With a focus on high-tech combined with low-lifestyles, there are a variety of ways games can introduce players to the cyberpunk genre. There are plenty of video games that allow players to explore some truly amazing cities, each with unique spins on the tropes associated with the genre.
While some games take a more direct approach filling cities with surveillance and citizens addicted to bio-augmentations. Other games showcase the early moments of a cyberpunk city, by focusing on social and political commentary. With so many games in the cyberpunk catalog, finding some of the best examples of cyberpunk cities can be daunting.
10 Detroit – Detroit: Become Human
Once the automotive powerhouse of the world, Detroit now houses a major cybernetics plant, or at least that is how Quantic Dream imagines the city. Detroit Become Human takes place in the year 2038, and the city is everything players would expect from a cyberpunk world.
Relationships between humans and androids reach a boiling point. A “Red Ice” epidemic plagues the city and plays a vital role in the story’s plot. Though Detroit Become Human follows a more linear world map design, there are a few missions that allow players to experience an early stage of cyberpunk. In the game, Detroit may look like a regular city, but the underlying societal struggles and conflicts are common gateways into the genre.
9 UAC – Doom 2016
The Union Aerospace Corporation base (UAC) on Mars, from Doom 2016, may not initially seem like a cyberpunk city, however, it fits the bill. After an energy crisis on Earth, an Argent fracture is discovered on Mars that could power the planet indefinitely. The only problem is it will literally siphon that energy from Hell itself. Since cyberpunk corporations hardly ever think beyond profit, the UAC is built around that fracture.
Unethical technological advancements, such as grafting biochemical weapons onto demons become a norm. It is up to players to rip and tear their way through the demonic hordes after Lazarus energy consumes the facility.
8 London – Watch Dogs: Legion
Watch Dogs: Legion takes place in the capital and largest city of the United Kingdom, London. The city has been overrun with an authoritarian police regime, called Albion, as well as organized crime syndicates. London is brimming with social and political unrest, as citizen’s entire lives are monitored constantly. Players will have to brave the all-seeing surveillance systems and private militaries that control the streets.
7 Hengsha – Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Hengsha is a vibrant city during the day, even holding the nickname the Jewel of the Yangtze River. However, at night it is teeming with underworld nightlife. Hengsha is the heart of the global augmentation industry, so players can expect to find streets filled with nightclubs and augmentation chop shops. The island city is even divided into several levels and city districts.
The upper and lower levels are completely different from one another. Lower Hengsha is brimming with crime and poverty. A private security force has checkpoints on every corner. Upper Hengsha has plenty of grass and trees and all sorts of vibrant life with snobbish citizens. Though Deus Ex: Human Revolution gives players plenty of freedom of choice, the city life is a stark reminder of what cyberpunk worlds are really like.
6 Subway Town – RAGE
Built out of an abandoned subway system under Crescent City, the Subway Town in RAGE is a prime example of cyberpunk innovation. Subway Town is the largest settlement in the Eastern Wasteland. The post-apocalyptic city still retains most of its vivid neon lights and trance-inducing subway music. There are plenty of bars and garages built from discarded rail cars and way stations. Death races and holographic games of dice are just a few attractions players may come across. That, and a former tech hub and lab overrun with giant irradiated mutants just a few miles above the city.
5 Rengkok – Ruiner
Underground fight clubs, holographic closed-circuit cats, and tons of unethical technology make Rengkok from Ruiner an amazing cyberpunk city. Webs of bullet trains connect the main city hub to each production facility, factory, and warehouse.
The train system makes the city huge in comparison with other games. Players can stumble across a variety of dystopian characters and creatures. The city itself is owned by a failing conglomerate known as Heaven. When it comes to one of the best cyberpunk metropolises, Ruiner has players covered.
4 Night City – Cyberpunk 2077
One of the most recent additions to the cyberpunk genre is Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City. The city sprawls across the world, and various layers of depth make the open-world game a great addition to the genre. During the day, the city can pass for almost any other, but much like its name, the city is all about the nightlife. Neon signs and billboards cover the concrete jungle, and all manner of ripper-docs and garages are on every corner. Arms dealers, corporate peons, and bio-augmented gangs are waiting for players to find and challenge them.
3 Cloudbank – Transistor
Cloudbank is where the majority of Transistor takes place, and home to the protagonist Red. Like many cyberpunk cities, Cloudbank is full of tall buildings, with multiple levels. Cloudbank is made up of several districts, that players can explore.
Unlike other locations in the genre, the city operates on a voting system to ensure that “everyone has a voice.” If citizens want the sky to turn green, it will. This political structure also leads to a lot of volatility. Though Cloudbank may seem like a utopia, the semi-autonomous robots killing citizens would say otherwise. These robots can self-upgrade and evolve, when they were originally used only to repair anomalies throughout the city.
2 The City of Glass – Mirror’s Edge Catalyst
The setting of both Mirror’s Edge: Exordium and Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, the City of Glass is a symbol of corporate power in a cyberpunk world. The city is pristine to the point of being almost entirely featureless. However, the towering buildings and sleek designs cannot hide the true tone. The City of Glass stands at the forefront of the digital revolution. As such, most citizens are connected to the Grid, a citywide surveillance network that connects everything in the city. Players are able to experience Glass from a first-person perspective. Exploration and parkour are essential to completing missions and fighting enemies in the city.
1 Hong Kong Free Enterprise Zone – Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Set in 2056, Shadowrun: Hong Kong takes place in the Hong Kong Free Enterprise Zone, which is completely controlled by corporations. Due to corporations having control of the city, the governing bodies are made up of the Board of Governors and the Executive Council. The city itself is composed of multiple districts. Like other games in the genre, crime is prevalent and varied. From white-collar crime to street-level crime, gangs and foreign syndicates have operations throughout the city. Players will have to make their way through the city by completing jobs that increase in difficulty and complexity.
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