Keanu Reeves asks why you want to visit Night City in new Cyberpunk 2077 ad

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There's a new Cyberpunk 2077 ad out today, and this time Keanu Reeves has a question: Why do you come here? To this wet, festering pit of neon and sickness, boundless wealthy and frenzied depravity, swamped in noise and stink and a relentless assault on the senses that only ends when someone puts a bullet in your face—Why?

Ah, but then he saves us the trouble of having to justify ourselves by answering it for us: For fun. Power. A shock to the system. Yeah.

There's really not anything new in this ad, aside from Keanu himself, who—based on my very unscientific count—appears for a little under five seconds, between fast cuts of cinematics we've seen previously. But it's interesting the way the ad really makes the game look like a new Grand Theft Auto, which I think really came through in the most recent Night City Wire livestream, too. The focus on vehicles may be exaggerating the effect, but the way this new promo clip opens with a long shot of an ugly, over-designed mansion, followed by a woman striding out of a pool and a supercar blasting down the highway is very GTA-like.

That's not necessarily a bad thing—Grand Theft Auto: Cyberpunk is probably inevitable anyway—but it does make me wonder if Cyberpunk 2077 is going to be more of a departure from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt than we're expecting. We will find out in exactly one month: It comes out on November 19.

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Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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