CD Projekt Red has quite a few irons in the fire right now. While a lot of the developer's upcoming projects concern The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077 fans were also given some good news recently as a sequel to the game was announced. Currently codenamed Project Orion, the follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077 is mostly shrouded in mystery. However, with not much being solidified on what the game will look like, this has given the internet plenty of opportunity to speculate on the features, characters, and more that will make it into Cyberpunk 2077's sequel.
There is a lot that CD Projekt Red could do to improve upon Cyberpunk 2077 with Project Orion. While Cyberpunk 2077 is enjoying a huge amount of players and praise right now, when it launched it was seen as a buggy mess. Beyond hoping to have a better release this time around, there are other things that felt slightly lacking in Cyberpunk 2077 that Project Orion could make right, with one of these elements being the various gangs dotted throughout Night City.
How Gangs Work in Cyberpunk 2077
There are a lot of gangs in Night City, and CD Projekt Red did a great job in Cyberpunk 2077 bringing the various personalities of them to life through the weapons they wield, the gear they wear, and the way they act. It's easy to tell the difference between a member of the Maelstrom, who wear enough chrome to make most of them borderline cyberpsychos, and a member of the 6th Street gang, which is made up of veterans from the Fourth Corporate War.
Unlike at other points in the history of Night City and the lore of Cyberpunk 2077, the gangs don't run the streets in the year 2077, but they do have influence over their own parts of territory, as shown in different areas of the game's map. They might not be able to take on the megacorporations like Arasaka and Militech, but they are often equipped with enough firepower to give the player a significant challenge or even some assistance depending on the gang and how V encounters them.
While each gang clearly stands out in Cyberpunk 2077, and they work as an intricate part of the game's world, there are some weaknesses of the gangs that don't allow them to live up to their full potential. The way that the player can interact with gangs in the game largely comes down to combat and through the various gigs in Cyberpunk 2077. However, these gigs are only offered by gang leaders, which means that V essentially will only have contact with one or two members of a gang, unless they appear in the main story.
There are a lot of characters in Cyberpunk 2077, and not everyone can get the same amount of focus. This unfortunately leaves a lot of gang leaders and members as B players in Cyberpunk 2077's narrative, only appearing when a mission needs V to shoot someone that isn't wearing an Arasaka logo or whenever the player decides to take on a gig for an extra bit of cash. Again, the world building CD Projekt Red put in to ensuring that each gang felt unique and had its own place on the map is impressive, but the role that they play feels somewhat lacking compared to their full potential.
The Changes CD Projekt Red Should Make to Cyberpunk 2077's Gangs
Whenever Project Orion rolls around then, it should look to improve the way that gangs work in Night City. Rather than having only a few stand out through the main story like the Voodoo Boys and the Maelstrom. The sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 should give gangs a bigger role within the game as a whole, making each feel like a key player in the world rather than just the latest reskinned lot of enemies V faces in a firefight. Moreover, the game could even allow the player to join one of these gangs as a faction, offering an alternative to the Life Path options found in Cyberpunk 2077.
A lot of fans are currently predicting that Project Orion will see a return to Night City. This does seem likely as it is the most iconic setting from the Cyberpunk universe and one that fans of the tabletop and video game are going to recognize. This only makes improving the way gangs work from the first game easier for CD Projekt Red, as rather than create a whole host of new criminal organizations, the developer can instead make use of the great work that's already gone into crafting the look and personalities of the gangs in the first game.
Without needing to make new gangs, CD Projekt Red can fully focus on fleshing out its existing ones, giving them more to do and a bigger role to play in Project Orion. With the story of Cyberpunk 2077 largely revolving around V, Johnny, and their want to take down Arasaka, fans have already seen the tale of a Cyberpunk going after one of Night City's largest corporations. Instead of replaying that narrative, it could be interesting to see something on a smaller scale, that places a greater focus on the criminal underworld of Night City and the intricacies of how it works.
Even if the central narrative of Project Orion doesn't concern gangs primarily, it would still be interesting to see them become more of a key part of Night City. One of the ways that this could be done is by giving the player a direct tie to one of the gangs. That connection could be made when a player is making their character, choosing a backstory where they were once a member of the Valentinos, for example, in a similar vein to V deciding what Life Path they chose at the beginning of Cyberpunk 2077. Or, a player could join a gang or gangs through the story, working their way up similarly to how factions work in The Elder Scrolls or Fallout RPGs.
Whichever way the gangs of Cyberpunk 2077 change in Project Orion, it would be a shame to see them take on the underwhelming role they do in the original game. Given the aforementioned aesthetic and personalities of each gang, the foundation is already there for Project Orion to have a bunch of unique factions that the player can join, as well as plenty of interesting stories that could be told that depart from a tale of an Edgerunner going up against a corporation.
Project Orion is in development for unspecified platforms.
