I completely forgot about Psycho-Pass. That had some neat ideas in it and I loved the story (of S1 at least never watched the others).
I completely forgot about Psycho-Pass. That had some neat ideas in it and I loved the story (of S1 at least never watched the others).
To be fair to Blade Runner here, I don’t think it was really made to be “Cyberpunk”. It has some of the themes and inspired a lot of future Cyberpunk work (at the very least aesthetic wise), but the book “Cyberpunk” wasn’t published until a year later and “Neuromancer” didn’t come out until two years later, so a lot of the themes that we consider Cyberpunk weren’t fully realised yet. I guess you could argue it’s more proto-Cyberpunk (and a number of other sci-fi from before then), but it’s pretty firmly entrenched as Cyberpunk now, and to be honest, I don’t really disagree either. Strict definitions for genres are pretty tricky, even more so for foundational work like I’d say Blade Runner was.
Ever since I first saw augmentations stuff in cyberpunk media or likewise I’ve always wanted to get it. Get cool new arms, get eyes that can zoom in or whatever, maybe lungs to help with stamina, etc. But when I actually think about doing it, I dunno if I could go through with it. Like eyes would probably be an obvious choice for me, but thinking about actually having that done freaks me out a little.
It’d be a different matter if it needed replacing I think, rather than replacing them purely to be better. If I was gonna be blind, I think I’d take augmentated eyes in a heartbeat, same for any other part of my body. Though perhaps if we ever do get there, seeing other people do it might make the prospect less scary for me to replace healthy parts.
Oh and also hope we don’t need any anti-rejections drugs like the Deus Ex prequels…
Yea I’ve heard that about the gameplay, but as long as the story is good enough I don’t think I’ll mind too much. I’ll put it next on my list I think. Also just noticed its on sale on steam atm for anyone else reading.
I should really get around to playing Cloudpunk sometime. I was following the game for ages before it came out and bought it on release, then just never played it for some reason. It seems right up my alley too.
I just finished listening to Sandevistan, it definitely has the feel of Cyberpunk to me. I mean admittedly based on my other comment I’m not entirely sure what that feel is, but I liked it a lot and it definitely fits for me.
Well my first experiences into Cyberpunk were through videogames, which is what set up my expectations of what “Cyberpunk” is pretty much (though I didn’t even know the term at the time!) so I’ll nerd out about them a bit. Most of my other Cyberpunk media has been through reading books so I don’t have much music to associate with them then to change those expectations either. Video game music tends to be a bit different since it normally focuses more on being ambient the majority of the time, but it’s pretty much what’s in my mind now.
Deus Ex was my first I think and the music is quite engrained into my mind. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgIE6Pb_MFE I think it blends a sorta ambient feeling before going into a more aggressive tone later into the song.
Another game’s whose music comes to mind right away is Uplink. I’m not sure if Uplink is actually “Cyberpunk” but it comes very close at the least if not. Hacker working outside of the law, with the possibility of working with a techno-anarchist group to destroy the internet set in the future (2010!!). But yea the music is what comes to mind when I think Cyberpunk hacker for me.
Of course if I talk about Cyberpunk music in games I have to talk about VA-11 Hall-A (I’ll find any excuse to). The soundtrack here is a bit different, since the bar is more of a safe space from how messed up the world is for its patrons and I think that plays into the music Welcome to VA-11 Hall-A is a pretty “cozy” song, still has that futuristic vibe to it, but there’s nothing really aggressive about it. Though it does also mix it up a bit in other songs Digital Drive has the more aggressive side and feels more “classic cyberpunk” to me but also still blends back into that “coziness” at parts.
Might as well finish off by talking about Cyberpunk 2077 a little since I loved that soundtrack too. Rebel Path was a great song which I think has the rage and aggressive you mention a bit. Then you have Outside No More which does pretty much the opposite and might not be as fitting, but I like the song so I’m putting it here anyway!
I played this game forever ago (well early-mid 2000s from some kind of emulator) and my younger self was so bad at it. I should give it another go some time, I did once try playing it again a year or so ago but for some reason I was convinced it was the SNES game and wondered why it looked nothing like I remember.