In an apparent effort to inform its audience of lore and worldbuilding some fans may have missed, Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red has launched a new video series, Night City Archives, to fill in some blanks for players who began fresh with 2077.
Having this explainer, which is delivered in a characteristically slick in-universe format, is welcome, but now that it’s here, it feels like it’s been missing from the main game for years. The player is left to gather what they can about the world of Night City from context clues presented in-game, but 2077 also includes a text-based database that does woefully little to expand on any of the foundational concepts of its setting. There’s an argument to be made for this kind of worldbuilding, but in Cyberpunk 2077, where new proper nouns are getting thrown at you every half second, sometimes you need to just sit down and have things explained to you.
Enter Night City Archives. This first episode covers the early history of Night City, from the original radical idea of its founder Richard Night to his assassination under mysterious circumstances to the corporate power struggles that brought the city to its current status quo. Granted, all of this was established in 1988’s Cyberpunk 2013, but you’d never know it from how disinterested 2077 seems in giving you that crucial history lesson.
It remains to be seen what future episodes hold, but there’s a wealth of lore from the original tabletop games that could be elaborated on, from cyberfurries (yes, really) to Star Trek-themed street gangs to what really happened in that assault on Arasaka Tower. As it stands now, however, taking a few minutes out of your day to learn about Night City is more than worth it if you’re often finding yourself confused.
