Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City will be a sprawling futuristic metropolis full of people for you to meet. Some of them you may to want to romance, while others you’ll probably want to start a fight with.
As with any good open world game, Cyberpunk 2077 will let you have a scrap with (and kill) pretty much anyone who crosses you, though there are limits. Children and important story NPCs will be immune to your violent urges, which is in line with the likes of Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto, to be fair.
Reddit user masoncool4566 asked developer CD Projekt Red about the limits of any murderous rampages you can go in Cyberpunk 2077 during your stay in Night City, and the studio swiftly responded.
They explained:
You won’t be able to attack children or NPCs connected with the plot, but other than that you can be aggressive towards most people you meet.
CD Projekt RED later confirmed in an email to PC Gamer that you obviously also can’t just go around punching people in the face without facing any kind of backlash. Depending on where you are in the world, you risk incurring the wrath of certain gangs, or police for your actions.
While The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind allowed you to butcher everyone – important NPCs included – regardless of the consequences, Bethesda toned this down for Oblivion and Skyrim, presumably to esnure people didn’t accidentally close off entire questlines for themselves.
Skyrim also featured invincible children, though some of the more bloodthristy modders out there soon rectified that.
There are undoubtedly some who will complain that Cyberpunk 2077 is now ruined because not being able to harm the children of Night City will break the immersion of the game. I’d humbly suggest those people seek professional help of some kind.
It’s not like Cyberpunk 2077 doesn’t already have loads to do outside of harassing virtual kids. In addition to a massive, sprawling story, there are going to be tons of minigames – including races, hacking, and boxing matches to help to you reign in those violent impulses.
We’ve also heard that the game’s wealth of mechanics and branching paths will inspire plenty of replayability, and post-game content to rival that of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which wasn’t exactly a small game itself.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.