Greatest Of 2023: Cyberpunk 2077: Breaking The Cycle In Phantom Liberty’s Ending

(spoilers inside for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty; TW: dialogue of suicide)

Two fugitives are using a monorail. They’ve escaped seize. They’re dwelling free. Each of them are drained, bloody, bruised, however hopeful. The monorail is about to take them to freedom, to a spot the place none of their immeasurable crimes matter, the place life can have worth once more, the place they will each begin anew.

Besides, no, they can not. One in every of them is a liar. The lie means solely considered one of them will get to be free. They each deserve it, have skilled immense quantities of ache to get it. However just one. The liar has fallen unconscious. The opposite has a option to make.

And at that second, for the primary time, I really pause Cyberpunk 2077 throughout a dialogue possibility, mere moments from Phantom Liberty’s ending, to noticeably think about the ramifications of what occurs subsequent. Some minutes later, I make a cellphone name. And because the last few hours of the sport play out, a monologue involves thoughts.

“The toughest factor for me was leaving the life. I nonetheless love the life. We have been handled like film stars with muscle. We had all of it only for the asking….Something I wished was a cellphone name away. Free vehicles. The keys to a dozen hideout flats everywhere in the metropolis. I would wager 20, 30 grand over a weekend, after which I would both blow the winnings in per week or go to the sharks to pay again the bookies. Did not matter. It did not imply something. Once I was broke, I would exit and rob some extra. We ran every little thing. We paid off cops. We paid off legal professionals. We paid off judges. Everyone had their arms out. The whole lot was for the taking. And now, it is throughout. And that is the toughest half. Right this moment, every little thing is totally different. There is no motion. I’ve to attend round like everybody else. Cannot even get respectable meals. Proper after I acquired right here, I ordered spaghetti with marinara sauce, and I acquired egg noodles and ketchup. I am a median no person. I get to dwell the remainder of my life like a schnook.”

That monologue, for these unaware, is how Martin Scorsese’s crime drama masterpiece Goodfellas ends. Henry Hill, a high-ranking gangster, turns rat on his associates, goes into witness safety, and his final punishment is….dwelling a fairly decent–if boring–life within the suburbs. It is really a reasonably frequent motif in Scorsese’s work, for normie life to really feel like consignment to limbo. Comparable fates await Ace Rothstein in On line casino, Jordan Belfort in Wolf of Wall Road, Frank Sheeran in The Irishman, hell, even Sebastião Rodrigues in Silence. Purgatory is the place the overwhelming majority of us dwell our each day lives, by no means to achieve absurd, ecstatic highs or terrifying, bloody, brutal lows. It is not framed as a contented ending or a downer ending, sometimes. It is simply an ending, as ignominious as most of us will ever expertise, notable solely due to the distinction in the place these characters have been.

That is not an ending you typically see in a online game, for fairly apparent causes, actually. Particularly within the AAA area, this can be a medium that tends to place a premium on participant energy and freedom, and only a few builders attempting to max out their viewers needs to wreck the enjoyable by making the participant really feel like a schnook. Even in FromSoftware titles, whereas they’re definitely gonna make you earn it greater than most video games, by the point you take on Gwyn or Radagon and the like, all the participant’s progress counts for one thing relating to feeling such as you’ve introduced some measure of the world to heel. It doesn’t matter what may be taking place in cutscenes when the participant has no management, the last word level of video games so foundationally centered on the amassing of unimaginable energy and road cred is to unleash it on a hostile-but-vulnerable world.

When it got here to the ultimate notes of Cyberpunk 2077, nonetheless, CD Projekt RED thought totally different.

To recap: outdoors of Phantom Liberty, none of Cyberpunk’s endings are notably completely satisfied, which is, to be truthful, very a lot within the spirit of the style. The Relic caught in V’s head has resurrected Keanu Reeves’ Johnny Silverhand as a type of digital ghost in concept, however in observe, he is extra of a digital tumor. His existence means our protagonist, V, will die. The “happiest” ending within the vanilla sport entails leaving Night time Metropolis altogether with the rough-and-tumble nomad, Panam, who perhaps would possibly know any individual who may help with V’s Johnny Silverhand downside some day. It is hopeful, however in type of a shallow method, until you have romanced Panam. Essentially the most narratively satisfying ending is the one the place V will get to go on a bloody rampage by way of Arasaka Tower. It ends with V nonetheless at loss of life’s door, however about to go do a wild heist out in area for fortune and glory. Not less than you may depart a good looking corpse.

However now, there’s Phantom Liberty’s new ending, the one that really rolls credit for good when it is over. In Phantom Liberty, to maintain a protracted and winding story quick as doable, V is given one other method out of their predicament by a authorities agent named Songbird: Assist save the president of the New United States after her aircraft goes down within the uber-Libertarian stronghold of Dogtown, recruit Idris Elba’s retired superspy Solomon Reed to assist, and take out its despotic chief, Hansen. Do that, and the NUSA’s prime scientists won’t solely wipe V’s felony slate clear, but in addition get V’s Relic taken care of.

Quick ahead after lots of people die, some jaw-dropping betrayals occur, and Hansen is useless. V and Songbird have fairly frequent objective in needing to avoid wasting themselves from a lifetime of servitude and impending doom. As such, the participant can select to double-deal behind Reed’s again, and make a run for it with Songbird to get a remedy for each their afflictions, and a recent begin within the last frontier. With all V’s skills, and Songbird’s massive cyberware ace up her sleeve, it seems to be fairly probably the 2 of them would possibly make it.

That is when the sport throws the curveball. After V and Songbird have had one hell of a shootout at a spaceport, and hop a monorail in the direction of a one-way ticket off of Earth, Songbird confesses in her half-dead delirium that sure, there is a remedy ready on the Moon all proper. However just one. Songbird’s been utilizing V to get her to the house stretch. After she passes out, V’s given the selection: They will let Songbird go, discover their very own option to freedom in one of many vanilla endings, or they will name Solomon Reed, and switch Songbird in.

There aren’t too many moments of Telltale-style ethical alternative in Cyberpunk 2077, however this one is especially ugly. Neither one feels nice within the aftermath, however finally, I selected to name Reed. There wasn’t even spite in that call, although spite can be comprehensible. There are so only a few legitimately good, reliable folks on the earth of Cyberpunk 2077, and for Songbird to have risked V’s life a number of instances over simply to disclaim them salvation for the time being of reality felt like a last straw. I wasn’t even indignant at Songbird for looking for herself. I used to be drained. A really particular taste of drained, one I hadn’t felt for a sport’s protagonist because the last days of 1 Commander Shepard. The exhaustion of watching a cycle of violence and avarice play out, time and again, and realizing it must be damaged.

However that is what video video games are, proper? That is what life is, by proxy. Repetition. Consistency. Acceptance. And at last, mastery. And when the circumstances change, repetition till the brand new turns into constant. However there is a battle when that mastery has to result in a second of revelation in regards to the world outdoors of the participant and protagonist. Mass Impact’s Commander Shepard can kill all of the Banshees and Geth that they need, however mastery of the sport’s Vanguard or Engineer lessons doesn’t suggest a damned factor relating to making a alternative for the great of the universe. That battle is an enormous a part of why many avid gamers rebelled towards that ending within the second. Whether or not consciously or not, avid gamers wished their mastery over the sport’s fight to matter when it got here time to avoid wasting the galaxy. In the meantime, Bioware wished the participant’s emotional funding in mentioned galaxy to find out how greatest to put it aside. Ne’er the twain shall meet.

Naughty Canine, however, wielded that single-minded obsession with killing one’s method out of an issue towards the participant within the Final of Us video games. For those who wanna kill so unhealthy, you and Joel/Ellie are going to dwell with the burden of it. By the point TLOU 2has Ellie actually stranded on an empty purgatorial seaside with nobody left to homicide, it’s long gone the time when the participant needs to be carried out with attempting to develop into a greater killer to develop into a greater particular person. That time would hit more durable if the participant had extra management over the place Ellie goes from there–or even a number of hours earlier, when she really had the legit possibility of dwelling fortunately ever after. Nonetheless, the intention is evident, and the lack to cease Ellie making the worst selections nonetheless leaves a long-lasting impression.

And so, V sat throughout from Songbird with a option to make. I known as Reed. Reed, who nonetheless holds a deep affection and sympathy for Songbird, and who guarantees, if V turns her over, to maintain her alive, and to maintain Songbird’s promise of a remedy. That scene is the final time we see Songbird, although Reed later assures V she’s alive. Extra importantly, Reed retaining his phrase means Songbird’s the final particular person V will ever must kill for. Ever. Credit roll, with an finish credit sequence that would’ve been ripped out of a Daniel Craig Bond flick. It is a robust ending. However it’s not the ending.

After taking a while to settle affairs–save Delamain’s AI, play one final gig with Kerry Eurodyne, spend the night time with V’s romance possibility (Judy, in my V’s case)–Reed comes calling once more to settle up. The remedy’s prepared. However earlier than you get picked up, the 2 of you’ve a clumsy dialog at a fuel station as he prepares to place Night time Metropolis within the rearview. Reed’s One Final Mission is over. He is drained too. And as he rides off, non-committal on what the following steps seem like, Johnny predicts his future: “He’ll hold himself.”

Johnny’s monologue–and Keanu’s efficiency of it–is unimaginable, however haunting. Reed’s a person with out objective now, his closest relationships now non-starters. If he had emotional intelligence, he’d take his bartender pal with him. However no. He’ll be alone. He’ll be empty. And on that day he realizes it, with nobody else to kill, Johnny says, he’ll kill himself.

I considered this within the wake of Final of Us 2’sending as nicely. Simply what precisely does Ellie’s life seem like when she leaves her home on the finish of that sport? That query is why it is one of the crucial affecting and hole endings in all of video games. Ellie’s not suicidal not less than. She’s upright, she’s strolling, and he or she goes into the unknown prepared for something. However I do not envy Naughty Canine’s job, in the event that they determine to sort out it, looking for Ellie objective now that revenge is not an possibility, and dealing extra loss of life is exhausting. Quite a lot of of us have recommended that is the place The Final of Us wants to finish, and there is not way more that may be mentioned there. They don’t seem to be fallacious, although, many additionally mentioned this on the finish of the unique sport, as nicely. What does a protagonist in a AAA online game do when energy is not the be-all, end-all of current?

And that’s what gamers get to search out out when Phantom Liberty ends.

V finally will get picked up by the NUSA to get the Relic eliminated. Johnny is pissed about going again to being nothing, however on the very least, he understands. And so, V is anesthetized, and goes beneath the knife.

The operation is profitable, however with a fairly beautiful aspect impact. Eradicating the Relic apparently did everlasting and substantial harm to V’s cyberware, to the purpose that if V wished to put in a lot as a widget that confirmed them the time and climate, it’d shut their whole nervous system down. So away all of it went, and V wakes up in a sterile NUSA hospital, not simply utterly powerless, however two years later. All the main NPCs, together with V’s love curiosity, have moved on. Judy, specifically, is already a married skilled, dwelling method the hell away from Night time Metropolis.

When V can lastly stroll nicely sufficient to return to Night time Metropolis, their first cease is to see about getting their cyberware reactivated by Vic the ripperdoc. It is a no-go, and Vic’s store has been purchased by what appears to be Night time Metropolis’s model of Greatest Purchase’s Geek Squad. When V steps outdoors after, they’re stopped by two scumbags that, as soon as upon a time, V might’ve was pulled pork simply by them. As an alternative, it ends with V catching a fist to the face, and getting thrown down a flight of stairs.

Everything of Cyberpunk 2077 has been in relentless, livid search of this precise second, the place V is not in peril of the Relic killing them useless on the drop of a dime. Mission achieved. Now, the world at massive can kill them useless on the drop of a dime. CDPR might’ve left the sport proper there, with V misplaced within the gutter in bitter irony. As an alternative, we get a grace be aware, one of many strongest in latest reminiscence. V is saved by somebody you do not even actually think about within the grand scheme of Cyberpunk’s story: Misty, the late, nice Jackie Welles’ ex. The final time you see her, she’s nonetheless type of a new-agey head-in-the-clouds type of lady working the entrance workplace at Vic’s place. Now, two years later, she’s just a little more durable, just a little gothier, however she’s additionally one thing we do not see in any respect all through your entire sport: merciful.

When V hits all-time low, Misty sits subsequent to them on the steps, dusts them off, and so they speak. About lots of issues. In regards to the useless of us alongside the best way. About how tousled Night time Metropolis will be. About dwelling. Misty, who misplaced her job, her associates, and her lover, ought to’ve been a large number on the street two years later. Night time Metropolis ought to’ve destroyed her. As an alternative, she’s on her method out, decided to maintain shifting, hold strolling, hold surviving. There are not any aspect missions in Misty’s future. There are not any area heists. There is no climactic throwdown with Adam Smasher. There’s simply life. Misty will get to dwell the remainder of her life as considered one of Henry Hill’s common nobodies. Not like Henry Hill, when Misty says it–the method Erica Lindbeck performs it–it’s not a lament. It is a chance.

It has been recommended by many who Phantom Liberty’s new ending is CDPR in direct dialog with itself, a lot in the best way that GTA V and Crimson Lifeless Redemption 2 are conversations with Rockstar. All three are finally having the identical dialog, in regards to the issues we’ve to kill in ourselves in pursuit of the abhorrent energy wanted to reach these video games. Even whereas dwelling past the legislation, each protagonist in these video games is shackled to totally different, extra nebulous masters, a whip that both works its servants to loss of life, or bores them to tears. Incomes sufficient energy and cash and respect in such a sport is rarely the purpose, particularly in a sport that by no means stops.

All of them are conscious of simply how a lot enjoyable that course of will be for gamers, however there’s something extremely numbing about it that may depart gamers blind to all the opposite issues that video games and life will be, the tales that may be advised. It is unimaginable energy that stops feeling like energy after some time as a result of there may be nothing in distinction. If all of your issues will be solved with the nuclear possibility, what sympathy or empathy is there with those that need to make a dwelling within the blast radius? That does not simply make for a play expertise the place inconceivable firepower stops that means something, however one which units the bar for pleasure so excessive that primary humanity cannot attain.

There is a consolation in that, particularly to these for whom video video games are purely for escape, not storytelling. Energy fantasy, by nature, requires nuance to die screaming. And that makes a conclusion like Phantom Liberty really feel all of the extra particular, one thing that feels so much nearer in tone to a Nier Automata than another open world crime saga. Nier Automata, for many who do not know, actually ends on a sequence of sacrifices: first of the lives of its android protagonists in-narrative, then of the participant’s personal hard-earned save knowledge, to assist future gamers whose names you’ll by no means know, however whose sacrifices and encouragement empower you to face the inconceivable process of the sport’s finish credit sequence as a neighborhood. It posits the pursuit of pure firepower as an act of willful psychological neglect, and that there is a complete different echelon of energy and functionality over one’s self and the world at massive that this sort of sport ignores.

A part of the brilliance of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, in actual fact, comes from the tacit information that David and his crew should more and more jettison humanity to develop into Night time Metropolis legends. Phantom Liberty’s magnificence is in V needing to go the opposite route to outlive, to go in the hunt for one thing new and maintain onto it so long as doable with out mendacity, dishonest, betraying, or killing to get it. That is energy that video video games do not usually worth. Within the very finish, Phantom Liberty prizes it like no different perk within the sport.

Essentially the most attention-grabbing elements of Cyberpunk 2077 have V attempting to kindle one thing resembling neighborhood amongst their associates and colleagues. The circumstances of being an Edgerunner always strip that away. Finally, after their dialog on the finish of Phantom Liberty, V says goodbye to Misty, she drives off, and after an unsure pause, V walks off into the din of humanity, as one other face within the crowd, a member of a neighborhood that should and completely will discover a option to survive in purgatory. And that is the simplest half. Now, every little thing is totally different. There is no motion. V has to attend round like everybody else. V is a median no person. They get the privilege of dwelling the remainder of their life like a schnook.