Cyberpunk 2077’s long-awaited release is fast approaching. For fans who have anticipated the game’s launch for years, the question of whether or not the next roleplaying game from acclaimedWitcherdeveloper CD Projekt Red can live up to the hype will soon be answered. With the studio likely hoping its upcoming game can launch the “next generation” of RPGs, hopes are high that the new title will outdo its predecessors on everything from NPC AI to well-integrated environmental storytelling.
When it comes to map size, however, some fans may be surprised at whatCyberpunk 2077has to offer. To give fans the clearest idea possible of what they can expect from the scale ofCyberpunk’s world, here’s how it stands up compared to one other iconic entry to the RPG genre,TheLegend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
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The Size of Hyrule in Breath of the Wild
Calculating an RPG’s map size isn’t easy, but fortunately for math-minded players,Breath of the Wildhas one feature which makes it far easier.Link’s paraglidercan be used to show that the full game world ofBreath of the Wildis roughly 84 square kilometers. However, there’s a problem with judgingBreath of the Wildsimply by its square footage that also has relevance toCyberpunk.
Breath of the Wild’s landscape can be measured to a good degree of accuracy thanks to the paraglider, but there’s a problem. The kingdom of Hyrule as rendered inBreath of the Wildis not a flat grid – quite the opposite, it’s designed to be difficult to traverse. The Gerudo Highlands, for example, are pretty difficult to clamber over without completing enoughSheikah Shrinesto significantly increase Link’s stamina wheel.
If the player gets past the Gerudo Highlands, they are faced with theGerudo Desertitself, an even more inhospitable landscape where players have to contend with scorching heat as they try and find refuge from the sun and enemy NPCs alike. The varying elevation of the landscape itself as well as the survival conditions in the game increase the size ofBreath of the Wild’s world in two ways.
The first way is more literal – the use of elevation literally increases the square footage of land that the player can interact with. Amountain inBreath of the Wild, for example, is far larger than the land that takes up the area of its base. The other key factor being increased is played time. Each new area comes with its own environmental challenges which make the first incursions into those areas take far longer than later visits. This doesn’t actually increase the area of the world, but makes it feel far larger.
WhileThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s world is built upon an 84 square kilometer grid, the actual area of that world is larger, and the time it takes to explore takes far longer than it would to explore a relatively flat landscape with the same sized base. This has big implications forCyberpunk 2077as well, though the size ofCyberpunk’s Night Citymay still surprise many RPG fans.
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The Size of Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City
Cyberpunk 2077’s base map is predicted to be around 4 kilometers by 6 kilometers, or 24 square kilometers. When comparing their grids, this meansBreath of the Wildis 3.5 times larger than the full map ofCyberpunk. However, as withBreath of the Wild,there are some other big factors to take into consideration when determining thetrue size ofNight City.
First, like Hyrule, theCyberpunkmap has different areas which have different elevation which should be taken into account. The Badlands, home of players who pick theNomad Life Path, can be expected to be relatively flat, and if the rest of the map followed suit, then the 24 square kilometer measurement would be a more helpful indicator of how bigCyberpunk’s world is going to feel when the game releases in December.
However, most ofCyberpunk 2077’s map will be a dense urban center packed with alleyways, skyscrapers, dives and, most likely, plenty of Easter eggs. Areas like Watson are the jam-packed hubs of Night City’s criminal underworld, home toCyberpunkgangslike the Yakuza-inspired Tyger Claws. Areas like Westbrook emulate the glitz and glamor of Beverly Hills, while downtown hosts some colossal skyscrapers and key sights in the lore like the Arasaka Tower, where Adam Smasher and Johnny Silverhand were in-part responsible for the detonation of a nuclear bomb in 2023.
WhileCyberpunk 2077’s map size may be dwarfed by the overall size of a game likeBreath of the Wild, the lastLegend of Zeldagame also demonstrates some of the reasons that may not be a problem at all. While part of the fun ofBreath of the Wildwas paragliding over huge distances, belting through fields on horseback, and skiing over the dunes at the whim of a Sand Seal, there’s no reason forCyberpunk’s map to require that sense of physical distance to feel huge. WhatCyberpunkappears to be going for above all is density.
This doesn’t just apply to the use of physical space, though fans can certainly expect packed tenement housing and businesses piled on top of one another in places like Heywood and Santo Domingo and the city center’s skyscrapers to add a huge amount of vertical explorable space. The size thatCyberpunk’s worldfeels will be determined by the amount of quests and stories players can experience in a smaller area as well.
CD Projekt Red wants to make everyCyberpunk 2077side quest feel like a full story, and if the studio can pull off that ambitious feat, the fact thatCyberpunk’s base map is many times smaller thanBreath of the Wild’s will likely factor into most player’s experiences of its perceived size far less than fans might expect when directly comparing their area. Density and depth have a huge role to play in bringing an urban setting like Night City to life, just as the rolling expanses of Hyrule were key to makingBreath of the Wild’s setting feel like a full kingdom. If CD Projekt Red succeeds on those fronts, RPG fans and designers alike may be confronted by a simple truth: size isn’t everything.
Cyberpunk 2077will be available on December 10 for PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 versions releasing sometime next year.
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