// PC GAMER — GAMING
No Law might be the open-world Deus Ex that Cyberpunk 2077 wasn't
CD Projekt's sci-fi RPG was close to being my perfect game. But it fell short in one specific area.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Like many people, I was initially disappointed by Cyberpunk 2077. Also like many people, I think CD Projekt did a superb job fixing it. Post-Phantom Liberty Cyberpunk is one of my favourite games, to the point where I might just love it even more than The Witcher 3.
That said, even in its superior modern form, Cyberpunk isn't quite the game that I wish it was—namely an open world Deus Ex. CD Projekt's early trailers and gameplay demos implied a more immersive sim-like experience, and there are many elements in the final game that are immersive sim-like. The range of abilities it offers, the mixture of stealth and combat, the playful, mischievous hacking skills, the side-missions that often let you infiltrate or attack a compound from multiple angles of approach. It's all the kind of stuff you'd expect to see in a Deus Ex game with the scope blown out.
Ultimately, though, Cyberpunk 2077 isn't that game. Your progress and prowess is far too tightly bound to your character level to make it a functioning immersive sim. Plugging points into skill trees will transform mechanics like stealth from next to useless to being massively overpowered. And those open-ended missions are very much a side dish. Whenever the central storyline rears its head, Cyberpunk becomes as linear and prescribed as a Call of Duty campaign.
Whenever the central storyline rears its head, Cyberpunk becomes as linear and prescribed as a Call of Duty campaign.
To be clear, I'm not complaining—I've come to love Cyberpunk just the way it is. But I would still love to play the Cyberpunk that exists in my head, even if it's just to see whether it would actually work. And that's why I'm so intrigued by No Law, because it looks a whole lot like the Cyberpunk that I erroneously imagined.
No Law is the new game from Neon Giant, creators of the gleefully grimy cyberpunk twin-stick shooter The Ascent. No Law maintains the cyberpunk theme but is otherwise a completely different style of game. Taking place in a city called Port Desire, No Law sees you play as Grey Harker, an archetypal military veteran who is dragged reluctantly away from a newfound life of peace after (and Neon Giant has kept this bit vague) trouble comes knocking at his door.
Neon Giant describes No Law as a "first-person open world shooter RPG". That's often what developers say when they're planning to make an immersive sim, but don't want to use the phrase because nobody under 35 knows what an immersive sim is. However, that's also how CD Projekt described Cyberpunk prior to release, and that turned out not to be an immersive sim, so it's by no means guaranteed.
That said, I've got a good feeling that No Law might be what Cyberpunk wasn't, at least going by Neon Giant have shown of (and said about) the game thus far. No Law's most recent trailer, which debuted at Gamescom's Opening Night Live, went to considerable length to emphasise the variety of approaches that Harker can take during missions.