Religion and cyberpunk 2077

[Lord Quinton]

Fair warning, this is gonna get ranty.
discliamer #2: i havent completed all the side missions in the game yet. So there may be others that pertain to this, let me know so i can check them out and amend this as needed.
disclaimer #3: i identify as christian
disclaimer #4: i recognize every major religion is up to their eyebrows in heinous acts, and they all have their fair share of hypocrisy.

So, i've just finished the questline where you help a guy get crucified, and I gotta say i'm kinda pissed. First off, as far as I've seen, there are only 2 religions represented in cyberpunk, that being buddhism and christianity. I've done the mission where the budhist monks got kidnapped by maelstrom and you have to rescue one before he gets chipped. I feel like the way religion is represented in the game is callous at best and rather insulting at worst. I ran through the crucifixion quests several times and as far as i can tell there is no way to keep the guy from going through with it. Perhaps someone will correct me on this.

Regardless, throughout the whole questline, even before i knew where it was going, the guy was presents as an incredibly smug ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who really needed a good beating or two. I'm still not sure if the intent of the first quest, was to make you hate this guy or feel sympathy for him. For anyone who doesn't know

*SPOILER ALERT*

V gets hired to kill someone, with the caveat that the guy who pays for the job wants to watch you do it. Turns out the guy who hired you wants you to murder the man who killed his wife. You do a small scripted car chase, and finally trap the car carrying the target, an NCPD vehicle. The guy who hired you jumps out and decides to kill the bastard himself, as he approaches the other car an NCPD officer gets out and kills him. side note: if you shoot anyone at this point you get a police bounty on you and cops spawn in all over the area. So, at this point you get recruited by joshua, the smug asshat who killed a bunch of people and found god in prison while on death row.

Your next stop is where joshua visits the house of a family whose son he murdered back in his bad ole days. He is looking for forgiveness from the mother of the murdered son, of course she doesn't know he's home, much to her surprise. Afterwards, you go get pizza and casually chitchat over light topics like does god exist and why does this moron want to get crucified. I should point out that this idea (for him to be crucified) came from a BD scrolling studio that wants to make a braindance of his crucifixion (and sell it for tons of eddies) and he seems to think that all the terrible people in night city will find religion or some ♥♥♥♥ by his immitating christs death.

In the end joshua wants you to watch him die, oh and be the person who nails him to the cross.

*END SPOILERS*

So, I gotta wonder, why buddhism and christianity? why no islam, no judaism? how about taoism, shintoism, hinduism, or any of the hundreds of other religions? And furthermore why represent these religions in what seriously feels like mocking ways? One of the core tenets of the buddhist monks is to reject any and all cyberware, to keep their bodies pure. I could have totally seen a mission where you have to go rescue BOTH monks before they get chipped, and if you go to slow then one or both still get it. That would have allowed a casual brush with that religion without necessarily seeming callous or uncaring in any way, because it is now up to the player to decide if the monks get screwed or not, it doesn't just happen by default.

And I'm really mystified and moderately angry as to why they chose pretty much everything in the crucifixion questline, everything from the revenge obsessed guy who dies right at the start making all of this pointless, to the smug asshat who ambushes a mother and asks for forgiveness for murdering her son, to the whole mockery of what is literally one of if not the central tenet of christianity?

And on top of all this, religion really isn't a central point of the game, the idea of life existing after death is broached a few times but its almost immediately swept under the rug every time. Its almost like CDPR shied away from religion but decided to sneak a couple stories in anyway to what effect? to point out the pointlessness of religion? make fun of a couple that they know wont bite them back? seriously, what the ♥♥♥♥ guys?

[Schmuddelkatz]

Religions are ♥♥♥♥ and there is/are no gods.
Anyone believing in this nonsense also believes in fairy tales

[Moga CMDR]

There are a lot of issues with the OP, mostly out of ignorance or lack of perspective. But I don't really expect them to change based on some forum posts on steam, so may life will give them the exposure needed to see things in a more informed way.

However, it is worth responding to this:

. I feel like the way religion is represented in the game is callous at best and rather insulting at worst.

Why would you expect it to be represented differently? Not everyone has the same narrow world-view. Accept people are going to demonstrate things differently. If you are insulted, maybe in a decade or so you won't be.

Lastly, I really hate it when people try to compare Monothesim to other beliefs. You will find historically (and currently) the most problematic beliefs are the former. There isn't going to be the same story to be told... But all this can be learned by those that actually care.

I doubt anyone that posts these things on steam really care to dig into this stuff, but steam is an easy platform. So there is that.

[X-istential Daemon]

Originally posted by Guild Sweetheart:

I doubt anyone that posts these things on steam really care to dig into this stuff, but steam is an easy platform. So there is that.

I would *love* to delve into this stuff.

But that is a quick way to get banned from a discussion board.

[Minty]

Wow. What a beauty this one turned out to be.

OP, the reason 2077 highlights Buddhist characters is that they serve as a stark juxtaposition to the cybernetic world V inhabits and is a part of; a culture that carves itself up and implants ♥♥♥♥ like it was nothing. The Christian theme stems from it being the most prevalent American religion and therefore an excellent stand-in for all religious traditionalism.

I mean, if you want the likely reasons for their inclusion.

[Goadfang]

I got a couple cents to spare...

This is 2077, 57 years from now. This is after Bartmoss' RABIDS have eaten practically all digital human knowledge. Most people have very little understanding of the world prior to 2020, and since that time there have been literal asteroids that have been dropped on major population centers, nukes set off in the middle of major cities, and biological weapons unleashed in the Midwest, and all of this during a technological revolution that allows people to literally walk in the shoes of another soul, or have their soul sucked out of them and reincarnated in a new cloned body, or be uploaded to a database.

How does any religion survive contact with that kind of future intact?

This guy, he is a lost soul, a bad person who feels genuine guilt for his atrocities. He doesn't have a big world full of spiritual people to guide him on this, he doesn't have the upbringing that we have that screams "LITERALLY EMULATING THE DEATH OF CHRIST ON THE CROSS IS WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS!" he just has his guilt, and his faith, and he hopes - read that again, HE HOPES - that if he performs this act it will get people to be kinder to each other, that they will scroll his BD and they will understand the love that he has for every single one of them, and that the only way he could ensure they all felt it was for him to suffer in this way.

It is literally christlike, it is saying "if Jesus had had a technology like BD to allow everyone to experience his love and sacrifice on their behalf, would he do it?"

It is a fascinating question. I'm an atheist, but this moved me a bit. It was the most hopeful quest in the game, and I did every single one of them.

[Lord Quinton]

Originally posted by Ihateeverybody:

As for how to stop the crucifixion it is really simple.

As soon as the prisoner gets out of the Vehicle (When Jablonsky gets killed). SHOOT HIM IN THE HEAD SO HE DIES.

The whole quest line annoyed me from the get go. The demand I drive some one elses vehicle to the staged interference and really really lame chase (I mean, the other car waits for you....). So basicly first chance I get/got. I shut it down. Like Fallout 4 and its GREAT REVEAL, I just want no part of it.

thats interesting because when i shot the guy about a dozen cops materialized around me and hosed me down with bullets.

[Minty]

Originally posted by Ihateeverybody:

Like Fallout 4 and its GREAT REVEAL, I just want no part of it.

Fortunately, there's a mod for that.

[SmegAu]

Flying spaghetti monster. It may have something to do with tolerance of religion to be caricatured?

[kaay]

Originally posted by SmegAu:

Flying spaghetti monster. It may have something to do with tolerance of religion to be caricatured?

Cool, now try that again in english please.

[Empukris]

I dont want to get banned and insulting other religion is the fastest way to gt it. Buddhism here is more like a mix of Buddhism and Japanese culture where you have shrine similar to Shinto. So it is there mainly because Arasaka is the king of night city. Christianity because the setting is USA so its not out of place either. There is hijab in the game so Islam is actually there also but nobody will insult that religion or make a quest like that unless you want to suffer some backlash.

[Minty]

Originally posted by Empukris:

There is hijab in the game so Islam is actually there also but nobody will insult that religion or make a quest like that unless you want to suffer some backlash.

So, here comes some Cyberpunk lore. Gather 'round kids. Old Whiskey will tell you a tale from the days back when peoples was still readin' things.

In the world Mike Pondsmith created, there is a mosque in almost every American city. During the collapse, Muslim dietary laws saved them from getting sick, and the faith is super popular with poor people, and most Americans are poor.

That said, there are a lot of weird religions in this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up future.

They have names like Beatified Circle of the Celts and the The Coalition Against the Satanic Fellowship. Check it out, these are all the religions in Cyberpunk[cyberpunk.fandom.com].

Truth is, I think they missed the boat with some of these strange faiths and cults.

[Muscarine]

Didn't care for the edgy shock value of the quest, mostly very annoyed at how railroading it is

I wanted to blow the studio up or dance naked in front of the recording
But you're not allowed weapons, you're not allowed pictures

https://i.imgur.com/ECZR0Ya.jpg so i couldn't even at least indirectly make fun of it

Such a wasted agency opportunity

The idea itself i mean, it's not that bad, makes sense actually in a dystopian environment, not so far from modern real tv

It's also very, very buggy - broken time skips, failed car scripts and so on
Ended up reloading the whole day and headshot him soon as he gets out of his car (which also bugged out the first time around)

And on top of all this, religion really isn't a central point of the game

You're very, very wrong on that point though, the game is absolutely filled with religious and mythological references at every turn

[X-istential Daemon]

Originally posted by Good Whiskey:

Originally posted by Empukris:

There is hijab in the game so Islam is actually there also but nobody will insult that religion or make a quest like that unless you want to suffer some backlash.

So, here comes some Cyberpunk lore. Gather 'round kids. Old Whiskey will tell you a tale from the days back when peoples was still readin' things.

In the world Mike Pondsmith created, there is a mosque in almost every American city. During the collapse, Muslim dietary laws saved them from getting sick, and the faith is super popular poor people, and most Americans are poor.

That said, there are a lot of weird religions in this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up future.

They have names like Beatified Circle of the Celts and the The Coalition Against the Satanic Fellowship. Check it out, these are all the religions in Cyberpunk[cyberpunk.fandom.com].

Truth is, I think they missed the boat with some of these strange faiths and cults.

Introducing fantasy religions that are vaguely similar or based on real world religions is fine for a TTRPG, where your group can interpret and synthesize the lore in a meaningful way.

Doing so in a video game made for mass audiences, I suspect they decided it was easier to just go with the simpler solution. They could have skimmed over the subject entirely, but they didn't...so here we are.

[Minty]

Originally posted by X-istential Daemon:

Originally posted by Good Whiskey:

So, here comes some Cyberpunk lore. Gather 'round kids. Old Whiskey will tell you a tale from the days back when peoples was still readin' things.

In the world Mike Pondsmith created, there is a mosque in almost every American city. During the collapse, Muslim dietary laws saved them from getting sick, and the faith is super popular poor people, and most Americans are poor.

That said, there are a lot of weird religions in this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up future.

They have names like Beatified Circle of the Celts and the The Coalition Against the Satanic Fellowship. Check it out, these are all the religions in Cyberpunk[cyberpunk.fandom.com].

Truth is, I think they missed the boat with some of these strange faiths and cults.

Introducing fantasy religions that are vaguely similar or based on real world religions is fine for a TTRPG, where your group can interpret and synthesize the lore in a meaningful way.

Doing so in a video game made for mass audiences, I suspect they decided it was easier to just go with the simpler solution. They could have skimmed over the subject entirely, but they didn't...so here we are.

They should have skimmed. The monks are interesting, because they're literally the only people we encounter who actually abstain from cybernetic modification for purely spiritual (not necessarily religious) reasons. They represent a paradigm that is both pure and simultaneously weak. They rely on the charity of others, which is in short supply in the world.

I still think people would have enjoyed some of the other ones. They give the world flavour. Something unique, you know? I think it's a missed opportunity.

[X-istential Daemon]

Originally posted by Good Whiskey:

I still think people would have enjoyed some of the other ones. They give the world flavour. Something unique, you know? I think it's a missed opportunity.

I think that is true, it is a missed opportunity. But that is video games in a nut shell. No single video game has ever fully delivered on what I think would have been been a good inclusion for content. That's the way of it.

This is why TTRPG's are better at the end of the day. Even if you miss out on some of the convenience of playing a pre-packaged story in a visually appealing universe, you lose out on the ability to experience the world to the full potential YOU find meaningful.