Excitement for Cyberpunk 2077 is ramping up as its release date draws nearer, and CD Projekt Red has been sharing more about the game in recent weeks. Interested fans have many questions about the game and its protagonist, a character known only as “V.”
Recently, CD Projekt Red revealed a little more about V; specifically, the different backstories that players could choose from that would define their playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077. Players will be able to give V one of three “life paths”: that of the Corporate, the Street Kid, or the Nomad, all of them representing different personalities for V.
The Corporate
Cyberpunk 2077’s first optional life path is that of the corporate. In this life path, the player character starts the game in the high-pressure corporate job of an Arasaka agent, with the best military-grade cyberware out there installed right into their bodies. This life path is the one that supposedly “has it all,” despite the stress that comes along with such a high-stakes job. When playing the corporate life path, players begin the game in the Arasaka Tower, meaning players will be able to explore the area (and the nature of the megecorporation itself) right off the bat.
During the first few hours of gameplay, the each of the life paths take the protagonist, V, through very different stories. In V’s corporate version of life, they are tasked by their boss, Arthur Jenkins, with taking out another member of Arasaka who got promoted ahead of him. V heads to a bar and meets up with one Jackie Welles, with whom they’re already long-time friends, to plot out the assassination - but before they can get very far, Arasaka (led by V’s target) bursts in on them and fires V from the company, stripping them of their cyberware and corporate powers in the process.
The Street Kid
Street Kids in Cyberpunk 2077 don’t have as much insight into the Arasaka megacorp as those on the Corporate life path, but they know the city (and its underbelly) like the back of their hand. The version of V on thise life path is known for their street smarts and street cred, their underworld connections and their resourcefulness, as those are the tools V uses to get by in life. This version of V also has a different kind of ambition, as someone who has never had much and is always striving for more.
The Street Kid path starts out in a bar - completely different from where the Corporate path starts - where V is nursing a broken nose and figuring out how to settle their bar tab. That leads into V taking a job to steal a vehicle, one that is owned by a corporate from Arasaka. Needless to say, the journey goes awry, with V running into a fellow thief attempting to steal the same car (Jackie Welles, who they’re just meeting for the first time in this path) before being interrupted by the police and the corporate owner of the car, who tries to have the two of them killed.
The Nomad
Where the Corporate and the Street Kid begin their paths within Night City, the Nomad starts outside of the city altogether, in a small town mechanic’s garage. As a general rule, nomads travel about the world in groups, but this version of V has struck out on their own in the Badlands outside of Night City, having made themselves familiar with the territory. Despite being a lone wolf and generally off-the-grid, V begins the game preparing to travel to Night City with some special cargo hidden in their car.
This version of V also isn’t familiar with Jackie Welles before the character is introduced as V’s point of contact for a smuggling job. Jackie hands over a package that he and V will be transporting to Night City, and the pair sets off. As it turns out, the whole job is a setup: V and Jackie are cornered at the Night City border crossing, prompting a chase in which they either kill or evade all of the Arasaka guards pursuing them and eventually hide out in a garage. Naturally, curiosity prompts V to open up the package and see what all the full was about…and inside is a real, live iguana.
It’s clear how these paths all take V to a similar point: one where they end up doing jobs with Jackie Welles for a certain amount of time before the game’s main plot kicks in. However, it’s also clear that each character life path gives players a vastly different experience at the beginning of the game, and likely will continue to make a difference throughout the rest of it too.
Hopefully, CD Projekt Red’s new approach to RPG-making and character backgrounds will turn out to be as interesting and diverse as it appears now.
Cyberpunk 2077 is set to release November 19th, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a PS5, Stadia, and Xbox Series X version planned for the future.
