Cyberpunk 2077 has no shortage of customization options with its lifepaths, skill trees, and Cyberdecks that boost replayability. Surprisingly though, the CD Projekt title never got a New Game Plus mode, which has been a standard-fare feature in almost all modern RPGs.
The game’s lead quest designer, Pawel Sasko, explained CDPR’s reasoning in a June 5 interview with Dualshockers. According to Sasko, the conscious decision not to introduce a New Game Plus mode was solely based on the game’s narrative structure and how tacking it on would diminish its story.
“It’s really important that when you have components in a game, they all work together and they all work well and they all make sense…Cyberpunk is very specific when it comes to its construction,” Sasko said.
Sasko referenced Bethesda’s Starfield and how it incorporates NG+ runs as part of the game’s broader plot. He thinks Cyberpunk 2077 sits at the opposite end of the spectrum as the game “hasn’t really been thought through as a New Game Plus experience.”
Cyberpunk 2077’s story starts with V as a relatively no-name character in Night City and “becoming a legend” only after the Konpeki Plaza heist. However, CDPR’s other successful RPG—2015’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt—had its New Game Plus mode that’d let you replay the game with gear and perks from your first run without any story explanation. So, a similar implementation could also work for Cyberpunk 2077, at least according to the game’s community.
Sasko, however, holds a much different understanding: “It’s incredibly difficult to figure out a way where NG+ could be done in a setting, in a way that doesn’t completely break the way the game is constructed. By design, it would require major changes to the construction of the game to really do it well.”
Sasko emphasized the game’s replayability, saying, “It’s to be replayed. It’s to try different life paths, try different romances, try different builds,” he said. “There’s so many things that you can at least, twice or three times, have a very varied experience in 2077. So this is another answer, the game was built to be replayed that way.”
Not that Cyberpunk players have any other option. As we reported earlier, CDPR has completely moved on from the game and is largely focused on its future projects, including Project Orion, the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, which is in development at the company’s new Boston studio. Sasko, in fact, serves as the sequel’s associate game director.
