ portrayal of Johnny Silverhand was among the original game’s many highlights.

Executive producer on Project Orion Dan Hernberg, in an interview with Insider Gaming, stated that having a presence in America could help CD Projekt Red address issues that crept up in the first game, making the game feel more “American”, it looks like his potential player base for the highly anticipated sequel disagree.

However, Hernberg points out how a simple detail like the covers on manholes that they used in the original game’s Night City was similar to the ones used in Europe instead of America – a detail that some players were quick to point out – had an impact on player immersion.

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It is a pitfall that the move to Boston could avoid as the studio leverages local talent to add more authentic details to their sequel. It doesn’t stop with manhole covers as Hernberg’s colleague, Associate Game Director Paweł Sasko touches upon many details that could have been better matched with American cities as opposed to European ones. It’s this attention to detail that put The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt on the map, after all.

And while the change may have its detractors, others were quick to voice their support.

It’s a debate that comes with a lot of nuance similar to many of the philosophical ideas that the first game presented to its players through dialogues with Revves’ Johnny Silverhand, whose disdain for corporations and their influence led him to take drastic measures against them.

Irrespective of where Project Orion is brought to life, CD Projekt Red is sure to learn from the mistakes of their original release to deliver a more polished, potentially more grandiose sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 that is sure to see its players dive back into its more American setting with glee.

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