Cyberpunk 2 May Have Grander Branching Storylines Based on Players' Starting Life Path

ign.com:

Cyberpunk 2, codenamed Orion, may feature grander branching storylines determined by the player's starting life path, which were Street Kid, Corpo, and Nomad in Cyberpunk 2077.

Speaking on the Answered Podcast, CD Projekt Red narrative director Philipp Weber said the Life Paths' lack of influence in the majority of Cyberpunk 2077 is something the studio wants to improve in future titles. While Weber is currently working on the next mainline Witcher game, codenamed Polaris, Cyberpunk's sequel is currently in the conceptual stages of development too.

"I do think there are things with, for example, the life paths, that kind of gives you a promise as being able to play more different kinds of characters," Weber said. "I think this is a thing where, in the future, that's as an example something we would like to improve. Since I do think we gave a promise there that maybe in the end we did not really sell."

Cyberpunk 2077's opening changes depending on which life path is chosen, but within an hour the three essentially merge into the one main story. While it does have various branching paths and different choices of its own, the influence of life paths is subsequently limited to occasional additional dialogue options.

"The game begins with this very specific thing, you can be a Nomad, a Corpo, a Street Kid, but then it sometimes goes away a little bit. We move it all together. Then sometimes you can do it," Weber said. "As a quest designer, I think in retrospect we can see the old topic, given more experience, given more time, I think maybe we would make it a bit less muddled than we did it there."

The lead quest designer on Polaris, Błażej Augustynek, who also worked on Cyberpunk 2077, said the starting life path isn't too