At E3 2018, Patrick Mills, the Cyberpunk 2077 quest designer, indicated that Cyberpunk 2077 could not be completed without killing, due to the fact that the player character is a mercenary whose "job is violence." With many players hoping that CD Projekt Red's forthcoming RPG would support a myriad of different types of playthroughs, some found this news a bit disappointing, and the developer has now responded to this disappointment by backtracking on its initial statement.

Specifically, it is now indicated that the entirely of Cyberpunk 2077 can be finished without ever killing anyone, a clear reversal on what was said last year. This information was confirmed during a demo of Cyberpunk 2077, which was shown during E3 2019, and lead quest designer, Pawel Sasko, has further elaborated on the matter.

Speaking with PC Gamer, Sasko states that, in Cyberpunk 2077, "pretty much every gun, pretty much every cyberware, you're able to use in a nonlethal way." Sasko uses "pretty much" as a qualifier here because there are some Cyberpunk 2077 weapons that are simply too devastating to have a non-lethal setting, and the CD Projekt Red team member cites bazookas as one such example of this type of weapon.

That said, it seems that players will be able to avoid these fatal weapons completely, if they so choose, in their Cyberpunk 2077 playthroughs, and can instead focus on using exclusively non-lethal methods to reach the game's conclusion. As many will likely expect, some of these methods will focus around using stealth, with players sneaking up on adversaries and using non-lethal takedowns to bypass them.

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Additionally, players will be able to give their Cyberpunk 2077 characters abilities that can assist in a non-lethal approach to progression, assuming that they spec accordingly. This might mean using a hacking ability to take a surveillance system offline, to corrupt an enemy's technology, or to setup a distraction while they sneak by.

It is said that CD Projekt Red's new commitment to Cyberpunk 2077 non-lethal playthroughs comes as result of the feedback that it received at E3 2018. Indeed, the company has previously shown that the highly anticipated RPG will focus on an openness of play, as indicated by the fact that Cyberpunk 2077 will not have game over screens unless a player dies, and allowing players to finish the game without killing is sure to further extend this openness.

Cyberpunk 2077 will release on April 16, 2020, for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: PC Gamer