Life paths are part of the character creator where you can pick your characters back or origin story which will represent their life up to the point of where the game starts. It is deeply rooted in Cyberpunk 2077’s tabletop lineage as life paths were one of the core elements in the tabletop character creator. Life paths have also replaced the Childhood hero tab seen in the 2018 48 minute demo. Also note that whatever Life path option you choose, you still won’t be able to join factions or gangs, but you will be able to work with them.
In Cyberpunk 2077, we have 3 origin story options:
We have the Street Kid, the Nomad and the Corporate.
For Street Kid the game describes it as follows. They say if you wanna understand the streets, you’ve gotta live em. Gangs, fixers, dolls, small time pushers. You were raised by them all. Down here the law of the jungle dictates the weak serve the strong – the only law in Night City you has yet to break.
Nomads are described as Roaming the badlands, looting scrapyards, & raiding fuel depots – life on the road wasn’t easy. But growing up in a Nomad clan has it’s perks. Honesty, integrity and a love of freedom – qualities only a few in Night City possess, and no amount of money can buy.
Finally we have the corporate. Few leave the corporate world with their lives – fewer still with their souls intact. You’ve been there – you’ve bent the rules exploited the secrets and weaponized information. There’s no such thing as a fair game, only winners & losers.
Now what effect will Life paths have in the game? There are a few so lets discuss them.
First your Lifepath choice will unlock unique dialogue options with groups and factions aligned with your origins. By picking a specific lifepath you will able to unlock different dialogue options at key moments. Pawel Sasko has hinted at Meredith Stout offering you more options, potentially romantic ones if you have followed the Corporate origin story, assuming you are still aligned with Corpos based of your choices.
This brings me to my next point where your lifepath is not set in stone and will ebb and flow with your in game choices. If you are a Street Kid aligning with gangs, and disenfranchised factions in night city, you can choose to betray them in favor of your corporate overlords as you progress.
Each lifepath will start in a different starting location in Night City and you will be at a different place in life overall. You will have a different introductory questline, and equipment which will be strongly connected to your specific origin story. As you progress you will be introduced to the chip and Johnny, although it hasn’t been mentioned if that will be in a different way for each life path. Lifepaths will stretch the entirety of the game, and not only will you open up different dialogue options like previously stated, but you will also unlock specific side quests based off your Lifepath.
Although there is only one apartment in the game, each Lifepath will look different based upon what life path you choose and will also change over the course of the game.
Going back to the source material of Cyberpunk 2020 lets also talk a little about the origins of these roles and classes. The source material has 9 distinct character roles. This includes the Rockerboy, Media, Cop, Fixer, Corporate, Nomad, Solo, Netrunner and Techie.
Now the Solo, Netrunner and Techie are going to be featured in CD PROJEKT RED’s hybrid class system. These will be the physical, technical and hacking skills we can spec into, versus the more narrative sensitive choices of something like the Corporate and Nomad. Notice how Street Kid is not one of the original roles, but the closest thing within these roles would be the rebellious rockerboy, a class that like the Street kid would likely align more with the streets than the Corpos.
