Setting and characters Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in Night City, an American
megacity in the Free State of
North California, controlled by
corporations and unassailed by the laws of both country and state. Players take on the role of Vincent / Valerie, also known as "V" (
Gavin Drea /
Cherami Leigh), a mercenary who was killed, then revived by an experimental Arasaka biochip called "the Relic", and ends up with a digitized engram of legendary rock star Johnny Silverhand (
Keanu Reeves) existing within their mind. Together, V and Johnny search for a way to prevent the Relic from killing the former and replacing their mind with Johnny's. The
Phantom Liberty expansion introduces the following characters: Song "Songbird" So Mi (Minji Chang), a netrunner working for the New United States of America (NUSA) Government; Solomon "Sol" Reed (
Idris Elba), a Federal Intelligence Agency (FIA) operative who works for the NUSA Government as a sleeper agent; Rosalind Myers (Kay Bess), the President of the NUSA; Alena "Alex" Xenakis (Yvonne Senat Jones), Reed's former FIA partner who went undercover in the Dogtown district of Night City as a bartender; and Kurt Hansen (Eliah Mountjoy), leader of the Barghest militia who controls Dogtown. Some of the characters from the main story also appear.
Plot Following a venture into the Pacifica district of Night City, the mercenary V is contacted by Song "Songbird" So Mi, the aide of NUSA President Rosalind Myers. She explains that their aircraft has been hacked and is about to crash in the lawless district of Dogtown, ruled by warlord Kurt Hansen. Songbird asks V to help rescue Myers in return for her assistance in preventing the Relic from destroying V's brain. V saves Myers and escorts her to a safehouse, but they lose contact with Songbird on the way. With Songbird missing in action, Myers asks V to contact Solomon "Sol" Reed, a NUSA sleeper agent, for help. Reed successfully extracts Myers from Dogtown, after which Myers gives V and Reed a new task: rescue Songbird. Reed enlists the aid of fellow agent Alena "Alex" Xenakis and netrunner Slider in order to locate Songbird. Slider reestablishes contact with Songbird and is shocked to learn that to contact V she has been going beyond the Blackwall, the
firewall that protects the world from rogue AIs, artificial intelligences that are hostile to humanity. Songbird tells V she has been captured by Kurt, while Slider is killed when the Blackwall overwhelms him. Reed reveals that Songbird has been probing the Blackwall under Myers' orders, which is prohibited by international law. V and Reed infiltrate a party held by Kurt and meet Songbird, who explains that her mind is being corrupted by the entities from beyond the Blackwall, and a device in Kurt's possession called the Neural Matrix can cure both her and V's conditions. She sets up a plan to steal the matrix from Kurt and escape, while Reed and V deduce that Songbird orchestrated the plane crash as part of a deal with Kurt, which she later confirms. Reed resolves to rescue Songbird anyway, giving V a device that will knock her unconscious. Meanwhile, Songbird contacts V separately, asking V's help to escape from both Kurt and the NUSA. V, along with Alex, again infiltrates Kurt's headquarters and is then faced with a choice: help Songbird escape, or betray her so that Reed can take her into custody. If V helps Songbird, Alex kills Kurt while V and Songbird flee, now fugitives hunted by the NUSA. Songbird enlists V to escape to the Moon via Night City's spaceport, but the NUSA, under Myers' personal direction, attacks the spaceport. V and Songbird fend them off, but Songbird is severely weakened after being forced to use her Blackwall powers in the process. Songbird admits to V that the matrix can only be used once, and that she had intended to betray V by using the cure on herself. V is left with the decision to surrender Songbird into Reed's custody, or kill Reed in a standoff and assist Songbird's escape to the Moon. If V betrays Songbird, she immediately realizes V's deception. Songbird uses her Blackwall powers to flee, falling into cyberpsychosis, while Kurt kills Alex before being killed by V, or other causes if not confronted. The escaping Songbird is captured by MaxTac, after they respond to the cyberpsycho alert. Reed and V attack the convoy holding Songbird, but she flees again to Cynosure, an old Militech bunker facility, in order to connect to the Blackwall. While evading a Militech machine, which is implied to be controlled by a rogue AI, V learns about her tragic past: when caught hacking, Reed blackmailed her into leaving her friends and family behind and joining the FIA or being given up to NetWatch. Upon her enlistment, she was forcibly augmented by Myers to use as a link between the Blackwall and the real world. By the time V catches up, Songbird is already succumbing to the Blackwall's effects. Depending on V's choices, they either euthanize Songbird at her request to prevent her from falling into NUSA custody, or hand her over to Reed, who promises to help her. If Songbird is taken into custody, a new ending to the game is unlocked. Myers congratulates V for completing their mission and Reed informs them that the matrix can be used to cure V. If V accepts, NUSA surgeons successfully remove the Relic from V's brain, but the surgery fully deletes Johnny Silverhand's engram, puts V in a two-year coma (during which most of V's friends move on), and causes irreparable damage to V's brain that renders them unable to use combat implants. Reed has taken a desk job at NUSA but has no further updates on Songbird, who he presumes is still working for Myers. Unable to return to their old life as a mercenary, V is forced to accept that they must live quietly as a regular civilian from now on, with Reed, and V's friends, Viktor "Vik" Vector and Misty helping them. If Songbird is sent to the moon or euthanized, V continues looking for a cure through other avenues. ==Development==