i wonder if CP2077 binds you to the life of a hired gun for the entire game, or it lets you rise up from nothing to become a power player in Night City, either celebrated for your heroic actions or feared for your criminal reputation. working for corpos? hell no, i am my own corporation!
I feel that this question can be answered from what we can see early on in the gameplay video. At around 1 minute in. During character creation, the second 'tab' at the top is Backstory. As the narrator explains things, you can pause it there and check the little tidbits of info. On the right side 'panel' (under Backstory) we have sets of three main options for our character.
It goes:
º Childhood Hero
º Key Life Event
º Why Night City?
This is definitely coming from (inspired by) the original Mass Effect approach with how we had to choose between different profiles (Earthborn, Spacer, Colonist, etc). The two last options here, "Key Life Event" and "Why Night City?" I strongly feel will play some type of major part in the game. Maybe both combined, too (I.E. maybe the "Death of sibling" from Key Life Event choice #1 will be tied to "Unfinished Business" from option #1 of "Why Night City?", but that's just me thinking in the veins of what seems to be a very complex and multi-layered game; but maybe those choices really are just separate and play on their own without crossing paths).
Now, of course I don't know if the actual start of the game is entirely identical for everyone. I do think that it will be at least very similar. That is, unless CDPR took the time to create "Origins"-style story prologues like we had for the first Dragon Age game. If they actually did that (honestly I wouldn't be surprised at this point, they seem to be magicians in the gaming industry now) then I'd say that the very start of the game (the would-be "prologue") would help establish everything we chose for Backstory options (I.E. maybe we'll witness from another perspective which sibling was 'lost', or even better we'll actually get to play that from a flash back scene, or something along the lines; and so on and so forth for all options and their possible combinations).
However, in a more 'realistic' expectation on my part I'd say that it would go like this, instead:
1) The start of the game is identical for everyone, regardless of Backstory options chosen.
2) However, sooner rather than later in the game things (quests, events, named NPCs we meet, etc) start 'shaping up' towards the chosen options in the Backstory.
3) At some point in the game everything will sort of 'converge' toward a character style (maybe at least personality wise, if anything).
In Mass Effect, our chosen profile options led to only a few unique things, it wasn't anything major. There were one or two quests in some of the profile combinations (for example, a unique quest involving a woman with PTSD at the Citadel when choosing the Colonist and/or Ruthless options). That repeated itself in Mass Effect 2 when transferring saved files from the first game. But, with Cyberpunk I have the feeling that those options will lead to much more than just one or two quests in some forgotten corner of Night City that would only take like 10 minutes each to finish. We're talking about CDPR, so it's safe enough to assume that if they took the time to let us choose those Backstory options to start with it's because they worked on them in the actual game to be relevant, too.
Ultimately though, it's honestly not clear, however, if it will be literally possible to * do anything *. Or rather, to do anything
WHEN possible, whenever given the ability to "do anything". It doesn't seem to be playable in the style of Grand Theft Auto either at least not from the relatively scripted gameplay reveal. That reveal had to be controlled to be presentable, it's obvious. Now, I DO expect 'freedom' but maybe not as much as some of us would think we "should" have. I mean let's just take that very busy street / boulevard intersection scene near the beginning of the video (after they finish with the first mission). Would it be possible to just take out your gun right there on the spot and start mass murdering GTA-style in plain day light? I highly, very highly doubt it. Even if it IS possible, then I have the feeling that something along the lines of GTA "stars" system or maybe a 'sticky' police force will spawn nearby and relentlessly chase you while being 50+ levels above yours (even beyond level cap to ensure "security" in the City).
You know, when it comes to suspension of disbelief... somehow not everyone is murdering each others on the streets and Cyberpunk is portrayed as being a very harsh and merciless world. Yet, there seems to be a relative bare minimum form of 'order' in the flow of things, and people going around without dying every five seconds. That's obviously going to be there for proper story-telling and quests progression (just like monsters couldn't just walk freely in towns in Bethesda games and just kill quest-giving NPCs and break the game for you, things like that are inevitable in story-drive games). So the reason why I bring all this up in relation to how the game plays is because I ultimately just cannot tell how CUSTOM we'll be able to play and 'create' our character. Will my "V" be able to essentially become the new big bad of Night City that everyone fears? Or will I be able to just be a lone wolf all the way through? Or will I be able to take down ALL the 'bandit' groups and just play "
I AM JUSTICE!!" and report them all to police (if even that is possible to begin with, or even if there IS an actual police force that isn't too corrupted to do its job without the obvious fear of dying while trying to do it).
So the gist is that I do think that there's going to be 'paths' for our character to be like, and play like (and yes, based on Backstory choices). But I also think that CDPR had a general 'vision' for V and we might sort of have to play a certain way within the otherwise freedoms we'll have. Not sure if I'll be able to kill all NPCs Oblivion-style and get away with it, really.