Cyberpunk 2 director's comments about 2077 have gamers saying he's completely wrong

The director of Cyberpunk 2 has made comments defending the prologue section of Cyberpunk 2077 but his comments have gamers pretty much unanimously declaring he's wrong on social media.

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077.

Jackie Welles is a beloved companion in Cyberpunk 2077 but during the prologue, his relationship with V (the main character) is arguably explained more than explored and experienced through missions.

However Cyberpunk 2 creative director Igor Sarzynski said he wasn't really part of the story and argued making the prologue longer would not improve the game.

In a series of posts on BlueSky, he said: "So would extending Act 1 (before the heist) in Cyberpunk 2077 make the game better? No it wouldn't. It's like saying we should spend more time on Tatooine with farmer Luke before he got involved with all this Jedi stuff."

In follow-up posts, Sarzynski added: "It's an open-world game, some manage to squeeze 20h out of Watson. Pick your own pace ^^. The motivation / goal in this section of the game is pretty vague - 'get to the top' - which, prolonged and without stakes or pressure would result in meandering, unfocused experience.

"Is it enought time to bond with Jackie? For some it is, for some it isn't. All things considered i think we struck a good balance. No, half-year montage is not cut content. We always planned it like this. But more on 'cut content' notion in some other post."

The comments were posted in the Gaming Subreddit and gamers have pretty much unanimously argued having more missions or time with Jackie early on would improve the player's relationship with the character and not just V's.

One said: "But we should've been able to play the opening montage with Jackie, or at least a couple missions. His death didn't hit me very hard because you don’t spend all that much time with him. I got told that him and V are best friends but didn't really get to experience it."

A second agreed: "Look I played at launch. And I took the option of being an outsider thinking it would shape my character before arriving in the city. In reality it was doing one short quest and then a montage of the game telling me this is my best friend. Look at the video! We bonded! But I didn't because I didn't go through all of that."

A third commented: "Johnny Silverhand takes over the best-friend role."

"I just don't really think of Jackie much," a fourth said. "I don't see him as an iconic character or someone I really care about because I did one or two missions with him then watched a montage of him dancing and punching people then he's dead basically next mission. We're just told how great he is at his celebration."

And a fifth commented: "I would have been fine with a few missions, just to build the relationship and then rip it from you. It would have hit harder, as a player, with all the dialog throughout the game mentioning him. Certainly would have made the main campaign slightly longer."

Elsewhere from indy100:

• The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 finally get official update from CD Projekt Red
• How does Cyberpunk 2077 really run on Nintendo Switch 2?

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