Cyberpunk 2077 launch trailer tours Night City in a whole new way

The Cyberpunk 2077 launch trailer is finally here, and compared to previous trailers, it's a much more personal and introspective trip through Night City.

The trailer opens with our character, V, waking up after an accident that seems to have shaken his cyborg body quite a bit. The follow-up montage of Night City panning shots is no surprise, but the whispery narration and heavy background music give the sequence a far more somber tone. There's also no shortage of questions for both the viewer and V, the biggest being: "Would you rather live in peace as Mr. Nobody, or go down for all times in a blaze of glory?"

We also get a nice bit of dialogue from old Johnny Silverhand. "The test of a true person's value? Death," he says. "Facing it. Staring it down." Later, V is told that, "You believe you cheated death. It is death that cheated you." There's something of a pattern emerging here: V gets a second chance of sorts, but not without some serious caveats. 

Altogether, the Cyberpunk 2077 launch trailer focuses more on the human element and how it shapes both Night City and V's journey. There's plenty of action in the background, sure, but center stage is reserved for people and the choices they make. As we said in our Cyberpunk 2077 review, CD Projekt Red's sci-fi RPG is a hugely immersive and reactive world, and the human throughline is a big part of that. You'll get to see the city and its people for yourself when the game launches on December 10.

An important PSA: some Cyberpunk 2077 missions may affect epileptic players.

Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

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