I just couldn’t get into the Witcher games, but since I adore what little Cyberpunk I’ve consumed (Blade Runner, GITS, GITS SAC, Deus Ex HR), I can’t wait for this game.
I went on a Sci-Fi binge to prepare for an RPG I’m going to run starting in February and I consumed some stuff I’d been putting off for years. I was really disappointed by GITS and Blade Runner. GITS had a really cool world, but it spent a lot of time saying very little in a rather drawn out fashion. I liked the characters and the voices and the style and the action sequences and the world building … but the writing really let me down. Haven’t tried GITS SAC … would you recommend the show based on my issues with the film?
Blade Runner was an incredible piece of film making, and I really liked some of the writing. But at the end of the day I don’t think it told a particularly interesting story. There was also an exceedingly discomforting sex scene, but I think it might have been intentionally discomforting. I guess I really wanted there to be a mystery or at the very least a less random-seeming conflict between the characters. At the same time, there was something to Deckard’s character being a selfish, not-all-there incompetent and something to the surrealness of it all. I’m not convinced it would have been “better” if had been more what I expected, but it wasn’t quite my cup of tea. Visuals, audio and world building? Exceptional.
My favorite Cyberpunk at the moment is Snow Crash by Stephenson just-about-tied with by Neuromancer by Gibson. Completely different books, but they speak to things I love about Cyberpunk and do it really, really well. In the tabletop RPG space, I’m very fond of the two-pager Ghost/Echo.
On the games front, the Netrunner card game (either version) is also incredibly slick and seems to be inspired largely by Neuromancer. There was a Cardboard Children issue about it; I’d highly recommend it to fans of Cyberpunk or of two-player dueling games. Any card that’s in play is in jeopardy when you’re the corp. The runner can hack your hand, your discard, your deck, your servers … you have to defend all of it.
On the PC games front, I loved Deus Ex:HR as a game and had issues with it’s fiction (dialog and world-building were, yet again, spot on … but the plot left a lot to be desired towards the end). I have high hopes for this based on my Witcher experiences. While we’re waiting for more info, what Cyberpunk media would the rest of you recommend? Feel free to boot me out if this post is too much of a tangent. 