Last month, cyberpunks and netrunners got a pleasant surprise when CDPR added a functional Metro system toCyberpunk 2077. This is a big deal for several reasons, chief among them that this has been one of the most requested features in the game since its launch, and the fact that, well, Metros seem pretty fundamental to the vibe of a cyberpunk megalopolis; the weirdos, the commuters, the defecating homeless folk all bundled together as the city whizzes by in the background. It’s a real slice of urban life condensed into a small, scarce space.
I had this whole plan to explore all of Cyberpunk 2077’s metro stations, but it transpired that I had to start a new game and play to the point where the starting area comes out of lockdown, some four hours in. Once I got to that point, the first thing I did was head to one of the 19 NCART Metro stations dotted around the city.
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Street To Train
And, well, I was a little disappointed. While the very fact that a somewhat functional Metro system is included at all is a pleasant surprise, there are just far too many tells that this was a feature ‘bolted on’ to a complete game, rather than something truly integrated with the world.
First up: that whole high-fallutin’ idea of exploring the different NCART stations, seeing what the crack is on the platforms, appreciating their unique architectural features and all that nonsense? Not happening. The system is basically you going up to the NCART gate, just as before, then clicking the option to ‘Ride Metro,’ which causes the screen to cyberglitch in that way that suggests you’re having a cyberseizure, then teleporting you straight into the inside of the tram. Already, a critical part of that Metro experience—making your way through a station and waiting for a train—has been omitted.
But OK, I don’t know how I got from the street to the train, but here I am, so let’s cast aside the amnesia and get on with it. When I first look around me, it’s kind of cool. There’s a guy jamming on a guitar in front of me, while other people slouch around on their phones; some folk are sleeping across seats, while a twitchy dude is curled up in the corner having some kind of cyberpsychosis episode, causing a big radius of no people around him. Just like New York City, then!
The woman sitting next to the guitar player seems to take exception to his casual jamming, to which he responds to her with a threat, causing her to move away down the train. For about 10 seconds, it’s a convincingly grotty subway experience.
I hop off and on a few different trains, and across my journeys the most exciting thing that happens is a car driving straight through the middle of the train.
But as I wait to see what else happens, there’s nothing. It’s as if the game gives you a little performance at the start of the ride, then assumes you’ll get bored and hit the ‘Get Off At Next Stop’ button. But not me, no sir! I’m here for the long haul, and it quickly becomes apparent that it’s going to be a dour ride. The guy keeps jamming, but there are no conversations, no people for me to interact with, nothing.
I try to get up to see what’s happening at the other end of the train,but I can’t. It turns out you’re locked into the actions of sitting, standing by the door, or looking out the window. It feels terribly restrictive, so there’s nothing to do but wait until the next stop in the hope that a changeover of people getting on and off will give me something else to gawk at.
We get to the next stop, and… nothing. Again. No one gets on, no one gets off, and the train doors don’t even open. I look out the window, and suddenly I see why. The only platform at the station is for trains going the other way, so you’d need to run across the rails to get to the platform. What kind of a subway systemis this? Travelling through a few stops, this isn’t always the case, but at several stations I pass through there simply is no station platform for the train that I’m on. The urban planners at CDPR have a lot to answer for!
Twiddling my thumbs, and beginning to wonder how the hell I’m going to report on an experience that’s so abjectly uneventful, I get a flash of inspo: to use this downtime to catch up on messages on V’s phone, maybe text some people back (I’m as bad at texting back in-game as I am in real-life, so there’s a big backlog), or even make a couple of calls to set up some jobs or text a love interest. But while half the people on the train are absently staring at their phones, I’m unable to do so: all I can do is switch up the radio music playing in my head.
I hop off and on a few different trains, and across my journeys the most exciting thing that happens is a car driving straight through the middle of the train (which you can see at the end of the above video clip), but something tells me that was just a happy accident…
This Is My Stop
Don’t get me wrong: it’s cool that CDPR implemented this at all, but where it could’ve been a strong immersion feature, it ends up very much feeling like something chucked in as an afterthought, offering pretty much zero interactivity. Fistfights with gangs on platforms, opportunities to intervene in altercations on the train, orat least letting you use your damn phonewould’ve been enough to make this a small but appreciable part of that down-and-dirty Night City experience, but in the end I’m left thinking that the resources into adding this (which clearly wasn’t without effort) could’ve been invested elsewhere.
I’m enjoying Cyberpunk 2077 in its current state, but the more things like this get added the more apparent it is that this is a game that wasn’t complete on release, with things like the NCART system patching up holes that can never be fully sealed. On the other hand, seeing asthe game seems to keep getting these sizeable updatesthat keep incrementally improving it, maybe the next step is to add fully explorable NCART stations to the game. I’m not holding my breath though, and with CDPR currently working onThe Witcher 4as well as a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, maybe it’s best they look to the future rather than trying to perpetually patch up the past.
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Cyberpunk 2077
WHERE TO PLAY
Cyberpunk 2077 is CD Projekt Red’s open world RPG. The game is a sequel to the setting of the iconic tabletop roleplaying game, Cyberpunk 2020.
