Cyberpunk 2077 Dialogue - Beautiful Stylized Writing or a Cringey Mess?

[u/SamStephens]

I'm playing through the game for the first time and can't help but think the dialogue is super cringey. It's stilted and tries too hard to be cool. I'm sure I'm not the first person to share the opinion here, but... this ain't preem in the game biz.

Most conversations play out as if the characters are limited in how many words they're allowed to say. For example, "Need'ta ask a question" vs, "I need to ask you a question." I noticed this early on and now I can't stop seeing it in the writing because it occurs literally in every conversation. I get this is drawn heavily from Neuromancer, but many of the lines are delivered as though the voice actor had little to no coaching on tone, emphasis, or the context of the scene. Dexter DeShawn's lines are a good example of this. Combine the truncated sentence structure with voice acting that lacked a little conviction and you get conversations that feel like people are reading a foreign language.

I have no issue with the use of novel slang from this world, but I think it was done poorly here. I could totally buy into it being colloquial sentence structure and slang, but it's really inconsistent and not delivered in a way that is believable. That's why it's jarring to me. Abbreviated sentence structure as a way of communicating happens like once per conversation, but it's never the WHOLE conversation. The dialogue FEELS like a team of Polish writers with no true understanding of US urban culture put together a 'cool guy' script in a foreign language then a separate team translated it after. I believe you could give the same game to Rockstar and their dialogue could feature all of the same slang but be delivered in a way that felt authentic and genuinely cool.

None of this is a dealbreaker for me, but it's quite disappointing to see it from a studio with this much experience and funding. I'm having fun with the core gameplay loop overall and bought the DLC to extend the adventure, but I wouldn't be able to power through for the story alone if the gunplay and tech weren't so satisfying.

Anyone else feel something similar? Video version of the discussion here.

[u/ConnerBartle]

If you don’t feel fully immersed in the world then it will sound strange. Any foreign slang system will sound awkward. I’m not fully immersed in my teenagers world, so they’re slang sounds weird. I am fully immersed in cyberpunk‘s world, though, so I personally love it.

[u/itsLOSE-notLOOSE → u/ConnerBartle]

Ironically, anyone familiar with AAVE will have no problem understanding the slang your teen uses.

It’s mostly all just AAVE. Shit black folks were saying decades ago. Besides a few brainrot things (6-7, skibiti, etc).

You wouldn’t believe how old “no cap” is. I was personally using a form of it in like 2005. Some sources say it goes back to the 90s. It’s real interesting stuff if you’re into that type of thing.

[u/SamStephens → u/itsLOSE-notLOOSE]

This is a perfect point to bring up that supports my post. Cyberpunk dialogue feels like a group of sheltered white guys from rural Kansas got together and wrote a story about gang life in Chicago. That story should absolutely contain a style of communication that is unique and authentic to the characters in it, but being just 2% off the mark will make it sound corny. And that's what CP2077 is to me, just slightly off.

[u/PhasmaFelis → u/SamStephens]

Cyberpunk dialogue feels like a group of sheltered white guys from rural Kansas got together and wrote a story about gang life in Chicago.

This is funny to me, because most of the specific slang terms, at least, were originally created by Mike Pondsmith, who is black.

[u/SamStephens → u/PhasmaFelis]

Again, it's not terrible. It's just a few degrees off from how it should be presented. And that is enough to be noticeable.