No Law Game Interview — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:02] all the grimy futuristic sleeves we expect in a cyberpunk dystopia here to tell us about no law tofrick and arcade bur from neon giant. Welcome gentlemen. >> Thanks for having us. >> So this game looking at it in action I

[00:16] should have some gameplay up here in a second. But uh I want to know what kind look at it at a glance and they're like that looks like Cyberpunk 2077 but it like action-packed. You called it a immersive sim I believe but like what

[00:30] what is it a you know is it a DSX is it a Far Cry is it a bullet storm where >> yes I I think we obviously hear all of this and they're all fantastic games so we'll we'll take it as a compliment and

[00:45] we play everything we see everything we read but the important thing is that it's its own thing and that it has its own identity right that we bring stuff in from our experience as devel developers and from you know everything

[01:00] out there. But yeah, we do say immersive sim uh because we want that somewhat niche audience catered to. We are part of that and we love it. But we also put in a tremendous amount of effort in making sure that there is something for

[01:15] everyone. And that goes for the action and for the narrative and for the multiple play styles that you can kind of like choose your own adventure and uh make it fit to your needs. >> Okay. Now, um you've got you've got some

[01:30] Bullet Storm and and Wolfenstein. Is that correct? this trailer where, you know, there everyone's talking about how uh this protagonist is nice and stealthy and then he proceeds to kick a door so hard

[01:42] it explodes. Can we expect that kind of like really over-the-top gunplay in here, but also also stealth options? I'm I'm guessing. Is that >> Yeah, absolutely. Like, we really wanted to focus on the player agency and their

[01:55] player choice and how to, you know, how to approach any situation. Uh so you can pickpocket, you know, sneak around, distract, you know, avoid confrontation as much as you humanly possible. But we also wanted to cater to players who want

[02:10] to just go shotgun, kick the door in, shoot everyone in the face. So, we wanted to really have that heavy physical feeling for the combat uh and for the gunplay uh and also for the main character who is a quite a quite a

[02:25] hefty dude, you know, and that needed to be reflected in how you know how you play the game. When you kick, it's a it's a proper kick. You kick people flying off rooftops, you kick doors open. We wanted to have that, you know,

[02:37] do. >> Nice. Uh, you dropped a trailer on Real Fest that is full of cool stuff to look at, but the the most replayed segment of that on YouTube is a part where he shoots a guy so hard that he just

[02:51] explodes into electricity and goo. Can you tell me a little bit about the of weaponry we're going to be having? >> Yeah, I know exactly which bit you mean. >> it's like a full on spike right now. People really like seeing that [ __ ]

[03:06] >> Yes. And um I'm sure a lot of our fans from the ascent would recognize it because you know we we carried some of those um things we liked from previous ours. We can do whatever we want with it. And that that would be the stasis

[03:19] which just puts them in a in a state of floating. And if you fill them with just overcharge and explode and that can create a chain reaction. And that kind of goes into what Tor was talking about as well with with the action and and the

[03:33] as well with with the action and and the heft and physicality is that we we always do uh a bit more tongue and cheek. Um and we see violence as a spectacle. We don't do angst and depression. Obviously it's a violent

[03:47] world and you know a lot of horrible things happen in it but a world can still be inhabited by people that laugh and have a coffee and we want violence to be an everyday thing. And we look at a lot of 80s references, '90s

[04:00] Robocop and Dread and Death Wish and that kind of attitude. And that goes for that's, >> hey, if Arnold and Sloan can sneak, this >> Yeah. And we're not afraid to go over the top either. Both, you know, in terms

[04:15] of the visuals, but we're also not afraid to be a little bit unbalanced to have a power fantasy. We want this to be a power fantasy. We want, you know, big a power fantasy. We want, you know, big explosions, big, you know, cyberpunk

[04:27] piñatas. Like, we want, you know, we want that, you know, if you kick a door hard enough, it will fly off its hinges and, you know, and it will splinter on people, throw them like we want that kind of over-the-top, you know, feeling

[04:39] as much as possible. >> I love it. Um, now people, you know, it's some kind of an influence here, but Cyberpunk's also a genre that's been >> Thank you for saying that. I will happily say that. I'm a big big William

[04:53] Gibson fan. Um Neil Stevenson, all those guys. I'm curious, what are some other cyberpunk influences that you pulled from aside from like blending '8s cyberpunk. What are, you know, what's some of the other cyberpunk media you're

[05:06] drawing from? >> I mean, throughout the team we have, I mean, I think we pretty much have it covered. It's everything from, you know, uh, you know, movies, books, comic books, uh, anime. I mean obviously you

[05:20] know we have Ghost in the Shell, Newmaner Gibbs on those books. Uh but also comics, Judge Dread, I mean we love Judge Dread, for example. Um and we really, you know, but we want to embrace that, you know, 80s tongue and cheek,

[05:34] you know, it's a grim world, but it's a fun, you know, experience. I I think also whilst we love cyberpunk and you know um all what that means, we have

[05:46] and we think fit with the world and the game, we've also chosen to opt out of some of them. We haven't gone, okay, cyber pank, we need this, we need this, we need this, we need this again because no law needs to be its own thing. And

[05:59] instead, we've gone with a lot of like 60s American mafia. Uh we've gone noir, we call it neon sleeves, you know, it's in a more Mediterranean climate. It's warm. People wear, you know, uh short sleeve shirts. Um it's very much its own

[06:15] thing, right? And I think the the language which they use with uh when they speak um we have a thing we call huntism as well. There's a lot of colloquialism in the way they communicate. Um and with when we've been

[06:28] like that's something that always comes back and scores well um in the tests in that there's definitely something there's an identity here there's forward to being able to show more we're so happy to have finally shown more

[06:43] gameplay but we're happy to show more you know uh moving on so that people you know uh moving on so that people really get what makes Nola Nola >> now I want to talk about the setting uh this is open world is that correct

[06:56] >> and it's you've talked about how you want it to be more about density than just sheer scale. I believe the the thing you said was that any frame of this game has more objects in it than the entirety of The Ascent. Is that Yep.

[07:09] Yeah. That's nuts. That's absolutely bonkers. Uh and it shows. What's crazy The Ascent was your was your first big cyberpunk game and looking at these two similar, but I don't think what some people realize is that like if you

[07:24] unlock the camera and zoom in, that game is just as visually dense as this. so many little tiny details and it's I'm excited to just actually get up close to them. Is there like a specific detail in this game, like an object, a piece of

[07:37] particularly proud of that you want to just kind of point people towards? I think one of the things we really hope people enjoy is how much um how much

[07:49] attention and love that went into just creating all the little stickers and advertising and products. So, you know, we've shown some clips, you know, where when we blow up this guy in in a convenience store, every single product

[08:04] has, you know, a fullon description of the ingredients and you can >> nutritional facts. >> Yeah. Well, nutritional nutritional misinformation. Um but the it's just full of you know jokes and puns and you

[08:19] know lore and we really hope that people who enjoy that sort of thing will just go and just you know photo mode and just zoom in and just look at every single thing because uh with this kind of fidelity you can go and read every

[08:33] single sticker. You can scan the QR codes like all of it. >> And this is handcrafted. Yeah. >> Yes. Yes. All of it. And this is also where we we made a deliberate when we're talking about cyber punk because

[08:46] obviously um a lot of cyber punk fiction that we also love um often comes with a lot of Asian influence uh be that uh Japanese or Korean or Chinese right um and whilst we we also you know uh really enjoy those cultures and you know uh we

[09:02] go there and all of that stuff for for me who don't read those languages being me who don't read those languages being in Seoul for example It's Asian. It's one flavor, right? It's one impression on me and I love it and it's exciting.

[09:16] But we decided early on that um we uh everything in the game world is in English. So for you know our main audience, you can stop anywhere in the world and read every single sign, read any single uh you know product

[09:30] information, the the nutritional facts, right? So that you can you can set the pace in your own accord and really really get into it. You can read the street signs. You can read the building signs. You can read the the lost puppy

[09:43] signs. Everything is is handcrafted with love. And you can pause and really soak >> Yeah. Every every building has an address. All the streets, you know, correspond. You can navigate through the street signs through the addresses on

[09:58] >> Yes. I love that. That's what turn off the HUD and actually find your way the default mode, but you can opt in to play more in an immersive mode where we turn off like the helpers and the markers and if they give you an address,

[10:11] >> I love that. >> And that's but that is opt in, right? for everyone. >> And we do that a lot. Same thing like with the story, the main story is very easy to get into. And if you just want

[10:23] to do a shotgun to the face, that's fine. But if you want to play a bit more there's so many characters to talk to and stuff to read. And that's for you to want. Instead of us saying, "And you gotta read this."

[10:37] >> Now, um, we got a little glimpse of in between the the constant murder. We got there. What other activities are we going to have in addition to just combat and stealth and all that? I mean there there's uh obviously

[10:50] secrets and stuff to collect in the city and uh the the very first thing that it's a spoiler if it's literally the first thing that happens is that uh you wrecked right so there's a lot of like rebuilding that um there are characters

[11:06] to talk to for the story elements um and you cannot only shoot them you can also >> that's good that's good >> but we also focus a lot on the exploration and once again like our kid said that That's opt-in, right? Like if

[11:19] main story, you know, kick in the front door, shotgun, let's go. You can do that. But for people who really want to just, you know, explore the city, you know, explore, you know, the the apartments, the, you know, the people

[11:32] who live there, you know, there's a lot for players to discover just, you know, moving through the city and just, you know, getting distracted. And of course it's the RPG layer as well of character customization, abilities, skills, uh

[11:46] like it's always the gardener, Greyhawker, the gardener, but it's you're the gardener. We make sure that he never makes any decisions for you in a cutscene. It's always you making the decisions. So it's your gardener.

[12:00] open world RPG. I think some people jump to the expectation it's going to be like 120 hours. Uh but you also say you can blaze through the story. How how big of a game are we looking at in terms of play time if you're sure mainlining it

[12:13] play time if you're sure mainlining it versus taking your time? >> Yeah, I mean one of the challenges is that the difference between if you're your time, >> there's going to be a huge difference.

[12:26] Uh we're also we're not telling you how to play through the game. Okay. >> So you can actually I think this is a game where people will find ways to driven by systems. Yeah, you can beat Skyrim in six hours, but no one has ever

[12:40] get lost. That's the whole thing. >> And you know, this is a similar thing. it's like you can get lost. You can spend a lot of time. You can spend a 100 hours doing stuff in the game if you just take your time and you really want

[12:54] you're going to go and read all the stickers in the grocery stores. Um, so it's very hard for us to put a, you know, a time on, you know, like we we we will be yet. >> Okay. But it's significant.

[13:08] >> Okay. So, it's a it's a chunky game with a chunky protagonist. Yeah. I'm excited. I honestly wish we had more time to talk about this. I'm dying to hear more. Um, chatting about this. Uh, no Law hits Xbox Series, PS5, and PC sometime in

[13:22] 2027. But right now, there's more Gamescom Studio 2026 coming right up.