Cyberpunk 2077 is an RPG that seems to be taking its role-playing aspect very seriously indeed. There are different origin stories for your character, endless customisation options, and a bevy of playstyles to suit your tastes.
Given that you can become pretty much anyone in Night City, one playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077 might take you down a drastically different path than another. As such, it’ll take you a few playthroughs as different types of characters to really see everything CD Projekt RED’s anticipated sci-fi title has to offer.
In a video uploaded to the Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account, the game’s Quest Director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz talked a little bit about the customization options in the game and how they’ll ultimately impact your approach to certain quests and situations.
Tomaszkiewicz said:
This time around, we have a big variety of different skills that they can modify as they develop their character throughout the game, and in turn, they can use these skills to discover different paths through the levels, to discover different options in quests.
The Quest Director also touched on Cyberpunk 2077’s “life paths”in more detail. Life paths are the previously confirmed origin stories for your character. There are three of these paths – Nomad, Corpo or Street Kid – each with their own story background and starting location in the game’s world.
As it turns out, these paths provide more than just an interesting background for your character, and will actually offer specific advantages and disadvantages as you explore Night City.
Tomaszkiewicz explained that a Corpo – someone born in a more affluent area of Night City – would have an easier time dealing with missions that involve big corporations and executives in suits, but when it comes to them trying to get information from street gangs, they’d fall short.
A Street Kid meanwhile, would be the exact the opposite; capable of talking to gangs easily, but struggling with the higher classes. Tomaszkiewicz said that these paths can drastically alter the feel of the game, which means you’ll need to play Cyberpunk 2077 “at least” three times, one for each of the life paths, to experience everything.
He said:
You feel more in the character, I feel, if you have these kinds of elements. And also it helps with the replayability of the game, because in order to fully experience all the paths, you will have to play at least three times.
Senior Level Designer Miles Tost previously spoke to UNILAD a little bit about just how replayable Cyberpunk 2077 is, revealing that the amount of branching paths, choices, and ways to build your character means you’ll likely be playing and replaying the game for far longer than even The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which wasn’t exactly a small game itself.
I’d imagine at least three playthroughs is a fairly conservative estimate from Tomaszkiewicz , then.
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via story@unilad.com
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.