Yes, You Can Complete Cyberpunk 2077 as a Pacifist Who Doesn’t Kill

Want to pull a Deus Ex and play through Cyberpunk 2077 on a “pacifist” run? Apparently, it will be possible. Every weapon in CD Projekt RED’s upcoming sci-fi title will have a nonlethal option, barring weapons like bazookas, of course. Lead Quest Designer Paweł Sasko confirmed as much during an E3 2019 interview with PC Gamer.

According to Sasko, this gameplay decision stemmed from fan feedback and survey responses given during last year’s E3. Sasko shared the following on the matter:

Right now, every weapon and every cyberware has a nonlethal option. I think I can say everything. There’s one thing: only weapons that are lethal by definition, so let’s say you shoot someone with a bazooka in his face. You shoot his head off. That’s typically lethal. But everything else actually has a nonlethal option. Pretty much every gun, pretty much every cyberware, you’re able to use in a nonlethal way. You’re able to knock them down, choke them, make them sleep and so on. There are ways not to kill them and spare them, like the way you could do with Sasquatch, the boss.

PC Gamer described one instance in a behind-the-scenes gameplay demo where nonlethal options were put to use. The player character, V, prowled through a mall filled with Animals (“juiced-up gang members”), knocking them unconscious one by one with stealth attacks. Some takedowns consisted of chokeholds. Meanwhile, another nonlethal takedown involved V tossing an enemy down a garbage chute.

Whether or not the nonlethal options will have a great impact on the story outcomes, à la Deus Ex, remains to be seen. However, it certainly seems as though it may be a possibility, given the emphasis CD Projekt RED is placing on choice and consequence in the game.

Cyberpunk 2077 will finally hit store shelves early next year on April 16, 2020 for the PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One. Preorders are already live for the title and its Collector’s Edition, the latter of which costs $250 and comes packed with a statue, steelbook case, hardcover art book, and much more.

[Source: PC Gamer]