Why are lifepaths so disappointing?

+
I was lead to believe lifepaths would "change how you play" and "make a heavy impact on gameplay"

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one to realize that nothing changes besides your 5-10 minute intro into the game and a few different (almost meaningless) dialogue options.

Come on CDPR, lifepaths were supposed to make the game able to be played 3 different times, and all we got was a different dialogue option. Having a lifepath doesn't change how much money you start out with, your street cred, fame, or living situations.


I'm really quite let down with this useless feature.
 
Too bad yeah, but it is what it is. Not going to change now.
You can go check the other threads dedicated to lifepaths and story if you wanna debate w/ other people.
 

bign

Forum regular
I was lead to believe lifepaths would "change how you play" and "make a heavy impact on gameplay"

...

I'm really quite let down with this useless feature.

Welcome to 4 months ago, when there wasn't already a plethora of information on life paths. Sorry you shouldn't feel let down now, there was ample warning out there.
 
I was lead to believe lifepaths would "change how you play" and "make a heavy impact on gameplay"

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one to realize that nothing changes besides your 5-10 minute intro into the game and a few different (almost meaningless) dialogue options.

Come on CDPR, lifepaths were supposed to make the game able to be played 3 different times, and all we got was a different dialogue option. Having a lifepath doesn't change how much money you start out with, your street cred, fame, or living situations.


I'm really quite let down with this useless feature.

simply rushed.... im also sad that they changed background to lifepathes... but i dont think it will change in any way - we need to deal with it how its implemented now. : /
 
I was lead to believe lifepaths would "change how you play" and "make a heavy impact on gameplay"

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one to realize that nothing changes besides your 5-10 minute intro into the game and a few different (almost meaningless) dialogue options.

Come on CDPR, lifepaths were supposed to make the game able to be played 3 different times, and all we got was a different dialogue option. Having a lifepath doesn't change how much money you start out with, your street cred, fame, or living situations.


I'm really quite let down with this useless feature.
To give a straight answer to your thread title
Because they are short way too short and rushed the contexts in them becomes meaningless or if you try to make it meaningful you are left with a cliffhanger
 
I have to admit that was the first really big discouragement I had with this amazing AND disappointing game. For the first time in 40 years of playing theses types of games I was going to play an "evil" character... as a corpo.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered the game forced me to be a street kid instead. :rolleyes:
 
They are what they are at this point and it’s very unlikely they will change.

The game overall would have been better off without the life paths. They are too short and inconsequential to be anything other than disappointing.

Had they been able to pull off a Dragon Age: Origins type of background story, the life paths would have been well received.
 
The lifepaths certainly don't have any big impact on the game, but I tried the 3 lifepaths and even with the small differences in some of the dialogs I can say that my favorite is the corpo rat. But yeah, it would be interesting to have at least more extra quests depending on the lifepath or some attribute bonuses for example.
 
Lifepaths are disappointing for the players, probably for the developers and definitely for poor Mike Pondsmith.


pondsmith is surprised they were able to deliver this version of cyberpunk at all. He expected them to have do things a lot differently in changing to videogame form. He also was involved in development.

Also generally lifepaths are not different adventures in the TTrpg, they are just a different background that make it easier for the player to understand the player's backstory. The GM can incorporate it into the adventure, but its more about where the players are from, not where they are at.


The developers have been presenting lifepaths as they are in game since 2019, if not since 2018 where you see the dialog options in the virtual slice demo. So I doubt its extremely far from what they planned. The most they may have given up was some longer side quests.

"Another part of Cyberpunk 2077's character creation that affects gameplay is its lifepaths. Lifepaths, or character origin stories, are chosen at the beginning of the game. There are three to choose from, called Corporate, Street Kid, and Nomad. As well as giving players a different starting mission to enjoy, the various lifepaths offer perks when speaking to different groups."
 
Last edited:
and definitely for poor Mike Pondsmith.
You have CP2020 rule manual as a digital goodie, just check page 33 (you can check also CPRED, it works the same)... the way that is implemented is quite faithful to the tabletop. They just give a background (thats the small dialog choices), can have a 1st quest to introduce players and way to gather together and generate 1 or 2 encounters related with your past... is pretty much the same thing that you have in CP2077
 
There are 3 MAIN POINTS that I think really points out a feels of disappointments for the lifepath system for me personally:
1. Lifepath prologue that weren't long enough or not exposed enough. It's just is unfortunately. I really thought a different starting points of each lifepaths meant to be a whole 2-3 hour long of its own arcs. A good examples to this would be the prologues from Dragon Age Origins.

2. Lifepath choices didn't go substantial enough to the branching stories. While there are indeed some choices do matter with the lifepaths, others outcomes are not so much. the endings itself mostly a lifepath endings without significant differences of having a diverging lifepath backgrounds. It's like the stories trying to drive players to each lifepath backgrounds to each lifepath endings. There is nothing wrong with this approaches but, I think there should be more to it imo.

3. No actual "personal" lifepath missions that connected to the story. What do I mean by this? Basically your lifepath background story are rather ambiguous & missing its loose ends. Take for example, Corpo V who actually was a close friend to Jackie, but there was no "story" or "plots" that showcased their past relationships. Another one, Nomad V with the previous nomad clan "Bakkers." Yes they fall apart, but player didn't get to actually see that (feels that) nor there is a continuation to this plotline. It's just a "background," suffice to say.
 
+ Padre doesnt recognize you after the heist on any lifepath - but its even more curious on the streetkid one imo.
 
3. No actual "personal" lifepath missions that connected to the story. What do I mean by this? Basically your lifepath background story are rather ambiguous &
missing its loose ends. Take for example, Corpo V who actually was a close friend to Jackie, but there was no "story" or "plots" that showcased their past relationships. Another one, Nomad V with the previous nomad clan "Bakkers." Yes they fall apart, but player didn't get to actually see that (feels that) nor there is a continuation to this plotline. It's just a "background," suffice to say.
I tried to reach the lead quest designer with something similar to this. Lifepath specific, series of meaningful quests with unique rewards would still salvage the lifepath feature im my opinion.

2. Lifepath choices didn't go substantial enough to the branching stories. While there are indeed some choices do matter with the lifepaths, others outcomes are not so much. the endings itself mostly a lifepath endings without significant differences of having a diverging lifepath backgrounds. It's like the stories trying to drive players to each lifepath backgrounds to each lifepath endings. There is nothing wrong with this approaches but, I think there should be more to it imo.
...since this would be too much to handle for them at this point. Wish we could get this tho :sad:
 
I listened to what developers had to say about lifepaths in one of their interviews before the release and I understand why people are disappointed. What devs said about lifepaths is kind of truth, it's just the way they delivered this information is what made everyone think it's going to be something huge, like different lifepath equals almost different branch of the story. It's easy to misinterpret such things if they're only being told to you, especially when they're not explained fully in details (like it's not really going to change the main story if your character is nomad instead of corpo, just sometimes you will get "path specific" dialogue choices that help you get better or easier outcome in a certain quest). It's one of the reasons why other companies prefer to stay quiet rather than say things and get every gamer super hyped by making them create their own expectations that might become unrealistic. It's cool that they're gamer friendly company but that stuff can backfire.
 
Played that bit as a Street Kid two or three days ago, and Padre tells you something like "Ah, you're back finally" when he contacts you the moment you enter Heywood in Chapter 2. So he definitely recognizes you. Maybe they fixed this with 1.2?

nah, this is my experience in the older versions as well. He definitely talks to streetkid like they know each other. in 1.06 and 1.11 definitely.
 
Top Bottom