Villains in video games are a key part of the story in many titles, they help flesh out the conflict, force players to make hard choices, and provide satisfaction when they’re taken down. For developer CD Projekt Red, they’ve always desired to tell stories that have very in-depth villains, not ones that are simply about taking over something. The Witcher series proved this multiple times, and many are wondering if Cyberpunk 2077 will be the same way. Well, according to one writer, yes, you should expect the same treatment.
Cyberpunk 2077 writer Stanislaw Swiecicki spoke with PlayStation Magazine and noted how the game’s world needs deep villains and not cookie cutter ones.
“The moment when trauma team is descending – I was on the team writing that,” said Swiecicki. “Trauma team and the meat wagon sort of mythos – so, you know, really tough guys in ambulances flying around, but also armed to the extent that you can’t really call them health care workers, They’re super-dangerous to be on par for this world. The moment when they descend it’s like ‘All right, yeah, this is the vibe I used to imagine.’ And also the machine gang you make a deal with. With the gangs we really want to emphasize that we don’t want them to be our comic book-esque villains – they’re not abominations that decided for almost no reason to put cyberware in themselves. It’s a dark, dangerous world and some people who aren’t able to make it to the megacorps or don’t want it… It’s a human need to seek identity, and some people just gravitate towards the gangs. Although their faces are modified they’re still human underneath, you know. It touches upon a universal feeling we all have: the need to belong to a group.”
So yeah, the game will be ripe with good villains, and no doubt as we get closer to the game’s release we’ll get videos spotlighting them.
