Dear Cyberpunk 2077, please let me role-play as someone with manners

polygon.com:

I’m currently working my way through Cyberpunk 2077 after years of waiting to get the all-clear that its issues had cleared up. And while it does a fantastic job of allowing you to lose yourself in its dystopian setting, I do have one major, roleplaying-related issue: V, the main character, is kind of an asshole, sometimes in ways you can’t even control.

Now, look, I’m fine playing a jerk-y video game character. Most video game characters are jerks! In the case of Cyberpunk 2077, it’s totally understandable why V isn’t soft and cuddly in many of their interactions. Night City is a hellhole of biblical proportions, a sprawling, corporation-ruled metropolis in which the average person is in constant danger of dying amid the crossfire of constant gang wars. V is very much a product of this environment, and while they are capable of being sweet and gentle, their first reaction to any situation is likely to be sarcastic or blunt.

One less-than-satisfying interaction I keep running into, however, is an issue of gameplay mechanics rather than writing.

Afterlife is an exclusive Night City bar that serves as a meeting ground for only the most respected mercenaries. I’ve visited the establishment regularly, both to move Cyberpunk 2077’s main story missions forward and to pick up side jobs. During one such mission, V and best friend Jackie Welles chat with Afterlife’s bartender, a charming woman named Claire Russell, about what it takes for someone to get a drink named after them.

Claire says there’s only one requirement: “Snuff it in a mind-blowingly spectacular fashion.”

Upon returning to the bar after a disastrous caper ends in Jackie’s death — which was less mind-blowingly spectacular and more depressingly meaningless — V