Cyberpunk 2077

=== Characters and setting ===

Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in Night City (NC), an independent megacity and city-state situated between the U.S. states of North California and South California, which functions as a corporatocracy unaffected by federal or state legislation; the city was founded in the early 1990s and has continued to progress since. The city suffers from rampant gang violence, and corporate warfare, exacerbated by an ineffectual, corrupt municipal government, and police force. Night City relies on robotic technology for everyday functions such as waste management, building and infrastructure maintenance, and public transportation. The city's architecture and fashions are derived from the four aesthetics eras it underwent—Entropism, Kitsch, Neo-Militarism, and Neo-Kitsch. Homelessness and poverty are widespread in the city but does not preclude cybernetic modification for Night City's underclasses, leading to both cosmetic addiction and high levels of violence. Those whose addictions and heavy modifications have rendered them mentally unstable, known as cyberpsychos, are dealt with by the police tactical unit MaxTac. Privatized health corporations such as Trauma Team utilise paramilitary doctors for rapid medical services. Due to the constant threat of physical harm, open carry is permitted for all residents of Night City.

The primary protagonist of Cyberpunk 2077 is Vincent / Valerie, known as V (Gavin Drea or Cherami Leigh), a freelance mercenary whose background changes based on player choice. V is accompanied by Johnny Silverhand (Keanu Reeves), a legendary rock star and terrorist who now exists as a digitised engram; Johnny is also playable during some segments of the game. Throughout the main story, V and Johnny come into contact with several major allies and enemies, including Jackie Welles (Jason Hightower), V's best friend and fellow mercenary; T-Bug (Cynthia McWilliams), a netrunner who provides support to V and Jackie; Viktor "Vik" Vector (Michael Gregory), a ripperdoc who maintains a close friendship with V; Misty Olszewski (Erica Lindbeck), Jackie's girlfriend who runs an esoterica store; Dexter "Dex" DeShawn (Michael-Leon Wooley), a local fixer in Night City; Evelyn Parker (Kari Wahlgren), a prostitute who partners with Dex and V's crew to organise a heist; Judy Álvarez (Carla Tassara), Evelyn's friend and a braindance editor who helps V in their investigations; Saburo Arasaka (Masane Tsukayama), the founder of the Arasaka Corporation; Yorinobu Arasaka (Hideo Kimura), Saburo's youngest son; Hanako Arasaka (Alpha Takahashi), Yorinobu's sister and Saburo's only daughter; Goro Takemura (Rome Kanda), Saburo's personal bodyguard; Rogue Amendiares (Jane Perry), the owner of the Afterlife nightclub and one of Johnny's former partners; Panam Palmer (Emily Woo Zeller), a nomad from the Aldecaldos clan; Saul Bright (Diarmaid Murtagh), the leader of the Aldecaldos; Alt Cunningham (Alix Wilton Regan), a netrunner and Johnny's ex-girlfriend who became an artificial intelligence construct; and Adam Smasher (Alec Newman), Arasaka's ruthless and fully-cybernetic head of security.

Plot

The game opens with one of three lifepaths for the player character V—Nomad, Streetkid, or Corpo—each leading to a partnership with street thug Jackie Welles and netrunner T-Bug as mercenaries in Night City. “Freedom fighting for liberation of life and destruction of corpos.”
In 2077, fixer Dex DeShawn hires V, Jackie and T-Bug to steal a biochip called "the Relic" from the Arasaka Corporation. The heist goes awry when they witness Yorinobu Arasaka murder his father Saburo and frame it as poisoning. During their escape, T-Bug and Jackie are killed while the Relic's case is damaged, forcing V to slot the chip into their head. Dex shoots V and leaves them for dead to cover his tracks.
V awakens in a landfill, haunted by the memories of rocker-turned-terrorist Johnny Silverhand, who died carrying out an assault on Arasaka Tower in 2023. Goro Takemura, Saburo's bodyguard who suspects the truth, kills Dex and rescues V to use them as proof that Yorinobu murdered Saburo. Ripperdoc Viktor Vektor reveals that the Relic contains Johnny's engram and is responsible for reviving V, but is slowly overwriting V's mind with Johnny's consciousness, leaving V with a limited time to live.
Although Johnny is initially antagonistic, he resolves to help V search for a cure, seeking an opportunity to take down Arasaka. V pursues two leads: capturing Anders Hellman, the creator of the Relic, with the help of nomad Panam Palmer and the Aldecaldos clan; and rescuing Evelyn Parker, who commissioned the heist. Hellman is caught but is unable to help V, and later given up to Takemura. With aid from Evelyn's friend Judy Álvarez, V learns Evelyn was hacked and sold to "Scavs", a group known for kidnapping and harvesting cybernetics from people, who also abused her. Using Evelyn's braindance memories, V discovers she learned of the Relic from the Voodoo Boys; a gang of very private netrunners, who wanted Johnny's engram to reach beyond the Blackwall; a firewall that protects the internet and world from rogue AIs.
Through them, V relives Johnny's perceived past. In 2013, Johnny's girlfriend Alt Cunningham created Soulkiller, an AI that transfers minds into cyberspace but destroys the brain. Arasaka used Soulkiller on Alt, imprisoning her in their digital fortress, Mikoshi. Johnny's later nuclear attack freed her, allowing her to escape into the Blackwall and become an AI, but resulted in his own death and upload via Soulkiller. Arasaka's "Secure Your Soul" program and the Relic stem from this technology. V communicates with Alt's consciousness beyond the Blackwall and strikes a deal: if V grants her access to Arasaka's subnet and Mikoshi, she can separate V and Johnny.
Separately, Takemura resolves to take his information to the Arasaka executives. He and V capture Hanako Arasaka, Yorinobu's sister, to prove his guilt, but V is forced to flee after Arasaka soldiers attack. Following the ambush, Hanako reaches out to V and offers to help them in exchange for their assistance in ousting Yorinobu, which Johnny greatly opposes.
In the final act, V must choose to either assault Arasaka Tower, accept Hanako's offer, or commit suicide. The attack can be carried out solo, with Rogue (Johnny takes control of V's body in this scenario), or with the Aldecaldos. Alternatively, siding with Hanako successfully ousts Yorinobu and sees Arasaka remove and destroy the Relic. All paths except suicide involve V fighting and defeating Adam Smasher, Arasaka's fully-cybernetic enforcer.
Regardless, due to the engram's prolonged presence in V's body, the biochip's effects are irreversible. The results leave V with a shorter lifespan in their own body but could offer Johnny a full life, as the Relic has tailored the body for him. Depending on the player's choice, V either uploads their own engram to Mikoshi awaiting a new body (accessible only if they accept Hanako's offer), lives on in their current body with a shortened lifespan while seeking means to undo the damage, or permanently surrenders their body to Johnny and go beyond the Blackwall alongside Alt (accessible only if they attack Arasaka Tower) with Johnny leaving Night City afterwards to start anew.