We already know that Cyberpunk 2077 is going to be a massive game that won’t allow players to see everything Night City has to offer in just-one playthrough, as various choices could end up closing off entire paths and questlines.
Fortunately, CD Projekt RED seems to have come up with a few ways to coax players back after the credits roll for a new playthrough, just in case the promise of seeing quests, characters, and options you might not have gotten in one run isn’t enough for you. I get it, you’re very busy.
While it was previously teased, the developer has now confirmed in an interview with Polish magazine PSX Extreme (via Reddit) that Cyberpunk 2077 will have a New Game Plus mode as an extra incentive to get players back for round two.
Unfortunately, CD Projekt RED declined to share any details on what the New Game Plus mode would entail, short of confirming its existence. If it’s anything like The Witcher 3’s New Game Plus, which was released as a free DLC after launch, it’ll likely allow players to start the game again with most of their gear, and a significantly scaled-up difficulty level.
I’d imagine that New Game Plus combined with the previously announced Hardcore difficulty mode will make for the ultimate Cyberpunk 2077 challenge. If you haven’t heard about the Hardcore mode yet, it’s been described as the most challenging difficulty setting that, among other things, completely disables the game’s UI.
Cyberpunk 2077 UI coordinator Alvin Liu told WCCFtech:
The most fun one I think will be the Hardcore setting where we turn off the UI … And that will be a real challenge for a lot of players. Also, at the same time, if you want to play more casually for the story and maybe you’re not experienced with shooters, which was a real big concern for us. We want to tell a story and maybe you’re a big fan of The Witcher and you’re not comfortable playing a shooter, we have settings available for that.
That means no quest markers, enemy health bars, damage information – nothing. You’ll be going in armed with nowt but your wits (and I guess a small arsenal of guns).
It’s great to hear that Cyberpunk 2077 will be offering masochistic levels of difficultly, but those who simply want to experience the game’s story and world will also find settings to be able to do so, just like we could in The Witcher 3.
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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.