What was the first cyberpunk video game you played? Were you playing the point & click adventure games back on DOS? Shadowrun on SNES? Deus Ex on PC? Or did you just recently discover this thing called “cyberpunk” with Cyberpunk 2077?
I’m curious how long everyone here has been into cyberpunk.
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… Crystal caves?
Or Beneath a steel sky?Also Wolfenstein had that cyberdolf.
And Doom had cyberdemon.But my memory def goes to System Shocks and Deus Ex. Love them. Actually I love all of the mentioned.
Have you tried playing Beyond a Steel Sky? I haven’t played it but I can’t imagine a sequel released so many years after the original would be any good. I could be wrong though, maybe it’s fun.
Didn’t know about the sequel, it doesn’t look horrible tbh (I got past the modern-design-shock that hit me at first in 20 or 30 seconds as the trailer played).
But yeah, if I get around to play it I’ll def manage my expectations.
Flashback. Still one of my favorites too.
…i was going to say flashback or mean streets, but no, it was definitely the original tron arcade game; that pre-dated even war games…
…before a certain point in the early eighties, the line between cyberpunk and science fiction gets pretty blurry, so i don’t think anything i played in the seventies counts…
Shadowrun on SNES. And I’m running Shadowrun tonight for the first time in literal decades (I last GMed it when I was in middle school!), for people who haven’t played before; I’m so nervous and unprepared! I hope that even if I mangle the rules I can get across the vibes.
Good luck!
Thanks chummer, I’ll need it!
Don’t get brain-burnt! (Am I doing it right, been too long…)
For me it was Cops 2170 I had a human sized rat policing the streets and ahooting up bad guys
Interphase (Amiga/Atari ST, 1989).
The player moves around in virtual space of a corporate system while their partner infiltrates the actual space of the building. You have to disable electrified doors and reroute security bots etc to create a path through the offices, all while fighting off defensive programs
Unusually for the era you steer with the mouse and it’s all in vector graphics.
This answer may be a cheat and a stretch, but hear me out…
Star Wars: Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight
Specifically, the opening levels set in Nar Shaddaa, one of my favorite, underappreciated locations in the extended universe.
The whole moon was one giant, grimey, neon-lit city blanketed in night, overrun with sleazy organized criminals and jazz music. Pretty big noir vibes too.
It’s the first time I remember experiencing the aesthetic, which felt so sharply different from the colorful, swashbuckling Star Wars I had known. And I knew I loved it.
Probably SS2, but I feel like there might be something earlier
G-Police, 1997, PC.
I absolutely love and played the shit out of Deus Ex, but, technically, I played G Police first.
G-Police Lore / Setting
The year is 2097.
Following the exhaustion of all natural resources on Earth, an ensuing rapid militarization and colonization of the solar system’s planets and moons, and a further devastating extra planetary war between large multi national coalitions…
… large megacorporations assumed outright control of most of these colonies, abolished the construction of capital class space vessels, and have forced the demilitarization of Earth’s remaning nation states.
What remains of them is a collaborative police force, largely focused on localized peacekeeping, anti piracy and anti terrorist operations.
The G-Police.
…
You are brooding male noir protagonist, a veteran pilot of the the earlier interplanetary wars.
Flying for the G-Police is basically the only semi-lucrative job option you’ve got left.
But for you… there’s also a personal motive.
Your sister flew for the G-Police too, a promising rookie with idealized notions of justice. She was rising fast, earning accomodations, even spoke of a potential lover.
But then she ‘committed suicide’, was apparently quite depressed and overstressed.
You don’t buy that for a minute.
Somebody killed her, went to the trouble of covering it up, and you want to know who and why.
Now you’ve managed to obscure your identity while keeping your flying record intact, landing you a post in the G-Police, in the same unit your sister was in, determined to find the truth.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Vbm6RICA8_4&pp=ygUOZyBwb2xpY2UgaW50cm8%3D
Does Duke Nukem 2D on PC count?
I never really considered Duke Nukem to be cyberpunk… but yeah, that screenshot totally looks like it came from a cyberpunk game. Weird.
Yah, maybe it’s more just sci-fi.
In that case, the first Deus Ex game was my first. Great stuff back then. Hard to play now, IMO.
Deus Ex. Give me the GEP gun
Remember that a nonlethal takedown is always the most silent takedown.
It’s a silent takedown if no one else is alive to hear it 😎
System shock 1. I loved the danger zones and safe zones and hacking the med bay to increase the safe zones.
Have you tried the remake? I always liked SS2 and thought SS1 was too clunky but I’m not sure if that means I’d want to play a remake of SS1.
I haven’t tried the remake.
I thought the first half of SS2 was amazing. After the bio labs the level design and story felt rushed and uninteresting. Presumably forced to release before they were done.
Had no idea there was a Neuromancer video game.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer_(video_game)
Anyways, probably System Shock 2 for me.
If you want to try it out, you can play the Neuromancer game in your browser at the internet archive.
Syndicate I have fond memories of, seems cyberpunk enough. Deus Ex was also a lot of fun, though my computer at the time could barely run it.
Plenty of anime from the 90s that fit the theme as well.
I’m ashamed to say the only Syndicate game I’ve played is the 2012 FPS reboot which was basically Syndicate in name only.
Although, the original Syndicate creator was so mad about the 2012 reboot that he made Satellite Reign as a spiritual successor, and I really enjoyed that one.
