I’ve been replaying Cyberpunk 2077 and I just keep noticing how expressive the characters are — especially in the little moments. It’s the way a character looks at someone, or how their face shifts subtly in the middle of a conversation. You can tell when someone is angry, conflicted, hurt, or holding something back… all just from their expression.
This photo is a prime example – the visual contrast between the two characters, Judy and Maiko is powerful. If you’ve read the emails on each of their NetTerminals, you start to understand why they look and feel the way they do during this interaction. There's are so many unspoken emotions, and it all comes through in their expressions.
Does anyone else find themselves just watching a character’s face during dialogue and being amazed by how much emotion comes through?
6 Comments
This interaction and their messages really make me wish there was a way to paint the walls with Maiko without retaliation from the Tygers.
To your point, absolutely. It’s part of why Phantom Liberty is so gut wrenching.
Yeah I think it’s why a lot of similar games don’t really hit the same. Take Starfield for example, which was crap for many other reasons, but also had really basic facial animations and lip sync.
There was definitely a lot to see in PL, I suspect they gave all the characters some tells and some emotive masks since lying is such a big part of it. All of the Act 1 characters too, mileage kind of varies in some other instances but perhaps I only think so as moments like your shot they are very brief and missable. Maiko’s constant faux-sarcastic attempts to rekindle closeness, and Judy’s post-clouds message to Maiko are brutal.
https://preview.redd.it/879i0307aucf1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=77543726483da59f6f404640f81686a87018e672
I seriously hope CDPR can get the next game made on the Decima engine. Death Stranding 2 has the best character models in a video game it’s just not even close, that engine is wizardry
i think maiko is trying to use telekinesis
Huh, never noticed how the eyeliner is inverted for them