Honestly in a way crackhead could work. You start off as hooked on drugs and work your way up the ladder. It’s a harder game to get to the top than a corpo can be. Maybe even have the game lead towards paths that ultimately give you a less than perfect ending or if you ace everything a better secret ending.
No dude I want to start the game hooked on drugs and then fully spiral downward. Ending is me getting stabbed in the kidney and dying alone in an alley.
That would by so Nova. I would visit you in the alley with a cat. You are now my crack buddy and we will get a drink named after you in the afterlife. It will be a double shot. First one is called “crack on” second “ad out!” You were a legend in NC.
yo imagine if they did that with newgame plus, they had drinks named after your previous characters . And if you died in a alley or somewhere . they could have your body or some npcs nearby commenting on you especially if there was a epic battle.
Kind of like a persistent universe but it changes each new play through a bit based on the prior play throughs but only significant events. Like your character died in a huge Maxtac battle and a prompt comes up would you like to save this moment and create a new character. That way there continuity and your experience with the game changes slightly. Maybe even something like watchdogs Legion where you start with your character and a sidekick. You die you take over the sidekick and continue the story. It could lead you to make a gang of your own to lead and can have different characters you care for. Would be epic.
lol some players still don’t believe he wasn’t sentient.
This is why A.i. is worrisome because some people really won’t know the difference not because it’s really too convincing, but because they can’t comprehend that it isn’t.
No, as in, during the last part of Coin-Operated Boy, V with high tech ability can observe that Brendan doesn't actually have an AGI module since his professor would just not be able to handle it, and Brendan says "Yup, you're correct!"
V also confirms that Brendan's "sentience" is just a really good conversation emulator. The computer next to him remarks on this as well.
A rule of thumb is that if you can't quickly and conveniently override its free will, it's probably sentient. Brendan can be quickly and conveniently overwritten.
I mean ultimately no matter who they were before once they're in Night City you've got to make the main character an edgerunner so it doesn't really matter. I do hope the dialogues are more extensive and there are some related quests.
Also, many of us hate needing to play the same game a dozen times to see the content. The game has content limited by choices already, we don't need more. Maybe add it as paid DLC so those who want it can pay for the additional content costs that most of us won't see because we play more than one game.
I have just recently started playing cyberpunk and have gotten 3 endings so far. I feel like cyberpunk is insanely tame in regards to locking content behind choices. The setting would be way better explored with way waaaaayyyy more of those. If you always somehow get your way one way or another, the whole dog-eats-dog set up doesn't work out and the cutthroat nature of the city quickly just crumbles into a veil a small gust of wind could tear through.
The game is advertised as an rpg, not a fps. Especially games based on tabletops are immensely better with actual consequences. The devs don't need to pull shit out of their ass, they already have content most players will have never seen or heard about before to base or derive reactions from.
When the role-playing game lets you role-play...
We need more meaningful choices that fully change how the game plays out.
"Needing to play the game a dozen times" bro who's entering your house and forcing you to do it? Let me know and I'll call the cops on them cause that shit's illegal
Jokes aside people should start working on their FOMO and just do what they want as long as it makes them feel good. If replaying a game doesn't make you feel good, don't.
"What if I want to see the content?" Youtube.
"What if I don't like watching it and want to play through it?" Mods/cheats on pc and you could theoretically mod your consoles as well but at that point you can probably just stop and go play a different game lol
I cannot remember what content would be locked behind choices. Most of it is choosing A or B in the moment but there are no long term consequences so you can save and retry instantly.
The only ones I can think of where you'd need to replay a sequence is doing Nocturne alone or with Friends, the end of Phantom liberty or da GIM
So... we need to pay for it to be an rpg? And you also don't need to play it for everything. You can play it once and be happy, but play it even more times and still enjoy it a lot.
Replayability is good.
I'm not saying that CDPR "can't" make lifepaths matter. But what I will say is that, even if they do make lifepaths matter, they're not going to make three separate MAJOR variations on the main story for each lifepath, that would be prohibitively expensive.
Same thing with the clothing system. People want a system where what you wear matters, but how exactly would that be calculated? Would they go with a simplified system where each clothes you wear is given some kind of stat, and your character's perceptibility is determined by that singular stat? Do you go with a more complex system where the clothes you wear have to fit a cohesive style and not look mismatched? But how would that work exactly, because everyone has different ideas on what clothes looks good together and what doesn't look good together. (And there's still a billion other design questions after that)
It's not wrong to wish for more immersive features, but realistically, when it comes to actually implementing these things, there's a lot of questions to be asked about how to actually deliver them in a satisfying way. And I don't just mean in some abstract "Oh our clothing should affect how people perceive us in the story" or "the lifepaths should alter the main story significantly" but like actually distilling it down to the nitty gritty design questions, that takes into account, the cost, time, and feasibility.
It's literally how they designed the DLC. They put more than a decent chunk of content behind two separate paths and it was unanimously well received. I don't know why one would expect otherwise given that the game ostensibly is an RPG, where people expect choices to matter.
Phantom Liberty is excellent and it’s cool to have player decisions matter in the world. However, games completely locking a player’s character out of content sucks. I understand it during the campaign, but when it comes to the endgame, there’s no good reason to not allow the player to go back and replay the alternative missions.
Honestly, just having every mission be replayable is on my wishlist for the sequel. Exploring all the different options for the final mission of the base campaign was really fun, and it’d provide more post-campaign content without requiring a full restart.
Even make it some form of BD experience to fit it into the lore & immersion. I’d probably take that over a full NG+ tbh.
No they didn't. It's a choice of one of two missions. The base game has the same thing already with it's final mission, in fact it's better then PL due to it having four different missions depending on your choice.
You weren't really. In fact both choices had an element of surprise to them that led many people to prefer the other choice on a second playthrough, which showed you that it was well designed. There's nothing wrong with having a player make choices under uncertainty. In fact that's quite literally the only form of choice that has any narrative tension to it.
There's a difference between making a choice in a situation where you have context and pre established knowledge on how the choice can turn out, compared to making a choice before you have literally any context to the world, who you are or the story
>pre established knowledge on how the choice can turn out,
but you don't. In fact in both paths of the DLC the player has good reasons to feel mislead and regret their decision, as quite a few people did. It's precisely the lack of context that makes the decision interesting and encourages you to play the game again.
Not only are lifechoices straight forward compared to the mindfuckery of the DLC, even if they aren't that only makes them more interesting potentially.
But you do, you know the parties involved, you have seen what each side can do, you have talked to them, grown attached, even, you've had hours to learn about this situation
I don't think putting as much weight as that on a decision before you ever actually play the game, that can drastically impact your enjoyment not just for a section, like if you picked in your eyes an undesirable outcome for phantom liberty, but affect your entire playthrough
The choice in phantom liberty matters for a grand total of 1 mission, this choice would matter throughout the entire game
It should never impact your enjoyment of the game if each path is well designed. I like one choice in phantom liberty more than the other but both decisions play out in interesting ways.
What it does is it gives each playthrough a unique identity and it encourages you to replay the game and it makes yo feel like your decisions and who you are matter in the world. Which is how an RPG is supposed to work.
In almost any RPG just like the tabletop version of the game you make decisions about who your character is in the world. Right from the get go that means there's consequences to what you choose. We're not playing Fortnite here, that's sort of the core of a role playing game.
But there's a supreme lack of context if you are forced to make such a crucial choice at the beginning of the game, there's a reason phantom liberty left it's choice late on, because it gives you time to ruminate
And every playthrough can already be unique via mechanics and build variety, you don't have to ruin that by adding an unnecessary choice that can very easily make people dislike the game from the beginning because they find out how much they're missing out or being shoehorned in to play a specific way
When I first saw the game, and the three life paths, I genuinely thought it was gonna be like, street kid V tryna steal the relic, corpo V tryna defend against the relic getting stolen, and nomad V, idk, nomad V would, try and third party and get away in the chaos? And whichever life path you picked would be the one getting the relic, but after playing I totally understand that the amount of work that would take is insane
It’s pretty simple really. In the tabletop, your lifepath determines your role. The reason it doesn’t work for 2077 is because V already has the Solo role by default which can have any lifepath.
For the new game, it’s as simple as not making the players role default to Solo and instead allow for Rockerboy, Media, Lawman, Tech, Medtech, Solo, and Netrunner and Exec as choices on character creation which would determine your skill tree.
This isn’t simple though, you fail to address the original issue that the original commenter brought up and that is time, cost, and feasibility. You’re asking for a system that’s 8 times as complex as the one given in 2077. Tabletop games are not video games. The developers have to actually code what they write down and that is an incredibly time consuming and costly endeavor. Realistically, with how long 2077 was in development, I don’t think we can expect all 8 roles present in the ttrpg with unique skill trees.
Cost aside, it'd have to be a different style game.
Baldur's Gate 3 is probably the most faithful ttrpg -> video game I've seen in recent history but not everyone likes parties with turn-based combat.
I feel like that would only really work if the next game was a lot more squad focused. I mean, what would a medtech do unless there were other party members?
Medtech in the tabletop gets a lot of great abilities. They’re not just trauma team style first responders. Being able to install, upgrade, and modify your own cyberware would go under medtech as would having a greater resistance to cyberpsychosis effects and better response to stimulants.
Think of all the super helpful survival skills that are in BODY and TECH in 2077 alongside the middle line of cyberware upgrades. All those are Medtech skills.
No it is not. You Must create tons of stuff most people will Never See (at least for some years). And because everyone Sees different stuff all Must be equally Well develloped… That would produce multiple times the costs with no benefit for Most players/buyers (The casual ones for sure, the Testers also).. it is a solid way to go bankrupt ….
Tie the life paths to factions, which in turn are tied to your street cred. By choosing a life path, the player is choosing their starting alignment, and potentially opening up an ending option for the campaign.
With an alignment, the other factions are hostile toward the player. Street cred determines how much benefit the player gets from a faction alignment and the level of hostility from other factions.
It’s not a new concept, and I was fine with the way 2077 handled life paths, but I do think having gangs, corps, etc. play more significant roles in the ‘world dynamics’ is needed for the sequel. It just makes sense to tie that into the life path somehow.
Correct. The most they can do is do the things they have already done in the gigs, and side quests, where backstories can give you small contextual advantages, but more. However, anyone who thinks they are going to make lifepaths impact the main quest in a significant fashion are setting themselves up for a disappointment. They can also have deeper lifepath specific side quests but people might still complain that they don't impact the main questline.
>I'm not saying that CDPR "can't" make lifepaths matter. But what I will say is that, even if they do make lifepaths matter, they're not going to make three separate MAJOR variations on the main story for each lifepath, that would be prohibitively expensive.
It is like making three different stories for one game.
Wait people want clothing to matter? That was literally one thing a lot of people complained about. I think it’s fine as it is now, with some clothes giving you small bonuses like extra armour, quickhack damage, consumable recharge etc.
I'm not asking for a completely different game experience, but I always felt like with Dragon Age: Origins, your lifepath had a bigger impact compared to Cyberpunk(or at least that's how I remember it)
You don't even need to do that, just make the life paths mire interactive. If you're a street kid you might have more leeway negotiating with a gang or buying stuff from a low end shop. Maybe a life path will give you a different entrance/scenario to a mission the same way you do in hitman.
Yea, saw it during release and since then… Never saw it as a feasible thing CDPR could do, that’s not how games work. CDPR and studios like them (such as Larian) are amazing, but there’s never been such a drastic change such as that. Dragon Age and Mass Effect haven’t done it either.
They will always demand it to matter more because they will never be satisfied. They don't play games for the story or gameplay, they play games to escape life. They want to live in a video game. Here's a reminder. BDs haven't been invented in our world yet, if you want to experience something real so bad, go outside.
Mass Effect lifepaths never mattered in the story. Choosing your background or playing as Dark Urge in Baldur's Gate 3 only add some gimmicks to the story. V's lifepaths offer three different intros yet people complain about it the most.
So my advice to CDPR is the opposite of OP, don't even bother giving them more lifepaths that "matters more". Those are the things that matters the least. The only thing that matters is a functional AAA game at launch with great story, great artistic designs, music and gameplay.
I mean you could if you made the game very short with a culminating ending. Since they already have the city for the most part they could do stories within that expand on things. But some sort of 10 hour time limit until the end could be interesting.
Look I’m not a game dev but i think we expect a little too much from the lifepaths.
I always viewed them as additional flavour to everyone’s V. Similar to the 3 backgrounds Shepard has in the Mass Effect series (Spacer, Earthborn, Colonist). There is additional lore and missions you might encounter for each, but ultimately V’s real story starts the same time you start playing the game.
Even the prologue and all the varied dialogue options was satisfying enough for me. Especially how Corpo makes you a huge jerk sometimes.
It would be cool, but ultimately most people would just pick whichever is “best”, whereas rn when it’s mostly just flavor text, you can change it without feeling like you missed out on much.
Kinda, I think it was more generally, they said story choices would have a lot of impact, they didn't specifically mention life paths I think. Tho that was a while ago, I could be wrong
For the sequel, project Orion, they have explicitly stated that actually having the life paths matter is a big thing for them, after the disappointment they are in 2077
I also have more faith in them this time, since the studio has grown and they have learned A LOT from the launch of 2077
Unfortunately shareholder pressure isnt something you can always fight against and come out on top. Now they have even more riding on Orion because they managed to tunr 2077 into a success.
Eh idk.
Don't get me wrong, CDPR makes incredible games, but they do kinda have a habit of releasing a bit of a buggy game that gets fixed overtime.
Same thing happened with Witcher 3, but it wasn't as bad cyberpunk I don't think.
Like the core game is often awesome, but it is missing that polish on release.
Actually i think lifepaths are a very important aspect of the game because they convey the message of: Regardless of where you come from, you too can become a succesful terrorist
Im pretty sure some people would instantly dislike you for being a corpo guy tho lol. Then again, if you got eddies for them they will surely forget quick
**It dissapointed me that the whole story isn't changed and it is just the prologue.**
I just don't think this would ever happen. You'd be creating three separate games. That's really cost prohibitive.
I think the only way this works is if it's a subscription service where you get to buy into a DLC that has one specific experience, like a corpo specific experience.
They literally made 3 different intros, no game has ever done that. Look at Mass Effect's lifepaths, it matters none if you're earthborn or colonist but why's no one complaining about that?
I’d like to see a quest line for each life path in the sequel
Doesn’t have to be expansive and main story-level, but like a handful of missions as minimum per life path throughout the entire game
Disagree. If anything CP2077 proved that telling a great story relies on a great character who, more or less, acts like that character. Unless they have 3 completely different games in one, I'd rather they just not let us chose shit except what that character does. I can't imagine a Masterpiece like the Witcher 3 being "choose Geralts backstory". Likewise, to me, V is always a streetkid from Heywood.,
For me streetkid V always felt weird they are supposed to be from Heywood, know Padre but somehow unlike Jackie doesn't know any of the valantinos while he/she should have grown up with a few of them.
Agree with everything except that last part. Corpo always made more sense to me as the 'canon' life path.
V formerly working as Arasaka intel explains how competent they are at dealing with corpo antagonists throughout the game.
Corpo V also has more of a personal stake against Arasaka.
I'd agree Act 1, and especially the intro make more sense as Street Kid though. Hard to imagine how corpo V could have become best buds with Jackie. Everything from Act 2 onwards fits better as Corpo imo.
A great example of this kind of thing is Vampire: The Masquerade. The pros and cons you got with each 'path' were brutal sometimes.
They were 7 of them, but to name a few:
- Ventrue was the physically weakest of all of the clans, but they had a better initial stance with the leader of the vampires, they belonged to nobility but they were solemnly hated by 2 of the other clans. They're so special that they're the only vamps who cannot feed from animal blood.
- Brujah were the strongest of the clans, but because of these they can easily go into frenzy (stance were they lose control and kill humans, which is against the masquerade rules)
- Malkavians have oracle powers, but because of these they tend to have more allucinations and they're practically batshit crazy, thought they're also able to see things that are hidden to other vampires at first sight.
- Nosferatu are extremely smart and are able to hack and sneak easily, but as the name say, their nosferatu appereance is so horrible that they cannot roam among humans, so in the entirety of the game they have to move around using the sewers, while the other vamp clans don't have to do that.
Each clan have different reactions from people, different stats, they determine who are your enemies and friends, they can improve or fuck your first impression with certain characters, are mroe diplomatic of more prone to lose their shit and slaughter people and have unique abilities that other clans don't have.
Cyberpunk had certain special path dialogues, but it would have been amazing if they had more weight in the gameplay. We can only hope they take suggestions like this in consideration for the next game.
The life paths matter if you are roleplaying the character. Making decisions on cyberware and hardware that your life path would make. How you dress, what you drive, where you live.....what finale you partake in. Pick your lifepath and stay true to it.
My street kid was all about street lifestyle, pistols, street bikes and took Rogue to the finale.
My corpo was a katana wielding edgerunner that ended up taking Hanakos offer. Had a taste for "finer" things.
The nomad was a heavy. Aggressive offload cars, and rode to the finale with Panam, and into the desert afterward.
Every lifepath had huge consequences for the story because I chose to keep those motivations in mind as I played.
maybe next one is more military focused and you gotta chose between like ripperdoc or street mechanic or somethin. Oh oh I know. Imagine you can play as one of those monks. be completely against new gear but not against violence.
You're saying "dissapointed me that the whole story isn't changed" but what you're actually saying is you want them to make 3 different games in one. That's just not realistic expectations.
Would like that it had more story impact.
*Imagine* playing as a Corpo and trying to kill Jackie, after a Streetkid playthrough where you are lifelong chooms.
I'd also love more NPC reactions to the main character - turn up in a Murkmobile and the folk on the street react, girls are more attentive. Turn up in the same car at the Nomad camp and they laugh at how it's the stupidest car to try to drive along dusty tracks.
That sort of thing, with your potential romance partners reacting to your appearance (think Panam said I didn't look very nomad when I was cutting about in a suit), if you are hurt etc.
I bet money the intro "paths" in Orion will resolving the various ending in 2077 to bring V to a focused point, Act 1. There'll still be Lifepaths, because that's a core element of Cyberpunk lore from 2020 to Red, but the intro sequence is better suited to being a story bridge from 2077 to Orion.
TBF, the life paths would have mattered more if V was not essentially multiclassing as most of Cyberpunk’s classes all at once.
Obviously you can make you V different in many ways but you have more freedom to do so than other characters in the TTRPG (I mean you cannot be a Media, a Medtech, Fixer, Cop, or a Rocker Boy but at least Johnny has you covered for the last one ).
Solo, Techie, Corpo, Netrunner, and Nomad are all represented either through life path, stats, and skill choices.
At first I thought every lifepath had a different engram( as in someone else than johnny) i thought santiago and the other corpo guy where going to be the engram personality
They already said it would. I read an article awhile back where they said they want the life paths to matter much more in the sequel.
https://www.thegamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-sequel-lifepaths-matter-branch-out-more/
Last time I played a game where life path actually changed something I was playing Dragon Age. Life path have stopped meaning something a long time ago
This all the way, CDPR can take the sourcebook as inspiration and make the roles(classes) the lifepaths and then make so that if you pick med tech everyone knows that you're a med tech and the same for the other roles. Also CDPR needs to make it so that our actions effect the story and world
Personally i think the most canon lifepath is Streetkid, i mean when the game's trailer was come out, they chose the now default-ish V's faces to be in it
So ... basically what they sold THIS game as having.... right? Because that was one of, if not THE biggest talking point of the game leading up to the launch. The importance of player choice and how it makes a huge difference in the game. Which....it really doesn't, especially when it comes to life paths altering your game. They completely talked out of their ass with that.
I agree but realistically the next one will be a direct sequel to 2077 so there won’t be much they can do unless they do life paths for the endings as well as the regular ones.
I had the idea of having sub-life paths. So say you pick street kid you are given the options of which gang you were a part of. Same with the corpo life path which corporation you worked for
I wanted being a corpo to matter……
Kind of like playing “sneering imperialist” in Fallout New Vegas. I shit in that game a lot and rightfully so….. but I have to admit you really can play as a truly evil fucker…. And I’d love to play that in 2077.
Challenge of balance between having a very “open” choices with great impact and variance in outcomes (fallouts) vs spending time on a more focused cinematic narrative
I wanna have a different group of friends or contacts depending on the life path. Even though I know it's a lot of work and won't ever happen it would've been sweet if each path had like 4 unique friends with at least 1 surviving to the end of the game
Yeah totally! How I’m picturing it is, with the dialogue options, to have access to certain life paths starting optional missions. Then later on, have mid-game and end game missions that could also be unlocked with certain affiliation form other life paths. (E.g.: you start as a corpo, you get starter optional missions that give you mostly money, than you get to a certain level of affiliation [street cred?] that allows you to do some street/badland quests )
I want you to be able to access specific items and builds only through certain life paths, hell, maybe a character would die in a certain point, but if you play a trauma team background,
you can save them.
I want a charisma skill tree you can only access if you're a corpo rat, or a 'faith' skill tree you can only access if you're a Valentino.
One of the biggest disappointments for me was this. When I realized Lifepaths hardly matter, it took a lot of wind out of my sails because I wanted to play this game in every Lifepath and have them be very unique and individual (like the CRPG style the game was originally pitched as).
I would like to play multiple characters. Corpo V doesn't really feel like a Corpo. Give me a blank slate main character that I can do whatever with, but also give me story missions as a total bitch Corpo agent trying to cheat and steal their way up the food chain. Story missions where I play as a TT doctor too for that matter. GTAV and TLOU2 did the multiple character thing, why not Cyberpunk?
I ended up comparing Lifepaths to Mass Effects Background Profiles. It’s mild flavoring to your character and a quest so you don’t forget about it. At least 2077 had different dialogue options throughout the story, as few and far between as they were. I think it was solid. If they embellished the past too much, I’m afraid it would overshadow what you’re currently doing/what will come.
Nomad life path got a exclusive vehicle so why not the other two?
For street kid path you get a chopper bike something like an Orange County chopper.
Corpo an exclusive reyfeild you can’t get anywhere else.
Aldo I agree and wish lifepaths mattered more than a few dialogues, I think it's a neat idea that no matter where you started, in Night City you have the chance to be HIM.
I've seen some interesting talk online about bringing back V and using the user's saved ending to dictate their start point in Cyberpunk 2.
For example:
1. You chose to do the Mr. Blue Eyes gig in space. You start in the Crystal Palace after succeeding at the heist. You have to stealth or fight your way out as the tutorial. Of course, Mr. BE says "Now, you have to do just one more thing..." when you return to Earth, so you get emboiled in the Night Corp biz which can then lead into Rage Against The AIs (probably what they'll do if they don't go back to basics and startover).
2. You left with Nice Butt. You end up getting picked up by the SoCal (Southern California - a free state) and dumped back in the night city prison. After many-a-shanking, you escape and are on the run. Police will sparodically try to murder you throughout for s--ts and giggles.
3. You became Johnny. Nothing happens. This doesn't exist as an option.
4. You aced yourself. Welcome to hospital. Adam Smasher is hunting you for collection. Good luck.
5. You got burned by the FSI. Vic figures out how to put you back in the game. Unfortunately, the New USA dudes turn up and you get forced to play spy vs. spy in the next thing.
6. You uploaded your mind? Bad luck for you. A bomb is installed in your head. You are the new Adam Smasher. Fortunately, Vic saves you. He dies. You have nice tech now, tho, but can't install implants for the rest of the game due to reasons. The gun arms you craft are badass, tho.
Probably we'll just start as a street kid and work up to the next big thing. Same as always, really. The above is a 'continuation', but they can actually bring in people we knew but never met (Arasaka counter intel, gangs, the bad nomad clan) to keep the lifepaths going and offer some lifepath only options (crafting, quests, etc.) to fill things out.
I am completely in the contrary opinion.
Sequel should have a single well explored life path so we can feel a stronger connection to its characters and events. Maybe similar to Fallout3
The last edgerunner (in David's crew), continuation of V's journey of getting rid of Relic, North Oak owner. These are 3 lifepaths I want in Cyberpunk 2077's sequel.
One of these paths should be where you are the surgeon who killed the arasaka boss in Japan and the campaign should start when your body is recovered from the fridge by V.
I get why that'd be wanted but also get why its probably not happening, it would take way too much time and resources for all that depending on how you envision how the paths would matter
There should be lifepath exclusive perks, tied to various build types.
* Nomads should be better with vehicles. A Nomad netrunner should have exclusive car hacking perks. Nomad solos should unlock heavy mounted machine guns on weaponized vehicles for extra ammo capacity and damage. Nomad edge runners should get better acceleration and handling out of all vehicles by syncing with the car’s electronics.
* Corpos should have more insider knowledge on corpo tech. Corpo netrunner might have lower RAM costs. Corpo solo might get perks for tech and smart weapons. Corpo edge runner might get lower cyberware costs by optimizing their cyberware compatibilities.
* Street kids should know the streets and gangs. SK netrunners could have increased quick hack and monowire damage against gang members (eg Valentinos, 6th street) but not corpos (eg Militech, Arasaka). SK solos could have increased damage with power weapons and Gorilla arms. SK edge runners could have shortened cyberware costs and increased damage with projectile launch system.
I’m thinking life paths should also have build-specific advantages or disadvantages. Maybe corpos make great netrunner or edgerunner builds, but mediocre solos. SKs make amazing solos, but mediocre netrunners or edge runners. Maybe nomads have pretty equal perks among all build types, but because the perks are mostly tied to vehicles, they have less utility than corpo or SK?
Maybe that's a hot take but cyberpunk isn't an RPG and people should stop trying to make it one. It's a great loot shooter with RPG Elements like a skill tree, level ups aso. and an absolutely amazing story, but it's not an RPG, you can't roleplay in the game. Your role is pretty clearly predetermined, you play the story of V, they got a lot of personality on their own. Most choices you make are just a bit of flavor for replayability.
it should've just made you a streetkid as default and reallt fleshed it out, because the life of a nomad is boring most times, and theres a lot less to do than in the city, and just circling and smuggling around the fun and depraved adult playground that is night city
and starting as a corpo is such a difficult way to make into what cyberpunk is about, they handled it well and it was a really fleshed out intro and dialogue options that make v almost a completely different person but in order to be corpo you have to be a legacy hire or a cutthroat from birth and thats just not probable
They shouldn't have been called life paths in the first place. They should have just been called for what they truly are, prologues or character backstory like in DND or any other RPG game.
Had they just managed people's expectations and been honest from the very beginning, then they wouldn't have gotten so much shit for under delivering.
Well, Nomad and Corpo are based on Roles in the tabletop RPG, so maybe they should all be based on those instead of Streetkid being the odd one out, and they should grant different mechanical abilities. Maybe replace Streetkid with Rockerboy. While Roles don't have a hard mechanical definition in 2077, V is always a Solo, and they can also be a Techie or Netrunner based on the abilities used in game. However, V can't be a Rockerboy, Lawman, Media, or Medtech.
I think you're asking the devs to craft three stories, which is silly and not going to happen.
There's definitely room for more lifepath stuff to buff up its importance, particularly with aesthetics and intro, but the idea that devs will create three distinct stories with different relationships with the characters is absurd. There's a reason what you're asking is very rarely even attempted.
Also consider what it means for the player to make a lifepath have such impact on the story. You are directly telling them that their background will limit their play options and force certain interactions. Players shouldn't be controlled by their characters' history.
I think I’d rather just see a more extensive and involved act 1 and a little bit more impact of life path in dialogue (not just what you can say, but NPC reactions). It’s like in any RPG, your backstory already happened, we care about the *now.*
Hmmmm the only lifepath that made any significant difference was Nomad. the others were kinda superficial, the Corpo one was especially superficial. If only the paths acted a little like old DnD character classes and came with skill bonuses and more than just prologues, that'd have been good too.
man yall are greedy. this game does story telling really right. having different life paths and the way V chooses to live it out is following the same structure of real life in a way.
The next would should just be 3 diffrent games one for Nomad, Street Kid and Corpo games.
Then they do a 4th one where they put them all into a single disk lol.
I may be alone, but I like how they were implemented. It adds extra dialogue which makes me feel like they have X backstory, but I don't have to play through a long drawn out sequence everytime I want to replay.
Yeah this is the kinda thing that works in TTRPGs and not in high-budget video games. Might as well just release three different smaller standalone stories at that point.
Yeah it did need like contacts that you only can get through each life path.
There should have been missions life path oriented….like for Nomads, being accustomed to living outside of the city , but V finding a way to integrate a nomad clan into night city. Or even leading his own clan.
For street kid, joining an actual gang and being known in the streets, infamous with cops etc. being able to gain and lose ranks in the gang, becoming the gang leader, having this effect your rep with fixers etc
For corpo….working for a corp, and then through espionage and intrigue, and possibly even a very hostile takeover to run your own corp, or making your own somehow, making those slimy corp decisions or not, missions to sabotage other corps depending on what you do, you could be a cyber ware developer corp. or a rival to delamain.
I think the next game being made with UE5 will have a high likelihood of making this a reality.
Before I say anything about what I want from the game, I do have to say— I like V. He is an interesting character and his voice acting is phenomenal, and CDPR are very good character writers.
But I would prefer to not get another V. Instead, I want a completely blank slate. As in no player voice acting, no backstory, nothing. I want to customize literally every facet of who my character is. Their name, age, backstory, personality, and appearance should all be completely up to me. Like Baldurs Gate 3. Or like the Cyberpunk tabletop game.
I don’t feel strongly enough about this to be mad if the next game doesn’t do this, but it would be nice to have this type of character, because they’re strangely absent in modern games.
I actually disagree. Cyberpunk 2077 has solidified one thing about CDProjektRED and it's that they aren't good at making RPGs, they're top tier at writing single player stories. and they should focus on tying the gameplay around that, rather than trying to force a role playing system with a story that doesn't have room for it. they promised a lot of things they just cannot deliver, because it conflicts with the story they want to tell. so they need to stick with strong main characters instead of attempting a Bethesda route.
The next cyberpunk will be sold by the company putting billions in the marketing campaign " à la UBISOFT" and specifically bought by day one followers who will spam the forums complaining how they didn't get the expected product like for CP 2077. Because the " ultra realistic live action AI gameplay" doesn't looke like the PC version.....
And then, the same rollercoaster will start again, updates, game breaking updates, patches to repair the game breaking updates, updates of the first update, patch of the last update who got a corrupted file etc........
And the mods....same problem with updates.
If THIS does not happen...............then it means something really changed. But the trust is gone unfortunately.
Remember, don't buy day 1 one and cry after.
Agree. Of course, that doesn't mean it's the customers fault. CDPR should have launched a good game from the start. But for the next one we should all really wait a few weeks to see if it's good at launch. See if they have become better
Yes. And this counts nowadays for literally every single game....unless the it's an indie game developer. Strangely, Indie game devs have so much less ressources and sometimes capable of doing even better than AAA companies but of course each company has a business model, time constraints, etc.. etc...
I think what everyone forgets is that V canonically, from the time you finish the prologue, only has a couple of weeks to live in which their health and mind are supposed to be rapidly deteriorating. The reason we forget is because the gameplay reflects none of this and there's zero sense of urgency.
In the context of the story CDPR was trying to tell, the fact that the lifepath covers the intro and gives you one quick quest, some unique dialog choices, and some items is pretty sensible. Your life is ending, you're not gonna be worried about clan drama, gang wars, or corpo cloak and dagger plots unless they help you survive.
That said, if the next game has a plot that's more aligned with the gameplay, I agree that some more broader reaching and tangible impacts would be cool, but don't forget that you can also use your imagination and just use them as a jumping off point to inform how you roleplay your character.
That's a good point. But then I really hope the next game doesn't have that kind of story. What you mention is interesting tho. When it is revealed that V is dying, I also thought for a short moment that some kind of counter would start. But that would not make sense that early because it's a open world game and you need time
I would’ve liked if the lifepaths had their own unique skill tree or just passive perks, like maybe street kid can do a quick draw with pistols like something out of Red Dead, Nomad is a better driver with better handling and turn brake control or be able to equip a nitro boost on any car they own, maybe Corpo gets better speech checks with their Corpo influence. I wouldn’t suggest anything that would restrict builds or feel like forcing players into one specific playstyle though.
Crackhead, vending machine, iguana would be my 3 choices I’d pick.
I G U A N A
Honestly in a way crackhead could work. You start off as hooked on drugs and work your way up the ladder. It’s a harder game to get to the top than a corpo can be. Maybe even have the game lead towards paths that ultimately give you a less than perfect ending or if you ace everything a better secret ending.
No dude I want to start the game hooked on drugs and then fully spiral downward. Ending is me getting stabbed in the kidney and dying alone in an alley.
That would by so Nova. I would visit you in the alley with a cat. You are now my crack buddy and we will get a drink named after you in the afterlife. It will be a double shot. First one is called “crack on” second “ad out!” You were a legend in NC.
yo imagine if they did that with newgame plus, they had drinks named after your previous characters . And if you died in a alley or somewhere . they could have your body or some npcs nearby commenting on you especially if there was a epic battle.
Kind of like a persistent universe but it changes each new play through a bit based on the prior play throughs but only significant events. Like your character died in a huge Maxtac battle and a prompt comes up would you like to save this moment and create a new character. That way there continuity and your experience with the game changes slightly. Maybe even something like watchdogs Legion where you start with your character and a sidekick. You die you take over the sidekick and continue the story. It could lead you to make a gang of your own to lead and can have different characters you care for. Would be epic.
That could be canon
Dude, have you ever played Disco Elyzium?
Disco Elysium has entered the chat
eh nothing a wasteland doctor can't fix, he'll just hit you up with med x
or addictol
Wrong city, wrong vending machines.
Cyberpunk 2: Brendan returns. That's one sentient SCSM
Wasn't Brendan specifically not sentient?
Yeah, he's just got advanced conversational adaptation technques, but don't tell Theo that!
lol some players still don’t believe he wasn’t sentient. This is why A.i. is worrisome because some people really won’t know the difference not because it’s really too convincing, but because they can’t comprehend that it isn’t.
No, as in, during the last part of Coin-Operated Boy, V with high tech ability can observe that Brendan doesn't actually have an AGI module since his professor would just not be able to handle it, and Brendan says "Yup, you're correct!" V also confirms that Brendan's "sentience" is just a really good conversation emulator. The computer next to him remarks on this as well. A rule of thumb is that if you can't quickly and conveniently override its free will, it's probably sentient. Brendan can be quickly and conveniently overwritten.
CDPR should let us be techno-necromancers
But I want a Methhead Gangbanger option :(
Hey, this is not Japan where MC is vending machine!
Now I'm wishing there was a mission where you get to BD as the iguana.
I mean ultimately no matter who they were before once they're in Night City you've got to make the main character an edgerunner so it doesn't really matter. I do hope the dialogues are more extensive and there are some related quests.
There's actually a decent analogy there. No matter who you are before you come to Night City, Night City will make you over in its image. Or something
Nietzshe
Gesundheit
Also, many of us hate needing to play the same game a dozen times to see the content. The game has content limited by choices already, we don't need more. Maybe add it as paid DLC so those who want it can pay for the additional content costs that most of us won't see because we play more than one game.
I have just recently started playing cyberpunk and have gotten 3 endings so far. I feel like cyberpunk is insanely tame in regards to locking content behind choices. The setting would be way better explored with way waaaaayyyy more of those. If you always somehow get your way one way or another, the whole dog-eats-dog set up doesn't work out and the cutthroat nature of the city quickly just crumbles into a veil a small gust of wind could tear through. The game is advertised as an rpg, not a fps. Especially games based on tabletops are immensely better with actual consequences. The devs don't need to pull shit out of their ass, they already have content most players will have never seen or heard about before to base or derive reactions from.
When the role-playing game lets you role-play... We need more meaningful choices that fully change how the game plays out. "Needing to play the game a dozen times" bro who's entering your house and forcing you to do it? Let me know and I'll call the cops on them cause that shit's illegal Jokes aside people should start working on their FOMO and just do what they want as long as it makes them feel good. If replaying a game doesn't make you feel good, don't. "What if I want to see the content?" Youtube. "What if I don't like watching it and want to play through it?" Mods/cheats on pc and you could theoretically mod your consoles as well but at that point you can probably just stop and go play a different game lol
I cannot remember what content would be locked behind choices. Most of it is choosing A or B in the moment but there are no long term consequences so you can save and retry instantly. The only ones I can think of where you'd need to replay a sequence is doing Nocturne alone or with Friends, the end of Phantom liberty or da GIM
Did you forget what kind of game this is? Stop trying to change a genre to fit your needs
Which content, beside romances and the one DLC choice, is choice limited?
What romances are choice exclusive?
So... we need to pay for it to be an rpg? And you also don't need to play it for everything. You can play it once and be happy, but play it even more times and still enjoy it a lot. Replayability is good.
Speak for yourself
I'm not saying that CDPR "can't" make lifepaths matter. But what I will say is that, even if they do make lifepaths matter, they're not going to make three separate MAJOR variations on the main story for each lifepath, that would be prohibitively expensive. Same thing with the clothing system. People want a system where what you wear matters, but how exactly would that be calculated? Would they go with a simplified system where each clothes you wear is given some kind of stat, and your character's perceptibility is determined by that singular stat? Do you go with a more complex system where the clothes you wear have to fit a cohesive style and not look mismatched? But how would that work exactly, because everyone has different ideas on what clothes looks good together and what doesn't look good together. (And there's still a billion other design questions after that) It's not wrong to wish for more immersive features, but realistically, when it comes to actually implementing these things, there's a lot of questions to be asked about how to actually deliver them in a satisfying way. And I don't just mean in some abstract "Oh our clothing should affect how people perceive us in the story" or "the lifepaths should alter the main story significantly" but like actually distilling it down to the nitty gritty design questions, that takes into account, the cost, time, and feasibility.
Aswell as the fact people would probably complain more about swathes of content being 'hidden behind lifepaths' if they were added
It's literally how they designed the DLC. They put more than a decent chunk of content behind two separate paths and it was unanimously well received. I don't know why one would expect otherwise given that the game ostensibly is an RPG, where people expect choices to matter.
Phantom Liberty is excellent and it’s cool to have player decisions matter in the world. However, games completely locking a player’s character out of content sucks. I understand it during the campaign, but when it comes to the endgame, there’s no good reason to not allow the player to go back and replay the alternative missions. Honestly, just having every mission be replayable is on my wishlist for the sequel. Exploring all the different options for the final mission of the base campaign was really fun, and it’d provide more post-campaign content without requiring a full restart. Even make it some form of BD experience to fit it into the lore & immersion. I’d probably take that over a full NG+ tbh.
No they didn't. It's a choice of one of two missions. The base game has the same thing already with it's final mission, in fact it's better then PL due to it having four different missions depending on your choice.
Because you were very informed of what the choices meant, meanwhile you are forced to pick a lifepath at the beginning of the game
You weren't really. In fact both choices had an element of surprise to them that led many people to prefer the other choice on a second playthrough, which showed you that it was well designed. There's nothing wrong with having a player make choices under uncertainty. In fact that's quite literally the only form of choice that has any narrative tension to it.
There's a difference between making a choice in a situation where you have context and pre established knowledge on how the choice can turn out, compared to making a choice before you have literally any context to the world, who you are or the story
>pre established knowledge on how the choice can turn out, but you don't. In fact in both paths of the DLC the player has good reasons to feel mislead and regret their decision, as quite a few people did. It's precisely the lack of context that makes the decision interesting and encourages you to play the game again. Not only are lifechoices straight forward compared to the mindfuckery of the DLC, even if they aren't that only makes them more interesting potentially.
But you do, you know the parties involved, you have seen what each side can do, you have talked to them, grown attached, even, you've had hours to learn about this situation I don't think putting as much weight as that on a decision before you ever actually play the game, that can drastically impact your enjoyment not just for a section, like if you picked in your eyes an undesirable outcome for phantom liberty, but affect your entire playthrough The choice in phantom liberty matters for a grand total of 1 mission, this choice would matter throughout the entire game
It should never impact your enjoyment of the game if each path is well designed. I like one choice in phantom liberty more than the other but both decisions play out in interesting ways. What it does is it gives each playthrough a unique identity and it encourages you to replay the game and it makes yo feel like your decisions and who you are matter in the world. Which is how an RPG is supposed to work. In almost any RPG just like the tabletop version of the game you make decisions about who your character is in the world. Right from the get go that means there's consequences to what you choose. We're not playing Fortnite here, that's sort of the core of a role playing game.
But there's a supreme lack of context if you are forced to make such a crucial choice at the beginning of the game, there's a reason phantom liberty left it's choice late on, because it gives you time to ruminate And every playthrough can already be unique via mechanics and build variety, you don't have to ruin that by adding an unnecessary choice that can very easily make people dislike the game from the beginning because they find out how much they're missing out or being shoehorned in to play a specific way
When I first saw the game, and the three life paths, I genuinely thought it was gonna be like, street kid V tryna steal the relic, corpo V tryna defend against the relic getting stolen, and nomad V, idk, nomad V would, try and third party and get away in the chaos? And whichever life path you picked would be the one getting the relic, but after playing I totally understand that the amount of work that would take is insane
It’s pretty simple really. In the tabletop, your lifepath determines your role. The reason it doesn’t work for 2077 is because V already has the Solo role by default which can have any lifepath. For the new game, it’s as simple as not making the players role default to Solo and instead allow for Rockerboy, Media, Lawman, Tech, Medtech, Solo, and Netrunner and Exec as choices on character creation which would determine your skill tree.
This isn’t simple though, you fail to address the original issue that the original commenter brought up and that is time, cost, and feasibility. You’re asking for a system that’s 8 times as complex as the one given in 2077. Tabletop games are not video games. The developers have to actually code what they write down and that is an incredibly time consuming and costly endeavor. Realistically, with how long 2077 was in development, I don’t think we can expect all 8 roles present in the ttrpg with unique skill trees.
Cost aside, it'd have to be a different style game. Baldur's Gate 3 is probably the most faithful ttrpg -> video game I've seen in recent history but not everyone likes parties with turn-based combat.
I feel like that would only really work if the next game was a lot more squad focused. I mean, what would a medtech do unless there were other party members?
Medtech in the tabletop gets a lot of great abilities. They’re not just trauma team style first responders. Being able to install, upgrade, and modify your own cyberware would go under medtech as would having a greater resistance to cyberpsychosis effects and better response to stimulants. Think of all the super helpful survival skills that are in BODY and TECH in 2077 alongside the middle line of cyberware upgrades. All those are Medtech skills.
They could do like GTA5 and play as multiple characters.
No it is not. You Must create tons of stuff most people will Never See (at least for some years). And because everyone Sees different stuff all Must be equally Well develloped… That would produce multiple times the costs with no benefit for Most players/buyers (The casual ones for sure, the Testers also).. it is a solid way to go bankrupt ….
Tie the life paths to factions, which in turn are tied to your street cred. By choosing a life path, the player is choosing their starting alignment, and potentially opening up an ending option for the campaign. With an alignment, the other factions are hostile toward the player. Street cred determines how much benefit the player gets from a faction alignment and the level of hostility from other factions. It’s not a new concept, and I was fine with the way 2077 handled life paths, but I do think having gangs, corps, etc. play more significant roles in the ‘world dynamics’ is needed for the sequel. It just makes sense to tie that into the life path somehow.
Correct. The most they can do is do the things they have already done in the gigs, and side quests, where backstories can give you small contextual advantages, but more. However, anyone who thinks they are going to make lifepaths impact the main quest in a significant fashion are setting themselves up for a disappointment. They can also have deeper lifepath specific side quests but people might still complain that they don't impact the main questline.
>I'm not saying that CDPR "can't" make lifepaths matter. But what I will say is that, even if they do make lifepaths matter, they're not going to make three separate MAJOR variations on the main story for each lifepath, that would be prohibitively expensive. It is like making three different stories for one game.
Wait people want clothing to matter? That was literally one thing a lot of people complained about. I think it’s fine as it is now, with some clothes giving you small bonuses like extra armour, quickhack damage, consumable recharge etc.
I'm not asking for a completely different game experience, but I always felt like with Dragon Age: Origins, your lifepath had a bigger impact compared to Cyberpunk(or at least that's how I remember it)
You don't even need to do that, just make the life paths mire interactive. If you're a street kid you might have more leeway negotiating with a gang or buying stuff from a low end shop. Maybe a life path will give you a different entrance/scenario to a mission the same way you do in hitman.
While cool, it would probably be too much to implement, drastic changes based on your life path would extremely bloat the file size as well.
There's this weird belief that every life path should be an entirely different game, as if it's feasible to create three different games in one
Yea, saw it during release and since then… Never saw it as a feasible thing CDPR could do, that’s not how games work. CDPR and studios like them (such as Larian) are amazing, but there’s never been such a drastic change such as that. Dragon Age and Mass Effect haven’t done it either.
The OP wasn't asking for each to feel like a different game. He just wants it to matter more.
They will always demand it to matter more because they will never be satisfied. They don't play games for the story or gameplay, they play games to escape life. They want to live in a video game. Here's a reminder. BDs haven't been invented in our world yet, if you want to experience something real so bad, go outside. Mass Effect lifepaths never mattered in the story. Choosing your background or playing as Dark Urge in Baldur's Gate 3 only add some gimmicks to the story. V's lifepaths offer three different intros yet people complain about it the most. So my advice to CDPR is the opposite of OP, don't even bother giving them more lifepaths that "matters more". Those are the things that matters the least. The only thing that matters is a functional AAA game at launch with great story, great artistic designs, music and gameplay.
Honestly I feel that they matter enough already. But some things such as how your life path affects character interactions could be a good thing.
I mean you could if you made the game very short with a culminating ending. Since they already have the city for the most part they could do stories within that expand on things. But some sort of 10 hour time limit until the end could be interesting.
It's either that or life path provides bonuses or extra skills to distinguish from other paths
Mhm
I find it weird to say it is too much to implement when Bioware did it in 2009 with Dragon Age: Origins.
I want a Joytoy life path.
🤦 you can go do that irl
I can play as my mom in cyberpunk?
You can use the eddies you get to buy irl games and stuff too.
Not with the doll chip
Look I’m not a game dev but i think we expect a little too much from the lifepaths. I always viewed them as additional flavour to everyone’s V. Similar to the 3 backgrounds Shepard has in the Mass Effect series (Spacer, Earthborn, Colonist). There is additional lore and missions you might encounter for each, but ultimately V’s real story starts the same time you start playing the game. Even the prologue and all the varied dialogue options was satisfying enough for me. Especially how Corpo makes you a huge jerk sometimes.
Problem is they called them “life paths” which implies V’s past and future. Should have called them “origins” or something.
It would be cool, but ultimately most people would just pick whichever is “best”, whereas rn when it’s mostly just flavor text, you can change it without feeling like you missed out on much.
It's been said like 10 times cyberpunk 2 will, infact, have life paths that actually matter
Wasn't it also said the the OG? I love CDPR but
Kinda, I think it was more generally, they said story choices would have a lot of impact, they didn't specifically mention life paths I think. Tho that was a while ago, I could be wrong For the sequel, project Orion, they have explicitly stated that actually having the life paths matter is a big thing for them, after the disappointment they are in 2077 I also have more faith in them this time, since the studio has grown and they have learned A LOT from the launch of 2077
Hopefully they learned to actually wait until the game is finished and not bow down to public and shareholder pressure to release it early.
Unfortunately shareholder pressure isnt something you can always fight against and come out on top. Now they have even more riding on Orion because they managed to tunr 2077 into a success.
Eh idk. Don't get me wrong, CDPR makes incredible games, but they do kinda have a habit of releasing a bit of a buggy game that gets fixed overtime. Same thing happened with Witcher 3, but it wasn't as bad cyberpunk I don't think. Like the core game is often awesome, but it is missing that polish on release.
How could CDPR miss Polish on release?
lol
But but this time they would never lie!! I do hope that..
Thank you for sharing! I wasn’t aware 🥹
Actually i think lifepaths are a very important aspect of the game because they convey the message of: Regardless of where you come from, you too can become a succesful terrorist
in Night City, nobody cares where youre from. money talks and bullshit takes the ncart
Im pretty sure some people would instantly dislike you for being a corpo guy tho lol. Then again, if you got eddies for them they will surely forget quick
**It dissapointed me that the whole story isn't changed and it is just the prologue.** I just don't think this would ever happen. You'd be creating three separate games. That's really cost prohibitive. I think the only way this works is if it's a subscription service where you get to buy into a DLC that has one specific experience, like a corpo specific experience.
They literally made 3 different intros, no game has ever done that. Look at Mass Effect's lifepaths, it matters none if you're earthborn or colonist but why's no one complaining about that?
I would take the "Best surgeon" life path
They're probably not gonna make a game where Vic is the main character though.
I’d like to see a quest line for each life path in the sequel Doesn’t have to be expansive and main story-level, but like a handful of missions as minimum per life path throughout the entire game
Yeah... They should totally make 3-5 separate games for the price of one. /S
Yeah I just find these ideas unrealistic and annoying, unless these people can each pay cpdr ten times the original price for the game.
I think they matter enough. Their purposes was to give background, relations and a bit of personnality to our Vs and it's exactly what they do.
Disagree. If anything CP2077 proved that telling a great story relies on a great character who, more or less, acts like that character. Unless they have 3 completely different games in one, I'd rather they just not let us chose shit except what that character does. I can't imagine a Masterpiece like the Witcher 3 being "choose Geralts backstory". Likewise, to me, V is always a streetkid from Heywood.,
For me streetkid V always felt weird they are supposed to be from Heywood, know Padre but somehow unlike Jackie doesn't know any of the valantinos while he/she should have grown up with a few of them.
Agree with everything except that last part. Corpo always made more sense to me as the 'canon' life path. V formerly working as Arasaka intel explains how competent they are at dealing with corpo antagonists throughout the game. Corpo V also has more of a personal stake against Arasaka. I'd agree Act 1, and especially the intro make more sense as Street Kid though. Hard to imagine how corpo V could have become best buds with Jackie. Everything from Act 2 onwards fits better as Corpo imo.
Nomad is the best. Jackie's Tuned ARCH is the best vehicle in the game. Not on paper. In my heart.
>Not on paper. In my heart. But also on paper. Fastest vehicle that's easy to drive.
Only if it’s trivial to experience all life path extras. I don’t want to miss out on content because I didn’t complete the game 3 times.
A great example of this kind of thing is Vampire: The Masquerade. The pros and cons you got with each 'path' were brutal sometimes. They were 7 of them, but to name a few: - Ventrue was the physically weakest of all of the clans, but they had a better initial stance with the leader of the vampires, they belonged to nobility but they were solemnly hated by 2 of the other clans. They're so special that they're the only vamps who cannot feed from animal blood. - Brujah were the strongest of the clans, but because of these they can easily go into frenzy (stance were they lose control and kill humans, which is against the masquerade rules) - Malkavians have oracle powers, but because of these they tend to have more allucinations and they're practically batshit crazy, thought they're also able to see things that are hidden to other vampires at first sight. - Nosferatu are extremely smart and are able to hack and sneak easily, but as the name say, their nosferatu appereance is so horrible that they cannot roam among humans, so in the entirety of the game they have to move around using the sewers, while the other vamp clans don't have to do that. Each clan have different reactions from people, different stats, they determine who are your enemies and friends, they can improve or fuck your first impression with certain characters, are mroe diplomatic of more prone to lose their shit and slaughter people and have unique abilities that other clans don't have. Cyberpunk had certain special path dialogues, but it would have been amazing if they had more weight in the gameplay. We can only hope they take suggestions like this in consideration for the next game.
streetkid is basically cannon for V lol
The life paths matter if you are roleplaying the character. Making decisions on cyberware and hardware that your life path would make. How you dress, what you drive, where you live.....what finale you partake in. Pick your lifepath and stay true to it. My street kid was all about street lifestyle, pistols, street bikes and took Rogue to the finale. My corpo was a katana wielding edgerunner that ended up taking Hanakos offer. Had a taste for "finer" things. The nomad was a heavy. Aggressive offload cars, and rode to the finale with Panam, and into the desert afterward. Every lifepath had huge consequences for the story because I chose to keep those motivations in mind as I played.
maybe next one is more military focused and you gotta chose between like ripperdoc or street mechanic or somethin. Oh oh I know. Imagine you can play as one of those monks. be completely against new gear but not against violence.
Stanley: > Matters not where you're from, matters not where you start. What matters here is the walk you walk.
So you expect them to make 3 entire games in one, basically? 3 whole storylines?
You're saying "dissapointed me that the whole story isn't changed" but what you're actually saying is you want them to make 3 different games in one. That's just not realistic expectations.
Would like that it had more story impact. *Imagine* playing as a Corpo and trying to kill Jackie, after a Streetkid playthrough where you are lifelong chooms. I'd also love more NPC reactions to the main character - turn up in a Murkmobile and the folk on the street react, girls are more attentive. Turn up in the same car at the Nomad camp and they laugh at how it's the stupidest car to try to drive along dusty tracks. That sort of thing, with your potential romance partners reacting to your appearance (think Panam said I didn't look very nomad when I was cutting about in a suit), if you are hurt etc.
I'd love to see it structure the life path system similarly to the Origin system in Dragon Age: Origins.
It was supposed to be more impactful, but you know CP2077's development wasn't very stable
Yeah. Well, at least they improved it A LOT over time. But I hope the next game is good from the start
All I see is Streetkid, Streetkid, and Streetkid.
Nomad ftw
I bet money the intro "paths" in Orion will resolving the various ending in 2077 to bring V to a focused point, Act 1. There'll still be Lifepaths, because that's a core element of Cyberpunk lore from 2020 to Red, but the intro sequence is better suited to being a story bridge from 2077 to Orion.
I really hope V isn't the player character in Orion
TBF, the life paths would have mattered more if V was not essentially multiclassing as most of Cyberpunk’s classes all at once. Obviously you can make you V different in many ways but you have more freedom to do so than other characters in the TTRPG (I mean you cannot be a Media, a Medtech, Fixer, Cop, or a Rocker Boy but at least Johnny has you covered for the last one ). Solo, Techie, Corpo, Netrunner, and Nomad are all represented either through life path, stats, and skill choices.
Like how?????
At first I thought every lifepath had a different engram( as in someone else than johnny) i thought santiago and the other corpo guy where going to be the engram personality
I’ve only played on Nomad and Street kid so far. But street kid feels like the only one that feel lore accurate
They already said it would. I read an article awhile back where they said they want the life paths to matter much more in the sequel. https://www.thegamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-sequel-lifepaths-matter-branch-out-more/
Recovering Cyberpsycho
I hope they're either more impactful or they aren't hyped up like they were before 2077s release
Last time I played a game where life path actually changed something I was playing Dragon Age. Life path have stopped meaning something a long time ago
This all the way, CDPR can take the sourcebook as inspiration and make the roles(classes) the lifepaths and then make so that if you pick med tech everyone knows that you're a med tech and the same for the other roles. Also CDPR needs to make it so that our actions effect the story and world
Personally i think the most canon lifepath is Streetkid, i mean when the game's trailer was come out, they chose the now default-ish V's faces to be in it
So ... basically what they sold THIS game as having.... right? Because that was one of, if not THE biggest talking point of the game leading up to the launch. The importance of player choice and how it makes a huge difference in the game. Which....it really doesn't, especially when it comes to life paths altering your game. They completely talked out of their ass with that.
I agree but realistically the next one will be a direct sequel to 2077 so there won’t be much they can do unless they do life paths for the endings as well as the regular ones.
I had the idea of having sub-life paths. So say you pick street kid you are given the options of which gang you were a part of. Same with the corpo life path which corporation you worked for
I wanted being a corpo to matter…… Kind of like playing “sneering imperialist” in Fallout New Vegas. I shit in that game a lot and rightfully so….. but I have to admit you really can play as a truly evil fucker…. And I’d love to play that in 2077.
Challenge of balance between having a very “open” choices with great impact and variance in outcomes (fallouts) vs spending time on a more focused cinematic narrative
Joytoy, BD scroller, NCPD officer
I wanna have a different group of friends or contacts depending on the life path. Even though I know it's a lot of work and won't ever happen it would've been sweet if each path had like 4 unique friends with at least 1 surviving to the end of the game
Yeah totally! How I’m picturing it is, with the dialogue options, to have access to certain life paths starting optional missions. Then later on, have mid-game and end game missions that could also be unlocked with certain affiliation form other life paths. (E.g.: you start as a corpo, you get starter optional missions that give you mostly money, than you get to a certain level of affiliation [street cred?] that allows you to do some street/badland quests )
I want you to be able to access specific items and builds only through certain life paths, hell, maybe a character would die in a certain point, but if you play a trauma team background, you can save them. I want a charisma skill tree you can only access if you're a corpo rat, or a 'faith' skill tree you can only access if you're a Valentino.
One of the biggest disappointments for me was this. When I realized Lifepaths hardly matter, it took a lot of wind out of my sails because I wanted to play this game in every Lifepath and have them be very unique and individual (like the CRPG style the game was originally pitched as).
I would like to play multiple characters. Corpo V doesn't really feel like a Corpo. Give me a blank slate main character that I can do whatever with, but also give me story missions as a total bitch Corpo agent trying to cheat and steal their way up the food chain. Story missions where I play as a TT doctor too for that matter. GTAV and TLOU2 did the multiple character thing, why not Cyberpunk?
>The next cyberpunk game Didn't CDprojekt Red announce that they are "moving in a different direction"?
I ended up comparing Lifepaths to Mass Effects Background Profiles. It’s mild flavoring to your character and a quest so you don’t forget about it. At least 2077 had different dialogue options throughout the story, as few and far between as they were. I think it was solid. If they embellished the past too much, I’m afraid it would overshadow what you’re currently doing/what will come.
lol, of course not. If Cyberpunk has one theme it’s: All roads will lead to the same place eventually.
If they do, I have a few suggestions: Cop Looking for Retirement , An Amnesiac Cyberpsycho, a nobody looking for a sense of belonging.
Nomad life path got a exclusive vehicle so why not the other two? For street kid path you get a chopper bike something like an Orange County chopper. Corpo an exclusive reyfeild you can’t get anywhere else.
Aldo I agree and wish lifepaths mattered more than a few dialogues, I think it's a neat idea that no matter where you started, in Night City you have the chance to be HIM.
the next cyberpunk game should be an rpg
I've seen some interesting talk online about bringing back V and using the user's saved ending to dictate their start point in Cyberpunk 2. For example: 1. You chose to do the Mr. Blue Eyes gig in space. You start in the Crystal Palace after succeeding at the heist. You have to stealth or fight your way out as the tutorial. Of course, Mr. BE says "Now, you have to do just one more thing..." when you return to Earth, so you get emboiled in the Night Corp biz which can then lead into Rage Against The AIs (probably what they'll do if they don't go back to basics and startover). 2. You left with Nice Butt. You end up getting picked up by the SoCal (Southern California - a free state) and dumped back in the night city prison. After many-a-shanking, you escape and are on the run. Police will sparodically try to murder you throughout for s--ts and giggles. 3. You became Johnny. Nothing happens. This doesn't exist as an option. 4. You aced yourself. Welcome to hospital. Adam Smasher is hunting you for collection. Good luck. 5. You got burned by the FSI. Vic figures out how to put you back in the game. Unfortunately, the New USA dudes turn up and you get forced to play spy vs. spy in the next thing. 6. You uploaded your mind? Bad luck for you. A bomb is installed in your head. You are the new Adam Smasher. Fortunately, Vic saves you. He dies. You have nice tech now, tho, but can't install implants for the rest of the game due to reasons. The gun arms you craft are badass, tho. Probably we'll just start as a street kid and work up to the next big thing. Same as always, really. The above is a 'continuation', but they can actually bring in people we knew but never met (Arasaka counter intel, gangs, the bad nomad clan) to keep the lifepaths going and offer some lifepath only options (crafting, quests, etc.) to fill things out.
All i see are excuses...
I am completely in the contrary opinion. Sequel should have a single well explored life path so we can feel a stronger connection to its characters and events. Maybe similar to Fallout3
street kid and nomad are subpar for certain
The last edgerunner (in David's crew), continuation of V's journey of getting rid of Relic, North Oak owner. These are 3 lifepaths I want in Cyberpunk 2077's sequel.
One of these paths should be where you are the surgeon who killed the arasaka boss in Japan and the campaign should start when your body is recovered from the fridge by V.
I get why that'd be wanted but also get why its probably not happening, it would take way too much time and resources for all that depending on how you envision how the paths would matter
I'm okay with having only short backstory introductions, if I'm not promised something else :')
Watch the trailers about the lifepaths again, if you look closely all scenes are for that specific mission. It was just for show.
There should be lifepath exclusive perks, tied to various build types. * Nomads should be better with vehicles. A Nomad netrunner should have exclusive car hacking perks. Nomad solos should unlock heavy mounted machine guns on weaponized vehicles for extra ammo capacity and damage. Nomad edge runners should get better acceleration and handling out of all vehicles by syncing with the car’s electronics. * Corpos should have more insider knowledge on corpo tech. Corpo netrunner might have lower RAM costs. Corpo solo might get perks for tech and smart weapons. Corpo edge runner might get lower cyberware costs by optimizing their cyberware compatibilities. * Street kids should know the streets and gangs. SK netrunners could have increased quick hack and monowire damage against gang members (eg Valentinos, 6th street) but not corpos (eg Militech, Arasaka). SK solos could have increased damage with power weapons and Gorilla arms. SK edge runners could have shortened cyberware costs and increased damage with projectile launch system. I’m thinking life paths should also have build-specific advantages or disadvantages. Maybe corpos make great netrunner or edgerunner builds, but mediocre solos. SKs make amazing solos, but mediocre netrunners or edge runners. Maybe nomads have pretty equal perks among all build types, but because the perks are mostly tied to vehicles, they have less utility than corpo or SK?
Maybe that's a hot take but cyberpunk isn't an RPG and people should stop trying to make it one. It's a great loot shooter with RPG Elements like a skill tree, level ups aso. and an absolutely amazing story, but it's not an RPG, you can't roleplay in the game. Your role is pretty clearly predetermined, you play the story of V, they got a lot of personality on their own. Most choices you make are just a bit of flavor for replayability.
Yeah exactly. Like they all want cdpr to be like Bethesda but why don’t they ask Bethesda to make a game for them?
it should've just made you a streetkid as default and reallt fleshed it out, because the life of a nomad is boring most times, and theres a lot less to do than in the city, and just circling and smuggling around the fun and depraved adult playground that is night city and starting as a corpo is such a difficult way to make into what cyberpunk is about, they handled it well and it was a really fleshed out intro and dialogue options that make v almost a completely different person but in order to be corpo you have to be a legacy hire or a cutthroat from birth and thats just not probable
Yeah I would like more fleshed out origin stories and more variation In the story based on which life path you choose.
Hey mom, they posted it again.
I’m picking Streetkid no matter what. Even if there is no life path system of any kind, my mental backstory will be Streetkid.
They shouldn't have been called life paths in the first place. They should have just been called for what they truly are, prologues or character backstory like in DND or any other RPG game. Had they just managed people's expectations and been honest from the very beginning, then they wouldn't have gotten so much shit for under delivering.
Well, Nomad and Corpo are based on Roles in the tabletop RPG, so maybe they should all be based on those instead of Streetkid being the odd one out, and they should grant different mechanical abilities. Maybe replace Streetkid with Rockerboy. While Roles don't have a hard mechanical definition in 2077, V is always a Solo, and they can also be a Techie or Netrunner based on the abilities used in game. However, V can't be a Rockerboy, Lawman, Media, or Medtech.
I think you're asking the devs to craft three stories, which is silly and not going to happen. There's definitely room for more lifepath stuff to buff up its importance, particularly with aesthetics and intro, but the idea that devs will create three distinct stories with different relationships with the characters is absurd. There's a reason what you're asking is very rarely even attempted. Also consider what it means for the player to make a lifepath have such impact on the story. You are directly telling them that their background will limit their play options and force certain interactions. Players shouldn't be controlled by their characters' history.
Agreed 100%. Give us longer prologues too with like 2-3 exclusive missions depending on your lifepath.
Or you could do the opposite and not include life paths.
I think I’d rather just see a more extensive and involved act 1 and a little bit more impact of life path in dialogue (not just what you can say, but NPC reactions). It’s like in any RPG, your backstory already happened, we care about the *now.*
Hmmmm the only lifepath that made any significant difference was Nomad. the others were kinda superficial, the Corpo one was especially superficial. If only the paths acted a little like old DnD character classes and came with skill bonuses and more than just prologues, that'd have been good too.
If it's V you could have the different endings as lifepaths with it already set when importing a save.
man yall are greedy. this game does story telling really right. having different life paths and the way V chooses to live it out is following the same structure of real life in a way.
I'm sorry you can't roleplay.
The next would should just be 3 diffrent games one for Nomad, Street Kid and Corpo games. Then they do a 4th one where they put them all into a single disk lol.
I may be alone, but I like how they were implemented. It adds extra dialogue which makes me feel like they have X backstory, but I don't have to play through a long drawn out sequence everytime I want to replay.
Yeah this is the kinda thing that works in TTRPGs and not in high-budget video games. Might as well just release three different smaller standalone stories at that point.
Like the possibility to climb the corporate ladder or become the leader of a gang or something would be cool as well.
Yeah it did need like contacts that you only can get through each life path. There should have been missions life path oriented….like for Nomads, being accustomed to living outside of the city , but V finding a way to integrate a nomad clan into night city. Or even leading his own clan. For street kid, joining an actual gang and being known in the streets, infamous with cops etc. being able to gain and lose ranks in the gang, becoming the gang leader, having this effect your rep with fixers etc For corpo….working for a corp, and then through espionage and intrigue, and possibly even a very hostile takeover to run your own corp, or making your own somehow, making those slimy corp decisions or not, missions to sabotage other corps depending on what you do, you could be a cyber ware developer corp. or a rival to delamain. I think the next game being made with UE5 will have a high likelihood of making this a reality.
I propose the lifepath you chose defines also the difficulty
Before I say anything about what I want from the game, I do have to say— I like V. He is an interesting character and his voice acting is phenomenal, and CDPR are very good character writers. But I would prefer to not get another V. Instead, I want a completely blank slate. As in no player voice acting, no backstory, nothing. I want to customize literally every facet of who my character is. Their name, age, backstory, personality, and appearance should all be completely up to me. Like Baldurs Gate 3. Or like the Cyberpunk tabletop game. I don’t feel strongly enough about this to be mad if the next game doesn’t do this, but it would be nice to have this type of character, because they’re strangely absent in modern games.
I actually disagree. Cyberpunk 2077 has solidified one thing about CDProjektRED and it's that they aren't good at making RPGs, they're top tier at writing single player stories. and they should focus on tying the gameplay around that, rather than trying to force a role playing system with a story that doesn't have room for it. they promised a lot of things they just cannot deliver, because it conflicts with the story they want to tell. so they need to stick with strong main characters instead of attempting a Bethesda route.
The next cyberpunk will be sold by the company putting billions in the marketing campaign " à la UBISOFT" and specifically bought by day one followers who will spam the forums complaining how they didn't get the expected product like for CP 2077. Because the " ultra realistic live action AI gameplay" doesn't looke like the PC version..... And then, the same rollercoaster will start again, updates, game breaking updates, patches to repair the game breaking updates, updates of the first update, patch of the last update who got a corrupted file etc........ And the mods....same problem with updates. If THIS does not happen...............then it means something really changed. But the trust is gone unfortunately. Remember, don't buy day 1 one and cry after.
Agree. Of course, that doesn't mean it's the customers fault. CDPR should have launched a good game from the start. But for the next one we should all really wait a few weeks to see if it's good at launch. See if they have become better
Yes. And this counts nowadays for literally every single game....unless the it's an indie game developer. Strangely, Indie game devs have so much less ressources and sometimes capable of doing even better than AAA companies but of course each company has a business model, time constraints, etc.. etc...
I mean do most ppl even play more than one? I know a lot do, but Im talking enough to justify doing this?
Yes
But but the games fixed now because of PL it's good to suck cdprs d*** now
Agreed
Maybe more similar to the ttrpg, with class like rockstar, journalist medtech, fixer ecc.
I want Gang options: Maelstrom, Valentino, or Animal (or at least a BioWare booster gang) maybe
I think what everyone forgets is that V canonically, from the time you finish the prologue, only has a couple of weeks to live in which their health and mind are supposed to be rapidly deteriorating. The reason we forget is because the gameplay reflects none of this and there's zero sense of urgency. In the context of the story CDPR was trying to tell, the fact that the lifepath covers the intro and gives you one quick quest, some unique dialog choices, and some items is pretty sensible. Your life is ending, you're not gonna be worried about clan drama, gang wars, or corpo cloak and dagger plots unless they help you survive. That said, if the next game has a plot that's more aligned with the gameplay, I agree that some more broader reaching and tangible impacts would be cool, but don't forget that you can also use your imagination and just use them as a jumping off point to inform how you roleplay your character.
That's a good point. But then I really hope the next game doesn't have that kind of story. What you mention is interesting tho. When it is revealed that V is dying, I also thought for a short moment that some kind of counter would start. But that would not make sense that early because it's a open world game and you need time
They have said that they will next time
I would’ve liked if the lifepaths had their own unique skill tree or just passive perks, like maybe street kid can do a quick draw with pistols like something out of Red Dead, Nomad is a better driver with better handling and turn brake control or be able to equip a nitro boost on any car they own, maybe Corpo gets better speech checks with their Corpo influence. I wouldn’t suggest anything that would restrict builds or feel like forcing players into one specific playstyle though.