Cyberpunk 2077 companions could be friends or foes depending on your actions

Night City! Home to the most mega of corporations who are still figuring out how to charge you for the oxygen you’re breathing, a hive of scum and villainy where cutthroat business is the status quo in this dark future. Cyberpunk 2077’s infamous setting is filled with all manner of denizens who’d sell you for a quick fix of Blue Glass, and even when you’re armed to the bionic teeth, it pays to have someone watching your back.

The game’s lead protagonist, V, will be able to recruit some added assistance before heading out to do naughty mission stuff, but in typical CD Projekt Red, those companions are more nuanced than you’d expect them to be. Speaking in a Q&A session for Russian fans (Cheers Games Radar), quest designer Philipp Weber spoke about how companions will interact with V.

“There actually are quite a few people you can play different quests with that are very important to the story, and they also come with you on specific missions or just on a drive,” Weber said.

Like Jackie, they’ll be very important. There’s lots of them, and quite important ones that we haven’t shown yet. Some of these characters, depending on your choices, you might like and they might like you. And some of those characters might become your enemies. We are making a role-playing game, it’s all up to you.

Sometimes you might make a friend or a lover, or sometimes you might make an enemy. But it’s really important to us to have these characters that can be with you in your story and wherever it makes sense for them to be.

Just what I need in life: More enemies. Something else that came up in the discussion that was interesting, was how players can engage in a few other role-playing elements in the game, such as eating to get a stat boost or taking a shower because you reek of oil, blood, and dirty money. “You can of course eat and drink,” Weber said.

We’re not making a survival game, so you don’t have to eat and drink at regular intervals, but eating and drinking can give you special bonuses in combat or for your stats. It’s always useful, and sometimes you just want to do it for flavor. In certain scenes, when you’re eating with a character, you can choose to eat with them or have a drink, or you can choose not to do it.

And if you’re in your apartment, you can turn on the shower, the toilet, or you can even use a mirror if you want. We want to give you some opportunities to try and live that cyberpunk life.

Cyberpunk 2077 is almost here, as the game is locked on a November 17 collision course for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Next-gen upgrades, will arrive in the near future for free. And don’t forget, a new Night City episode is also just around the corner.

Last Updated: September 16, 2020