Cyberpunk 2077 has a lot of cut content, and since the game's release last month, some fans have been hard at work digging up all kinds of stuff. Loads of scrapped missions, locations, and items are all still buried in the game's code, but it's the cut romance options that have really got people talking.
Prior to launch, CD Projekt Red had said that players could look forward to a range of relationships, from one night stands to full-blown romance. Sadly, the Cyberpunk 2077 that we got features a very limited number of options. There are just two prostitutes to hire in the whole of Night City — both of whom present you with an awkwardly short cinematic — and the game's four main romantic interests are locked to the sex of your main character. Depending on the V that you create at the start of the game and their sexual preference, you're stuck with just one key character to romance per playthrough.
But as with a lot of things in Cyberpunk 2077, there was originally much more to this part of the experience. As noted on Reddit, one relatively simple modification to the game's files can restore cut romantic content on PC. Judy, for example, can only be romanced if V is female in the unedited version of the release, but with a bit of tweaking, it's perfectly possible to hook up with Judy if you're playing a male character. All of the dialogue is still there — it's just unused.
The same is true of other characters, like River. Again, according to fully voiced dialogue still present in the game's files, River was a gay male romance option at some point during development, but for whatever reason, that scenario was cut just like the rest.
Cut content is obviously nothing new when it comes to game development, but it's becoming abundantly clear that Cyberpunk 2077 had to be trimmed down significantly before its release. We're still holding out hope that CD Projekt Red can get this game back on track after an immensely disappointing launch, but it's going to take some time.
[source reddit.com]
Comments (44)
I hope 6 month or 1 year later this game will be a new, better games just like no man sky 😃
Hooray, modders have turned the lesbian character bisexual. I’m not sure we should really be rejoicing about this.
@nessisonett
Wait cyberbug 2077 had a lesbian character? Wheres all the outrage all the deaththreats. Oh thats right most gamers are Hypocrites
@Gaming365247 You weren’t here for the original articles about Cyberpunk’s approach to gender identity in its character creator. There was plenty outrage, believe me.
@nessisonett Doesn't sound like anyone is rejoicing at all.
It's just a thing.
I think the problem is that no matter how much content they try to add or course correct going forward, it’s a case of “too little too late” because I, like many others are already finished the main story. Now were there tons of bugs? Absolutely but it had great storytelling regardless...does this make up for all the glaringly cut content though? Hell no and now that i’m aware each lifepath only affects about 20 min of the intro + a couple dialogue choices (which themselves are not that consequential) it leaves me with little incentive to replay 2 or even 3 times more. Look at the end of the day it should’ve been pushed back & made next-gen only & we would’ve had a better product.
I think more people are realizing this isn’t an RPG in the same vein of Skyrim which I don’t blame gamers for thinking because CDPR itself promised/hyped it up to have more features & freedom than what we got. Truth is it’s more of a linear action-rpg with the ‘guise of choice and having it be “your unique V” when it really isn’t. Now will the next-gen upgrade, Online & DLC bring me back? Sure out of curiosity, but first impressions are critical and unless they throw all these cut things in ASAP like a better wanted system, working trains, mini-games/barbers & so on that aren’t even groundbreaking features in open-world games, i’m sure many will finish the game and move onto the next thing.
@SpicyTacos101 I completely agree. It's why I stopped playing and refunded.
As soon as I read a comment from someone from CD Projekt saying they needed 6 months to get the game where they wanted it, I sighed, deleted it, put in my refund, and returned to Yakuza Like a Dragon.
@nessisonett Ok.
This may just be wishful thinking but I feel like the full fat PS5 release is going to be like a new game.
Haven’t played this game since Christmas. Then again I haven’t had a day off since Christmas lol.
I’m debating getting back into it until there’s a full next-gen version, but undoubtedly even that version is bound to have problems.
@nessisonett Not sure anyone cares about that. modders just found cut content.
It's funny how editing a few files can restore a bunch of cut content.
Usually it's a little tougher than that. Maybe CDPR just kinda left loose threads in the coding?
@Deadlyblack They were rushed. They probably couldn't finish it in time like look at the water. There's no splash effects or boats and ships but somehow they put in underwater effects? The hell is up with that?
bit of correction there are 4 joytoys not just two... 2 high end joytoys are avail after kerry mission in certain tower....
After watching a lot of Cyberpunk takedowns on YouTube (like the one from BeatEmUps), I'm starting to wonder if this game has a future at all. Everyone seems to be super disappointed and it's entirety possible that CDPR will just put out a few patches and move on. Not every game is a No Man's Sky situation. There's thousands of games that are badly reviewed, then simply sink & disappear. Given the overwhelming negativity, they may just decide it's not worth it.
"There are just two prostitutes to hire in the whole of Night City — both of whom present you with an awkwardly short cinematic."
The disappointment in this sentence is truly one of the most bizarre things I've ever read. Coupled with all the journalists who saw that behind-the-scenes E3 preview of the game a couple years ago and came away saying that the game would be awesome "because somebody says the C word", my empathy for the failure of such immature nonsense is dwindling.
@wiiware It should have released 6 months later. Cut content, bugs, running bad this game would have been much better with some extra time in the oven.
Whenever I read "romance option" and "video game" I just roll my eyes. It's not romance what we experience in video games, but rather nothing more than the elusion that your main character is having sex with someone.
Romance is about love and feelings. I have a really hard time even naming three video games that had that. Certainly Mass Effect or Dragon Age, often praised for being able to shag anyone, certainly were void of love. I guess The Witcher 3 had a bit of it... but that's about it.
Playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey right now, which has been one of the worst offenders. All Kassandra's "romantic" dialogue options boil down to "YOU ME ***** NOW?"
I was going to wait until the ps5 patch, but with all that I’m hearing regarding cut content, terrible ai, police that materialise and dematerialise at a whim...I’ll likely wait even longer until it’s on serious discount or DLC adds back content
Deleted it off my harddrive so I wouldnt be tempted to play it anyway. Was going to wait at least untill the february patch but the way things are looking this will be at least a year before they fix the technical issues AND the balancing and cut content etc. Bummer.
I will say one thing I like about some modern games is that they actually acknowledge sexual orientation instead of making everyone bisexual. The fact that there is a lesbian option actually put this game on my radar.
@OrigamiCrane I know you weren’t talking to me but as a female homosexual I would like to weigh in. I actually enjoyed that Cassandra was written as heterosexual. Primarily as her dialogue wasn’t neutral in the way that many games try to do that feels like all they did was change a pronoun. The lens of sexual attraction is bigger and more nuanced than that. As are the ways females and males are socialized and our own natural dispositions. And while I applaud any game that allows me to romance a female or that has npcs that are of varied orientations, that is due to lack of representation and not because I think a one size fits all method is the best approach. Often as a minority one has to get poor representation first so that it is first acknowledged that everyone isn’t actually in a hive mind and then you hope for actually well written representation later (which is sad, I agree but such is the monolith of “the majority”)
I loved that Cassandra was flattered, nervous that she led the player on/would damage their friendship but ultimately didn’t waver. That is not often done in media (general or otherwise) and there is still this horrible view that being a female homosexual is a phase, or if you meet a guy with supposedly all the qualities you are looking for, you can ignore that he is male (the “you just haven’t met the right guy” bs) without understanding that what is being casually implied is r a p e, as sexual contact with a male would be unwanted. And the everybody is bisexual option “I love someone for the person” is dismissive of homo- (and hetro ) sexuals as a whole. Which may be annoying to a hetrosexual if they even care but is erasure to a homosexual.
Especially in a world where you still have to be very, very guarded about your attraction/interest as there can be very harmful (sometimes fatal) consequences.
So while my Inquisitor pined for Cassandra and remained alone, it was wonderfully refreshing to see. Same with Sera, whom I hated as a person, but enjoyed her existence as a Lesbian (female homosexual). I love Briala and Celene for that reason as well despite how unbalanced their relationship can be. Josephine while gorgeous, was more the kind of woman I would like to be friends with (I felt as a diplomat and former bard she had too many skeletons in her closet).
@Kidfried @RogerRoger Yeah, the romance options actually turn me off from games. I like role play, but I don’t want/need a virtual girlfriend. I get that a main character often times has a love interest, which is fine as part of the story. But me having to choose a partner, fall in love and sleep with them in a game? Nope.
I guess there are a lot of lonely/horny people out there, though, who get something from this. But I feel some people are disconnected from experiencing real love these days. Brains getting rewired through porn addiction or living out digital fantasies that give the wrong impression of love. It makes you wonder what society will look like in the future the more people pursue these paths.
@Boon520 there appears to be very little meaning in most of the builds. I kept mine pretty generic due to some stupid trophy choices where you needed to max out certain stats. Turns out it doesn't really matter what you build in the game, it's another one of it's failings. A weak RPG system.
@SpicyTacos101 Well said and sums up my view as well. Only addition I'd like to make is add a human shield mechanic! So many basic things just not implemented.
@OrigamiCrane Well, maybe I just romanced the wrong guys or something in those games, but my romances in those games were definitely a letdown. The Yennefer/Geralt dynamic, that I really dug.
No wonder it runs so badly if it's still got all that unused bloat in it.
@Kidfried Worst part is that it's often incredibly awkward at best.
I vote Firewatch for best romance options.
That Meredith Stout scene was totally unexpected. The text she sends afterwards made it better. Dirty corpo b**ch!
The River romance felt a bit forced but Panam and Judy were great i thought.
More proof it badly needed more time in the oven. 12 more months would of been huge for this game.
@Kidfried @Kienda The irony is, the best "romance" storyline I've been able to experience in a game was because of a publisher's terrified homophobia. Being firmly in the friend zone with Kaiden Alenko for the first two Mass Effect games made his nervous, awkward confession towards the end of the third game feel like a natural evolution of events, and absolutely not a stereotypical and sudden "Hello, potentially compatible mate. Please complete your current objective, so that we may discard our clothing and awkwardly mash our faces together."
If it hadn't been for EA's panicked redacting of the first two games' romance mechanics in response to public outcry, I'd have likely triggered the scene early on for trophy purposes, and it wouldn't have meant a gosh-darn thing.
Otherwise yeah, using the word "romance" is laughable.
I am probably the only person to say this but I have had a blast playing this on the PS4 pro. Yes there are bugs and occasional crash. But still an incredible and immersive game.
I mean Judy is the coolest girl in the game, Panam is awesome as well but I like Judy's look way better.
@Boon520
"Acab" really ? If you wrote that for I think, I gotta ask are you angsty teenager or what ?
@OrigamiCrane I do think context is key. Did they cut the content because they ran out of time? Or did they cut it because they decided this was the narrative focus they wanted to take?
Unlike books, games hold “rough drafts” in the form removed content and depending on the context one can react a certain way. I’ve not played cyberpunk so I will stick to bioware examples.
Ashley Williams had dialogue to romance a female shep at first and by ME3 kaiden will romance a male shep. If mods restored the Ashley Williams content I would cry foul because despite it being in my favor I would feel it would alter the character and again go to that neutral point that only works if you are bisexual. Note when I say cry foul I mean I would just ignore it, not that I would actually get mad. For Kaiden, I would take that as character evolution and also take into account how media evolves. Having non heterosexual options is still considered “pandering” by a lot of really hateful people rather that simply acknowledging that humans are more than the bubble they exist in. There are 7 billion of us, you are going to get a lot of permutations that one’s small (relatively speaking) life won’t acknowledge and many that see another worldview react with violence and anger. As such media is still an imperfect reflection (even for heterosexuals) of the human experience but when you have less chances to get it right it becomes exponentially important.
Case in point the “bury your gays”trope. When the majority of media shows homosexuals as unhappy and usually fated to have a violent end that hits harder than say a horror movie on one channel but a family sitcom on the next. For every show that has heterosexuals having a bad time there are many more that are positive so that one is given a more healthy view on society. Media doesn’t exist in a vacuum. From books to ads to the news to religion these things shape our world view and how we deal with others. The thing is media is skewed towards heterosexuals and not in an accurate way.
I don’t presume to speak for anyone but myself but I will say that your comment about why some people that are not heterosexual react a certain way requires context that you likely have not considered or have to deal with. Erasure is a thing. There is a difference between a bisexual and a homosexual and it is dismissive to assume otherwise. Hiding or even outright lying about one’s sexuality to fit in is a thing. Oppression and privilege granted by systemic hatred is a thing. And people get hurt over that or have their lives turned upside down by choices someone else makes. And each side has their own view point. I don’t advocate any type of violent reaction of course but people have a right to feel hurt, betrayed or wary and that is different than hatred.
There is a person (Statistically speaking more than a few, actually) in this world that hates me simply for breathing...that is real hatred and it is terrifying. Reactions I feel are more nuanced. That being said if we worried less about someone else’s life (within reason, don’t ignore the serial killer) so many of our conflicts will fade. But we don’t do that because it might upset our own worldview.
@GR44 you’re not the only one. I’ve been enjoying my time in Night City very much. The age of YouTube and Reddit has ironically not been kind to free thinking.
It is now objective fact that this is a terrible game, whether you’ve played it or not, and every facet of it is disappointing, whether you’re having fun or not.
You’re certainly allowed to talk about it, just as long as you temper every excited statement through the pessimistic lens of reality, or else you’re just a ‘fanboy’.
Anyways, glad you’re having fun. I am too. It’s a pretty great game, and for what it’s worth, the (admittedly limited) romance’s are easily some of the best I’ve seen in a video game. And optional. Of course you’d have to have played the game to know that...
Cheers!
@Boon520
I hoped/guessed as much, its just the acab thing ticks me off, people say that then who's the first call when their in trouble...anyway... towards the game yeah sure I get that, but rivers ok he just got some deep seeded issues.
@OrigamiCrane I think Dragon Age is a bit crap to be honest, never been my thing. And yes, Mass Effect wasn’t that long ago where the publishers openly told BioWare to remove gay romance options. Sexual orientations exist and it’s far more realistic for Judy to be a lesbian than for every single person in the game to be bi. The thing is, ever since Judy was announced, there have been guys letching over her design which led to them expressing disgust that they couldn’t date her. This is eerily similar to what is experienced in real life by actual lesbians, where men try to ‘make them like men’. While this is fictional, it’s worryingly close to what goes on if lesbians politely decline heterosexual men.
Not bothered, the characters were great and am perfectly fine with them having preferences. What I am bummed about is finding out is that one quests was cut down. It’s one I really loved but felt stopped too suddenly, and to think there’s more to it...so bummed out
@nessisonett yeah, it sucks when guys try to turn lesbians straight in real life (although you could argue the same lowlifes would happily sleep with a married woman even if it ruined her marriage and screwed up her kids lives etc). They are not necessarily people who are anti-gay or whatever. Just people who think they are able to make anyone love them or want what they can’t have and have something to prove. They are just selfish and self centred.
Anyways, the difference is this is a video game and this character is not real and actually the purpose of the game is not (in my opinion) to promote lesbians or a character that is lesbian but to enable the player to choose who they want to date. It’s a way for players to live out a fantasy. It wouldn’t have hurt to make the character bi or make her straight in the male timeline and gay in the female timeline.
@Boon520 I would bet that the vast majority of female players are mobile gamers.
There are clear differences in demographics between platforms and the type of game being played. Cyberpunks player base would be about 75% straight male (at least).
@nessisonett CDPR turned a Bisexual character into a lesbian and a previously Bisexual character into a straight one. That's all I see, and it's pretty evident when you run the code.
Personally I'd have a much bigger problem with that than anything modders have done here.
Like it's right there in our faces. But you know I like being lied to sometimes as well. Keeps the magic going and all that.
@Boon520 I wasn’t arguing what is and isn’t “real” gaming. But girls are much more likely to be playing Candy Crush or Animal Crossing than they are Call of Duty or FIFA.
My family is a gaming family, two girls, two boys. We all have shared interests in games, namely Nintendo IPs and Square Enix ones. But also, the girls gravitate to certain games while the boys gravitate to others. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, as I have two female friends I play online shooters with every other week along with another male friend. We’ve been gaming together since we were kids and always had similar interests despite the gender difference so it isn’t a hard and fast rule that if you are female you will like this or whatever, but there are definite trends because people are similar in their habits and likes.
Anyways, I could get into the marketing reason as to why it is good for people to focus on a base. For example, Mumsnet is the worlds leading site for parents, but not all parents are mums. They did this because they focused on their base. They were founded to help parents but found 80%-90% of their traffic was from women so they focused on them instead and rebranded. Diet clubs focus on women also. They capture some men, but they know the money is in women. Telemarketing is also focused for women for the same reason trying to get the low hanging fruit. You don’t expend energy marketing to your 30%, you focus on the 70%. And in some cases it is 90% etc. If it’s 50/50 like Nintendo probably is, that’s a different marketing style.
Just remember that it isn’t sexist, it’s a sound strategy for marketing. The gaming world is no different, but there are pressure groups trying to make games that are geared for men to be more friendly to women or whoever and some developers/publishers fall into the trap of serving a minor few and neglecting their main audience.
Not every game should cater to everyone. We should allow nuance and let fan bases express themselves how they like, even if we don’t all agree or like everything a game has to offer.
Unfortunately, some people want all games to tick all boxes and please everyone and in the end you get a lot of boring middle of the road stuff doesn’t please anyone.
@Boon520 I agree with you to some degree. C2077’s marketing was male driven by default. It is a game that appeals to men more than women, features guns, fast cars, loud music and attractive women. I haven’t been out much due to the pandemic, but where I saw it advertised was at half time of football games and on websites like this one.
I’m not saying it is right or wrong what CDPR did in terms of how they wanted to make characters or create their game. They have creative license and I am a massive advocate for people being able to create and express themselves without any restrictions from others.
All I’m saying is that with that kind of creative license there is always a risk that they will upset their target audience. If they know that 75% of players are straight men and that 50% of them would prefer to romance a certain character. Why not make that character accessible to them as a straight female in one timeline (straight male V) and then make that character a lesbian in another timeline (gay female V)?
It serves the purpose of pleasing the player/customer and giving them what they want.
I don’t believe all characters have to fulfil roles or tick boxes. They don’t always exist for a greater cause. Sometimes they do. Sometimes it is important that a character fulfils a role within a game or a story. However, this game was advertised as having a way to play the game that you like and didn’t really deliver on that. And so customers were left disappointed. And it’s not good to disappoint paying customers just to fulfil a purpose of those people that support you are less likely to come back in the future. Not because they are anti-anything, but just simple people who want what they want.
Having completed the game a couple of weeks ago I was left underwhelmed. The storytelling was good but the game engine needs a lot of work. It would have been nice if the romance options were not gender/voice locked .
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