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Cyberpunk 2077 Promises LGBTQ Romance

This article is over 5 years old and may contain outdated information

Cyberpunk 2077 is going to get thirsty. CD Projekt Redā€™s upcoming science fiction Keanu Reeves best friend simulator will feature a plethora of romancible characters, including those of the same sex as your custom avatar. According to a DM discussion between Redditor magired1234 and Cyberpunk 2077 lead quest designer Pawel Sasko, Cyberpunk 2077 will have in-depth and narratively important romance options comparable to the developerā€™s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt while offering more bachelors and/or bachelorettes to chase. Some of these wooable NPCā€™s allow players to engage in LGBTQ relationships.

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Sasko explained that V, Cyberpunk 2077ā€™s protagonist, is the reason behind the more robust relationship system. Unlike The Witcher 3ā€™s Geralt, V isnā€™t a concrete character from the gameā€™s outset. While player choice is a heavy factor in The Witcher 3ā€™s storyline, Geralt has a distinct appearance, voice, and backstory, and these are defined characteristics that Cyberpunk 2077ā€™s lead protagonist diverges from. Vā€™s race, voice, sex, and gender expression are customizable from Cyberpunk 2077ā€™s outset. As a result, players are granted with more choices within the narrative, including whoā€™s worth dating within the gameā€™s dystopia.

As a pansexual transgender woman, I applaud Cyberpunk 2077ā€™s inclusion of queer relationships. From my viewpoint, dating someone has nothing to do with their sex assigned at birth and more to do with the quality of their character. Itā€™s cool that Cyberpunk 2077 reportedly respects this outlook. With that said, Cyberpunk 2077ā€™s abundance of romantic offerings may have some drawbacks. While The Witcher 3ā€™s love triangle was limited to Triss and Yennefer, those characters were incredibly well written and worthy of the hour-long quests necessary to learn more about their respective personalities. Executing similar quality character development on a grander scale would be a herculean feat.

Additionally, I worry that CD Projekt Red wonā€™t handle LGBTQ relationships well. The inherent intricacies of queer identity and romances generally arenā€™t explored well within the mainstream video game landscape, and this is especially true of CD Projekt Red. Within the LGBTQ community, the studioā€™s PR has taken a dive over the past year. The GOG (CD Projekt Redā€™s online storefront) and Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter accounts have made light of transgender discrimination in the U.S. In 2018, the GOG account coopted the Wonā€™tBeErased hashtag while the Cyberpunk 2077 account repeated the obnoxious transphobic phrase ā€œDid you just assume their gender?!ā€

This is to say nothing of the recent controversies surrounding Cyberpunk 2077ā€™s use of race and a fictional in-game advertisement with a sexualized transgender model. Whether or not Cyberpunk 2077 can overcome these issues remains to be seen, but even with my concerns, Iā€™m excited to play this game when it launches in April 2020. Keanu Reeves better be a romance option.


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Riley Constantine
Contributor. Riley Constantine is Iowa's third greatest export behind Slipknot and life insurance. She loves to review movies and games while examining how they often mirror the bizarre world we live in.