Players of Phantom Liberty know Solomon Reed as a cunning super spy. But did you know that Idris Elba’s character already appears in the main game?
Update from May 26, 2024
We have received information from the developers on how this exciting detail came about. The information has been added at the end of the news
There’s no denying thatCyberpunk 2077is a beautiful and atmospheric game. With its many lights, gleaming skyscrapers, cars and omnipresent gunfights, Night City exudes the feeling of a living, breathing metropolis right down to the last corner.
While the NPCs in Cyberpunk don’t have areal
daily routine like aGothicorSkyrimoffered. However, the game scores points time and again with quirky details and random encounters – even with familiar characters.
One of these little details was discovered by a YouTube user a few months ago: FIA agent Solomon Reed, one of the most important characters from the DLC Phantom Liberty, apparently hasa life in the main game!
Wider than the bouncer
As user Madd Gamer showed in a videoon Youtubeyou can easily meet Agent Reed in Night City – evenbefore you have even started the Phantom Liberty campaign.
You may remember:In one of your first encounters with Reed, you can overhear the undercover spy receiving a call from his boss. However, it’s not his superior at the secret service. Because, as Reed explains to us afterwards, he works as a bouncer in a club as a cover
An obvious choice:In both fields of work, you have to be excellent with people – in other words, you have to know how to beat them up. What’s more, Reed’s part-time job probably helps him to pay his bills.
Where can you find Reed?
Before the start of Phantom Liberty, make your way to Fixer Dino Dinovic’s bar. The bar has the promising nameElectric Orgasm
When you enter the bar, you’ll find Reed in his role as bouncer, standing… well, next to the door.
His camouflage consists of sunglasses, baseball cap, white shirt and dark cargo pants. The agent probably leaves his stylish black trench coat from Phantom Liberty at home as a precaution.
However, Reed is apparently not a particularly good bouncer: If you draw your gun in his presence and shoot around a bit, he won’t do anything. And Reed isn’t particularly talkative either. If you speak to him, he’ll just reel off standard lines like What?
orStop!
But just take a look for yourself:
How did it come to this?
The discovery thatSolomon Reedalso has a life in the main game outside of Phantom Liberty is not new in itself. However, such a design decision would probably be anything but a matter of course for many other developers.
In the same way, Phantom Liberty could have been considered decoupled from the main game. After all, transplanting a DLC character always meansnew work.That’s why we asked Pawel Sasko, the then Quest Director at CD Projekt, how the small appearance came about:
It all started with the fact that we needed a good cover for Reed – for narrative reasons he had to be a sleeper agent in Night City, so our story team was looking for a believable cover for a man like him. The idea of being a bouncer at the club also came to us because Idris Elba used to work as a bouncer, so we found that reference both appealing and believable.
We know our players very well and it was clear that they would try to find Reed somewhere in the city before Phantom Liberty, so we decided to cover that.
Little details like this make the story believable, but also show how much care we put into each element. It was also fun to imagine people having fun taking selfies with Idris Elba!
– Pawl Sasko
On the road by stealth
In addition, the encounter with Reed in the main game also raises questions about the content: If the agent works as a bouncer in Night City, he musthave found a way to get in and out of Dogtown without complications Whatever this way may be – it is not open to the players
Because the border to Dogtown is heavily guarded. You have to sneak in at the beginning of the DLC in a complicated way. Pawel also provides at least a design explanation for this:
Reed is portrayed as a master spy in the game from the very beginning, and we made sure that all elements of the story create a coherent picture of his character. So it made sense to us that he has his own way of getting in and out of Dogtown, partly because he’s spent 7 years undercover and had time to build up a network of connections.
The contrast (V sweats to get in and out of Dogtown, while Reed does it effortlessly) increases the character’s importance and rank in the eyes of the players.
– Pawl Sasko
The major 2.0 update for Cyberpunk was released at the same time as Phantom Liberty. In the eyes of many fans, the role-playing game is now finally the way it should always be. This is also reflected in the Steam reviews, which are now extremely positive.
