If CD Projekt achieves what it aims to with Cyberpunk 2077’s currently in-the-works sequel, the game’ll feature “the most realistic and reactive crowd system in any game to date”.
This goal is laid out in one of the job descriptions the publisher’s just put out as it seeks to recruit folks to beef up the team working on the Cyberpunk sequel – codenamed Project Orion – at the CD Projekt’s relatively new Boston studio.
Seven fresh roles were shared in total, with the likes of Cyberpunk sequel associate game director Paweł Sasko boosting them in an effort to say ‘Hey, come work with me’. As ever, unless you’re already in game development, odds are there are few of them you’re qualified for or will find interesting, but there is one potentually interesting deal in the listing for a lead encounter designer.
“Work in close collaboration with the systems design team to create the most realistic and reactive crowd system in any game to date,” reads one of this gig’s daily responsibilities. It’s not that surprising to see CD Projekt looking to up its game in terms of crowds with Cyberpunk 2 – given random NPC behaviour and how they interacted with things like police chases were arguably one of the base game’s weaker points at launch (to be clear, I mean unnamed street-walkers there, the game obviously did a lot of cool stuff with its quest character encounters and dialogue).
However, the specifying that this new crowd system will be aiming to outdo “any game to date” is eye-catching. It’s got fans on Reddit debating whether the studio might be able to top what the likes of Rockstar Games has accomplished in terms of open-world detail with the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2.
They’re not asking whether Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel will have horse balls that dynamically grow and shrink, but f**k it, that’s very much what I’m now wondering. It does, however, seem like the majority of even the hardcore CD Projekt stans on the Cyberpunk subreddit think the publisher will have a tough time blowing away what Rockstar has done in terms of NPCs, and could raise the game on even further when it drops a little game called GTA 6 later this year.
Do you think Cyberpunk’s sequel will end up topping anything we’ve ever seen before crowd system wise? Use your weird hand-feet to type out an answer below.
