My first thought when I played through the Chimera tank boss fight in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty was probably something along the lines of, “wow, this sure looks expensive!” It’s incredibly flashy to start off with, this Ghost in the Shell-esque tank chasing after you in a big set piece moment that ultimately culminates in it unwillingly hunkering down in one spot for your killing convenience. And as it turns out, such a big, boisterous boss fight takes a lot of work; two whole years, in fact.
This comes from an interview game director Gabe Amatangelo and creative director Igor Sarzyński speaking on the latest AnsweRED Podcast (ta, Europeangamer) in a section where the pair discussed some of the production challenges CD Projekt Red faced during the development of Cyberpunk 2077. “Sometimes we’re making content that’s a nexus point of different disciplines; the Chimera is a great example of that,” Amatangelo said. “It was gameplay, narrative, art, worldbuilding. I remember [art director] Paweł [Mielniczuk] and I were sending each other YouTube videos of various different military equipment of [mini-guns]. When this chimera rises up, we just want it to terrify you with this overwhelming sound.”
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Mieniczuk himself was there hosting the interview, speaking on how long the whole process took: “We were iterating- I think it was two years to make this boss fight work. We were reiterating over and over.” Amatangelo added that there were “so many moving parts… Sometimes it was too gameplay, sometimes it was too narrative, sometimes too art demonstration. It was about striking a balance and I think the three of us heavily got into it and went, ‘Okay beat by beat, let’s do this.'” Later on in the episode, Mielniczuk said, “We were doing the tank I think four times, changing equipment, the weapons,” with Sarzyński noting it was “One of the most expensive art assets I think ever.”
Ahah! I was right! It was expensive! To perhaps be a bit mean, I’m not entirely sure if it was worth it personally. The leadup to the actual boss fight is cool to look at but falls victim to that very PS3-era design sensibility of wow-factor sequences where you can’t actually do all that much. Fighting the boss itself just takes place in a relatively open arena where the tank doesn’t move around all that much. Still, always good to get some context on the process of how something was done, even if I’m not a fan of the final result.