I hope the Black Wall breaks in the CyberPunk 2077 sequel.

[PillowEgg3]

CyberPunk 2077 has been building up the Black Wall like it's some divide, and whatever is on the other side is some scary rogue A.I.
Phantom Liberty gave us some horror Alien Isolation vibes.

It got me thinking that this Black Wall is going to give me Game of Thrones Whitewalker vibes or parallels.
Netwatch is pretty much monitoring and maintaining the Black Wall, preventing rogue AIs from wreaking havoc similar to Game of Thrones and you have the Night Watch.

I want to see the next CyberPunk 2077 sequel to lean heavily on this parallel when the rogue AIs hit.
The rogue AIs can be like the Whitewalkers, taking over people like a virus, making them go cyber psycho, having them climb on walls creepily. and grab people to transmit more of the virus.

I want some parallels and homages to a show I loved as a kid called Reboot! That Firewall song with 007 influences is in my head.
For whatever reason, I'm thinking Rogue will be like the leader of the AI similar to the Whitewalkers but infected or something...

anyway thoughts? speculation?

 

[LeKill3rFou]

anyway thoughts?

My thoughts?
Well, the game make it pretty clear several times, if the black wall falls, the world and humanity are doomed... So it would way better if it don't break any time soon

To make a reference to another movie, there is not one but plenty of Skynet beyond the black wall... so no, cross your fingers the black wall will stand and for long.

 

[Tarille]

Netwatch is pretty much monitoring and maintaining the Black Wall, preventing rogue AIs from wreaking havoc

Not just Netwatch, but Alt too.

It's one of the things she does, maintaining the Blackwall. Since, while she's a rogue AI, she's based on real Alt and so is more sane than most other rogue AI's.

CyberPunk 2077 has been building up the Black Wall like it's some divide, and whatever is on the other side is some scary rogue A.I.

It is a divide.

And they also have been building up that the Blackwall is necessary to prevent the collapse of humanity. If it fell, then society would fall too. Like it almost did when the first net fell.

The rogue AIs can be like the Whitewalkers, taking over people like a virus, making them go cyber psycho, having them climb on walls creepily. and grab people to transmit more of the virus.

Realistically... This can be done without AI's involvement at all.

Everyone is chipped and thus susceptible to computer viruses (I mean, that's literally what Quickhacks are...) and thus a computer virus can be used to act like a standard horror virus.

With it being really easy to write it into the setting - Corpo experimental tech accidentally breaches containment and spreads throughout the city... (Like your standard horror virus)

You even have a lot of flexibility in regards to the characteristics of such tech. Like, if it was an attempt to make super soldiers (Not dissimilarly to the combat mod Judy creates during her storyline), or if it was supposed to be a weapon to cripple enemies, or if it was some Corpo leader's pet project to obtain immortality and/or super powers...

Additionally, based on the characteristics of the Relic, you can even write it as some sort of offshoot of its research and V's interaction - Namely the coming back from the dead thing and also forced rewriting of the brain. So you can make literal zombies a thing both some sort of undead monster but also a creepy "Everyone's mind gets replaced by the same psycho's one"

anyway thoughts?

Ultimately, I don't think it's particularly likely. At least not as the main story. The overall IP and general tone of CP2077 is more about individualism and rebelling against Corpo overlords rather than horror (Or AI's).

It could fit into a smaller section of the game, like a gig or particular district. Whereby the outbreak occurs and then you get a mission or a few missions to contain it and get to walk through some trope filled horror scenarios.

 

[SigilFey]

Maybe...it can just "leak"...

 

[SpookyFX]

Maybe...it can just "leak"...

er... an't that what happen already in the game?


Bryce Mosley remarks during “I Walk the Line”:

“People imagine it as a great border wall, a one‑time solution to protect humanity forever. Whereas it's more like a torn‑open trash bag taped over a busted window.”

In Phantom Liberty, V learns there's secret dialogue in the main campaign tied to the Blackwall:

Alt Cunningham tells V:

“You have encountered entities from the other side, not so?

 

[MartineDee]

More like an overfull, overdue diaper that finally gave in and tore up, spraying everyone with its contents...

 

[Metropolice]

I'd LOVE to explore this general thematic more, with A(G)I becoming more and more of a topic in real life as well (not to open that topic here tho) it would be rather fitting.

However I feel for narrative purposes that it might be too much or fast to have it fully go man-AI war or something. I feel narration wise it would or could be powerful to continue building that 'arc' we saw in Cyberpunk 2077 plus DLC already. Perhaps we can get involved with Netwatch more - or work against them.

It feels to me both (rogue/blackwall) AI and another major Corpo war are good background topics for the Cyberpunk setting or the timeline. With V likely not making a return from what we can tell so far and based on older statements I remember we are free to explore more of the Cyberpunk world with a new protagonist that is most likely not on a clock and pressured to act as they physically or mentally decay. This leaves narrative options - a lot more in theory.

Personally I'm always a sucker for formally or de-facto joinable factions. I don't expect the next game to have a too different (dev) handprint and be too much of an open world sandbox RPG in the sense of factions and different plots as I see CDPRs strengths lie more in a focused plot with some deviating paths perhaps but a more linear experience or narrative design - but I welcome any options to align with factions, even tightly so, and I'm sure we'll see some of that with the next game in whatever capacity, out of necessity or free choice.

In my mind and benchmarking it against Cybeprunk 2077 itself, it could for example be (side) factions that do not necessarily play a major role in a major plot itself. If V wasn't on the clock in Cyberpunk 2077 it could for example be akin to being able to do side gigs/jobs with Trauma Team, MAX-TAC maybe (they offer you to join even) etc. Stuff for side content but not plot-conflicting or crucial.

But I digress and got a bit off-track. Bird err AI is the word! Would love to see more but maybe not the total apocalypse

 

[vilsku75]

While it is an exciting idea, since danger makes monkey brain go brrr, the Wall fully breaking is just "rocks fall everyone dies" for the entire setting. This dooms the Black Wall into being a "grave threat that never happens", like the permanent failure of the Golden Throne and the Emperor's death in Warhammer 40K. If you are a good writer, you can try to get around this by showing breaches of increasing size and the map-altering the destruction they cause, but never "cross the line". Of course, this only works for one game, so they have painted themselves into a corner for sure, less than optimal.