Watch the teaser trailer here.
CD Projekt RED‘s Cyberpunk 2077 is set in Night City in the year 2077. In this “dark future,” the game will tell the tale of a single person, raised on the streets, who tries to lift himself up from the slums and find a way to survive among thugs and mega-corporations in a city of “filth and sin.”
People have stayed “greedy, close-minded, and weak.” Drugs, violence, and poverty still exist. Psychos, persons who abuse cyber-modifications, causing their body to go on a rampage, roam the streets, and junkies get off on “braindances,” a cheap way to experience the emotions of someone living a more exciting life.
Braindances are essentially a recording of a person’s experiences, which are streamed directly to the viewer’s nueral system via special brain augmentations called a “BD Player.” Through braindances, users can experience another person’s emotions, muscle movements, and stimuli.
There are different types of braindances. A mega-corporation could release a braindance that allows the user to experience all the “thrills, sweats, smells, views, sounds, and the real feeling of curiosity” of an explorer. But illegal braindances, recorded underground, could have users experience the psychotic mind of a serial killer, including not only “the monstrosity he performs,” but also living his “lust to kill and fulfillment.”
Hollywood recordings also exist. They’re an entertainment fad. In the world of 2077, “some people push it even too far and they cannot stop living other people’s lives.” But everyone is doing it. “If you’re not linked to a braindance right now, you are probably discussing what happened to you during your last session.”
But as with any cultural movement, there are those for and against it. Hit this link for Santiago Jones and Hasan J. McDermitt’s take on braindances.
“This is the world of 2077. The gap between high and low is bigger than ever. Drugs, violence, braindance, psychos on the loose… Will you be able to function in this defunct society or end up a BD-junky with nothing left, set aside like garbage – still living someone’s else life – not aware of what’s going on around you? Whether you like it or not – this is the age of braindance decadence; this is Cyberpunk 2077.”