You’re missing out on this cool worldbuilding aspect of Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 presents a dense and complex world full of secrets and knowledge. There’s a lot of story to build on, given that it comes from an existing TTRPG with entire books of established characters and events. Overall, the game does a good job of laying out these details in a way that makes players care about them, as any good open-world game will, tying the story of Night City with the story of the game’s protagonist. But there is a well-done aspect of the worldbuilding in this game that many players miss.

The game includes over 150 NCPD Scanner Hustles, small and simple interactions around the map which provide some basic combat and make the world feel populated. Most players encounter these difficulties between larger missions, stopping to beat up a few bad guys on the way to the real story. But each of the Scanner Hustles includes a small fragment of the narrative, fleshing out the world in a way that makes it feel more interconnected.

How scanners work in Cyberpunk 2077

V for Vigilante

At the beginning of the game, V gets a police scanner installed in his eyes by his ripperdoc, darling Cyberpunk 2077 Vik Vector character. It is this implant that allows them to interact with the Scanner Hustles, catching crimes in progress and showing up to stop them. Most of these activities have the player dealing with gang robberies, corrupt deals, or general violence happening on the city streets. Some are given a little more detail, with an officer arriving over the radio to tell nearby police about a specific criminal in the area, but most lack any formal introduction.

None of these Scanner Hustles are mandatory for the story, being just small events that pepper the map and only appear when V approaches one. To complete them, players simply need to neutralize all hostile parties and collect a fragment of data in the area, one who explains the context of what is happening. Most players will probably skip reading these snippets, just treating the encounter as a way to test out new equipment and gain experience.

NCPD Scanner Rampage Makes Cyberpunk Better

Expanding in a broad environment

Players can treat Scanner Hustles as small combat instances if they want. Part of the beauty of the game is that players can go through it however they want, and if they don’t mind reading the text for each of these scenes, they don’t have to. But more people should, because These short snippets provide great details about the world of Night City.

While many are simple transcriptions of hostile interactions between Night City gang members or vague allusions to corporate dealings, others reference well-known characters or events. One character in these fragments can be seen referencing a fixer the player has worked with before, showing how involved they are in the criminal underworld. Others make even more obscure references to show-specific characters and events that the player has completed.

The best ones make reference to actions that the player himself performedas reading about someone else’s reaction to V’s work makes the player feel like they’ve had a real impact on the world and that their decisions matter. It’s clear how much effort went into making these little bits of text fit the story, and how much the developers cared about making the world of Cyberpunk feel lived.

Even small details in Cyberpunk have meaning

The purpose of the scanner’s activities

The story of Cyberpunk 2077 is expansive and includes numerous characters, many of whom do not belong in V’s quest for survival. But these characters, like mercenary Tiny Mike and media man Max Jones, help establish the game’s tone and themes. Their inclusion makes Night City appear to exist independently of V and the player, more like a real place than a setting for a video game.

Scanner Hustles are a great representation of how this world-building can be done in unobtrusive ways, and encourage the player to explore rather than sit through exposition dumps. They could be a little more varied, but much of the game’s variety depends on the player’s experience with different implants and weapons rather than enemy variations. These small encounters not only introduce new details to the world, but also provide plenty of opportunities to test skills outside of the environment. Cyberpunk 2077main missions.

Source: Cyberpunk 2077/YouTube