The Devil You Know or the One You Don't?--A Random Cyberpunk Decision

(Some story related spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077 ahead!)

As any seasoned RPG player knows, when replaying a game it's always a goal to try to change up the choices you make.  I mean, you at least tell yourself that lie.  In my most recent Cyberpunk adventure, I decided that I would take a different path for one decision--and it's one decision that I still feel torn about.  One of the major story missions involves the mysterious Voodoo Boys and their promise that they can help V deal with the malfunctioning biochip that is killing him/her.  The entire deal seems shady from the beginning--they are extremely tight lipped about how exactly they can help or what V's actual task entails--he/she is just supposed to track down a strange, disappearing vehicle.  As you progress through the mission you learn that the vehicle is part of some NetWatch (the corpo run net police) scheme.  Once V jacks into the van and defeats an Animals behemoth, he/she learns that there is a NetWatch agent running the show.  When V makes it to his little hidey hole in the cinema, he lays out the plain details--the Voodoo Boys are playing V and plan to use and then discard him/her when their goal is achieved (the virus is already installed and primed to zap V into oblivion).  The NetWatch agent then offers V another deal--he'll give V a shard that will get rid of the malware...and allow them access to the Voodoo Boys subnet.  Should you side with the corpo tools or with the gang that just tried to use you and end you?  I've sided with the Voodoo Boys in my previous playthroughs, but this time I decided that I would take the deal...and, I've got to say, I still feel torn (okay...torn-ish).

V might look like a goober, but she just offed the VDB.
Bow to the bunny ears!

If you do decide to take the NetWatch deal the last part of the mission does play out slightly differently.  Firstly, the VDB know that you've taken the deal and they're none too thrilled.  Placide confronts V and things get tense...but they're not about to give up on their big plans, so they agree to continue "helping."  (Ya'll should know why that's in quotes) V enters cyberspace, you go through the entire Johnny part of the scenario with Alt, and then things get crazy--when Brigitte tells V that he/she is going to cross the Blackwall, Alt announces that NetWatch has penetrated the data fortress and that she has no choice but to zap the VDB as a defense measure.  Yep, in one fell swoop, Alt ended the VDB leadership (and this is an eye-opening first glimpse at how an AI like Alt is frighteningly powerful).  Alt still agrees to help (that doesn't change).

When V wakes up from his/her little cyberpathic adventure, there are alarms blaring and you're greeted with the sight of all those VDB netrunners dead in their chairs.  It's an "oh shit" kind of moment that doesn't feel the same when V is in cyberspace.  Rather than casually walking out of the crypt, V gets to fight his/her way out--with the final scrap being a boss-style fight with Placide (who I choked out...I let the mofo live).

This version of the story felt satisfactory in some ways and not-so-great in others.

Satisfactory

1.) The VDB's plan was to use and discard V.  Having played through the VDB version of the story before, I knew that they would try to barbecue V's brain once they had the data from the NetWatch agent.  Don't they deserve to get played themselves?

2.) They had no intention of actually helping V.  Their entire goal was to use V (and by extension Johnny) to get to Alt so that they could do...all their weird netrunner things past the Blackwall.  It seems like they're very much interested in Soulkiller (isn't everyone!)

3.) They killed Evelyn Parker (not directly, but they are responsible).  She seems like such a minor character, but she's one who the more I play, the more her story feels like a tragedy.  All she wanted was to make enough money so that she could leave Night City and put her miserable life behind her.  If you snoop through Judy's messages on the terminal in her apartment, there's a chain that's basically the setup for V and Evelyn's first meeting with Judy.  One message in particular states how tired Evelyn is of her life--tired of being a doll, tired of not having any money, and tired of getting treated like shit.  Hence, the heist plan and Evelyn's subsequent disappearance (which is filled with even more horror for poor Evelyn).  Killing them feels like a small measure of revenge for Evelyn.

4.) The motives of the VDB seem dubious.  They want Alt...for what exactly?  Brigitte implies that there is some sort of impending AI/Net disaster that the VDB want to get ahead of, but it feels like everyone involved (NetWatch too) just want to get their hands on Soulkiller.

Unsatisfactory

1.) Too much death.  So, as I laid out above, the VDB are shady af...but, do they deserve to die?  (Although, technically if you stick with the VDB a whole slew of NetWatch agents get roasted--I guess it's just not the same when they're faceless names) A small part of me felt guilty about the net crew and then shooting my way out of the VDB hideout (even though I use the pacifist cyberware mod).

2.) NetWatch aren't exactly the "good guys" in this entire scenario.  NetWatch likes to pretend that they're the neutral net police who keep everyone in Night City safe, but all the corporations have their stubby, dirty little fingers in that cookie jar.  By helping them, aren't you by extension helping the corps?  Yuck.

3.) NetWatch's motives seem just as shady as the VDB.  Do you really want either of them messing with Soulkiller?

A part of CD Projekt Red's games and writing that I've always enjoyed is their ability to place player choices firmly in the grey areas of morality.  There's no convenient "paragon" or "renegade" option or traditional "good guy/bad guy" continuum--choices fall through the cracks and the outcomes are never everything you hope they'll be.  V's just a hapless participant in this bizarre cyberspace battle.

So, the devil you know, or the one you don't?  Who do you choose?