While Cyberpunk 2077 protagonist V is yours to shape, CD Projekt Red intentionally takes the wheel for narrative effect and to undermine your choices. If that feels uncomfortable, that's because it's supposed to.
Over on the ol' global town square, one fan points out that V states their preference not to smoke fairly in the game. Later on, as V's consciousness begins to merge with rocker-boy Johnny Silverhand, V smokes. It's not because they've got into the habit, but because Silverhand has done so for ages and your mind isn't entirely your own anymore.
The observation caught the attention of a very impressed quest lead, Pawel Sasko.
"Great eye my choom, that was exactly the intent — to show how slowly Johnny’s personality blends with V, through small subtle actions, and from the first confrontation when he tried to kill V transform this relationship into deep and meaningful bond, braided empathy and regret," he says.
Not everyone is on board, though. Some have replied to Sasko to say an RPG is, well, an RPG – that should mean your V is yours to shape entirely. For Sasko, though, that's even more reason to take away the sort of control you'd expect from the genre.
"But that was the point, it was meant to feel a little uncomfortable, what is happening to you," he says. "The game deals with terminal illness, it's not a voluntary state, we are using RPG game mechanics to illustrate it."
Feelings aside, it's cool that Cyberpunk 2077's small flourishes are still being uncovered and picked apart many years after launch. We've had expansions, Edgerunners-themed updates, and plenty of patches in between, but Cyberpunk 2077 has remained fairly complete narratively for a while, and as we head towards Cyberpunk 2, what better to mull over than narrative beats? I'm sure CDPR would rather people talk about that over how the game launched; that's for sure.
