Finding Comfort in Non-Cozy Games - Cyberpunk 2077
When Cozy games don't quite work for you, there are always other options.
Finding Comfort in Non-Cozy games is a series about how I, and probably many others, find comfort in games that don't usually qualify as cozy/comfort games. They can be dark, dramatic, filled with some really depressing themes, but if you play them over and over and find comfort in them, they become your own comfort games. This will be is a multi-part series and this is Part 2. I will always link prior and following parts at the beginning and end respectively.
The Introduction
I am an easy bitch to please. Give me a story that's interesting and has personality and political themes and I will fall in love with the game. I'm a political nerd and adore science fiction so having those two things are an amazing combination that just intrigues me to no end.
The thing about Non-Cozy games is that they can be any genre and have a multitude of different themes and styles between games. Last week we talked about Persona 5, a game that has warmth and depth and has some serious political themes. Of course it isn't really science fiction so that doesn't come into play but it still has an amazing experience that I went over during my article.
In 2020, CD Projekt Red released Cyberpunk 2077. It had some shit optimization but it was still one of the best stories I've ever experienced both main and side quest wise. It had everything I loved about games, everything I mentioned in the first paragraph of this section. It also happens to have terrible driving but that's not important. What is important is that so much was on point in the game that I just felt the need to keep going back. And then again. And again. And then watch my partner play it. And then play it again after. It's a game that instantly entered into a select group of games of mine that I have played through multiple times and will continue to go back every so often because I feel the pull of Night City.
How is a dystopian cyberpunk future a comfort game though?
What a good question, reader. We discussed this last week but I will always go back to predictability. Sure, Cyberpunk is a dystopic future. Sure, Corporations wage literal wars against each other and people have crazy cyberware that allows them to do things no normal human could manage, and provide more intense ways of authoritarian governmental and corporate surveillance. But those things that happen are predictable because you expect that kind of shit to happen. You are able to experience this fascinating experience and futuristic world in a way that is safe and where you are capable of surviving and predicting what will happen next.
Cyberpunk is an experience filled with political influence as well. In many ways this is similar to GTA in that the political thematic influence is everywhere and is so blatantly done that you can, again, predict what is gonna happen. You can always predict that a corporatocracy will have the corporations running peoples lives. That they'd have massive military like installations in an incredibly high tech city. That, because of how many people rely on corporations paying rather shit wages and throwing your life away just casually, you're forced to live in massive apartment buildings that have markets and apartments and gyms and stores and food stalls all in one. It's a crazy world with many depressing aspects.
Yet. It is this depressing corporatist aspect that provides the predictability and makes the game comfortable to play. You're able to push what you're personally going through in your life, sit down, and experience a different world where you can feel like you have control over your life. Cyberpunk doesn't allow you to feel like you have influence on the world or give you the feeling of being a part of the revolution. Because it allows you to feel what many constantly feel they can't in modern day, control over how you go about your day.
Of course, V is dying from the chip with Johnny on it. You're seeing him be super fucking anarchist and wanting to burn the world down. And then get to play how V responds and how V changes because of Johnny. You get to see a person radicalize and experience why they did. Johnny is constantly prompting you to rethink your life, to think about your choices. Maybe even to make different ones. V is a wonderful main character because they, with the freedom of knowing they're gonna die, can live life to the fucking fullest and do whatever they want. Want to Jack In to a random PC and hack it? No problem. Want to go on a bounty hunt of a giant robot dude in the desert? No problem. Want to dive to the bottom of the man made lake and explore the town that used to exist there before the lake was made and do it with the best Lesbian in gaming? No. Fucking. Problem. V is free like many of us can't be. They're not tied down to anything or anyone, they don't have to have their whole life planned out because they know it will end as soon as you go meet Hanako at Embers. Cyberpunk provides comfort through freedom to do whatever the fuck you want even if it gets you flat lined.
Come on, don't do another Persona 5, tell us why you find it comforting!
I should probably get to that, yeah. Persona 5 was a game that came at the right time for me. That helped me feel powerful. Cyberpunk did not come at just the right time. Although it did come at a good one. For those that didn't play it when it came out, it was December 2020. The election in November had just happened and, as I'm a political junkie, I was constantly on the Internet reading more and more news as things developed. Cyberpunk allowed a space to both, keep my political mind active, and to sink into a world where, as I have already said, I have some control over my life and future. Again, the future was not knowable in December, but what was knowable was that V was gonna run around doing bounties, flat lining other mercs, pretending to be weapons dealers and taking in all of Johnny's 2020s anarchism.
COVID fucked up the world in a way that we will be feeling the ramifications of for decades to come. Cyberpunk provided a wonderful way to get some power back. Power of knowing that there will be a future that I can control at least a little, instead of a present where everything felt out of control for your regular citizen.
Another thing is that Johnny really spoke to me. I'm not saying I necessarily agreed with his anarchist nihilist beliefs, but I got them. I understood where he was coming from and how in many ways he wasn't exactly wrong. I understood that when you have his point of view you will likely radicalize. Sometimes that ends in just writing on the darker sides of the internet. Other times that leads to you bombing the Arasaka tower with a Nuke that started a Corporate War, but, even with that outcome for Johnny, you could still get where Johnny was coming from. V was able to come to terms with not just their death, but with Johnny's belief that you needed to go out swinging with it.
Johnny is capable of summarizing the problem with the highly capitalistic society that the game exists in. And him reaching through the screen to talk to me, the player, in my time of not knowing the future, really helped me want to keep pushing to make the world to get better. It also helped show me that even if a massive event happens, the world will go on and society will not collapse. That often the most radical decisions are the ones that have the biggest issues with it. That what matters the most is pushing for change and continuing to fight for it, even if it takes some time.
Cyberpunk 2077 was a game that meant a lot because it was something that helped me find my drive again. It helped me figure out if it was even worth it to help improve the world, or if saying "fuck it" and just doing whatever was better (I decided it was worth fighting to improve the world).
The Representation helped.
I believe this needed its whole section despite that I've talked about this a bit in my History of Queerness in Videogames - Part 4 - The 2020s. Being able to see yourself in the characters of your comfort game is really helpful and makes the game even more comforting. Cyberpunk 2077 allowed me to play myself for the first time. Being able to play an actual trans person in a game like this was new to me. And then being able to see that representation in the world as well, even if it was sexualized? It was amazing.
Some of the best characters in the game are queer and it's fucking amazing. Claire the bartender at Afterlife and a fantastic racing driver who asks you to go around and drive in the races across the map. She's trans and that's just accepted. No questioning, no shitty people misgendering her. Just accepted. It's amazing.
Cyberpunk provided me everything that I talked about in my prior section and allowed me to experience it all as myself. Or at least as some as close to myself as possible. Nothing will ever beat that feeling of having power over my life and my trans-ness having fucking no influence on my life at all.
The Conclusion
Cyberpunk 2077 is an amazing experience that is comforting for me because of the things that, for others, make it more distressing. It's comforting because I'm able to play myself. As I said last week and will be saying every week going forward, comfort games can be more than what many personally think of as comforting.
It's completely possible to be able to play something dystopian, ultra capitalistic, corporatist, and authoritarian and still find comfort in it. At the end of the day what matters most is the idea that the game is comforting for you. That makes you relax and be able to forget your life and the things you have issues with. Cozy games are whatever you want them to be, even something depressing like Cyberpunk 2077.
Next time on...
It's time we talk about a game that has been incredibly influential in how I think about videogames and how I design game worlds. A game that I literally have a tattoo of. It's time to talk about Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Yeah it's technically 3 games, but fuck it, I'm doing all of them at once because of how well they all work together. See you on the Citadel next week.
Meow,
Cat
I have been meaning to catch up on this series and am thoroughly enjoying it. <3 I like your take on almost dystopian coziness. I am drawn to the wastelands of fallout in a similar vain.
Although I have not played cyberpunk more than for a 20 mins demo.
I love that it also offered a very personal perspective of being seen for you too. That must have felt empowering and maybe comforting too. Thanks for sharing such personal thoughts and experiences
I love the concept of this series. Cozy gaming has become a genre of its own, but this is a good reminder that we can feel comfort from a game with high stakes, combat and a dark story
Personally, I've been having issues with my current very corporate job, and this post has convinced me that maybe Cyberpunk is a good game to find comfort in.
Thank you for the great article :)