Cyberpunk 2077 sequel will feature a ‘Chicago gone wrong’ city in addition to Night City

CD Projekt RED is working on the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 codenamed Project Orion and the team is hard at work building on top of the foundation laid by the original game. While not a lot is known about the sequel, some new information about the setting has surfaced courtesy of one of the consultants on Cyberpunk 2077. The new game will feature a city that has a ‘Chicago gone wrong’ vibe. 

During an interview as part of the Digital Dragons 2025 event, Mike Pondsmith, a consultant on the original game and the creator of the Cyberpunk universe shared that while he isn’t as heavily involved with the sequel, he has spoken with a lot of different departments working on Project Orion. Talking about the environment in the game, Pondsmith shared that it has a ‘Chicago gone wrong’ feel to it, which could mean a post-apocalyptic city based on Chicago. 

This new city will be an addition to Night City but the scale of it is unknown. Pondsmith added that the new city fits in with the new game, but refused to share any more details.

There are quite a lot of job openings for work on Project Orion/ Cyberpunk 2 and CD Projekt Red has seemingly filled several positions, one of which was Lead Encounter Designer. The responsibilities for this position mentioned “create the most realistic and reactive crowd system in any game to date” suggesting that NPC interactions will be more immersive than the current game.

Project Orion was announced in October last year as the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077. The original game, which came out in December of 2020, had a sub-par release, but thanks to the commitment and dedication of the developers, it took a full U-turn and currently sits at ‘Very Positive’ reviews on Steam.