Cyberpunk 2077: 10 things I wish I knew before playing

After eight long years of hype and anticipation, Cyberpunk 2077 has finally officially launched around the globe. Although many players are reporting bad bug issues, especially on PS4 and Xbox One platforms, the game is already breaing Steam records. As fans would expect of a game from CD Projekt Red, the studio behind The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk is a massive, complex game, with a gigantic open world to explore in Night City.

I’ve spent over 45 hours with the game so far. That’s a lot of hours, but I still feel like I’ve seen only a fraction of what Cyberpunk 2077 has to offer. Still, there are a few handy things I’ve noted for those powering through Cyberpunk — tips and tricks I wish I knew before I loaded the game up for the first time. 

What difference backstories make

When you start the game, you’ll be given the option of three backstories for V: Street Kid, Nomad or Corpo. 

Your choice will have two main impacts. First, it’ll affect the opening hour or so of the game, as you’ll start out in a different part of Night City, mingling with different characters, depending on which you choose. The Corpo starts in an office building, the Street Kid in a sleazy bar, the Nomad in the Badlands desert outside of Night City. About an hour in though, you’ll end up on the same path as a gun for hire alongside your pal Jackie.

The second, longer-lasting effect is that you’ll get different dialogue options based on which backstory you chose. I went for Corpo, which gave my V the ability to politic his way around certain sticky situations. In other words, your backstory doesn’t make as big a difference as you might worry it does. 

Stack attributes

More consequentially, you’ll get the option at the beginning of the game to distribute points to six different attributes: Body, Intelligence, Reflex, Technical Ability and Cool. Within each of these attributes, you’ll have perks you can unlock. 

At first, I spread attribute points and perks around semievenly. I had an idea in my head that, like skill trees in most AAA games, I’d end up unlocking all the perks eventually anyway. In truth, you’re far better off choosing early on how you want to approach combat and tailor your attribute points and perks accordingly.

Broadly, there are two ways to handle combat: Force and stealth. But within this there are subdivisions. Within force, you can specialize in melee weapons, fisticuffs or gunplay. Within stealth, you can optimize your sleuthing (the Cool attribute and related perks that make it harder for enemies to detect you), hacking abilities (you’ll hack nearby tech to distract/harm enemies) or stealth- kill offense (like gnarly throwing daggers).

Obviously, you’ll adjust your style as you go through the game. But don’t do what I did and try to be balanced — balance is for suckers. 

Pump Body and Technical Ability to open doors

Body and Technical Ability attributes are both highly useful while navigating Night City, as both are used to open locked doors. Both also have other benefits, as getting higher Body points lets you hijack cars and open parked cars, while Technical Ability will let you hack into mainframes to get eurodollars (in-game money) and crafting components. 

Don’t just play the main quest

I had around five days to (try to) beat Cyberpunk 2077 and get a review out, so I was largely forced to ignore side quests and focus instead on finishing the main storyline. I highly recommend you not do this.

Cyberpunk’s story is one of its strengths. The relationship between V and Johnny Silverhand, a mercenary played by Keanu Reeves stuck inside V’s head, gives it a welcome focus. But Cyberpunk is about exploring Night City as much as it is seeing the narrative out to the end. The game itself encourages this, prompting you regularly to take a break from the main quest to go do other stuff. 

And that stuff is good. Side quests are really fun, often more so than the main quests. They’re varied — from reining in seven AI-powered cabs that have gone rogue (this was one of my favorites, since the rogue cabs had personalities that were often legitimately funny) to solving the mystery of a slain mayor — and turn Night City as a living, sprawling city.