Cyberpunk 2077 concept art shows high-tech City Center and polluted Santo Domingo
"It’s a very unwelcoming place"
The tour of Cyberpunk 2077 continues with a new selection of concept art from the Santo Domingo and City Center districts.
While we previously got a look at the ultra-rich Westbrook district where the CEOs live, now we get to see where they work and where all the waste from their corporations end up. First, let's take a look at the shining skyscrapers and neon advertisements of City Center.
That's City Center – Night City’s corporate showcase. Sleek skyscrapers form a brutalist, fortress-like skyline, presenting the unrivaled power of megacorps in all its arrogance. Since 2020, the City Center has become the most fortified and secure part of Night City. #ConceptArtJuly 10, 2020
The first image in that set, showing the City Center skyline, could have been pulled straight from the original Blade Runner. The flying cars, the skyscrapers seeming to fade into the foggy sky, it's all archetypal cyberpunk stuff. The second image, which shows a street-level view of City Center in the California sunshine looks much more inviting, and the smoggy sunset vibes of the third piece are entirely too relatable.
Who makes that futuristic dream possible? The downtrodden residents of Santo Domingo.
Santo Domingo is one of Night City’s oldest districts. Corporations use it as a testing ground for industrial projects, destroying old factories just to build new ones, while residents scrape a desperate living in crowded megabuildings — wishing for something better. #ConceptArt pic.twitter.com/yGThsOdn5zJuly 14, 2020
The concept art here is all about dilapidation and urban sprawl: the only towering buildings we see seem to be industrial facilities, all belching smoke just a handful of blocks away from antiquated (by 2077 standards) individual housing. The Twitter text calls out residential megabuildings but we see all these semi-suburban structures - there may be an interesting dichotomy there. For what it's worth, CD Projekt Red senior concept artist Marthe Jonkers told OPM that Santo Domingo is his favorite district.
"[It houses] the power plants of Night City - all the power is basically generated in Santo Domingo. So it’s very industrial and different from the other neighbourhoods," Jonkers said. "It’s toxic and people have umbrellas there because it’s dripping down. It’s a very unwelcoming place."
See more of Nighty City with our early look at the Cyberpunk 2077 map.
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I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.
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