Most are just a phone conversation away, too: since this is the future, you often don’t even have to go looking for quest givers because people will just call to offer you a job.
If most game structures are built like a redwood tree, with a tall central trunk that has paths branching off it as you go higher, Cyberpunk 2077 is more like a large bush: you don’t have to travel down its main quest very far at all to have dozens of tangled branches already within your reach, all competing for your attention. The structure here feels very different from many RPGs I’ve played, including CD Projekt Red’s own The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Once past the intro, you can go wherever you want on the sprawling map that is Night City certain neighborhoods may have tougher enemies than others, but generally speaking no one’s going to shoot you on sight unless you go looking for trouble – and from the early hours you’ll already have enough side quests to keep you busy for a long time. That opening segment is slightly restrictive relative to what comes later, but it does an incredible job of creating a sense of investment in V’s struggle, and then keeping that going as the main quests slowly dial up the heat. Once I got past Cyberpunk 2077’s slow burn of an intro – it initially took me six hours to even reach the moment where the logo is splashed across the screen for the first time – I was all in on this story.
Even still, Johnny’s confrontational relationship with V and the eventual growth between them is the anchor of this story as they fight to find a solution to the shared mess they find themselves in.
Johnny, played by the instantly recognizable Keanu Reeves, is a wonderfully dislikable jackass – even if, to be blunt, Reeves’ stiff performance is easily the weakest of an otherwise extremely impressive cast. You’re thrust into the shoes of V, a mercenary in Night City who (avoiding spoilers as much as I can) ends up with the psyche of long-dead rockstar and anti-corporate terrorist Johnny Silverhand trapped in their head. This more freeform structure isn’t without its faults, including loads of distracting bugs, but the strength of the missions themselves – optional or not – and the choice you have within them make Cyberpunk 2077 one of the most exciting, emotional, and just plain fun RPGs I’ve played in recent years. Apart from the surprisingly short but still utterly compelling central questline that draws you through its diverse near-future cityscape, the vast majority of what you can do in Night City is entirely optional but often still extremely impactful on your journey. With Cyberpunk 2077, developer CD Projekt Red has taken that philosophy and built an entire game out of it. In my experience, great open-world RPGs like The Witcher 3 or Skyrim aren't defined by the strength of their main story, but that of the side missions around it.
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