There are three types of ranged weapons, all of which can be customised and modified—Power (standard), Tech (which penetrate walls and enemies), and Smart (with homing bullets). Ranged weapons are equipped to ricochet bullets in a target's direction and slow them down in bullet time. Four types of damage can be inflicted and resisted—Physical, Thermal, EMP, and Chemical. Weapon use increases accuracy and reloading speed, which are manifested in character animations. Gunsmiths repair and upgrade weapons. The game can be completed without killing anyone, with non-lethal options for weapons and cyberware.
The open world metropolis Night City, California, consists of six regions—the corporate City Center, immigrant-inhabited Watson, luxurious Westbrook, suburban Heywood, gang-infested Pacifica, and industrial Santo Domingo. Its surrounding area, the Badlands, can also be explored. V navigates these locations on foot and in vehicles, which are subject to either a third- or first-person view. Pedestrians are vulnerable to vehicular collisions. Depending on the location, law enforcement may be alerted if V commits a crime. Radio stations are available to listen to. The full day-night cycle and dynamic weather affect the way non-player characters (NPCs) behave.
V owns an apartment and a garage. Night City features non-English-speaking characters, whose languages can be translated with special implants. "Braindance" is a device that allows V to undergo other people's experiences. Branching dialogues enable interaction with NPCs and actions in quests. Experience points are obtained from main quests and fuel the stats; side quests yield "street cred", unlocking skills, vendors, places, and additional quests. Quests are acquired from characters known as Fixers. Throughout the game, V is aided by various companions. Consumables, like soft drinks, are used for healing, and objects can be inspected in V's inventory. Minigames include hacking, boxing, auto racing, martial arts, and shooting ranges. Player choice leads to different endings.
Synopsis
Setting
Night City is an American megacity in the Free State of North California, controlled by corporations and unassailed by the laws of both country and state. It sees conflict from rampant gang wars and its ruling entities contending for dominance. The city is reliant on robotics for everyday aspects like waste collection, maintenance, and public transportation. Its visual identity is derived from the four eras it underwent—austere Entropism, colourful Kitsch, imposing Neo-Militarism, and opulent Neo-Kitsch. Homelessness abounds but does not preclude cybernetic modification for the poor, giving rise to cosmetic addiction and consequent violence. These threats are dealt with by the armed force known as Psycho Squad. Trauma Team can be employed for rapid medical services. Because of the constant threat of physical harm, all citizens are allowed to openly carry firearms in public.
Story
The game begins with the selection of one of three lifepaths for the player character V (Vincent, played by Gavin Drea, or Valerie, played by Cherami Leigh): Nomad, Streetkid, or Corpo. As a Nomad, V quits their clan and moves to the big city for the first time; as a Streetkid, V comes home to Night City after a few years living elsewhere; and as a Corpo, V is suddenly fired from their job at Arasaka Corporation as a result of their supervisor’s incompetent power play. In the first two lifepaths, V befriends local thug Jackie Welles (Jason Hightower), while in the third, Welles is an old friend. All three lifepaths converge on the same title sequence, a montage of V and Welles’s various adventures with a netrunner, T-Bug.
In 2077, local fixer Dexter DeShawn (Michael-Leon Wooley) hires V and Welles to steal a mysterious biochip known as the Relic from Arasaka Corporation. After they acquire the Relic, the plan goes awry when they become inadvertent witnesses to the murder of the megacorp’s leader, Saburo Arasaka (Masane Tsukayama), at the hands of his treacherous son Yorinobu (Hideo Kimura). The son promptly claims his father had been poisoned and triggers a massive security sweep, in which T-Bug is killed by Arasaka's netrunners. When a firefight breaks out as V and Welles make their escape, Welles is fatally wounded, the Relic's protective case is critically damaged, and V is forced to save the Relic by inserting the biochip into the cyberware in their own head.
DeShawn is furious at the unwanted police attention. He shoots V in the head and leaves them for dead in a landfill. V awakens to find themself haunted by the digital ghost of iconic rock star Johnny Silverhand (Keanu Reeves), who was believed to have died in 2023 during an attempted thermonuclear attack on Arasaka Tower.
V learns from their trusty ripperdoc Viktor Vector (Michael Gregory) that they have only a few weeks of life left. DeShawn’s bullet triggered an irreversible process: nanotech on the biochip brought them back from death, but also began to overwrite their memories and personality with that of Silverhand. Removing the biochip will cause instant death. V must now find a way to stay alive and get Silverhand out of their head.
Through flashback sequences, V learns that in 2023, a brilliant netrunner named Alt Cunningham (Alix Wilton Regan) had created Soulkiller, an artificial intelligence powerful enough to copy netrunners' minds through their neural links. However, the process destroys the target's brain. Arasaka kidnapped Cunningham and forced her to create their own version of Soulkiller. Arasaka stores the minds acquired by Soulkiller in its digital fortress, Mikoshi.
