Cyberpunk 2077 Gameplay: Character Customization, Class Progression Details

Cyberpunk 2077 again has captured a great deal of attention. Following its E3 unveiling, the private gameplay demo that impressed those fortunate enough to see it at E3 and Gamescom has finally been released to the public. It should give you a good idea of what to expect from the game. And now that you know what it's like, we're looking back at some of what we've learned over the past couple months. That includes developer CD Projekt Red providing details on the character that you'll take control of in its upcoming open-world RPG, as well as how the character can be customized.

During GameSpot's E3 2018 live show in June, associate design director Kyle Rowley revealed the main character is an urban mercenary called "V." You can not only choose the gender of V, but customize him or her as well.

"She takes on takes on dangerous jobs--he or she, actually," said Rowley. "She takes on dangerous jobs that no one else will ... We have a full character creation system in the game, so you'll be able to define your gender, whether it's male or female. You'll be able to define how you look, you'll have various different body types, hairstyles, clothes, tattoos, make-ups, and many, many more. And obviously you can define your, what we're calling 'Life Path.' It's like a backstory, and the things you define in your life path, in your backstory, can modify or unlock things as you're playing through the game."

On top of the character customization and backstory options, players will also be able to define the class of their character. However, doing so doesn't manifest itself in the form a of a choice at the start of the game.

"Now at the start of the game we don't actually have any classes that you pick from," Rowley explained. "Obviously in Cyberpunk 2020 there's lots of different roles you can take on: corporate, rocker boy, netrunner, techie, etc. At the start of the game you're not picking any of those classes. As you're progressing through the game you're modifying and adjusting your class based on the attributes that you pick and decide to install. So it's a very fluid system, we don't lock you in at the start of the game."