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CD Projekt Red walk us through Cyberpunk 2077's deserted resort, Pacifica
Cyberpunk 2077 is set in a dystopian city in a futuristic version of California. Pacifica is one area you'll get to explore, we sat down with CD Projekt Red to get an early glimpse of the location.
Pacifica was originally a coastal resort for the hyper rich of Night City. It was lined with yachts up and down the water, had a luxury pier with a huge rollercoaster, and loads of expensive hotels, and shops where the rest of the world could be forgotten.
This wasn't meant to be, however, as a natural disaster of some sort struck Pacifica, leaving the majority of the area in a sorry state. Investors pulled out of development and plans for the coast to become a refuge for the elite were left behind. Now the poor, gang members, and blackmarket dealers have flooded into abandoned malls. It was supposed to be a resort but instead it's a half-built slum.
While many expect glossy black buildings and flashy neon in Cyberpunk's vast city, Pacifica is dirty and covered in trash. Buildings are caked in rust, mold, and other signs of depression. At the same time it's full of life, crawling with impoverished gang members and people just trying to get by in a cruel world.
"It's mostly deserted and abandoned because it's one of the most dangerous places in the city," CD Projekt Red UI Coordinator Alvin Liu told me. "People don't come here if they don't have to because of that."
During a behind-closed-doors demo at E3 we watched V, Cyberpunk 2077's protagonist, cruise around Pacifica on the back of a motorcycle. It was almost like driving through the equivalent of Santa Monica in Grand Theft Auto V with a far more mystical gloominess. A sunset cut through a smog-covered horizon to make for a strangely beautiful setting. There's even a full, dynamic day and night cycle to keep cross-city trips interesting.
"You have a bunch of vehicles you can access throughout the game for drives just like this," Liu said. "Sometimes it's worth it to just soak up the atmosphere. It's a seamless open world so you'll never hit a loading screen."
During the demo we see an impassioned preacher talking to a church filled with Haitian people, the speech is translated instantaneously via advanced software. After emerging outside we see the bustling streets of the district, with no one batting an eye to a man trying to shoot down a drone with an automatic assault rifle.
The rulers of Pacifica
Like other parts of Night City, Pacifica is dominated by the criminal underworld. The Voodoo Boys, a gang of Haitian drug runners, own part of Pacifica. In the demo we see V meet with The Voodoo Boys and agree to carry out a mission for them.
The Animals, another gang full of enhanced bodybuilders, have taken residence in a gigantic Mall nearby. Signs for 'Brooklynn Baristas' and a swanky cinema still stood among decrepit walls and collapsing ceilings. A golden Dolphin statue stood tall in the middle of the entryway lobby covered in dirt and rust.
During the demo we infiltrate the mall, doing our best not to alert The Animals to our presence. We wander from room to room avoiding conflict whenever possible. We see The Animals reactivate cameras for their own purposes, fighting with robot training partners, and lifting huge amount of weights on a bench press connected to the network. Everything is connected to the network as V hacks both the bench press and the training robot: the weight crushes the bodybuilder and the robot punches the face off the other.
"Gangs have really come into Pacifica and rebuilt certain things for their own purposes," Liu said. But those purposes can be twisted through hacking, as we've seen so many times in footage for Cyberpunk 2077.
Pacifica has more than just gangs, it's got a vibrant black market
© CD Projekt Red
Buy anything in the black market
One of the well-travelled areas of Pacifica is a luxury hotel converted into a scrap market full of weapons, modifications and other things for purchase. Shanty shops are stuffed corner to corner on the floor we walk through, with shouting coming from every direction.
During the demo we stop at one to pick up a virus to use on our mission for The Voodoo Boys, something that'll help us stop whatever The Animals have planned in Pacifica. Continuing to walk through the market characters come from every direction, some taking up residence near a fire, all with their own motivation.
Pacifica has an interesting back story filled with rivalries and violence, it'll undoubtedly play a big part in Cyberpunk 2077's plot. Later in the demo we find that The Animals are working with a Netwatch Agent, an officer of an organisation meant to patrol the net, to try and snuff out the The Voodoo Boys, although that's all we know so far.
Near the end of the demo we take out The Animals and the Netwatch agent, but The Voodoo Boys try to kill us by frying every brain connected to the network. We survive for some reason and go to confront the Haitian gang. Instead of fighting them, Briggitte, a leader of the gang, says she'll help us find out more about the chip implanted in our head.
We end the demo by entering an ice bucket, jacking into the network and waking up in the deep net. It's no longer meatspace, it's an abstract and ever changing trippy experience that is only the beginning of a dangerous journey that no one has returned from. We don't know much about the deep net or what it has to do with the game's story yet, but it's clear that Pacifica will play an important role.
