Players can upend the chronology of the entire Cyberpunk 2077 universe with a newly discovered glitch hidden in one of the game's flashback cutscenes. By prematurely turning the tables on a powerful foe in Cyberpunk 2077, Johnny Silverhand can gain the upper hand in a scenario where he canonically struggled.
While Cyberpunk 2077 boasts a huge number of characters throughout Night City, few are as memorable as Adam Smasher. Introduced as a surly bodyguard for the Arasaka family, he takes on increasing importance before becoming the final boss in most story routes. While Smasher is a force to be reckoned with, he was no slouch a half-century earlier when he captured and killed Johnny Silverhand. At that point, Smasher forced Silverhand's mind into the experimental mind-storing technology around which Cyberpunk 2077's plot is based.
As shared on Reddit, a player can kill Adam Smasher during one of Johnny Silverhand's flashbacks prior to Smasher killing Johnny. This requires the player to shoot through walls, but with some patience, Smasher goes down. This should cause a paradox, since Johnny has just altered the course of history, but the game resolves this in a hilarious way. Even though Adam Smasher doesn't appear, Silverhand still gets slammed around as if he were. It resembles the way the Whispers work in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, as mysterious forces ensure fated events are carried out no matter what.
This glitch is yet another testament to just how unstable Cyberpunk 2077's programming can be. A huge array of progression-stopping bugs have been found, and even those that aren't game-breaking can hurt story immersion. The player's ability to identify with Silverhand's plight might suffer as a result of this glitch as they wonder why he didn't simply kill his foe canonically.
The video clip continues another tradition as well - namely, finding new ways to humiliate Adam Smasher. For whatever reason, the game's fandom has been industrious in seeing what glitches and mods can do to undermine Smasher at every opportunity. This includes alternate ways to kill him prematurely, mods that allow players to sleep with him, and more.
For all of its absurdity, this glitch could be justified as a delusion on behalf of Johnny Silverhand himself. The player views his last moments as he remembers them, meaning they likely present him as stronger and more competent than he truly was. Still, it would be hard to justify the resulting sequence of Johnny taking a beatdown from thin air in place of Smasher.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X versions coming in 2021.
Source: Reddit