Cyberpunk Video Games

[SquidVicious]

With the recent release of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and GOG giving away free downloads for Beneath a Steel Sky, my interest in the sci-fi subgenre has really been renewed, to the point where I'm rereading The Sprawl Trilogy and rewatched GiTS. It also got me looking for some of the other cyberpunk computer games I use to play in the '90's like the Tex Murphy series, the System Shock series, the first Deus Ex, and the Syndicate series. Hell I even found a second edition book of Shadowrun that I might try to run a campaign sometime soon. Anyways the point of this thread isn't to revel in nostalgia or talk about how much better games were in the good old days, but it did get me thinking. All of these games came out in the '90's or early '00's, yet there really hasn't been anything from the AAA industry since really Human Revolutions. Here's just a small list of all the cyberpunk games from the '90's/early '00's that I could think of.

Tex Murphy series
Syndicate series
System Shock series
Hell: A Cyberpunk thriller
Blade Runner (same universe, different story and protagonist)
Beneath a Steel Sky
Perfect Dark
Deux Ex series
Oni

So on and so forth.

The only games of recent that I can think that incorporate the cyberpunk ethos are Human Revolution and that upcoming one Hard Reset. With our current generation's gaming technology we could really create an interactive cyberpunk universe that was only a dream 10-15 years ago. Basically my question is this, why is a genre that was so prominently featured in the games industry only a decade and a half ago suddenly so ignored now? This isn't confined just to video games, but also to cinema. We live in a world where we're just beginning to get some of the technology authors like William Gibson and and Bruce Sterling were describing, so why doesn't the genre have anymore then niche appeal to sci-fi geeks? I mean 11-years ago (Damn I'm old) everyone thought The Matrix was the most amazing thing we'd ever seen, hell even the non-geeks in my high school thought it was badass. So why is it now nobody really seems to care all that much?

 

[Grottnikk]

Shadowrun had a game on the SNES back in the 90's, and again on the PC several years ago. The first one was more true to the background material, but the second one kinda sucked from what I heard. SR has fantasy thrown into the whole cyberpunk mix, so it might not be to everyone's taste.

Personally I like cyberpunk and I don't understand why there are so few games in that genre. It would make a great open-world style game setting, like GTA or Saint's Row only with cyberware and a much darker storyline (although Saint's Row already has the evil mega-corporations thing going ). Maybe there aren't enough game developer types out there that really understand the whole genre's edge. The whole high tech thing is easy enough, but one aspect of the genre that's harder to grasp is the idea of society actually devolving and stagnating instead of evolving with the technological achievments. In cyberpunk, human life has a distinctly lower value than in today's western society.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I think most cyberpunk fans are still climbing down from the precarious ledges that the Shadowrun game from a couple years back forced them to. As for game developers, I think it's much the same thing. Publishers often look at sales numbers before quality so when they saw the first major cyberpunk game in years absolutely tank in terms of both sales and review scores they were cooled on the premise of throwing money in that direction. I'm really hoping that the success of Human Revolution does bring about a second renaissance in cyberpunk. Goodness knows, it's a genre that's nearly perfect for exploration in videogame form.

Oh, and along with the crap 360/PC Shadowrun, you also did forget the two 16bit Shadowrun games which while very different form each other were both absolutely excellent. If you haven't played them before they would make great additions to your Festival O' Cyberpunk.

 

[Limecake]

Basically my question is this, why is a genre that was so prominently featured in the games industry only a decade and a half ago suddenly so ignored now? This isn't confined just to video games, but also to cinema.

I've always believed that since steam punk became more popular cyberpunk really fell by the wayside. This is bad news for me since I've never been particularly fond of steampunk (alright Bioshock was good but for other reasons)

I saw an MMO posted on the forums a little while back about a cyberpunk MMO where you could travel freely through computers, looked pretty neat, Sorry I can't remember the name. I can vouch for Shadowrun (SNES) that game was just so fun, if a little hard to figure out.

 

[cgentero]

With a flexible definition of Cyberpunk you could include these games, some being quite recent.

Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2
Snatcher
EYE: Divine Cybermancy
Mirror's Edge
Half Life series
Portal series
Shin Megami Tensei series
Final Fantasy 7 ,8, & 13
P.N. 03

Grand Theft Auto 2 involved working for criminals and corporations in a dystopian future and had a few futuristic weapons so there is your open world Cyberpunk game.

 

[SquidVicious]

I never really thought Shadowrun was a particularly well designed RPG and the premise really seemed to try and marry fans of sci-fi and fantasy, and there's just no real good way to do that as they're polar opposites. The purchase was more of an impulse thing, and I'm sure once I start reading the book again I'll remember why I never played it all that much. I do recall seeing a Shadowrun game on the 360, but if memory serves it was an online multiplayer exclusive which turned me off immediately.

I also remember thinking that a cyberpunk game would work really well in an open world sandbox back in '01 when I was playing Grand Theft Auto III. I think I was playing Oni around the same time and thought that if they could incorporate that kind of combat system it could really make an interesting game. Although if they incorporated a mystery and some of the gameplay aspects of L.A. Noire, but in an open ended world, you could have a very intriguing game.

As for why it's not as popular by today's standards, a friend of mine and I came to the conclusion that it's because some of the technology already exists, and because of that we no longer need to use our imagination. In 1995 the idea of what a smartphone can do was just a dream, no way would we be able to carry around a miniature computer in our pocket, yet nowadays kids do, it's no big deal. I mean whenever I visit my 4-year old niece and let her play Angry Birds on my iPad, I can't help but wonder if she's thinking ahead to what will come in 10-years like I did when my grandfather showed me how to play games on his computer, or if the technology is so advanced for her, she's stuck in the present. While I still remember thinking the Build Engine was the pinnacle of graphics technology, my mind was always thinking ahead to what games would look like a decade from then, because secretly I knew it still looked like ass. Kids these days really don't have that problem because I think we're really reaching the limits of what graphics can do, and with that it'll be more about enjoying the present, rather than thinking to the future.

 

[FalloutJack]

Shadowrun had a game on the SNES back in the 90's, and again on the PC several years ago. The first one was more true to the background material, but the second one kinda sucked from what I heard. SR has fantasy thrown into the whole cyberpunk mix, so it might not be to everyone's taste.

Personally I like cyberpunk and I don't understand why there are so few games in that genre. It would make a great open-world style game setting, like GTA or Saint's Row only with cyberware and a much darker storyline (although Saint's Row already has the evil mega-corporations thing going ). Maybe there aren't enough game developer types out there that really understand the whole genre's edge. The whole high tech thing is easy enough, but one aspect of the genre that's harder to grasp is the idea of society actually devolving and stagnating instead of evolving with the technological achievments. In cyberpunk, human life has a distinctly lower value than in today's western society.

Shadowrun had SNES and PC and Genesis, actually. It wouldn't be a problem to see another one if only they could handle it right. Letting you choose your race, for instance. But, like the makers of the tabletop itself, they mishandle ALOT of things.

 

[GiantRaven]

Not entire games but certain levels of Timesplitters 2 and Timesplitters: Future Perfect have some good cyberpunk stuff.

 

[ExileNZ]

Basically my question is this, why is a genre that was so prominently featured in the games industry only a decade and a half ago suddenly so ignored now? This isn't confined just to video games, but also to cinema.

I've always believed that since steam punk became more popular cyberpunk really fell by the wayside. This is bad news for me since I've never been particularly fond of steampunk (alright Bioshock was good but for other reasons)

I saw an MMO posted on the forums a little while back about a cyberpunk MMO where you could travel freely through computers, looked pretty neat, Sorry I can't remember the name. I can vouch for Shadowrun (SNES) that game was just so fun, if a little hard to figure out.

That sounds a little like Neocron - sadly it was a little before its time. It came out a bit after Deus Ex, I think, and was another step in the direction of cyberpunk, about as far along from Deus Ex as DX was from System Shock 2. In the tutorial you got introduced to some good old favourites from DX/SS2 (proper inventory, implants, stats) and then, they took it further by getting you to construct your own rocket launcher.

I got to do the open beta for Neocron 2, finally left the tutorial area, got as far as using a cyberjack in my new apartment, surfed the information highway and then failed to die when I fell off a lane. Every time I logged off I came back at the bottom of a big black pit (think the Matrix without the numbers everywhere) and by the time I got in touch with tech support the beta was finished and I wasn't a paying customer.

Still, a fascinating world.

 

[SquidVicious]

Not entire games but certain levels of Timesplitters 2 and Timesplitters: Future Perfect have some good cyberpunk stuff.

Kind of missing the point of the thread here, it's not just to point out recent examples of the genre, but why a genre that was featured so prominently in our entertainment medium has faded in recent time. Although if there are recent examples that have slipped by I'd love to hear them, but I'm more interested in why our modern society doesn't seem to care as much compared to 15-20 years ago.

 

[GiantRaven]

Although if there are recent examples that have slipped by I'd love to hear them

Then don't get in an arse when people provide them? I'm sorry for not adding much to the discussion but nobody had mentioned the two games and I felt it would be good to point them out.

 

[SquidVicious]

The point of this thread isn't to create a list of games you think are cyberpunk, the only reason for including my list in my original post was to illustrate a point that in the 1990's there was an influx of games with a cyberpunk setting that seemed to dry up at the turn of the century. I want to see why people think this happened. If you have some game recommendations then that's great, but it's not just what I'm looking for and I'd rather you have an answer to my original question. As people often look to the last post to see where the thread is at at that time, I wanted to reinforce my original question so this thread doesn't just end up as a list of games people think are cyberpunk. I apologize if you took exception to me using your post as that example, but it needed to be done.

 

[Grottnikk]

With a flexible definition of Cyberpunk...

...Grand Theft Auto 2 involved working for criminals and corporations in a dystopian future and had a few futuristic weapons so there is your open world Cyberpunk game.

Some of those games require a *very* flexible definition of Cyberpunk, but hey, whatever makes yon river-craft buoyant .

I remember a bit of GTA 2... man that was a pretty crappy game even for 12 years ago.

 

[Jelly ^.^]

The Journeyman Project series =D

Also, Shadow President/Cyber Judas are pretty cool if you're into nation-managing in a cyberpunk sort of style

 

[Gigano]

Technology - including medical one such as artificial - really isn't as fascinating anymore as it once was. And the more colourful and adventurous steampunk settings seem to be the more popular choice for alternative tech settings these days, rather than the gritty and depressing cyberpunk settings of the 80's and 90's.

There's obvious still room for games that explore the effects of the ever closer relationship between human and machine, such as Deus Ex or Kikokugai[footnote]Though I suppose its status as "Game" is questionable.[/footnote] do. But as digital machinery have become a perfectly ordinary and mundane - trivial even - part of our lives, the promise of untold opportunity and danger that once fuelled its popularity ring increasingly hollow these days.

 

[That_Swedish_Guy]

As a massive fan of both steampunk and cyberpunk it saddens me to agree with the trend you've demonstrated. In my opinion the decline in games is due to the obsession with realism, and if there's one thing that the 'punks aren't, it's realistic.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Tex Murphy series
Syndicate series
System Shock series
Hell: A Cyberpunk thriller
Blade Runner (same universe, different story and protagonist)
Beneath a Steel Sky
Perfect Dark
Deux Ex series
Oni

It would probably be easier to explain why games like them were made, then why they faded away for so long.

First of all, Sci Fi had been very popular in Film and Literature during the 80's and it was only natural that games Like Tex Murphy appeared towards the end of the decade when gaming technology was allowing for more involving plots and settings.

Games like System Shock spawned from the successes of Doom while also trying to input a higher level of interactivity that approached the old point and click adventures. Again, Sci-Fi was still going strong so the setting was a giving. System Shock 2 arrived as a heavily plot driven game, with tense atmosphere and total immersion... essentially building on what Half Life 1 got so right.

Deus Ex was living in the wake of the godly Half Life and ground breaking games like System Shock 2 and it logically took inspirations from them. I consider Deus Ex as much a tribute to the Sci-Fi genre as it was between the 90's and 00's in films, comics, animes and novels. The game is littered with references (stealth Pistol is modelled off of a weapon in GiTS as an example) and nods (MiB referencing the Matrix... long coats and indoor sunglasses too) to the genre as well as standing on it's own legs as a Sci Fi and gaming tour de force.

Most of these games were made during the Golden Age of gaming, each one pushing aspects we take for granted now, to their very limits back then.

Games like Oni, are more directly influenced games... Oni is obviously inspired by GiTS.

During the mid 00's the industry fell into a slump. Graphics were being pushed (but looked arse ugly even back then), while gameplay, atmosphere and plot integrity took a nose dive across the board. What some called the "consolisation" era, where the industry strived for shiny graphics, sacrificing precious space on the Consoles and consequently chipping away at the quality of the overall product, was probably the main reason why these relatively niche genres fell into decline. Sci Fi requires investment beyond shiny FX... more so then most other fictional genres. It needs to be believable at a contemporary level, evolving what we know now and what could possibly exist in the future.

Unfortunately, the Sci-Fi industry as a whole fell into decline at this point seeing many old favourites shat upon by morons (Star Trek: Enterprise series, AvP movies [2 birds with 1 stone for fuck sake]) as well as successively weaker sequels (Matrix Reloaded, Star Wars prequels) which carried over to games too (Deus Ex: IW, Fallout: Brotherhood [oh dear god], Warhammer 40k: Fire Warrior [*Vomits*] and so on)

This went on for years and sadly, damage was done... and only now do we see any form of recovery.

Fingers crossed, Deus Ex HR was good, maybe EA's Syndicate Reboot might be a hit...

 

[krazykidd]

Sorry to intrude , i was just curious to what is cyberpunk exactly ? If it leads me to discover something new and different i'd most assuredly give it a try . Sorry for having nothing to contribute :/