Cyberpunk 2077 has been thrown back in time. The massively anticipated CD Projekt Red game has received a demake that makes it look like a game for the original PlayStation, which was released in 1994.
Avid fans of Cyberpunk 2077 have been eagerly looking forward to the game’s release since E3 2019, when CD Projekt Red and Microsoft revealed footage of Keanu Reeves as iconic Cyberpunk character Johnny Silverhand. In the trailer’s wake, fans have risen to the occasion, creating lavish Cyberpunk 2077 fan art leading up to the game’s release.
However, YouTuber Bearly Regal has made one of the most elaborate fan creations yet. By using the PlayStation 4 game Dreams (made by LittleBigPlanet creators Media Molecule), he has re-imagined the modern Cyberpunk 2077 as a first person PlayStation 1 game from the 90s, playfully calling his digital environment Cyberpunk 1997. In a 4-minute clip showing off the lovingly made demake, Bearly Regal serves as a navigator, guiding viewers through the player character’s “fully customizable” apartment, showing off the lounge where trophies from previous missions can be viewed, the bed where players can restore than health, and other sections of the apartment where statistics, character cosmetics and missions can be viewed and changed.
He also shows off the “market” environment, where different items can be purchased from NPCs. Finally, the video portrays Cyberpunk’s Night City in a top-down view, where players can drive in a patrol vehicle through the city.
Cyberpunk 2077 is an adaptation of the Cyberpunk tabletop game series from the 1980s and 1990s. While the original tabletop RPGs explored a dystopia set in 2013 (and later 2020), the upcoming video game moves the timeline further forward to 2077. Although the original games are a far cry from reality, the themes of Cyberpunk remain relevant and eerily familiar. While Cyberpunk 2077 depicts a dystopian future that could be, Cyberpunk 1997 appears to depict the future that could have been years ago.
Bearly Regal’s demake successfully captures the feeling of a PlayStation 1 game while also depicting Night City in a low-polygon style that easily fits into the retro-futuristic aesthetic of the original games. From the top-down perspective of the open world version of 1997’s Night City to the initial first-person perspective, Bearly Regal enthusiastically emulates earlier entries in the Grand Theft Auto series and other first-person PlayStation games.
However, don’t expect to play this nostalgic demake anytime soon. While Cyberpunk 2077 will be released in early 2020, Bearly Regal will not be releasing Cyberpunk 1997 in the immediate future, stating in a Twitter post that it needed to be heavily reworked in order to be fully playable.
Cyberpunk 2077 will be available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on April 16, 2020.
