Last time I wrapped up the Johnny Silverhand side missions and went full speed ahead with finishing up the game. Now that I’ve seen the Cyberpunk 2077 endings (almost all), I can say this is the best game I’ve played.
Sure there were bugs I ran into, but the story, side missions, graphics, sounds and some of the crazy details add up to my favorite game ever. It just seemed to hit all the right notes with me. It was a blast from beginning to end.
Worth Playing with the Right Hardware
Blowing through the main story is worth the full price of the game, assuming you have the hardware to play it well (RTX 2080 minimum I think). Including the side mission really makes it more than worth the price of admission. There’s way too much contact for me to post all of, but you can always check out IGN’s great wiki guide for the game.
There were so many memorable sights from the common Jig-Jig street to mission areas like the Arasaka aerial parade. The ray tracing really makes even the simplest areas memorable. I’ll never forget the first time I left the city center for the sun soaked badlands. The city was impressive, but made you really appreciate the simple setting of the badlands.
It was such a great journey to the end. I really loved doing most of the side missions to flesh out the relationships with the characters. The Beat on the Brat missions can go straight to hell, though. That melee combat is not so great, so I’ll wait until I do a brawler build in a future playthrough.
Building Relationships
Some people want just the action, but I really enjoyed the quite moments with many of the characters. CD Project Red really nailed the first person perspective in these conversations and I really prefer that view over the 3rd person view they showed in early trailers.
My time with Johnny Silverhand, for example, really started out almost disappointing. He was such a prick in the beginning. I felt like I would be annoyed by him most of the game, but we built up our relationship over the course of main and side missions. Depending on how you treat him and other people, you can end up friends.
Beside Johnny, the best of the relationships I built were with Panam, Judy and Takamura. I really do wish I had more time with Jackie and even Dexter Deshawn, even though the latter did try to kill me.
Like many other players, I hope that a future DLC will allow us to play the missions in the prologue montage with Jackie after finishing the initial life path mission. You really miss out on building up more of a relationship with him before he dies.
Let the Credits Roll
I made it to the credits after 71 hrs played. That included all the main story and probably around 90% of the side missions. I’ve probably only scratched the surface of the gig mission (basically equivalent to activities in other open world games), but most of them are fun mini side missions I can come back to later.
Rogue Ending and Choosing Johnny
My first playthrough ended with a somber note, but it was worth of the playtime I put in. Completing the side missions with Rogue opened up the option to have her and Johnny go on the final mission. I took the pills to give Johnny control for this.
She came up with a crazy plan involving taking out a satellite, flying into Arasaka tower in the confusion and using jet boots to jump down the building center. Thing didn’t go as planned with our ship crashing into the tower and fighting through a jungle built into the building, but it was a great, wild ride.
After fighting waves of security and mechs, Rogue literally had her heart ripped out by Adam Smasher. All my quick hack skills allowed me to get my revenge and then move onto Mikoshi to see about getting Johnny out of my head.
When given the choice between becoming an engram to go with Alt Cunnigham “beyond the wall” (kind of like the dark net) or kicking Johnny out of V’s head, I chose to let Johnny have the body. I learned V was doomed no matter what, so I figured at least Johnny would survive.
That choice led me to the epilogue mission involving Johnny visiting the memorial park where he said final goodbyes to Rogue and V before leaving the city to start his new life. It was a bitter sweet ending, but seemed to fit the game.
Rogue Ending Choosing V
After reloading the “Point of no Return” save, I made the same choices as above, except chose to kick Johnny out of V’s body. Johnny actually agreed to it since I built up a good relationship and he would go with Alt. This ending was much better.
The epilogue started with V waking up in his new luxury apartment with Panam (If you followed the other romance options, than it could be someone else). Unfortunately, I found that V is still sick after coughing up blood, as Alt had warned. The upside is that V became king of the Afterlife club and was ready for one last mission.
I even rode a luxury AV (Aerial Vehicle?) to the club to meet with my contact, Mr Blue Eyes. Look him up, there’s a whole conspiracy theory about his involvement in missions. He gave me intel on the Crystal Palace space casino I was going to rob, that’s right, space.
Fast forward to being in a spaceship prepping my equipment for a space walk and that is where the end cinematic took place showing V floating towards the space casino. Cue the credits. Now that was an ending. I thought that would be the best ending for me, but I was wrong.
Last Ride with Panam and Aldecaldos Ending
My next save reload, I chose to ride with the Aldecaldos and Panam for the final mission. This one was epic. We took a bunch of vehicles and the hover tank into battle Mad Max style. Riding into battle western style.
Saul, Panam and I then took control of an underground tunnel drill to break into Arasaka tower. This meant fewer security guards to deal with and allowed me to sneak a bit more. Beyond that, the ending was simlar with an Adam Smasher fight. This time he killed Saul since Rogue was not with us. He stomped the guy’s head in, ouch.
The epilogue was more upbeat with some hope the fam might find V some help for his condition. I chose V again since Johnny Silverhand taking control would basically be the same as before. After chatting with Panam and V’s new friends, it ended with a full speed run in the tank to a tunnel under the wall that separates Night City from the rest of the world. All while there’s a sandstorm raging.
The cutscene cued up with Panam and V sitting on top of the tank watching the wide open land with possibilities. V wasn’t miraculously cured, but now you had a whole family backing you. Best ending in my opinion.
Hanako Arasaka Deal Ending with Takamura
Next on the list, I chose to take the Hanako Arasaka deal to confront the board with info I had on Yorinobu (her brother who killed her father Saburo) in exchange for them removing the damaged biochip from V’s head.
Since I chose to save Takamura in an earlier mission, he was along for the ride. We had to rescue Hanako from her mansion first, but then got a luxury ride to the tower. It was so wildly different from the other endings. I liked not having to go in fighting directly.
We ended up taking a little detour inside the tower to a see a surprise. Saburo was technically alive since his digital engram was in Mikoshi. I also got to have a weird bit of goodbye with the engram they stole off of Jackie’s dead body. A morbid form of interrogation.
Hanako knew our word would not be enough for the board, so she had Saburo make a digital appearance. It was so weird being with the board of Arasaka and not shooting at their security guards. That didn’t last long. Yorinobu ordered a hit on the board and things became a massacre.
Although I found myself fighting Arasaka security again, this time I had Takamura and his elite squad at my side. I used them as operation human shield and stayed back to quick hack through the cameras. Sure they were fighting on my side, but they were technically still Arasaka.
I did end up having to fight Adam Smasher again, but this time Takamura was there. Smasher wasn’t able to kill any of us this time around. By this point I could easily defeat him with my smart weapon/quick hack shock combo.
Takamura made me confront Yorinobu on my own, so he wouldn’t kill him against Hanako’s orders. Yorinobu knew he was defeated, laying on the floor in a huge robe. I didn’t get any choice to kill him.
His sister Hanako had something much worse than death in mind. Later on, I found out that she uploaded Saburo (the father) engram into Yorinobu’s body basically letting the father steal the traitorous son’s body. I don’t remember whether they uploaded Saburo to Mikoshi as a digital prison or not.
The Bad Arasaka Deal
They kept their end of the deal by removing the biochip and killing Johnny (but did they though?). The last moments with Johnny he was pretty pissed considering the corpo deal went against everything he stood for.
I ended up waking up on a space station having to take physical and cognitive tests until I snapped. It was nice to throw things around the lab when I was just as annoyed as V at the repititon.
In the end, Takamura shows up to let me know I will still die in the body like the other endings, but you have a choice. Either go back to earth and live out what’s left of your brief life or let them upload you to Mikoshi.
I reloaded saves to try out both choices. Going back to earth ends with you getting ready for the shuttle and looking at earth. Choosing Mikoshi they use Soul Killer to upload you engram. A big risk, since corporations rise and fall all the time. No guarantee you will ever be uploaded back to a body.
Suicide or Suicide Mission Endings
There was always the option to choose to just end it all without ever going to Arasaka tower, but that suicide ending is probably the worst of them all. During the credits you increase the agony by seeing all the video messages of people disappointed with your selfish decision.
Now there’s also a secret ending if you choose the right dialog options at Johnny’s grave, then choose to send him and Rogue on the final mission. There’s a point where you have one last chance to change you decision, but doing all the above correctly and waiting 5 minutes will trigger Johnny. He offers a different option.
That option was to work together (well he’s still in V’s head) to go right through the front door of Arasaka, suicide mission style. It’s the path for those that want to be a true Night City legend.
I unlocked the mission, but it is super hard. My level is no where near high enough to have a legit chance. There are so many gigs left for me to do and upgrades to get. I didn’t even make it out of the atrium. Dying during this mission gives you the regular suicide ending, so you have to be high level and still be careful.
People I know have completed that ending and it’s basically the same as the Johnny and Rouge ending, except Rogue doesn’t get killed by Adam Smasher (It’s just V and Johnny, well really just V). I’ll probably give it another chance a few patches from now and definitely after completing all the gigs.
Cyberpunk 2077 is Still the Future
After these various endings, I’m convinced they were originally meant for each life path. It seems like the Rogue and Johnny ending was geared toward Street Kid. The ending with Panam and the Aldecaldos was definitely a Nomad ending. Finally, the Arasaka deal ending was so corpo centric that it convinced me my theory must be true.
There were so many choices that I know my next playthrough will seem somewhat fresh, especially going with another life path and build. Next full playthrough, I will build a crazy bible thumping and gun toting Nomad build.
I know people are mad about the bugs and things they believe are missing, but I highly recommend not writing this game off. Wait for more patches (1.1 actually came out after I finished), sure, but never playing this game would be a mistake.
The class action lawsuits will force CDPR to not only fix bugs, but improve the game with content. This will absolutely follow the newer hub game model (like Halo will be). To some it might seem like quite a bit of content is missing, but they could add DLC to this game to augment the existing story or brand new stories for years.