Like many players, I (from PC Gamer) was initially disappointed by Cyberpunk 2077. But like many others, I also believe CD Projekt did an excellent job fixing the game later on. Cyberpunk 2077 after the release of Phantom Liberty has become one of my favorite games, possibly even surpassing The Witcher 3.
Even though Cyberpunk 2077 is now quite good, it still isn't the ideal version I had in mind—what I truly wanted was an open-world Deus Ex. Early trailers and gameplay demos from CD Projekt led people to believe it would be closer to an immersive sim, and the final product indeed contains many such elements. The rich ability system, combination of stealth and direct combat, mischievous hacking skills, and side quests that often allow players to infiltrate or assault target locations from different angles all carry a strong Deus Ex flavor, albeit on a much larger scale.
But ultimately, Cyberpunk 2077 wasn't that game. Player abilities and progression were tied too closely to character levels, making it difficult to truly become an immersive sim. As points were invested into the skill tree, mechanics like stealth would shift from being almost useless to ridiculously overpowered. Those more open-ended missions were mostly just "side dishes." Once entering the main storyline, Cyberpunk 2077 quickly became as linear as a Call of Duty campaign, with players basically forced to proceed according to the game's preset paths.
Of course, I'm not complaining. I've fallen in love with the current version of Cyberpunk 2077. But I still really want to personally experience the "cyberpunk" that existed in my imagination, if only to verify whether such a design could actually work. This is why I'm so interested in No Law—because based on the information released so far, it closely resembles the Cyberpunk 2077 I mistakenly imagined back then.
No Law is the new title from Neon Giant, the studio previously known for the dark, neon-punk twin-stick shooter The Ascent. Although No Law also adopts a cyberpunk theme, beyond that, the two games share little similarity.
The game takes place in a city called "Port Desire," where players assume the role of Grey Harker. A veteran who had already stepped away from the battlefield to live a quiet life, he is forced back into trouble due to an incident that Neon Giant is currently keeping under wraps.
Neon Giant describes No Law as a "first-person open-world shooter RPG." Developers often use this phrase to describe works that are actually closer to immersive sims, although many younger players today might not even know what "immersive sim" means. Of course, CD Projekt also used similar descriptions for Cyberpunk 2077 before its release, and ultimately it didn't truly become an immersive sim, so this point alone doesn't necessarily prove anything.
However, based on what Neon Giant has shown so far and information revealed by the development team, I do have a feeling: No Law might achieve what Cyberpunk 2077 failed to do. The No Law trailer, recently showcased during the Gamescom Opening Night Live, devoted considerable time to demonstrating the different approaches Harker can take while executing missions.
The most straightforward method is obviously shooting enemies dead, but the trailer also showed Harker crawling through ventilation shafts, stealthily assassinating guards, and using various strange sci-fi abilities. One ability causes enemies' heads to explode directly, while another makes their entire bodies burst like balloons.
I also particularly enjoyed Harker's powerful flying kick. He can kick doors right off their frames or send enemies flying with a single blow. This reminded me of the joy in Deathloop and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic when kicking enemies off cliffs or down stairs.
That said, my favorite moment in the trailer is still when Harker attaches a grenade to a laptop-shaped robotic vacuum cleaner, takes control of it, drives this "bomb-bot" into a garage packed with guards, and then detonates it.
This is exactly the kind of quirky, indirect, and creative solution I hoped to see in Deus Ex.
I'm also very excited about the overall freedom in No Law's mission design. Although Port Desire is a city free to explore, Neon Giant has repeatedly emphasized in interviews not how "big" the city is, but how "dense" it is. Of course, this design choice may partly stem from wanting to avoid simple size comparisons with Cyberpunk 2077, but it clearly sounds like a deliberate decision by the development team.
Neon Giant recently revealed in an interview with VGC that every apartment in the game was handcrafted by the development team, rather than procedurally generated.Imagine an entire city filled with meticulously designed apartments like Adam Jensen's residence in Deus Ex—that idea is incredibly appealing to me.
This design approach is also better suited for immersive sims. One of the greatest joys of this genre is gradually becoming familiar with the game's 3D spaces, slowly discovering hidden routes, shortcuts, and various secrets. But Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 is simply too vast to truly achieve this.
And this seems to be precisely the effect Neon Giant hopes to achieve in No Law. The game will even offer a special mode that allows players to turn off navigation prompts in the UI, instead relying on street signs and building numbers to find their destinations. Even more interestingly, this mode is called—"Immersive."
Additionally, Neon Giant stated that the methods players use to complete missions will influence the story progression in No Law. Each mission offers multiple solutions; players can rely on stealth and deception, or simply pick up weapons and fight their way in.
Last December, Neon Giant explained that the ways players take action will affect how story characters perceive you, rather than relying solely on branching dialogue to change the narrative.
Deus Ex and Dishonored both attempted similar mechanics, with the former also incorporating dialogue choices. However, based on what Neon Giant has stated so far, No Law seems to aim at expanding this concept even further.
Another noteworthy detail: if you kill a character in the game world, they die permanently. If that character originally provided a certain service, you will no longer be able to access that service afterward.
Of course, I do have some concerns.
In addition to these freedom-focused gameplay elements, No Law will also include experience points and skill trees, meaning player stats and character builds will still determine what you can do.
"The game features experience points and skill trees, allowing players to decide how they want to play," Arcade Berg from Neon Giant said in an interview last year. "You can focus on lockpicking, become a hacker, or specialize in certain types of weapons... We never tell players which path is correct; we want them to know they can never play this game the wrong way."
And another concern of mine is: Does Neon Giant truly have the capability to realize these ambitions?
Currently, the studio has only 24 employees, which is far fewer than the development team behind Cyberpunk 2077, and even smaller than the original team that developed Deus Ex.
I certainly hope to see a work closer to Deus Ex than Cyberpunk 2077, but I absolutely do not want to witness another disastrous launch akin to what happened with Cyberpunk 2077.
However, if Neon Giant can truly realize its ambitions with its current small team, No Law might become one of the most surprising dark horses of 2027.