An Architect Reviews: Cyberpunk 2077's Night City

They don't have kitchens or kitchenettes because, if i recall correctly, in-lore most food is pre-packaged and processed and doesn't need to be prepared, so most low end and even mid range apartments don't have kitchens. Usually only the higher end houses and apartments have kitchens to prepare real food. Which is then probably prepared by a professional high class chef. Edit: That's why V only has like a microwave to heat the food up.

You know what this needs? A series to go deeper into each different district ;)

V's apartment is one of the more 'Luxury" ones in the building, bought with money from gigs V did with jack at the prologue montage scene. (And Jack bough the superbike with his share) You actually got to visit other "standard" versions, in sidequests. And it is much more cramped and uncomforatble.

Night City is mind blowing. I can’t even begin to imagine how someone would go about designing something like this for a video game. There is so much detail and density everywhere.

Local Hong Konger here, and I can tell you that I was blown away when I first opened the game. The buildings in Little China feels like they could actually belong in the real world, with the details in the 2-3 story buildings with clothes being dried on the windows and the canopies sticking out looks and feels just authentic, and the ambience of the footpaths at night matches my experiences real life. And the feeling that you’re surrounded by corporate high-rises intertwining and leaving just a little room to breathe is captured just right. Looking outside, seeing buildings covering the horizon, neon lights going as far as your eyes could see lighting up the entire street, I could go on and on about this game. Kudos to the environment artists, the game may be buggy, but the map they built is truly a masterpiece.

I find it surprising how few people have picked up on the fact that the cyberpunk universe was a vision of the future created by Mike Pondsmith as he saw it in the eighties. Hence, why everything has a sort of Eighties-futurism vibe to it.

Fellow architect here - great video! I actually like that there's no kitchenette in the megablock apartments - the lack of ability for people to cook their own food shows how food has become commoditized and accessibly mainly through vending machines and street stalls. Cooking, much like anything else, becomes a luxury.

Going off of the anime and some trailers, V's apartment isn't meant for a single person, but likely a family unit. The workshop area might be a repurposed bedroom while the large open area in the center is to lay out extra cots for the kids.

15 minutes, actually 10, seems like way too little time to do this city justice. I would gladly watch a series of Architect Reviews on each of the major zones and locations and how even random encounters fit into this world (what the NPCs speak about, the crashed cars you find, the notes) as they add so much to the authenticity of NC. PS. Speaking of authentic worlds outside SC, how about reviewing worlds in RDR2, or Dying Light, or AC series?

Imagine if V had an apartment, like the one in the Fifth Element.

Definitely the most detailed open world city ever made.

Kudos to all the designers, musicians and artists in general of this game!

I think the main design decision that led to much of the "spaghetti" was the idea that the city should have levels, verticality. So many times when walking around the city, if you look up, you see more roads, down, footpaths or forgotten streets.

I was under the impression that the towers have different apartment sizes and V just had a larger almost luxury sized apartment.

In the artbook it's said that megabuildings were supposed to be these extra housing projects, supplying everything a person might need within it. However it became more profitable to simply cram and forget people instead. So presumably the apartment size makes sense as a relic of the original vision, as does the relatively good design. To me the story of megabuildings reminds me quite a bit of soviet worker neighbourhoods, many designed with a similar original intention, only to end up forgotten and neglected, slowly reaching ruin.

If you get the "The Sun" ending V actually wakes up in the apartmen you see through the window, where you then depart to the epilogue mission.

I still love the game even with all the bugs.

Im an Architectural Student from Germany and since i found ur channel about 2 years ago, i always loved ur videos. Sometimes i find myself just roaming the world of Different games and just looking at things and thinking about how this and that fits into this world(also in Cyberpunk). Your Videos also played a part in my decision to become an Architect and i just want to say that i was basically never good at anything in school and i was always average in everything. But i think i found the right thing for me now, sometimes i spend 12+ hours a day just designing buildings and thinking about Architecture all day. So i wanted to say thx man for the inspiration u give to me :D

I actually find the architecture of Night City breathtaking and exciting. Having so many people and things packed into such a small area makes the place seem genuinely alive and energetic. I lived in Bangkok for a number of years and it's similar to the explosion of building in Bangkok and the huge number of people and things to see and do in each area.

I like the nod to demolition man's "three sea shells" in the bathroom section in v's apartment