NO LAW Is a More Intimate Experience Than Cyberpunk 2077, Says Neon Giant Creative Director

When NO LAW made its debut at The Game Awards 2025, comparisons with CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077 were inevitable. Both titles are set within dystopian cyberpunk cities and embrace a single player first person open world shooter RPG structure. However, according to Neon Giant, the studio behind The Ascent, those surface level similarities do not tell the full story.

In a post reveal interview with IGN, Neon Giant co founder and creative director Tor Frick openly addressed the comparisons and explained why NO LAW is fundamentally different from Cyberpunk 2077 in tone, structure, and player experience.

Frick acknowledged that internal discussions at the studio frequently involve Cyberpunk 2077, largely because the team understands how audiences will frame the comparison. However, he emphasized that NO LAW is built around a far more intimate design philosophy. While Cyberpunk 2077 presents a massive sprawling mega city, NO LAW focuses on a smaller, denser environment where depth takes precedence over scale. According to Frick, this intimacy extends beyond the physical world design into gameplay mechanics and narrative structure, creating an experience that feels personal and reactive rather than grand and distant.

He explained that NO LAW is designed to be deeply responsive to the player, with systems and storytelling that revolve closely around individual actions rather than unfolding against a vast, impersonal backdrop. This approach, he noted, is difficult to fully communicate through a short reveal trailer and will become more apparent as players spend time inside the world and interact with its systems firsthand.

Neon Giant co founder and creative director Arcade Berg added further context, highlighting tonal differences between the two games. While Cyberpunk 2077 leans heavily into a serious and often bleak atmosphere, NO LAW incorporates a subtle tongue in cheek quality reminiscent of The Ascent. Berg cited inspiration from eighties and nineties action films, Hong Kong action cinema, and even manga and anime, all of which often blend heightened violence with stylized presentation and moments of self awareness.

Narratively, NO LAW centers on Grey Harker, a veteran who has stepped away from active military service after suffering severe injuries during deployment. Seeking peace, he abandons violence in favor of a quiet life caring for his plants. That calm does not last. Much like the inciting premise seen in John Wick, external forces eventually intrude, forcing Harker back into conflict to confront those who wronged him. The result is a story driven less by world saving stakes and more by personal consequences and moral reckoning.

NO LAW is currently in development for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S and X. The game does not yet have a release window. Publishing duties are being handled by KRAFTON, which acquired Neon Giant several years ago, providing the studio with long term backing for its next major project.

With its focus on intimacy, reactive storytelling, and character driven conflict, NO LAW appears positioned as a deliberate counterpoint to larger scale open world RPGs. Rather than competing directly with Cyberpunk 2077 on scope, Neon Giant is aiming to deliver a more focused cyberpunk experience built around personal narrative and tightly interconnected systems.

Do you prefer cyberpunk games with massive open worlds, or does a more intimate and reactive experience like NO LAW sound more appealing to you?