Best 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 driving a monorail. They’ve escaped seize. They’re house 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’ll each begin anew.

Besides, no, they can not. Certainly one of them is a liar. The lie means solely certainly 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 different 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 significantly contemplate the ramifications of what occurs subsequent. Some minutes later, I make a telephone name. And because the remaining few hours of the sport play out, a monologue involves thoughts.

“The hardest factor for me was leaving the life. I nonetheless love the life. We had been handled like film stars with muscle. We had all of it only for the asking….Something I wished was a telephone name away. Free vehicles. The keys to a dozen hideout flats all around the metropolis. I would guess 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 all the pieces. We paid off cops. We paid off attorneys. We paid off judges. All people had their palms out. Every part was for the taking. And now, it is throughout. And that is the toughest half. Right now, all the pieces is totally different. There isn’t any motion. I’ve to attend round like everybody else. Cannot even get respectable meals. Proper after I received right here, I ordered spaghetti with marinara sauce, and I received egg noodles and ketchup. I am a median no one. I get to reside 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 mates, goes into witness safety, and his final punishment is….residing 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. Related 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 reside our daily lives, by no means to succeed in absurd, ecstatic highs or terrifying, bloody, brutal lows. It is not framed as a contented ending or a downer ending, usually. 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 usually 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 desires to smash 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, the entire 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 could 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 unbelievable energy and avenue cred is to unleash it on a hostile-but-vulnerable world.

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

To recap: exterior of Phantom Liberty, none of Cyberpunk’s endings are notably joyful, which is, to be honest, 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 idea, however in follow, he is extra of a digital tumor. His existence means our protagonist, V, will die. The “happiest” ending within the vanilla recreation entails leaving Evening Metropolis altogether with the rough-and-tumble nomad, Panam, who perhaps may know any individual who may help with V’s Johnny Silverhand drawback some day. It is hopeful, however in form of a shallow means, except you have romanced Panam. 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 dying’s door, however about to go do a wild heist out in area for fortune and glory. Not less than you may depart a phenomenal 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 an extended and winding story brief as doable, V is given one other means 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 high scientists won’t solely wipe V’s legal 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 lifeless. V and Songbird have fairly frequent function 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 treatment for each their afflictions, and a recent begin within the remaining frontier. With all V’s skills, and Songbird’s massive cyberware ace up her sleeve, it appears to be like fairly doubtless the 2 of them may 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 direction of a one-way ticket off of Earth, Songbird confesses in her half-dead delirium that sure, there is a treatment 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’ll name Solomon Reed, and switch Songbird in.

There aren’t too many moments of Telltale-style ethical selection 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 individuals on this planet of Cyberpunk 2077, and for Songbird to have risked V’s life a number of instances over simply to disclaim them salvation in the intervening time of reality felt like a remaining 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 recreation’s protagonist because the remaining days of 1 Commander Shepard. The exhaustion of watching a cycle of violence and avarice play out, again 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 exterior 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 does not imply a damned factor relating to making a selection for the great of the universe. That battle is a giant 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 reserve it. Ne’er the twain shall meet.

Naughty Canine, alternatively, wielded that single-minded obsession with killing one’s means out of an issue towards the participant within the Final of Us video games. Should you wanna kill so unhealthy, you and Joel/Ellie are going to reside with the load of it. By the point TLOU 2has Ellie actually stranded on an empty purgatorial seashore with nobody left to homicide, it’s gone the time when the participant must be achieved with attempting to turn into a greater killer to turn into a greater individual. 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 professional possibility of residing fortunately ever after. Nonetheless, the intention is obvious, and the shortcoming to cease Ellie making the worst decisions nonetheless leaves an enduring 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 treatment. That scene is the final time we see Songbird, although Reed later assures V she’s alive. Extra importantly, Reed protecting his phrase means Songbird’s the final individual 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. Nevertheless 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 treatment’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 Evening 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 subsequent steps appear like, Johnny predicts his future: “He’ll dangle himself.”

Johnny’s monologue–and Keanu’s efficiency of it–is unbelievable, however haunting. Reed’s a person with out function 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 effectively. Simply what precisely does Ellie’s life appear like when she leaves her home on the finish of that recreation? 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 she or he goes into the unknown prepared for something. However I do not envy Naughty Canine’s job, in the event that they resolve to sort out it, looking for Ellie function now that revenge is not an possibility, and dealing extra dying is exhausting. Various people have urged that is the place The Final of Us wants to finish, and there is not far more that may be mentioned there. They don’t seem to be unsuitable, although, many additionally mentioned this on the finish of the unique recreation, as effectively. What does a protagonist in a AAA online game do when energy is now not the be-all, end-all of current?

And that’s what gamers get to seek 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 underneath the knife.

The operation is profitable, however with a fairly gorgeous 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 complete 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. The entire main NPCs, together with V’s love curiosity, have moved on. Judy, specifically, is already a married skilled, residing means the hell away from Evening Metropolis.

When V can lastly stroll effectively sufficient to return to Evening 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 Evening Metropolis’s model of Best Purchase’s Geek Squad. When V steps exterior after, they’re stopped by two scumbags that, as soon as upon a time, V might’ve became pulled pork simply by taking a look at them. As an alternative, it ends with V catching a fist to the face, and getting thrown down a flight of stairs.

The entirety of Cyberpunk 2077 has been in relentless, livid search of this actual second, the place V is now not at risk of the Relic killing them lifeless on the drop of a dime. Mission achieved. Now, the world at giant can kill them lifeless 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 word, one of many strongest in latest reminiscence. V is saved by somebody you do not even actually contemplate within the grand scheme of Cyberpunk’s story: Misty, the late, nice Jackie Welles’ ex. The final time you see her, she’s nonetheless form of a new-agey head-in-the-clouds form of lady working the entrance workplace at Vic’s place. Now, two years later, she’s somewhat more durable, somewhat gothier, however she’s additionally one thing we do not see in any respect all through all the recreation: merciful.

When V hits all-time low, Misty sits subsequent to them on the steps, dusts them off, and so they speak. About plenty of issues. Concerning the lifeless people alongside the way in which. About how tousled Evening Metropolis could be. About residing. Misty, who misplaced her job, her mates, and her lover, ought to’ve been a large number on the street two years later. Evening Metropolis ought to’ve destroyed her. As an alternative, she’s on her means 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 isn’t any climactic throwdown with Adam Smasher. There’s simply life. Misty will get to reside the remainder of her life as certainly one of Henry Hill’s common nobodies. Not like Henry Hill, when Misty says it–the means Erica Lindbeck performs it–it’s not a lament. It is a chance.

It has been urged by many who Phantom Liberty’s new ending is CDPR in direct dialog with itself, a lot in the way in which that GTA V and Pink Lifeless Redemption 2 are conversations with Rockstar. All three are finally having the identical dialog, in regards to the issues now we have to kill in ourselves in pursuit of the abhorrent energy wanted to reach these video games. Even whereas residing past the regulation, each protagonist in these video games is shackled to totally different, extra nebulous masters, a whip that both works its servants to dying, or bores them to tears. Incomes sufficient energy and cash and respect in one of these recreation isn’t the objective, particularly in a recreation that by no means stops.

All of them are conscious of simply how a lot enjoyable that course of could 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 could be, the tales that may be informed. It is unbelievable energy that stops feeling like energy after some time as a result of there’s nothing in distinction. If all of your issues could be solved with the nuclear possibility, what sympathy or empathy is there with those that need to make a residing within the blast radius? That does not simply make for a play expertise the place not possible firepower stops which 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 rather a lot nearer in tone to a Nier Automata than every other 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 information, to assist future gamers whose names you’ll by no means know, however whose sacrifices and encouragement empower you to face the not possible activity 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 entire different echelon of energy and functionality over one’s self and the world at giant that this sort of recreation 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 turn into Evening Metropolis legends. Phantom Liberty’s magnificence is in V needing to go the opposite path to outlive, to go looking 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. In the very finish, Phantom Liberty prizes it like no different perk within the recreation.

The most attention-grabbing components of Cyberpunk 2077 have V attempting to kindle one thing resembling neighborhood amongst their mates and colleagues. The circumstances of being an Edgerunner always strip that away. Ultimately, 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, all the pieces is totally different. There isn’t any motion. V has to attend round like everybody else. V is a median no one. They get the privilege of residing the remainder of their life like a schnook.