The Struggles and Glamour of Night City
In Cyberpunk 2077, Night City is the real star even when the events and characters are so compelling. Towering skyscrapers, neon-lit streets, and people’s determination to “make it big” make this futuristic metropolis breathtakingly immersive.
From the neon-lit nightlife of Japantown to the industrial sprawl of places such as Heywood, the city embodies both the allure and despair of a high-tech, low-life world. A huge surprise for me was that Night City was partly designed by planners even when there are several elements that would make it a planner’s worst nightmare. The goal of the designers of the game was to make “Night City feel as real as possible, right down to the way traffic flows through it”.
Some would probably question why the city has so many flaws as planners were hired to design it. However, the city was designed with realism in mind and not purposefully glorified to show how far away from a utopia the city actually is. Night City is almost like a living entity and very much a product of the people, power struggles and technological advancement. The city basically takes existing problems and amplifies them, giving players a reality check on what happens when these problems are overlooked.
Night City faces several planning problems that are reflective of problems that actual cities face.
Towering, corporate skyscrapers are contrasted by abandoned malls, makeshift homes and shops with poor quality amenities. Night City also illustrates the “digital divide” such as many cities around the world which have thriving technology sectors with thousands of unhoused people who lack even the most basic access to technology. This divide causes a world of difference in terms of power, security and opportunity, creating a digital barrier between people.
Night City also faces significant urban sprawl, exacerbating car dependency. Although Night City has a metro system, its stations are located in high density areas meant to house the working class under corporations. This means that communities living on the fringe either have to use a car to have access to opportunities or be completely cutoff with minimal support.
These problems all arise because corporations hold so much power that poor planning overrides the governmental need to care about the well being of marginalized communities. Another side-effect of corporations having power is the lack of greenery and poor air quality. High-density areas such as commercial districts lack green spaces which deteriorate air quality and make areas hotter and areas surrounding Night City do not feature much greenery either. In universe, greenery is advertised as escapism and is more of a luxury than something that everyone should have access to. Industrial areas and car dependency with minimal regulations contribute heavily to pollution, more specifically smog.
Overall, Night City serves as both a great and horrible example of urban planning, especially what happens when human greed takes over the need to account for both nature and people’s lives. What Night City lacks in numerous deficiencies to quality of life, it more than makes up for by creating a sense of place for both players and in-game characters. Night City serves as a grim reminder of what future cities could look like, all wrapped up in a captivating, glamorous nightmare.
Written by Hussain Cochinwala