This secret character creator in Cyberpunk 2077 isn't real, but it is really entertaining and really well-made, and it's got us longing for those classic games that hid secrets in the most random of places.
From Tony Ivonin on YouTube, their "tutorial" offers "unlimited possibilities for character creation" in the sci-fi dystopian role-playing game. Unlocking the "secret settings" shows a slider which adds "nostalgic" characters like Master Chief, Lara Croft, and Claude from Grand Theft Auto 3. Then, swapping the "swimming" option from "off" to "still off" gives you a model of Tommy Vercetti from Grand Theft Auto Vice City, and from "still off" to "on" unlocks CJ from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. A knowing nod to fans of the open world action-adventure games.
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Activating the "genius" slider shows Rick Sanchez from Rick & Morty, and pushing the slider all the way to the maximum takes it a moment to load an actual model of Hideo Kojima, accompanied by a heavenly choir and light shining from above. The creator of Snatcher (and less importantly Metal Gear and Death Stranding) is in Cyberpunk 2077, as a random NPC encountered in the mission "The Heist."
The rest of the video of the secret character creator is a delight, so I won't spoil the other famous faces hiding in the menus. Also, it's got me remembering secrets from older games, like cheating in Theme Hospital which triggers a snarky announcement over the hospital's PA system. Or, the seal rescue in Splinter Cell: Double Agent, where the seals are literal blubbery mammals named Muffin, Pepperoni, Vanilla, Cookie, and Buddy, and not elite soldiers in dire straits.
What isn't a secret is that the game has suffered from a shaky launch and a troublesome sequence of events as developer CD Projekt Red attempted a clean-up operation. The third delay to the game afforded the team only two weeks to exterminate the remainder of the bugs, which didn't seem like a lot of time. Yet, CD Projekt Red confirmed that the game would be its "crowning achievement of the generation" for the seven platforms it would be releasing on. The PC version wasn't too wobbly, but the last-gen console versions were a shambles.
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Tiny trees sprouting all over the map, melting skin, NPCs with no trousers on, cars that catapulted themselves into the air if you looked at them funny, you simply had to laugh at the bugs to keep from despairing. Ultimately, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One customers were not happy, and it even emerged that CD Projekt Red had circumnavigated the truth when in talks with Sony and Microsoft over the state of the game upon launch.
Players are now eligible for refunds for digital copies of Cyberpunk 2077, but there are reports that places like Game Stop will refund players who have physical copies too. In spite of the debacle, Cyberpunk 2077 has sold an incredible number of copies since launch and earned approximately $500 million from pre-orders alone.
Featured Image Credit: Tony Ivonin, CD Projekt RedTopics: News, Cyberpunk 2077