Ever since Cyberpunk 2077 came out in 2020, fans have debated Act 1, which sees V befriend Jackie Welles and attempt to make it big in Night City before the infamous heist mission goes horribly wrong. Some feel the game would have been better had Act 1 been extended and given players more time with the much-loved — but short-lived — companion character. But what does the creative director of Cyberpunk 2 think?
Taking to social media, CD Projekt’s Igor Sarzynski said extending Act 1 before the heist wouldn’t have made Cyberpunk 2077 a better game, and he used Star Wars to back up his point: “it’s like saying we should spend more time on Tatooine with farmer Luke before he got involved with all this Jedi stuff.”
Then: “the motivation / goal in this section of the game is pretty vague — ‘get to the top’ — which, prolonged and without stakes or pressure would result in meandering, unfocused experience.”
Act 2 picks up after the shocking events of Act 1 and Jackie’s untimely death, with V desperate to find a cure for the Relic in their head. Part of the story involves V grieving for Jackie and helping other characters deal with his death in their own ways.
Some Cyberpunk 2077 players, determined to spend as much time as possible with Jackie before the inevitable happens, focus on Watson, the Act 1 playable area, and little else — something Sarzynski acknowledged in his posts. “It’s an open world game, some manage to squeeze 20 hours out of Watson,” he said. “Pick your own pace.”
But Sarzynski acknowledged the ongoing debate around how much time players get to spend with Jackie. “Is it enough time to bond with Jackie?” he asked. “For some it is, for some it isn’t. All things considered I think we struck a good balance.”
And finally, “No, half-year montage is not cut content. We always planned it like this. But more on ‘cut content’ notion in some other post.”
Sarzynski has moved on to Cyberpunk 2, and there’s no indication that anything he’s said here on Jackie has a bearing on what to expect from the hotly-anticipated sequel. Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith has been chatty about it, however. In May last year, Pondsmith teased some previously unknown details when he was asked about the scope of his involvement with Cyberpunk 2 (then known as Project Orion) at the Digital Dragons 2025 conference.
Pondsmith admitted he wasn’t as involved this time around, but said he does review scripts and had been to CD Projekt to check out the ongoing work. “Last week I was wandering around talking to different departments, and seeing what they had, ‘Oh look, this is the new cyberware, what do you think?’ ‘Oh yeah, that’s pretty good, that works here,’” he said at the time.
And then, the morsel on the sequel: that it features a brand new city in addition to the Night City we know from Cyberpunk 2077. Pondsmith described this new city as “like Chicago gone wrong.”
“I spent a lot of time talking to one of the environment guys, and he was explaining how the new place in Orion, because there’s another city we visit — I’m not telling you any more than that but there’s another city we visit. And Night City is still there. But I remember looking at it and going, yeah I understand the feel you’re going for this, and this really does work. And it doesn’t feel like Blade Runner, it feels more like Chicago gone wrong. I said, ‘Yeah, I can see this working.’”
It’s worth pointing out that Pondsmith’s comments do not necessarily suggest the Cyberpunk sequel will feature a future Chicago, rather a city that has the feel of a dystopian version of the city. It may well be a take on future Chicago, but that isn’t confirmed based on these comments. There is also some debate about whether Cyberpunk 2 will expand upon the Night City that’s in Cyberpunk 2077 or feature a new version, and the extent to which it is playable.
It sounds like we’ll have to wait some time to find out. CD Projekt is of course focusing on The Witcher 4, and CD Projekt co-CEO Michał Nowakowski has suggested Cyberpunk 2 won’t be out until at least 2030.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
