Cold, Blue/grayish sky with cold, skyscrapers or a vivid bright neon-infused setting?
Both are cool and offer something different. The former is better for a corporate setting while the latter is better suited for a slightly happier narrative, but maybe that’s just me.
Does anyone else notice this divide?
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I love the punk vibe chaos setting look more than the ‘matrix ripoff 90s trench coat’ look. The super chaotic hyper commercialized look is both more realistic and seems like it has more punk flair in it.
Don’t get me wrong, matrix and deus ex are AMAZING. But aesthetic wise, I prefer CP2077
The divide exists only in your mind, cyberpunk is a spectrum. You will see both of these in the same setting. Deus ex for instance has a vivid neon hong Kong and dreary new York.
There are also orange, yellow, red, rusted hulks and spanning deserts left by environmental abuse and desertification.
Space habits that are pristine and sterile white, abandoned or repurposed space stations of stark contrast.
Human cultural landscapes of every variety, size, configuration, function, and geography.
Cyberpunk doesn’t have such a simple dichotomy in setting, it is a spectrum.
I appreciate both and think they’re both valid.
I prefer the one shown in Exekiller trailers
Nothing’s sexy as being Deus Exy!
Deus ex. For me it just seems to have a 80s movie appeal. Watch “escape from new york” and “escape from la” . The darkness and broken parts somehow make it more real to me.
I prefer Deus ex as a videogame but Cyberpunk2077 because of it’s lore & characters
GitS is peak cyberpunk aesthetic for me. All the military/police gear in it is cool as hell, plus I like how much of the city looks very “grounded” for lack of a better term.
Guess probably Deus Ex then since it also has some of those elements.
I prefer a decent amount of dirty noir in my cyberpunk. Neon lights never really seemed cyberpunk to me. Gotta be about the grunge, and some pervasive tech within it.
Also the whole aspect of literally _everyone_ being body-modded feels distinctly non-cyberpunk to me. The punk aspect means access to tech should be *hacked* in, not everyone being rich enough to have their bodies fully modified. It should be about that dichotomy of humanity, and struggles, and then the contrast of tech along-side that (but separate), and those that hack that system to plug into it, and how aspects of that tech spilling across affect groups of people.
But if everyone’s already been fully modded then that conflict doesn’t really exist much any more; we’ve already bypassed the interesting aspects of cyberpunk and reached a conclusion. IMO, of course ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Y’all got any more of them pixels?
Love the neon personally…
Nah dude, Cyberpunk by far. It’s litteraly in the name.
I like the less colorful one
Aesthetics are something humans use to achieve a mood. Different humans will want to achieve different moods, or atmospheres, toward different purposes. So if you want to go with a single aesthetic, *you* are using it to manipulate the mood of your viewer or reader.
**Counter-question: What do you want your viewer/reader to feel?**
The palette that matches that will be your answer.
…
**In terms of my *personal* preference:**
I like the first aesthetic punctuated with violent moments of the second aesthetic. I like pale visuals, with bright objects. I like rainbows through clouds of smoke. I like holograms that feel vibrant, against backdrops that feel color-drained. Neon lights on black, oily puddles.
The old school, original cyberpunk aesthetic was often like that and I guess it stuck with me.
That said, I absolutely adore when a work uses aesthetics as part of the culture of groups of people, as happens in the real world. I want to see the empire of brutalists against the plucky, artistic punks in piecemeal conspicuously repaired trash. I want to see salvagers against industrialists. I want to see neon signs intruding on the edges of manicured parks filled with lifeless corporate art.
Corporate drones in perfectly fitted uniforms, sleeves rolled up, having a drink in a dive bar during their one chance to breathe all day. The ganger at the end of the bar glaring at them, wondering if they’re an easy mark, because they don’t belong. The waitress in the punky outfit with the stunner, just waiting for a fight to break out. The robot bartender covered in old school bumper stickers and friendly graffiti by patrons who genuinely love it like a friend.
In short, I enjoy seeing *life*, and life is never one aesthetic. That can only ever be an illusion, or literal lenses over one’s eyes in the vein of The Wizard of Oz.
Neon Rain setting
The one with pixels
Neither.
‘The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.’
That. The Neuromancer, Blade Runner, Hackers aesthetic. High Tech, Low life.