10 Amazing Video Game Items (That Actually Curse You)
6. The Biochip - Cyberpunk 2077
The world of Cyberpunk 2077 (launch issues aside) is a rich, full one, giving you one of the most remarkable simulations of living another life that gaming has ever offered. Fittingly, part of that game's world concerns the technology to literally give the privileged the chance to inhabit another body.
The Biochip (also known as the Relic) is cutting-edge tech that allows for the copying of a person's mind onto a memory chip. Relic 1.0 allowed for loved ones to interact with the consciousness of their loved ones after death and was a great success among the wealthy general public.
Relic 2.0 went a step further. After the person who provided the copied mind died, they could, in theory, be restored to life in a new body via the chip. Effectively, the Arasaka corporation had created immortality, a fact that was kept strictly within the company.
Of course, chaos eventually ensued, or else it wouldn't be a video game.
Testing of 2.0 started showing flaws. New bodies receiving implanted biochips became emotionally unstable. It was found that the chip couldn't be implanted into individuals who were close to death, negating the whole point of 'downloading' the person's up-to-date mind into an up-to-date body. The chip was found to begin expanding in the host body, eventually taking over the motor and psychological functions. Not ideal resurrections.
As Arasaka says in its own advertising for the Relic, 'results may vary.'