5 Ways Cyberpunk 2077 Should Follow The Witcher 3's Lead
3. No Rigid Karma System
Cyberpunk 2077 will probably include plenty of choices that the player must make throughout the game, yet it shouldn't use a black-and-white karma system seen in games like Mass Effect.
A rigid karma system can create some cool moments (particularly evil ones) but your character can lack consistency if you keep moving from heroic acts to evil ones. Characters can stay consistent if players follow one good or evil side, but that removes the idea of choice anyway.
Witcher 3's choices had consequences yet they were a lot more complex than choosing the right thing to do or opt for the evil thing instead.
The Whispering Hillock is a good example of a quest that shows how choices work in The Witcher 3. In the quest, players have the opportunity to free or kill the spirit in the tree. If they decide to free the spirit, it saves a group of orphans held by the evil crones, but the woman looking after them gets transformed and eventually dies and her husband - the Baron - hangs himself. If players decide to kill the spirit in the tree then the crones sacrifice the orphans. Neither choice is a good or bad, even though they play out completely differently.
The grey area surrounding choices in Witcher 3 allows Geralt's personality to stay somewhat consistent while still making choices matter. A similar system in Cyberpunk 2077 would make choices compelling.