One of many hallmarks of Cyberpunk 2077, notably after its Phantom Liberty replace, is its dynamic police chases. In these, a participant committing crimes may discover themselves fast surrounded by cops and, a couple of crimes later, the additional spicy MaxTac. However what you may not have caught onto is that when attempting to keep away from this large swarm of cops, you are primarily taking part in a very, actually refined model of a really, very previous arcade recreation: Pac-Man.
On the Recreation Trade Convention in Poznań, Wielkopolska, I attended a chat by CD Projekt senior AI programmer Maciej Celmer entitled “Warmth, MaxTac, and Blockades: Police System, in Cyberpunk 2077 and extra.” Within the speak, Celmer went into plenty of fascinating element about how precisely Cyberpunk 2077’s police chase system was revamped following criticism from gamers that at launch, the system was method too forgiving and unengaging.
The brand new system, carried out in 2023, was much more dynamic and fashionable with gamers. And in keeping with Celmer, it had an uncommon inspiration: Pac-Man.
“Keep in mind the sport of Pac-Man, and the truth that each ghost had a special strategy on the right way to catch the participant?” Celmer stated throughout his speak. “We did the same factor in our automotive chases. For example, considered one of them can attempt to attain the participant on the shortest attainable path, whereas the opposite can attempt to flank him or intercept on the intersection. There are seven totally different methods that we utilized to our vehicles with that a part of the chase.”
We reached out to CD Projekt following the speak to get a bit extra element on what Celmer meant. Over e-mail, he confirmed that Pac-Man was considered one of “many” inspirations for the police chase replace, “particularly for the designers who got here up with the concept. We wished to encompass the participant with chasing automobiles however, on the identical time, all the time attempt to go away at the very least one ‘street to freedom’ — principally, a approach to escape. Nonetheless, the state of affairs in Night time Metropolis, particularly throughout a chase, could be very dynamic, so ‘strive’ is certainly the correct phrase right here.”
Celmer broke down the aforementioned seven “methods” that police vehicles would soak up a chase for us too. Every technique mixed a mixture of logic for the place the car would spawn with its conduct after spawning, and which technique was used was depending on the warmth degree, the state of the police system (relaxed, alerted, or fight) and different elements. From there, vehicles may additionally carry out totally different maneuvers relying on the state of affairs, equivalent to ramming, capturing, blocking, overtaking, or aligning with the chased automotive. The seven methods had been, in Celmer’s phrases:
- Drive in direction of the participant — Transfer immediately towards the participant in a straight line. Used within the Alerted state.
- Drive away from the participant — Transfer immediately away from the participant. Used within the Alerted state.
- Patrol the quadrant — Patrol the world across the participant.
- Intersection entice — Attempt to flank the participant on the subsequent intersection.
- Get to the participant from anyplace — The aggressive one.
- Seek for the participant — Carry out an preliminary search across the crime scene. Used within the Alerted state.
- Search from anyplace — A fallback technique used after we can’t discover a appropriate spawn level for technique 6, so the automotive merely spawns anyplace and begins trying to find the participant.
The end result was, if you happen to have a look at Cyberpunk 2077’s roads from the highest down, one thing like a recreation of Pac-Man the place the ghosts are the police vehicles chasing the participant. In Pac-Man, every ghost has its personal technique it should usually carry out, equivalent to Pinky attempting to ambush the participant or Blinky chasing him immediately. “We merely wished to do one thing a bit totally different from different video games with related techniques,” Celmer stated. “The mixture of a traditional recreation AI design impressed by Pac-Man appeared like an incredible match for implementing police chases in Cyberpunk 2077.”
Cyberpunk 2077’s turnaround is among the most dramatic in online game historical past. After its disastrous launch in December 2020, CD Projekt continued to replace the sport, and now, because it nears its fifth birthday, it is sitting on an unbelievable 35 million copies bought. Certainly, Cyberpunk 2077 is at present CD Projekt’s foremost income.
In a current monetary briefing, CD Projekt stated it was “laying the foundations” for Cyberpunk 2, outlining plans to scale up its growth groups in Boston, Warsaw, and Vancouver and thru to the tip of 2027. 135 folks had been engaged on Cyberpunk 2 as of October 31, 2025, up from 116 on the finish of July.
At GIC Poland, I additionally chatted with the director of Valor Mortis about problem choices in Soulslike video games and whether or not Valor Mortis ought to rely as a Soulslike. I additionally went hands-on with the canine undercover agent recreation Barkour.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Obtained a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.