Last night’s The Game Awards show wasn’t the greatest of all time, but it sure did give us a glimpse of some potentially awesome games. One title in particular, however, stood out for a wrong reason: being similar—too similar—to CDPR’s Cyberpunk 2077.
And that would be No Law, developed by Neon Giant of The Ascent fame, and published by the self-proclaimed AI-first pioneers, Krafton. Neon Giant’s track record is genuinely great, with The Ascent being one of the most visually striking games I’ve ever seen and played. It’s also set in a cyberpunk environment, one that delves deep into the realm of science fiction, making its cyberpunk vibes more of an artistic choice than an actual setting.
Even so, the studio has established itself as a proper sci-fi and cyberpunk-oriented team of creatives, which naturally led into a more ambitious, larger-scale game such as No Law is supposed to be. And that’d be all fine if the game didn’t bear so much similarity, eerie similarity, to CDPR’s 2020 title, Cyberpunk 2077.
While watching the TGA show last night, seeing No Law made me think it was something Cyberpunk 2077-related. The first-person perspective, the animations, the way the combat unfolds, all reminded me of CDPR’s game, not to mention the segment that showcases a certain location that is exceptionally difficult to tell apart from Cyberpunk 2077‘s Afterlife.
Now I get a first-person cyberpunk title is bound to bear some semblance to what was already made, but I for the life of me couldn’t tell you this wasn’t Cyberpunk 2077 if you didn’t tell me. That brings me to my biggest fear regarding Neon Giant’s upcoming title: it could fall into the same situation that Tencent has caught itself in with Lights of Motiram.
Sony sued the company for ripping off its assets, ideas, and style, and is currently embroiled in a massive legal battle that saw Light of Motiram grind development to a halt. If No Law doesn’t showcase more unique elements in the near future, I have a feeling CDPR might not like what the studio has done here, and could pursue legal action much in the same way as Sony.
This could eventually result in a potentially good game being bogged down by a lawsuit because it decided to pursue established styles instead of developing a new one, even if derivative of the one CDPR itself had made.
No Law posits an interesting setting and story, such as its Port Desire city that is an anarcho-corporatist hellscape, but how it executes things brings it way too close to an existing game, so much that telling them apart becomes a real headache.
We’ll have to wait and see how the game develops further and how its style evolves and translates into actual gameplay. But so far, its future seems to be hanging by a thread, one that CDPR could decide to slash at any moment.
