During the last Night City Wire we saw two new trailers for Cyberpunk 2077, one highlighting the city itself and the other detailing its main gangs. Both trailers are hefty downloads of information, some of it already mentioned in sources like the recent World of Cyberpunk 2077 book published by Dark Horse, some of it elaborating on things we've already seen.
About 30 seconds into Postcards from Night City we get a glimpse of Johnny Silverhand at a food stand. He 's probably not really there, of course, since he's just a manifestation of the digital Johnny inside the protagonist's head. Shame he can't enjoy the meat skewers.
An overview of the Night City media includes a montage of local TV programs and celebrities, like Ziggy Q, the guy in the gold jacket who is apparently the host of a variety show called 'Night After Night with Ziggy Q'. One of his guests looks like she might be Lizzy Wizzy, the pop star voiced by real-world singer Grimes. Ziggy Q may not be as big a name as he seems, though. Take a closer look at the moment where he struts past his screaming fans, and you'll see those fans are all mannequins.
After that come the pop stars with cybernetic eyes. The spider look is particularly freaky. According to the World of Cyberpunk 2077 book these are members of Us Cracks, a manufactured pop group sponsored by Kiroshi Opticals who all sport Kiroshi-brand eyes.
Following some nightclub scenes, we see the protagonist's POV as they take 20 milligrams of something or other. Pay attention to the hands in the scene immediately following and you'll see they're different. The ring and tattoo are the same as Johnny Silverhand's, and the next scene—where he's taking a swig from a bottle while a lady, er, does something below the view of the camera—is probably one of his memories we'll see in flashback.
The illustrations of homelessness, crime, and the police response that follow include a view of a MAX-TAC officer from one of the 'psycho squads' who deal with sufferers of cyberpsychosis. His gear looks almost exactly the same as the gear worn in the very first Cyberpunk 2077 teaser trailer all the way back in 2013.
After one more look at digital Keanu Reeves, this trailer ends with a promo for the Night City tourism website, which is real and full of pop-up versions of the billboard advertisements that populate all these moody shots of the cityscape. One of them is for a car called the Aerondight, a name it shares with one of the best swords Geralt can find in The Witcher 3.
The second trailer, Gangs of Night City, opens on Takemura, an NPC we don't know very much about except that he must be important since he already has an action figure and a Funko Pop (yes, really). There's also a quick namedrop of the Scavs. From what other sources have said, they're the gang who deal in aftermarket cybernetics, which is a polite way of saying they kill people and harvest their augmentations. And their organs, and anything else of value.
The first gang properly featured are the Maelstrom, who are into illegal body modification and rock a lot of subdermal plating. Their headquarters is the Totentanz Club, which players of the Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop RPG will remember, along with the Maelstrom themselves. This is what they looked like back then.
Sidekick NPC Jackie introduces the Valentinos, who seem to have evolved from the posergang of Cyberpunk 2020 to become a primarily Hispanic gang with a thing for Santa Muerte iconography. Their rivals are 6th Street, proud American suburbanites who Johnny Silverhand is apparently not a fan of. That's Keanu complaining they "vomit lofty patriotic bullshit all day".
Next up are the Voodoo Boys, who are hackers, or netrunners in the slang of Cyberpunk. The cybercop talking about the "blackwall" is a member of NetWatch, the computer police who prevent rogue AIs from the Old Net from breaking through the blackwall into the safe and regulated cyberspace of 2077. The Voodoo Boys want to tear down that wall for reasons of their own. Though we see one of them presumably about to cut off a chicken's head, whether they do much with the voodoo theme remains to be seen. Maybe he's just about to get a stew going.
Here's Mike Pondsmith discussing the Voodoo Boys and the Animals, a boostergang who bulk up with vat-grown implanted muscles, ultratestosterone, and equine growth hormone. And yet in the trailer they howl like wolves instead of neighing like horses. Missed opportunity if you ask me.
According to the World of Cyberpunk book the Tyger Claws are based out of Japantown, but contain members whose heritage comes from other parts of Asia as well. They've got close ties to the Arasaka corporation, who provide them with gear. The guy with the glowing red mantis blades on his arms is rocking a Tyger Claw mask with an Arasaka logo on it, and his shoulderpad is Arasaka-branded as well. I don't know about you, but I will probably spend a lot of time killing them and taking their stuff. Yes, I want a katana.
The Mox protect Night City's sex workers, and are based out of Lizzie's Bar. It's a braindance club where patrons can plug themselves into VR recordings. Braindances, including illicit ones that are potentially harmful to those who experience them, will apparently be a central part of Cyberpunk 2077's plot.
Finally, the trailer covers two groups of nomads who live in the wasteland between cities. Both are from the Cyberpunk 2020 RPG, where the Wraiths were one of the "Raffen Shiv", groups who were outcast even among the nomads due to their banditry. Meanwhile, the more respectable Aldecaldos were the original nomads, the first family to leave the deteriorating cities and make a new life on the road. For a couple of years Johnny Silverhand hid out with them while he was on the run, so they'll probably play a part in his storyline.
The trailer ends with an aerial map of Night City, though there's one thing missing from it—the Orbital Air Space Center that ferries passengers into Earth orbit. Whether that's just an omission or something to be explained in the next round of trailers, or in the game itself, is something we'll have to wait and see.
If you're still hungry for more, here's everything we know about Cyberpunk 2077 so far, and here's a timeline of major events in the Cyberpunk RPG's setting.
