History VideoGame / Cyberpunk2077

[[PlayerCharacter You play as]] [[OneLetterName V]], an [[HiredGuns edgerunner]] looking to make it to the big time and become a Night City legend. However, in a city already packed full of [[{{Cyborg}} cyber-enhanced]] street warriors, savvy [[TheCracker Netrunners]] and literal CorporateSamurai, becoming an UrbanLegend takes pulling something so big, nothing else compares. So V agrees to a once in a lifetime heist at Arasaka's headquarters where things go very wrong, very quickly, leaving V on the verge of death with the digital ghost of rock star Johnny Silverhand stuck in their brain.

Location: Night City, [[DividedStatesOfAmerica Free State]] of UsefulNotes/{{California}}. Year: 2077. [[CrapsackWorld The world is broken]]. {{MegaCorp}}s manage every aspect of life from the top floors of their sky-scraping fortresses. Down below, the streets are run by gangsters, tech hustlers, and illegal braindance slingers. The in-between is where decadence, sex and pop culture mix with violent crime, extreme poverty and the unattainable promise of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream.

You play as [[OneLetterName V]], an [[HiredGuns Edgerunner]] looking to make it to the big time and become a Night City legend. However, in a city already packed full of [[{{Cyborg}} cyber-enhanced]] street warriors, savvy [[TheCracker Netrunners]] and literal CorporateSamurai, becoming an UrbanLegend takes pulling something so big, nothing else compares. So V agrees to a once in a lifetime heist at Arasaka's headquarters where things go very wrong, very quickly, leaving V on the verge of death with the digital ghost of rock star Johnny Silverhand stuck in their brain.

Location: Night City, [[DividedStatesOfAmerica Free State]] of UsefulNotes/{{California}}. Year: 2077. [[CrapsackWorld The world is broken]]. {{MegaCorp}}s manage every aspect of life from the top floors of their sky-scraping fortresses. Down below, the streets are run by gangsters, tech hustlers, and illegal braindance slingers. The in-between is where decadence, sex and pop culture mix with violent crime, extreme inequality and the unattainable promise of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream.

You play as [[OneLetterName V]], an [[HiredGuns Edgerunner]] looking to make it big and become a Night City legend. However, in a city already packed full of [[{{Cyborg}} cyber-enhanced]] street warriors, savvy [[TheCracker Netrunners]] and literal CorporateSamurai, becoming an UrbanLegend takes pulling something so big, nothing else compares. So V agrees to a once in a lifetime heist at Arasaka's headquarters where things go very wrong, very quickly, leaving V with the ghost of long dead rock star Johnny Silverhand stuck in their brain.

You play as [[OneLetterName V]], an [[HiredGuns Edgerunner]] looking to make it big and become a Night City legend. However, in a city already packed full of [[{{Cyborg}} cyber-enhanced]] street warriors, savvy [[TheCracker Netrunners]] and literal CorporateSamurai, becoming an UrbanLegend takes pulling something so big, nothing else compares. So V agrees to a once in a lifetime heist at Arasaka's headquarters and things go very wrong, very quickly, leaving V with the ghost of long dead rock star Johnny Silverhand stuck in their brain.

Location: Night City, [[DividedStatesOfAmerica Free State]] of UsefulNotes/{{California}}. Year: 2077. [[CrapsackWorld The world is broken]]. {{MegaCorp}}s manage every aspect of life from the top floors of their sky-scraping fortresses. Down below, the streets are run by drug-pushing gangs, tech hustlers, and illegal braindance slingers. The in-between is where decadence, sex and pop culture mix with violent crime, extreme poverty and the unattainable promise of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream. You are [[OneLetterName V]], an [[HiredGuns Edgerunner]] looking to make it big and become a Night City legend. However, in a city already packed full of unstoppable [[{{Cyborg}} cyber-enhanced]] street warriors, savvy [[TheCracker netrunners]] and ruthless [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corporate life-hackers]], becoming an UrbanLegend takes pulling something so big, nothing else compares. But some legends aren't made easy, and yours will be marked with the death of friends, the fall of an emperor, and many other crazy stunts.

Location: Night City, [[DividedStatesOfAmerica Free State]] of UsefulNotes/{{California}}. Year: 2077. [[CrapsackWorld The world is broken]]. {{MegaCorp}}s manage every aspect of life from the top floors of their sky-scraping fortresses. Down below, the streets are run by drug-pushing gangs, tech hustlers, and illegal braindance slingers. The in-between is where decadence, sex and pop culture mix with violent crime, extreme poverty and the unattainable promise of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream. You are [[OneLetterName V]], a [[TitleDrop cyberpunk]]. And [[InAWorld in a world]] of [[{{Cyborg}} cyber-enhanced]] street warriors, tech-savvy [[TheCracker netrunners]] and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corporate life-hackers]], today is your first step to becoming an {{Urban Legend|s}}. But some legends aren't made easy, and yours will be marked with the death of friends, the fall of an emperor, and many other crazy stunts.

''Cyberpunk 2077'' is an ActionRPG game developed by Creator/CDProjektRed based on Creator/RTalsorianGames' ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'' TabletopRPG. The title is CD Projekt RED's first new property since they started developing ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' game series. Unlike the LowFantasy world of ''The Witcher'', however, ''Cyberpunk'' is, as its name suggests, set in a dystopian futuristic world in which ultra-modern technology co-exists with a degenerated human society.

Year 2077. Night City, [[DividedStatesOfAmerica Free State]] of UsefulNotes/{{California}}. [[CrapsackWorld The world is broken]]. {{MegaCorp}}s manage every aspect of life from the top floors of their sky-scraping fortresses. Down below, the streets are run by drug-pushing gangs, tech hustlers, and illegal braindance slingers. The in-between is where decadence, sex and pop culture mix with violent crime, extreme poverty and the unattainable promise of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream. You are [[OneLetterName V]], a [[TitleDrop cyberpunk]]. And [[InAWorld in a world]] of [[{{Cyborg}} cyber-enhanced]] street warriors, tech-savvy [[TheCracker netrunners]] and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corporate life-hackers]], today is your first step to becoming an {{Urban Legend|s}}. But some legends aren't made easy, and yours will be marked with the death of friends, the fall of an emperor, and many other crazy stunts.

On September 6th, 2022, in a stream to promote the "Edgerunners" update celebrating the nearing release of the [[Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners spin-off anime]] sharing its name, a [[DownloadableContent DLC]] expansion titled ''[[VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077PhantomLiberty Phantom Liberty]]'' was announced for [[UsefulNotes/TheNinthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames ninth generation consoles]] and PC, and released a year later on September 26, 2023. It's a SpyFiction story, with V taking an oath to assist the government of the [=NUSA=] in rescuing the President from Dogtown, a never-before explored district of Night City. Creator/KeanuReeves reprises his role of Johnny Silverhand and keeps his status of {{Deuteragonist}} throughout the campaign, and Creator/IdrisElba appears as FIA Agent Solomon Reed.

The game was released on December 10, 2020 for UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows (via GOG, Steam, and Epic Games Store), UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne and UsefulNotes/GoogleStadia. On February 15, 2022, native versions for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 and UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXAndS were released, free for those who already owned the previous generation versions via backwards compatibility.

On September 6th, 2022, in a stream to promote the "Edgerunners" update celebrating the nearing release of the [[Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners spin-off anime]] sharing its name, the game's major [[DownloadableContent DLC]], titled "[[VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077PhantomLiberty Phantom Liberty]]", was announced for [[UsefulNotes/TheNinthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames ninth generation consoles]] and PC, and released a year later on September 26, 2023. It's a SpyFiction story, with V taking an oath to assist the government of the [=NUSA=] in rescuing the President from Dogtown, a never-before explored district of Night City. Creator/KeanuReeves reprises his role of Johnny Silverhand and keeps his status of {{Deuteragonist}} throughout the campaign, and Creator/IdrisElba appears as FIA Agent Solomon Reed.

On September 6th, 2022, in a stream to promote the "Edgerunners" update celebrating the nearing release of the [[Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners spin-off anime]] sharing its name, the game's major [[DownloadableContent DLC]], titled "Phantom Liberty", was announced for [[UsefulNotes/TheNinthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames ninth generation consoles]] and PC, and released a year later on September 26, 2023. It's a SpyFiction story, with V taking an oath to assist the government of the [=NUSA=] in rescuing the President from Dogtown, a never-before explored district of Night City. Creator/KeanuReeves reprises his role of Johnny Silverhand and keeps his status of {{Deuteragonist}} throughout the campaign, and Creator/IdrisElba appears as FIA Agent Solomon Reed.

[[folder:''Phantom Liberty'']]
* AntiFrustrationFeatures: If you don't want to slog through the game just to reach the expansion, don't worry, CDPR's got you covered. Similar to the expansions from ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'', you have the option of immediately jumping into the expansion without playing the base game, though doing so gives you a preset loadout, starting off at Level 15 with 20000 eddies to your name. Your attributes are pre-selected, but you are able to redistribute your points after getting past the first mission (though you'll only be able to do so once).
* ArcVillain: Kurt Hansen, the leader of Barghest, is the expansion's BigBad and a direct threat to V. Its on his orders that the Barghest and all of Dogtown want Rosalind Myers head on a pike.
* BittersweetEnding: The unique ending to the main game exclusive to concluding the Phantom Liberty expansion [[spoiler:"Who Wants To Live Forever" is this to a tee, with a startling sense of SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome to nearly every everyone's fates by the end of the story: sure, V survives and is able be rid of the Relic — but the damage is already done and Johnny ''has'' to die to ensure the procedure works, the end result leaves V [[HandicappedBadass unable to use combat chrome ever again]] or else die. Not just that, but the consequences of the operation left V in a coma for two years, which has the whole world literally move on from them; old acquaintances have either left, died, or been forced into different circumstances, and despite pining and hoping for V to return in some manner, everyone chose their own lives rather than wait for the hope that V will ''somehow'' come back, and when they do, no one is willing to upend their newfound lives just to accommodate getting back to "how it was". Even matters not directly relating to V show just how little effect ''anyone'' has on this world, as the supposed BigBad of the main game, Yorinobu Arasaka, is revealed to have been removed from power rather anticlimactically by a unilateral decision to just have him disposed of despite being ''the'' CEO and a heir to the company, [[WellIntentionedExtremist rendering his plan to demonize Arasaka and free the world from the tyranny of corporations]] meaningless, with the most damage done being that Arasaka is forced to secede from Night City and relocate it's primary focus to Japan exclusively, leaving numerous other Corporations to fill the vacuum Arasaka left behind. V, however, lives, and is able to go on with their life to do whatever they want with no deaths of his friends in his effort to save everyone.]]
* BlackMarket: While this can be found almost anywhere in Night City, Dogtown's black market has access to cyberware and weapons that can't be found anywhere else. One shop vender has mods and cyberware even a Maelstrom gangoon would feel envious of.
* EtTuBrute: The Cinematic Trailer shows shows Solomon Reed and So Mi all the way back in 2070. After helping Solomon get on board a train back to the NUSA, she locks him in a train car with a bunch of armed thugs and two Arasaka soldiers. Solomon quickly figures out she's screwed him over, and while it has yet to be explained Songbird betrayed him, she wasn't too happy to leave her friend to die.
* ForegoneConclusion: The Cinematic Trailer shows Solomon being gunned down by Arasaka soldiers in a train after being betrayed by Songbird. As shown in other trailers and previews, however, Solomon survived and went into hiding.
* GenreShift: Sort of. The developers explicitly describe the expansion as a "spy thriller" in contrast to the high-octane action and somber tone of the main game where you're desperately finding a way to get the Relic out of your head before it kills you. ''Phantom Liberty'' appropriately puts an emphasis on the 'spy' part by involving V with FIA operatives such as Songbird, who kicks off the expansion in the first place by offering V a potential cure.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P39n86v-T7w the Idris Elba Live-Action trailer]], he asks the audience "How do you win when the game is stacked against you? You go all in." Just in case you thought he was ''only'' talking about the expansion's story and not the fixes to the game itself, he ends the trailer with "Don't forget, the game is fixed." Phantom Liberty releases alongside the free (and final) 2.0 update from the game's infamously glitchy launch, and the main game has been widely considered "fixed" for some time.
* MultipleEndings: The expansion has two endings, one of which will unlock a new ending in the main game. [[spoiler:There's two ''routes'' that define the ending paths: either betraying Solomon Reed or betraying Songbird, and dependent on your choice, the final third of the expansion will have a completely different climax and ending confrontation from the other, but you can still achieve the other resolution that would come from betraying the other [[EtTuBrute by turning your back on your chosen ally at the final turn]]. The ending that affects the main game requires siding with Solomon Reed in either of the routes and [[FateWorseThanDeath selling out Songbird to him and the NUSA]], which allows V to buy a potential path to salvation by acquiring a surgery procedure up in Langley.]]
* WretchedHive: A ''worse'' wretched hive inside another, bigger wretched hive, to be exact. Dogtown is located in the Pacifica Combat Zone is just as lawless as Night City, if not worse. The gangs, corporations, and even the NCPD want nothing to do with the place, leaving the inhabitants to fend for themselves. It's also under the total control of Kurt Hansen, a former NUSA soldier who went AWOL and became a military tyrant, leading the Barghest to dominate the Combat Zone.
[[/folder]]

* DownerEnding: The unique ending to the main game exclusive to concluding the Phantom Liberty expansion [[spoiler:"Who Wants To Live Forever" is this to a tee, with a startling sense of SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome to nearly every everyone's fates by the end of the story: sure, V survives and is able be rid of the Relic — but the damage is already done and Johnny ''has'' to die to ensure the procedure works, the end result leaves V [[HandicappedBadass a complete cripple who can't use combat chrome ever again]] or else die. Not just that, but the consequences of the operation left V in a coma for two years, which has the whole world literally move on from them; old acquaintances have either left, died, or been forced into different circumstances, and despite pining and hoping for V to return in some manner, everyone chose their own lives rather than wait for the hope that V will ''somehow'' come back, and when they do, no one is willing to upend their newfound lives just to accommodate getting back to "how it was". Even matters not directly relating to V show just how little effect ''anyone'' has on this world, as the supposed BigBad of the main game, Yorinobu Arasaka, is revealed to have been removed from power rather anticlimactically by a unilateral decision to just have him disposed of despite being ''the'' CEO and a heir to the company, [[WellIntentionedExtremist rendering his plan to demonize Arasaka and free the world from the tyranny of corporations]] meaningless, with the most damage done being that Arasaka is forced to secede from Night City and relocate it's primary focus to Japan exclusively, leaving numerous other Corporations to fill the vacuum Arasaka left behind.]]

* MultipleEndings: Previews state the expansion has two endings, one of which will unlock a new ending in the main game.