Video Gamer is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more
CD Projekt Red said that the ‘Street Stories’ of Cyberpunk 2077 have received a lot of investment from the team, and so they add complexity and dynamism to the world of Night City (via VGC).
For the uninformed, a ‘Street Story’ is the “bread and butter of a street merc like V, a bit like monster hunting for a witcher like Geralt,” and offers street cred to increase the player’s reputation. Different playstyles will lend themselves to different approaches to getting these ‘Street Stories’ done, and so lead to different determinant endings. There are about 75 of these ‘Street Stories,’ but the team assures that these are unique. “They’re all custom done. There’s nothing like that that’s automatically generated. There are set templates that the guys can use but each one is customized… The world’s going to be filled with that stuff. It should feel really good,” explained John Mamais, studio boss at CD Projekt Red, in an interview with OnMSFT.
‘Street Stories’ exist with the campaign missions, side missions, and side activities in Night City. Though the world is significantly smaller than that of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, there will be plenty to keep players on the move. “There’s a passive layer, which is the vendors, then there’s the STSs, which are the street stories. I think there’s around 75 street stories. Then there’s minor activities as well,” added Mamais. “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 quests of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt were like “a single line, with a bunch of branches sticking out of it.” It is a valid approach to storytelling and worldbuilding, but the studio wants to push the envelope for what it hopes will be its “crowning achievement for this generation.” In order to achieve this, the team has prioritised this element of the game from the outset. “In Witcher 3, we did the open-world elements very late in the development process when we only had two or three people working on it or something,” elaborated Mamais. “Now there’s, like, 15 people doing these open-world quests.”
Cyberpunk 2077 releases on Google Stadia, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on September 17, 2020.
