The threat of the ‘megacorporation’ has been tempered, though the nationalization of Militech is a pointed allusion to our current military-industrial complex. The new events change the lens of Cyberpunk Red, but they represent responses to our real-world timeline more than anything else. Early editions of Cyberpunk were informed by the issues of the 80s: the demonization of the inner city and white flight, fears of Asian economic dominance, and to a degree the last gasps of the Cold War creating anxiety about the fate of the former Soviet Union and a strengthened European Economic Community. The timeline and setting info is a great way to see how the core conflicts of Cyberpunk have shifted over the years. This era extends to 2045, present day in the game, and is known as “The Time of the Red”. After roughly 2023, the extension to the timeline explains the shift in setting assumptions from 2020 to Red: in short, the Net (the classic 1980s VR goggles internet) is destroyed, nation-states begin to wrest power back from the megacorporations, and much of the infrastructure abandoned or ruined in the Fourth Corporate War is reclaimed, either by groups of individuals or small, new corporations. As the timeline continues past 2020 in Red, it shifts in focus to the Fourth Corporate War, a worldwide conflict that ended with a backpack nuke being detonated in Night City, the game’s core setting. The timeline, which is provided in detail in both Cyberpunk Red and earlier editions, traces a persistent collapse of norms within primarily the United States that leads up to 2020. The setting of Cyberpunk is an alternate history that starts with the Collapse, an apocalyptic economic event which occurred in 1994. As a fan, I’m not going to try and give an ‘unbiased’ review…instead, I’m going to pull out my dog-eared copy of Cyberpunk 2020, take a long hard look at this new version, and see if I think that Red is a solid go at pulling Cyberpunk into the non-fictional 21st century. Knowing this does give needed perspective to the game, though, and should tell newcomers what to expect. It’s not a bad thing to give your fans what they want, and it looks like Cyberpunk Red is doing just that. Traveller did it, and Warhammer Fantasy did it. This is a game designed for fans of Cyberpunk 2020, because the previous edition, which did something different, failed.Ĭyberpunk is not unique in this…hell, the largest RPG ever, D&D 5th Edition, is the exact same sort of retrenchment from fan backlash. At the same time, Cyberpunk Red, basically from page one, wears “once bitten, twice shy” on its sleeve in regards to how it advances the timeline and updates the mechanics. While Mike Pondsmith began to design Cyberpunk Red prior to the deal with CD Projekt Red (CDPR) which would lead to the video game Cyberpunk 2077, that deal almost certainly enabled Red to happen (because, you know, money). It’s about Cyberpunk Red.Ĭyberpunk Red is the fourth and newest edition of the Cyberpunk tabletop RPG, and its existence is a testament to the vagaries of the tabletop industry. It’s about the edition of Cyberpunk that, years ago, many fans resigned themselves to never getting. This review, though, is not about Cyberpunk v3, nor is it about Fuzion, nor is it about Mike Pondsmith’s extensive action figure collection. Like many fans who had been with the game longer, though, I was disappointed, both by the change in thematic direction and also in the game’s editing, game design, and art direction. I had discovered Cyberpunk 2020 only a couple years previous and was excited by the notion of a new edition coming out. In 2005, while I was still in high school, Cyberpunk v3 landed with a resounding thud. This is why you all need to know that I’m an in-the-tank seventeen years running serious fan of R. A hallmark of good writing is not to attempt and claim objectivity, but rather to list your biases as comprehensively as you can in an effort to help a reader understand and gain value from your perspective. Good reviewers call upon their experience, their expertise, and their effort to make their reviews relevant and useful, but no matter how well-researched the writing, how polished and considered the perspective, reviews are always subjective. A review is, at the end of the day, an opinion.