A recap of...
Cyberpunk 2077
The game begins with the selection of one of three lifepaths for the player character V: Nomad, Streetkid, or Corpo. All three lifepaths involve V starting a new life in Night City with local thug Jackie Welles and working together as mercenaries with a netrunner, T-Bug.
In 2077, local fixer Dexter "Dex" DeShawn hires V and Jackie to steal a biochip known as "the Relic" from Arasaka Corporation. They acquire the Relic, but the plan goes awry when they witness the murder of the megacorp's leader Saburo Arasaka at the hands of his son Yorinobu. Yorinobu covers up the murder as poisoning and triggers a security sweep, in which Arasaka's netrunners kill T-Bug. V and Jackie escape, but the Relic's protective case is damaged and Jackie is fatally wounded in the process, forcing V to insert the biochip into the cyberware in their head.
Furious at the unwanted police attention, Dex shoots V in the head and leaves them for dead in a landfill. Upon awakening, V is haunted by the digital ghost of war veteran turned iconic rock star and terrorist Johnny Silverhand, believed to have died in 2023 during his own thermonuclear attack on Arasaka Tower. V is then rescued by Saburo's bodyguard Goro Takemura on Arasaka's orders, as they are the prime suspect in Saburo's death, but the duo are attacked by Arasaka assassins sent by Yorinobu. They fend off the attackers and reach V's ripperdoc Viktor Vector, who reveals that resurrection nanotech on the biochip saved V's life, but also started an irreversible process that would overwrite V's consciousness with Johnny's, whose memory engram is stored on the chip. V has only a few weeks before the process completes, and the biochip cannot be removed without instantly killing V, so V must find a way to remove Johnny and survive.
Inferring from the assassins that V is innocent of Saburo's murder, Takemura and V start working together. From here, V is able to follow up on two different leads: tracking down Arasaka's head doctor Anders Hellman, which V accomplishes by working with Panam Palmer, a member of the Aldecaldos nomad clan; and finding and rescuing Evelyn Parker, Dex's client who commissioned the gig.
After finding and capturing Anders, V attempts to contact Evelyn Parker for help, only to learn that she was kidnapped by the Death's Head gang. With the help of Evelyn's friend Judy Álvarez, they are able to save her, but Evelyn is in a near-death state, leaving her unable to help. By viewing Evelyn's memories through a braindance, V is able to get in contact with the Voodoo Boys, a gang of netrunners. Evelyn later commits suicide as a result of psychological trauma stemming from her being raped while kidnapped.
Through the Voodoo Boys, V relives Johnny's memories, learning that in 2013, Johnny's then-girlfriend Alt Cunningham created Soulkiller, an artificial intelligence able to copy netrunners' minds through their neural links, but destroyed the target's brain in the process. Arasaka kidnapped Alt and forced her to create their own version of Soulkiller, which would store the minds of its targets in Arasaka's digital fortress, Mikoshi. With the help of his friend Rogue Amendiares, Johnny led a rescue effort to save Alt, but failed to find her before Arasaka used Soulkiller on her; Johnny's later thermonuclear attack was a cover to free Alt's consciousness from Arasaka's subnet, but Arasaka's head of security Adam Smasher captured him and used Soulkiller on him as well. By 2077, Arasaka was advertising a "Secure Your Soul" program and conducting secret research into writing a digital copy of a mind into a living human brain, from which the Relic arose.
V also gets in contact with Alt's consciousness, which has escaped beyond the Blackwall, a firewall which protects the net from rogue AIs. With Johnny's mediation, V makes a deal with Alt, that if they can give Alt access to Arasaka's subnet and gain physical access to Mikoshi, Alt can use Soulkiller to separate V's and Johnny's consciousness.
Working with Takemura, V helps him capture Yorinobu's sister, Hanako Arasaka, to convince her of Yorinobu's treachery. After defeating Takemura's former student Oda, they are able to get Hanako to a safe house and convince her of V's innocence, but Arasaka soldiers attack, forcing V to flee. Eventually, V must decide whether to mount an attack on Arasaka Tower to gain physical access to Mikoshi and use Soulkiller to remove Johnny from their body, or to make a deal with Hanako to extract the Relic.
If V chooses to attack Arasaka Tower, depending upon player actions throughout the game, V can choose different options to conduct the attack. V can allow Johnny to take over and stage the attack with Rogue, suppress Johnny and mount the attack with their nomad allies from the Aldecaldos clan, mount the attack solo, or simply commit suicide. All options (except for the suicide one) end with V defeating Adam Smasher. If V chooses to make a deal with Hanako instead, they convince the Arasaka board that Yorinobu killed Saburo, and oust Yorinobu as CEO, with V defeating Smasher. Hanako honors her deal with V and, after inserting an engram of Saburo into Yorinobu to avenge Saburo's murder, has Arasaka doctors extract the Relic from V. In all cases, it is revealed that the damage to V's body is irreversible. Depending on player choice, V either requests Arasaka upload them into Mikoshi until a suitable host body is found, remains in their body with an uncertain life expectancy, or allows Johnny to take over permanently (only achievable through attacking Arasaka). If V assaults Arasaka and chooses to remain in their body, they either become a Night City legend, or leave Night City with the Aldecaldos clan hoping to find a way to prolong their lifespan. If V surrenders their body to Johnny, the latter pays his respects to his friends and leaves Night City to start a new life.
Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in Night City, an American megacity in the Free State of North California which functions as a corporatocracy unaffected by federal or state legislation. The city suffers from rampant gang violence and corporate warfare, exacerbated by an ineffectual and corrupt municipal government and police force. Night City relies on robotic technology for everyday functions such as waste management, building and infrastructure maintenance, and public transportation. The city's architecture and fashions are derived from the four aesthetics eras it underwent— Entropism, Kitsch, Neo-Militarism, and Neo-Kitsch. Homelessness and poverty are widespread in the city but does not preclude cybernetic modification for Night City's underclasses, leading to both cosmetic addiction and high levels of violence. Those whose addictions and heavy modifications have rendered them mentally unstable, known as cyberpsychos, are dealt with by the police tactical unit MaxTac. Privatized health corporations such as Trauma Team utilize paramilitary doctors for rapid medical services. Due to the constant threat of physical harm, open carry is permitted for all residents of Night City.
The primary protagonist of Cyberpunk 2077 is Vincent / Valerie, known as V (Gavin Drea or Cherami Leigh), a freelance mercenary whose background can be influenced by the player's choices. V is accompanied by Johnny Silverhand (Keanu Reeves), a legendary rock star and terrorist who now exists as a digitized engram; Johnny is also playable during some segments of the game. Throughout the main story, V and Johnny come into contact with several major allies and enemies, including Jackie Welles (Jason Hightower), V's best friend and fellow mercenary; T-Bug (Cynthia McWilliams), a netrunner who provides support to V and Jackie; Viktor "Vik" Vector (Michael Gregory), a ripperdoc who maintains a close friendship with V; Misty Olzewski (Erica Lindbeck), Jackie's girlfriend who runs an esoterica; Dexter "Dex" DeShawn (Michael-Leon Wooley), a local fixer in Night City; Evelyn Parker (Kari Wahlgren), a sex worker who partners with Dex and V's crew to organize a heist; Judy Álvarez (Carla Tassara), Evelyn's friend and a braindance editor who helps V in their investigations; Saburo Arasaka (Masane Tsukayama), the founder of the Arasaka Corporation; Yorinobu Arasaka (Hideo Kimura), Saburo's youngest son; Hanako Arasaka (Alpha Takahashi [ja]), Yorinobu's sister and Saburo's only daughter; Goro Takemura (Rome Kanda), Saburo's personal bodyguard; Rogue Amendiares (Jane Perry), the owner of the Afterlife nightclub and one of Johnny's former partners; Panam Palmer (Emily Woo Zeller), a nomad from the Aldecaldos clan; Saul Bright (Diarmaid Murtagh), the leader of the Aldecaldos; Alt Cunningham (Alix Wilton Regan), a netrunner and Johnny's ex-girlfriend who became an artificial intelligence construct; and Adam Smasher (Alec Newman), a ruthless cyborg who works as Arasaka's head of security.
In 2077, local fixer Dexter "Dex" DeShawn hires V and Jackie to steal a biochip known as "the Relic" from Arasaka Corporation. They acquire the Relic, but the plan goes awry when they witness the murder of the megacorp's leader Saburo Arasaka at the hands of his son Yorinobu. Yorinobu covers up the murder as poisoning and triggers a security sweep, in which Arasaka's netrunners kill T-Bug. V and Jackie escape, but the Relic's protective case is damaged and Jackie is fatally wounded in the process, forcing V to insert the biochip into the cyberware in their head.
Furious at the unwanted police attention, Dex shoots V in the head and leaves them for dead in a landfill. Upon awakening, V is haunted by the digital ghost of war veteran turned iconic rock star and terrorist Johnny Silverhand, believed to have died in 2023 during his own thermonuclear attack on Arasaka Tower. V is then rescued by Saburo's bodyguard Goro Takemura on Arasaka's orders, as they are the prime suspect in Saburo's death, but the duo are attacked by Arasaka assassins sent by Yorinobu. They fend off the attackers and reach V's ripperdoc Viktor Vector, who reveals that resurrection nanotech on the biochip saved V's life, but also started an irreversible process that would overwrite V's consciousness with Johnny's, whose memory engram is stored on the chip. V has only a few weeks before the process completes, and the biochip cannot be removed without instantly killing V, so V must find a way to remove Johnny and survive.
Inferring from the assassins that V is innocent of Saburo's murder, Takemura and V start working together. From here, V is able to follow up on two different leads: tracking down Arasaka's head doctor Anders Hellman, which V accomplishes by working with Panam Palmer, a member of the Aldecaldos nomad clan; and finding and rescuing Evelyn Parker, Dex's client who commissioned the gig.
After finding and capturing Anders, V attempts to contact Evelyn Parker for help, only to learn that she was kidnapped by the Death's Head gang. With the help of Evelyn's friend Judy Álvarez, they are able to save her, but Evelyn is in a near-death state, leaving her unable to help. By viewing Evelyn's memories through a braindance, V is able to get in contact with the Voodoo Boys, a gang of netrunners. Evelyn later commits suicide as a result of psychological trauma stemming from her being raped while kidnapped.
Through the Voodoo Boys, V relives Johnny's memories, learning that in 2013, Johnny's then-girlfriend Alt Cunningham created Soulkiller, an artificial intelligence able to copy netrunners' minds through their neural links, but destroyed the target's brain in the process. Arasaka kidnapped Alt and forced her to create their own version of Soulkiller, which would store the minds of its targets in Arasaka's digital fortress, Mikoshi. With the help of his friend Rogue Amendiares, Johnny led a rescue effort to save Alt, but failed to find her before Arasaka used Soulkiller on her; Johnny's later thermonuclear attack was a cover to free Alt's consciousness from Arasaka's subnet, but Arasaka's head of security Adam Smasher captured him and used Soulkiller on him as well. By 2077, Arasaka was advertising a "Secure Your Soul" program and conducting secret research into writing a digital copy of a mind into a living human brain, from which the Relic arose.
V also gets in contact with Alt's consciousness, which has escaped beyond the Blackwall, a firewall which protects the net from rogue AIs. With Johnny's mediation, V makes a deal with Alt, that if they can give Alt access to Arasaka's subnet and gain physical access to Mikoshi, Alt can use Soulkiller to separate V's and Johnny's consciousness.
Working with Takemura, V helps him capture Yorinobu's sister, Hanako Arasaka, to convince her of Yorinobu's treachery. After defeating Takemura's former student Oda, they are able to get Hanako to a safe house and convince her of V's innocence, but Arasaka soldiers attack, forcing V to flee. Eventually, V must decide whether to mount an attack on Arasaka Tower to gain physical access to Mikoshi and use Soulkiller to remove Johnny from their body, or to make a deal with Hanako to extract the Relic.
If V chooses to attack Arasaka Tower, depending upon player actions throughout the game, V can choose different options to conduct the attack. V can allow Johnny to take over and stage the attack with Rogue, suppress Johnny and mount the attack with their nomad allies from the Aldecaldos clan, mount the attack solo, or simply commit suicide. All options (except for the suicide one) end with V defeating Adam Smasher. If V chooses to make a deal with Hanako instead, they convince the Arasaka board that Yorinobu killed Saburo, and oust Yorinobu as CEO, with V defeating Smasher. Hanako honors her deal with V and, after inserting an engram of Saburo into Yorinobu to avenge Saburo's murder, has Arasaka doctors extract the Relic from V. In all cases, it is revealed that the damage to V's body is irreversible. Depending on player choice, V either requests Arasaka upload them into Mikoshi until a suitable host body is found, remains in their body with an uncertain life expectancy, or allows Johnny to take over permanently (only achievable through attacking Arasaka). If V assaults Arasaka and chooses to remain in their body, they either become a Night City legend, or leave Night City with the Aldecaldos clan hoping to find a way to prolong their lifespan. If V surrenders their body to Johnny, the latter pays his respects to his friends and leaves Night City to start a new life.
Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in Night City, an American megacity in the Free State of North California which functions as a corporatocracy unaffected by federal or state legislation. The city suffers from rampant gang violence and corporate warfare, exacerbated by an ineffectual and corrupt municipal government and police force. Night City relies on robotic technology for everyday functions such as waste management, building and infrastructure maintenance, and public transportation. The city's architecture and fashions are derived from the four aesthetics eras it underwent— Entropism, Kitsch, Neo-Militarism, and Neo-Kitsch. Homelessness and poverty are widespread in the city but does not preclude cybernetic modification for Night City's underclasses, leading to both cosmetic addiction and high levels of violence. Those whose addictions and heavy modifications have rendered them mentally unstable, known as cyberpsychos, are dealt with by the police tactical unit MaxTac. Privatized health corporations such as Trauma Team utilize paramilitary doctors for rapid medical services. Due to the constant threat of physical harm, open carry is permitted for all residents of Night City.
The primary protagonist of Cyberpunk 2077 is Vincent / Valerie, known as V (Gavin Drea or Cherami Leigh), a freelance mercenary whose background can be influenced by the player's choices. V is accompanied by Johnny Silverhand (Keanu Reeves), a legendary rock star and terrorist who now exists as a digitized engram; Johnny is also playable during some segments of the game. Throughout the main story, V and Johnny come into contact with several major allies and enemies, including Jackie Welles (Jason Hightower), V's best friend and fellow mercenary; T-Bug (Cynthia McWilliams), a netrunner who provides support to V and Jackie; Viktor "Vik" Vector (Michael Gregory), a ripperdoc who maintains a close friendship with V; Misty Olzewski (Erica Lindbeck), Jackie's girlfriend who runs an esoterica; Dexter "Dex" DeShawn (Michael-Leon Wooley), a local fixer in Night City; Evelyn Parker (Kari Wahlgren), a sex worker who partners with Dex and V's crew to organize a heist; Judy Álvarez (Carla Tassara), Evelyn's friend and a braindance editor who helps V in their investigations; Saburo Arasaka (Masane Tsukayama), the founder of the Arasaka Corporation; Yorinobu Arasaka (Hideo Kimura), Saburo's youngest son; Hanako Arasaka (Alpha Takahashi [ja]), Yorinobu's sister and Saburo's only daughter; Goro Takemura (Rome Kanda), Saburo's personal bodyguard; Rogue Amendiares (Jane Perry), the owner of the Afterlife nightclub and one of Johnny's former partners; Panam Palmer (Emily Woo Zeller), a nomad from the Aldecaldos clan; Saul Bright (Diarmaid Murtagh), the leader of the Aldecaldos; Alt Cunningham (Alix Wilton Regan), a netrunner and Johnny's ex-girlfriend who became an artificial intelligence construct; and Adam Smasher (Alec Newman), a ruthless cyborg who works as Arasaka's head of security.
