One of my all time favourite movies is Blade Runner, perhaps the quintessential movie of the cyberpunk style and theme. For those unfamiliar with cyberpunk – and who haven’t seen Blade Runner – it is a dystopian sci-fi genre, one of high-tech and low society. Governments are generally weak and/or corrupt, while power lies in the hands of megacorporations, ones with their own private armies, who have been known to go to war with each other. The street is a dirty, crowded place, where many cultures and ideas meet in a vast melting pot, and where people upgrade their bodies with cybernetic and genetic augmentations. It also is always raining.
The cyberpunk genre had its height in the 80s and 90s, with various books, games and movies, and though its popularity has waned, it has not completely gone away.
One example of that is the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 computer game, by Polish company CD Projekt Red, not due out until 2015 at the earliest, alas. It is based on the old classic pen and paper Cyberpunk 2020 RPG. A few details have been revealed over on its website, as well as the first trailer. I haven’t played any of their games, but they have a good reputation, and if they can pull off what they state they want to do, it should be a great game.
And for a teaser of what we can expect, here is the trailer.
Mist and Shadows 