The celeb voiceover in a bigass RPG is not the quaint novelty of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion’s sleepy Patrick Stewart efficiency or Liam Neeson displaying up for a cheeky ten minutes in Fallout 3. Cyberpunk 2077 broke new floor by having Keanu Reeves’ Johnny Silverhand be your fixed companion all through the sport, and enlargement pack Phantom Liberty will get related mileage out of beloved actor Idris Elba as undercover agent Solomon Reed.
So, as enlightened critics and videogame tastemakers, we requested ourselves: which one is like, cooler although? Within the rigorous and exacting technique of speaking to one another for 45 minutes and developing with a pair humorous classes, PCG on-line editor Fraser Brown and I, PCG affiliate editor Ted Litchfield have rated these two titans of the Cyber realm on seven essential classes to find out an total winner.
Badassery
It is easy, choom, is that this character badass? Can he deal with himself in a combat and look sick as hell doing it?
Johnny: ??
Ted: This felt unfair to Johnny at first. In spite of everything, his storming of Arasaka HQ is likely one of the extra badass moments of the sport (full with a sick theme to go along with it). Recall, nonetheless, that everyone hates Johnny for doing this, it did not change something, and Mr. Silverhand adopted this up by being electrocuted by a geriatric grandpa who hated his guts.
They are saying a child in nice peril can have an adrenaline rush offering them with the energy of ten infants, and that is our boy Johnny at Arasaka HQ—his one flash of true badassery amid a lifetime of being a vaguely punk, vaguely hair steel dude who messed loads of stuff up.
We can also’t low cost that he is likely to be an unreliable narrator with ‘Saka HQ—the place was the Cyberpunk lore’s cool man extraordinaire (the “Solo of Fortune”), Morgan Blackhand, throughout all this? If Morgan was the group’s Fighter, Johnny’s like, a high-level cyber Bard possibly?
Fraser: Yeah, Johnny nets himself a excessive physique rely with that chunky pistol of his, and blows up a whole constructing, in what’s a reasonably flashy sequence, however he additionally presumably murders an entire bunch of comparatively harmless folks in what’s an act of home terrorism. It is much less badass and extra psychotic. And for the majority of the sport he largely simply rants at V, an indignant ghost residing of their head.
Reed: ?????
Fraser: Reed’s extra of an understated badass, by no means needing to attempt practically as exhausting as Johnny. The primary time you meet him, he sneaks up behind you, sticks a gun in your intestine, and also you by no means even get a have a look at him. He is an expert badass, and I respect it.
It isn’t Johnny’s fault that he is caught in your head with no technique to work together with the world, however Reed’s means to truly lend a serving to hand throughout a combat scores him some further factors right here. He is capable of get his arms soiled and again you up, which is infinitely extra useful and badass than waxing poetic about how horrible Arasaka is.
And also you simply know Reed has seen some shit and executed some shit, however he by no means must boast about it. Granted, that is in all probability since you would not wish to hang around with him in case you knew what he’d executed, however the combination of competence, hazard and humility is a potent one and ensures he wins this spherical.
BFF
Would you exit with these guys for ramen and pictures? Who do you wish to chat to if you’ve had a tough day taking pictures gonks and robbing corpos?
Johnny: ?????
Fraser: Look, Johnny is a large jerk, initially seeing you as only a vessel to permit him to get revenge on Arasaka, however from that unlucky introduction a relationship can flourish—so long as you do not gobble beta blockers and inform him to fuck off, which is effectively inside your proper.
You are primarily sharing a physique, so Johnny is all the time there, chiming in, arguing with you, criticising you, but additionally cracking jokes, sympathising and going by all of the shit you are going by. You have bought this extremely robust connection, and sure, it is actually killing you, however that ain’t Johnny’s fault.
Ted: Your friendship with Johnny is one in every of Cyberpunk 2077’s most important throughlines—like Kim Kitsuragi in Disco Elysium, you have bought an RPG romance stage of interactivity and back-and-forth for a platonic (not less than inside the textual content of the sport) relationship. You may by no means catch me taking the Johnny blockers, he’ll all the time be my “choomba.”
Reed: ??
Ted: All of us wish to be Reed’s pal, however he simply will not allow us to in. He is too chilly, too dedicated to his imperial masters on the NUSA to actually bro out and turn out to be our choom, ya dig? Perhaps if we had extra time with Reed, he’d be capable of open up.
Reed jogs my memory loads of the Witcher sequence’ bud extraordinaire, Vernon Roche, who equally served as an intelligence/black ops consiglieri to a majorly tousled head of state. There isn’t any Letho of Gulet round in Phantom Liberty to sever these ties for Reed, and our company man stays too wedded to the job to attain larger on the BFF entrance.
Fraser: Roche is a good comparability. Reed’s a professional and his defences are much more impregnable than the Blackwall. I needed to be his buddy, since you certain as hell want associates in Dogtown, however he is on the job.
Cyberpunkitude
How a lot do your buddies exude the over-the-top, chromed-up, slang-riddled setting?
Johnny: ?????
Fraser: Johnny is so cyberpunk the lad snorts steel. The whole lot about him is simply steeped in cyberpunkitude. He is an ageing rocker, an anti-capitalist poser, a chromed-up edgelord, and he is aware of all of the lingo. He is additionally a bloody digital ghost, residing in your mind since you slotted the Relic into your noggin throughout a heist-gone-wrong. It is merely not attainable to be extra cyberpunk. Additional factors for having a drink named after him in Afterlife.
Ted: Johnny simply embodies that CyberDadRock vibe of Cyberpunk 2077, this incongruous company battle veteran who virtually has a Mick Jaggery factor happening, claims to be a DIY anarchist punk, and drives a Porsche. He is goofy and corny and in every single place however he’s unapologetically Johnny and unapologetically Cyberpunk—not the subgenre, however Mike Pondsmith’s tabletop setting.
Reed: ?
Ted: Expensive reader, does Solomon Reed ever name you his “choom?” Does he ever describe one thing as “nova” or “preem” through the 30-odd hour runtime of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty? Johnny Silverhand is Mr. Cyberpunk, whereas Solomon Reed is a cool undercover agent who’d be proper at house in Deus Ex or perhaps a up to date thriller.
I prefer to think about that Idris Elba had one thing in his rider prohibiting his character’s use of fictional slang from getting too goofy with it. The largest indictment of Reed’s lack of Cyberpunkitutde? My cyborg ninja character felt like some sort of dorky Enterprise Bros. theme villain subsequent to Reed’s critical Firm Man persona.
Fraser: I feel if I ever heard Reed begin spouting Evening Metropolis slang I would wish to lie down. It is like after I had a highschool instructor name me “dude”. It is simply fallacious. His groundedness is a constructive, although! The sport wants this juxtaposition to make sure the world is not simply stuffed with caricatures. And there is one thing about Reed’s stoic angle that simply makes me wish to earn his respect.
Smoothness
We’re picturing Cyberpunk 2077’s Cool stat right here, or possibly Composure from Disco Elysium. Is that this character cool underneath strain and capable of deal with social conditions effectively?
Johnny: ???
Ted: You may’t deny that Johnny has a sure Charismaaaeeeeee, however that is balanced out by him being such an impulsive dick. Insulting Alt throughout their final assembly collectively? Not clean. Trapping her in our on-line world and turning her into an AI assemble? Not clean. Alienating all of his followers and associates earlier than dying within the worst means conceivable? Brother, it is merely not clean.
Fraser: Johnny positively thinks he is clean. He is too cool for his followers, his band, his associates, however actually that simply makes him a mega arsehole. He is an outdated rocker, useless for 50 years, however when he goes on his rants about firms and the shite state of society, he simply kinda seems like a stoned politics pupil. He ain’t fallacious, however he simply sounds infantile.
These flaws make him an immensely fascinating character, and one who completely grows throughout his keep in your head, however clean? Not likely.
Reed: ????
Fraser: Reed’s stone chilly, man. You may’t be an excellent spy in case you aren’t fairly rattling clean. However he is additionally a bit too damaged and unhappy to get full marks right here. He is a cool buyer, however he is seen an excessive amount of and betrayed too many individuals, so he spends loads of time trying sadly off into the space.
He can positively deliver out the attraction when he must, although. And regardless of being fairly understated, particularly when in comparison with Johnny, he is a grasp manipulator, a lot in order that the individuals who know him greatest preserve warning you about him. By no means belief the graceful ones.
Ted: Any doubts about Reed’s smoothness evaporate the second you see him pull out the shindig threads for Phantom Liberty’s celebration infiltration mission. He is cool as a cucumber, and by no means flies off the deal with the way in which Johnny typically does. Like Fraser factors out although, there is a sure brittle high quality to Reed evident in his frequent extrajudicial killings and self-delusion in regards to the folks he serves.
Musicality
Evening Metropolis is a loud place stuffed with golf equipment and music, with beats filling your ears everytime you hop into your experience—however can the boys maintain a tune?
Johnny: ????
Fraser: OK, I am simply gonna come proper out and say it: I take pleasure in Samurai. It is extra dad rock than the kinda punk that Johnny needs it was, however I like that shit, as exhausting as it’s to confess being down with a tune known as Chippin’ In. And no matter whether or not or not you are a fan, there is not any denying that music, and extra broadly the scene, is an important, inherent a part of who Johnny is, which is bolstered by his facet quests that see you speaking to followers, shopping for LPs, and visiting his outdated bandmate Kerry.
Ted: I used to be initially far more bitter about Samurai’s music earlier than Fraser gained me over. It is nonetheless a few of my least favourite stuff in a soundtrack that features Well being and The Armed, but when I am to stay internally constant on my stance that Cyberpunk’s corny Dad Rockitude is nice, then I’ve bought to search out it in my coronary heart to simply accept Samurai.
Reed: ???
Ted: How does Solomon Reed, NUSA firm man and by the ebook agent, rating so excessive on the music entrance? We gave him props for Idris Elba’s actual life musical contributions to Cyberpunk, in addition to the radio station Impulse 99.9, which is principally a curated DJ set from the actor. I prefer to faux that these are precise, in-universe contributions from our man Solomon, who has a day job as a bouncer.
Fraser: We’re actually scoring Idris Elba right here, however I am cool with that. Your man has his personal Evening Metropolis radio station, so props.
Ideology
What does this character consider? Each Johnny and Reed are pushed by their convictions, however what are these convictions value?
Johnny: ⚒️⚒️
Ted: Look, I am all the time pumping my fist at Johnny’s anti company screeds, however he is proper for the fallacious causes. Johnny’s a pissed-off poser who drove a Porsche and nuked a significant American metropolis as a result of he was mad that he killed his personal girlfriend. He may have by chance stumbled into any variety of perception programs to make that shitshow work.
Fraser: Evening Metropolis is full of people that have been fucked over by the firms and are actively sticking it to them, however Johnny thinks he is the one one—the messiah who will take down Arasaka. With a nuke. Even enjoying as essentially the most anti-corpo V, he simply needs to argue with you, as a result of even when he is proper, he is not an ideological activist, he is only a actually indignant dude.
Reed: ⚒️
Fraser: Properly, that is a simple one. Reed’s an organization man propping up a fascist company system, which he largely does by murdering folks. He is totally ruthless, and so are the folks he is working for. Cyberpunk is continually reinforcing simply how comically evil the firms are, and the politicians who do their bidding, and whereas Reed does not current himself as an over-the-top villain, he is nonetheless utterly embedded in that world. And he does not even do the job for a paycheque—the person’s doing all of it at no cost.
Ted: I feel there’s some juice to the truth that Colonel Kurt (get it?) Hansen and NUSA president Rosalind Myers are principally the identical individual. They’re each chilly blooded, formidable actors who cloak themselves in some sort of ideology—a sort of rah rah navy esprit de corps for Hansen and the faint suggestion of a official United States authorities for Myers. When all of Reed’s cool swagger, patriotism, and charisma is, on the finish of the day, simply extra fodder for a pointless battle between two assholes, it is exhausting to really feel prefer it’s value it.
Type
David Martinez’s preem jacket, Adam Smasher’s monstrous chrome—you possibly can’t be a Evening Metropolis legend with out the proper look.
Johnny: ?????
Fraser: Johnny’s drip is definitely fairly low key for Evening Metropolis, essentially the most garish place on Earth, however that partially is what makes him stand out, with a glance that is turn out to be iconic. And ever since I watched The Blues Brothers as a child, I’ve revered a dude who wears shades when it is darkish.
What I actually dig, although, is how Johnny’s fashion connects to his private narrative. The shades, leather-based trousers and biker boots imply you may always remember that he is the frontman of a band, whereas the ballistic vest evokes his militant facet, each his former life as a soldier and his later stint as an anti-capitalist terrorist. His alt look, in the meantime, is 100% STD-riddled celebration boy.
Ted: Shout out to Silverhand’s titular silver (chrome, actually) hand. I like the element and craftsmanship CDPR put right into a prosthetic that is very spectacular and futuristic to us, however in 2077’s period of discrete, flesh-tone cybernetics is definitely a museum piece. An S-tier videogame robotic arm on the order of Venom Snake’s bionic arm or the Unalloyed Gold prostheses from Elden Ring.
Reed: ????
Ted: Yeah, Reed’s bought a cool outfit, but it surely’s additionally the precise one my character is sporting. Come to think about it, Placide in Pacifica’s bought a cyberguy trench coat factor going too. Oh god, so does that random NPC netrunner on the nook over there. A giant, shapely leather-based trench coat is a well-liked fictional match for a motive, however identical to with Reed’s lack of Cyberpunk-ness, he may slot in wherever whereas Johnny is so completely 2077.
Fraser: Reed’s a spy, so he actually does not wish to stand out. He is dressed for work. So yeah, not essentially the most trendy man in Evening Metropolis, however he makes it work, and it is nonetheless a cool look. He does get gussied up in a single quest, too, the place he embraces sequins, and for that we actually needed to give him a strong 4.
And the winner is…
Johnny Silverhand: 26
Solomon Reed: 20
Fraser: I had an inkling it would pan out this manner. Reed’s a fantastic character, however we spend considerably much less time with him, and as a spy he is much more understated than a rocker-turned-terrorist-turned-ghost. He suits Phantom Liberty completely, however Johnny is simply such an enormous a part of Cyberpunk 2077, and such a larger-than-life character. Anyway, I am very glad we may categorically decide who’s the most effective Cyberpunk buddy with this completely goal system.
Ted: Congratulations to John Cyberpunk himself, Johnny Silverhand. I used to be legitimately stunned at this final result, however the chilly, rational, and unimpeachable system Fraser and I created can not inform a lie. We each nonetheless love Solomon Reed to bits, and Idris Elba’s efficiency has worthily continued CDPR’s marketing campaign to redeem celeb mo-cap performances in videogames.