How Cyberpunk 2077's Controversial Sinnerman Quest Was Created

Cyberpunk 2077's locale of Night City had no shortage of interesting stories, and in one of the more fascinating tales, players got to experience a strange saga of justice and redemption. Sinnerman starts off with what seems to be a straight-forward revenge plot gone wrong, but as quest director Pawel Sasko explained in a new Audio Logs video, there's an incredible amount of nuanced work happening in this quest that subtly guides the player.

As Sasko explained, every character movement, line, and even a seemingly stray ray of light serve a purpose in setting up this quest, in which you're introduced to convicted murderer Joshua Stephenson. This entire quest, and its two accompanying missions that end with an actual crucifixion that you can play a part in if you see it through to the end, tie into themes of existentialism that are woven throughout Cyberpunk 2077's world.

While Stephenson never claims to be a messianic figure, his quests are littered with iconic moments and characters pulled from the Christian Bible. Stephenson has a moment to grab a meal before his execution that's directly inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper painting, and he even has his own Judas accompanying him. Eventually, the quest leads to one of the more empathic moments of Cyberpunk 2077 as you're given a chance to join Stephenson in prayer, and even here, players are given a choice as to how they want to approach a spiritual moment in the game.

At this point, Stephenson asks the players if they'll be willing to perform his crucifixion, a role that can either be accepted, denied, or observed. Originally, the quest ended with Stephenson being dropped off at a braindance studio so that his death could be captured and made available for Night City citizens to experience, but Sasko wanted to expand on this idea further. Everything leading to this very moment was purposefully designed so that players would agree to Stephenson's final request

"We knew from the very beginning that we wanted to do that moment of crucifixion. But do it well, to do it properly, we had to build that story well, Sasko explained. "When you have a goal that you're going to, we always backtrack and walk back. What are the scenes, what are the key things that we have to introduce before? and this is how you get to it. When there's this main moment, we know as designers that we have prepared you properly. Introducing all of those elements, introducing all of those characters, their character traits, their motivations, explaining everything, going through everything with you."

This is just one example of how much work went into Cyberpunk 2077 over the years that it was in development. The game is looking to go out on a high note in September with the launch of its one-and-only DLC expansion, Phantom Liberty, which adds new story content to Night City and substantially rewrites its DNA to offer a fresh experience. After Phantom Liberty arrives, CD Projekt Red is shifting gears to the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, with development on that project being led by Sasko.