Cyberpunk 2077's manhole covers were too European, so CD Projekt Red is hoping the sequel will be more believably American
Cyberpunk 2077 is obviously set in California, but there were enough off things about it that CD Projekt is looking closely at how the sequel can feel properly American.
On the face of it, Cyberpunk 2077 is a very American-looking game. It's set in America after all, and is meant to essentially be a futuristic version of Los Angeles. In a recent episode of the AnsweRED podcast, acting executive producer Dan Hernberg even said "I think Cyberpunk is obviously a uniquely American story. It's got a lot of like, punk energy, and [the tabletop game] was written by an American, so it just seems right to do it in America." But, of course, the CD Projekt studio that developed it is based in Wrocław, Poland, which apparently led to some parts of the game, parts most people on this side of the pond wouldn't think twice about, being not quite right.
"There was this post [on Reddit] with the guy saying that there is this immersion-breaking bug in Cyberpunk, and the bug was about the fact that the covers for manholes for a sewer were the manholes that you use normally in Europe, in Germany, for a pavement," associate game director Paweł Sasko said. "Those are not manholes that you normally cover in America on the streets. When you go to America, there's things like [fire] hydrants, where they are placed and how they look like. The street lights, the positions of that, the trash bins, right? They're in the front of the house, right by the street. In Poland, in Europe, you don't see it almost anywhere. There's so much nuance. Dan, when we talk about it, he calls it 'the Americana.'"
