There were a lot of impressive reveals to come out of E3 this year but arguably the best came at the end of the Microsoft press conference when CD Projekt decided to show off a shiny new cinematic trailer for CyberPunk 2077. With the trailer not revealing anything in the way of gameplay, many fans had questions about what the actual game will look and play like. Now it appears that we have a few more details on the immense project.

During a closed-door CyberPunk 2077 presentation at E3, members of the press were shown the fabled 50-minute gameplay demo and VG247's Matt Martin, got the chance to interview the games lead cinematic animator Maciej Pietras. Pietras was more than willing to explain some of the details of the new game, including how the game moves between cinematic moments and gameplay, calling it a "directive scene system"

“From my perspective, we’re trying to blend cinematics and gameplay. The way it works is that since we’re creating a first-person perspective open-world RPG we want to keep the player as immersed in the game as possible. We’re using the directive scene system as a way of pulling you into this world and keeping you in the scenes.”

cyberpunk 2077 medic

While it was already known that Cyberpunk 2077 wouldn't feature any loading screens to keep players immersed, a blending of cinematics and gameplay is something similar to the critically acclaimed God Of War from earlier this year. Of course, this being CD Projekt, this blending is being taken even further, allowing players to alter and interfere with cinematics if they so choose. "You can actually pull out a gun there. It’s a super-challenging thing for us, but it’s also really, really cool." Pietras explained, "It gives this visceral feeling of being there, that this matters and you pay the consequences of your actions.”

The next thing Pietras discussed was combat, more specifically the importance of keeping elements from the RPG on which the title is based in the game's combat so it doesn't descend into the realm of first-person shooter. Much like any RPG, CyberPunk 2077 will be a numbers game, so when an enemy is hit, they will take damage that will be represented as numbers floating in the air. It can be compared to the combat system in the Borderlands series, a mixture of slaughter and statistics.

"This is still an RPG, right? It has to be a stats driven gameplay system... You want to reflect those damage options and how they’re connected to your stats and your skills and attributes in general. You can then adjust your weapon type to the situation.”

cyberpunk-2077-current-gen-release-date-gun

This statistical approach to first-person combat gameplay forces the player to adapt to situations based on a enemies attributes, like defense or strength. To adapt players will need to cycle through the games three different weapon types and use the correct one for the situation as well as search for vulnerabilities and attack particularity body parts accordingly. One of the weapons mentioned by Pietras that players will get to use to cut down some of the enemy factions was a Katana.

"When it comes to combat we have three different types of weapons. Each are for a different approach to the gameplay... What I can tell you about hand-to-hand combat is that we will have it; where you can use the katana or other weapons. It’s a cool thing because we have a dismembering system. It’s visceral, it’s brutal."

It goes without saying that CyberPunk 2077 is shaping up to be a truly unique and formidable gaming experience, both for those who will play it and for CD Projekt. Of course, if anyone is going to pull off such an ambitious undertaking it will be them with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt proving that the studio can put walk the walk. While it may still be years before players get their hands on it, the more we hear about CyberPunk 2077 the clearer it becomes that the wait will be worth it.

Cyberpunk 2077 is currently in development without a release date or confirmed platforms.