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In the future, if some of the most popular sci-fi games are to be believed, we’ll all be drinking at a bar called Afterlife.
Cyberpunk 2077an open-world shooter set in 2077 but released in 2020 (finally technically), is back in the air thanks to a recent next-generation respray. Integral to its plot is a dusty basement called Afterlife. A watering hole of the same name is an equally vital location in BioWare’s 2183-set space opera, Mass Effect 2which itself has experienced a recent revival thanks to the Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Obviously, the comparisons are not lacking.
District
In cyberpunk, you’ll find Afterlife in the southern strip of the Watson neighborhood of Night City. He hides at the bottom of a stairwell under a building next to a parking lot. Mass Effect‘s Afterlife, meanwhile, is set in the central atrium of Omega, an anarchic jellyfish-shaped interstellar station carved out of the remains of a shattered asteroid.
Indicate: Mass Effect 2
Atmosphere
Omega’s afterlife is the kind of airy, open space most often frequented by cocaine-starved finance brothers. Patterns of faded flames dance on the walls. A velvet rope blocks the door, as does a massive bodyguard. Inside, you’ll find a semi-circular bar — great for catching a bartender’s attention, but not exactly for hanging out — flanked by several dance floors and a haughty VIP section.
Head beyond Night City, however, and you’ll find something much more down to earth (literally). Customers line up at the bar or in smoky booths to drink cheap beer and drink well. Dim lighting and lower ceilings give it a palpable sense of intimacy. In the back, you’ll find an alcohol-stained pool table. If anyone is looking for a hit here, they don’t care much.
Indicate: Cyberpunk 2077
The music
To hang out at Omega’s Afterlife is to submit to the futuristic, ill-advised soundtrack of a mid-’90s Bottega Veneta fashion show. At Night City, you get crunchy guitars, heartbeats and belted lyrics – a delicious mixtape that would, for the time, be the equivalent of your neighborhood bar putting on a 1920s playlist. Everyone loves a good throwback!
Indicate: Cyberpunk 2077
Booze
Night City’s Afterlife offers everything you’d expect to find at your local haunt, from stouts to scotches to wines with long French labels. As part of Cyberpunk 2077massive update, developer CD Projekt Red even added a cocktail named after Jackie Welles – your character’s longtime friend – on the menu, which rules unequivocally. I have no idea what you can drink at Omega’s Afterlife. (When you order, a turian pours you a double shot from an unmarked white bottle.) But curiosity alone…
Indicate: Mass Effect 2
Price
Drinks at Night City cost between $120 (big boy from Spunky Monkey) and $720 (finger of a high-end liquor called Ab-Synth) Eurodollars. Drinks in Omega cost one click of the “order a drink” dialog prompt, which in all currencies trades at precisely $0.
Indicate: Mass Effect 2
Customer base
In Night City, Afterlife is the de facto destination for Fixers and Mercenaries. In Omega, Afterlife is apparently frequented by the same crowd, but the mere existence of its VIP section means there’s no shortage of people there just to flash some cash and cosplay for a night out. as a really cool person.
Indicate: Cyberpunk 2077
Amount of being in space
So go.
Indicate: Mass Effect 2
According to our (extremely scientific) metric, Mass Effect 2 win a victory Cyberpunk 2077. And to be sure, there are a lot of factors, like being in space, and also to be in space– I go. But if you asked me which Afterlife I’d rather hang out in, it’s Night City a mile away. All the bells and whistles in the galaxy can’t be compared to the single selling point of a bar that matters most: the company you keep. And few of my friends would put themselves through the rigors of an astronaut training program just to grab a free drink… whatever drink that turian bartender is pouring.
Plus, I bet Night City gives you free hot dogs if you drink too much.
