RPGs often include morality systems that add an extra dimension to your experience of their worlds. The original Mass Effects’ Paragon and Renegade points, for example, had some pretty big consequences for your Commander Shepard. The Fable series’ alignment trackers shaped the gameplay and even your appearance – demonic horns and glowing halos have been on offer, depending on your choices. However, one of the biggest new RPGs on the horizon will be a bit different – Cyberpunk 2077 will skip the morality system altogether.
Similar to developer CD Projekt Red’s previous title, The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 will not feature a morality system as such. In an interview with GamingBolt (via VG24/7), quest director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz said “we don’t have a moral system per se”, when asked about whether being able to complete the game without killing anyone would mean a morality system would feature.
Instead, being able to complete the game without taking lives is dependant on which skills you’ve invested in: “to complete it non-lethally you have to be very good at stealth. Invest in points that allow you to stealth better, use weapons that will allow you to incapacitate the enemy instead of killing them, to make the moral choices that will allow you to avoid killing people throughout the game.”
This absence of a morality tracking system is perhaps unsurprising. The game takes place in a dystopian future where everyone is probably too busy trying to survive, and cybernetically enhance their bodies to their own advantage, to worry about the moral nuances of every decision.
We know that the game will have multiple endings, however, so don’t think your choices throughout the game won’t count – it looks like there may still be some big consequences depending on how you navigate your protagonist V through the challenging and complex Night City.
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It looks like decisions about what feels right – or wrong – to you, and which choices to make throughout the game will be all up to you to discover when the game drops April 16, 2020. Go wild.