Coming from the people who made The Witcher 3, it’s not surprising at all that Cyberpunk 2077 is being billed as a game that will put a lot of emphasis on quality side quests and optional content. So much so, in fact, that CD Projekt RED have an entire dedicated team for building optional content in the game. But just how far will these quests go in terms of reactiveness and how much they interact with the main story?
Speaking in an interview over at the official CD Prokekt RED forums, senior quest designer Philip Weber said that similar to side quests in The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077’s side quests will interact with the main storyline to a great extent.
“Side quest can of course be completely separate stories, but they can also continue the story of a main quest or even set up a new branch in the main storyline,” he said, before going on to give an example of this happening with one of The Witcher 3’s most beloved side quests.
“As an example, many people didn’t even realize that by the time they were finishing the storyline of the Bloody Baron in Wild Hunt, they were already playing a side quest that continued this story thread from our main quests,” said Weber. “The main quest was over once Geralt found information about Ciri, but the Baron’s story still continued as a side quest.”
In Cyberpunk 2077, according to Weber, side quests can have a major impact on the main narrative and how it plays out, so checking out all the major side quests in the game is going to be greatly encouraged. “We of course like to make the game so anything you do could possibly have an impact on the main story of the game,” says Weber. “Characters you only meet in a side quest would then suddenly show up in the main story. This way, the player never knows what to expect. Sometimes a small quest can turn into something much bigger and then change the whole main story of the game. So it’s absolutely worth playing every quest in the game and to see how they interact with each other.”
Cyberpunk 2077 is out on April 16, 2020 for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia. Recently, CDPR confirmed that a post-launch multiplayer mode for the game is also in development.