Starting areas in Cyberpunk 2077's three beginning lifepath options offer glimpses, not only into the vistas players will encounter, but the culture that inhabits them. Each takes Cyberpunk's main character on a short journey at the beginning of the game and has further implications and affects dialogue options for the rest of the playthrough. While most people will likely try all three lifepaths in Cyberpunk 2077, some might wonder what the best place to start is.
The beauty of choice is that it's very subjective to the individual. Cyberpunk 2077 offers that choice to provide context for everything after the initial sequence of events, to provide roots for the game's main character, V. While the discussion of how well that provision plays out is a different matter, these three starting areas feel like three unique stories in and of themselves, and there's something valuable in that.
One particular starting area in Cyberpunk has a slight edge on the others for a few reasons. The Corpo lifepath in Cyberpunk 2077 brings several aspects of each intro together in a more cohesive and dynamic way that Street Kid and Nomad falls just shy of. As a Corpo, players get to see into the high-powered, string-pulling, and deadly chess game of a world that is top tier-leveled corporate executives. Being thrust into that world - which has its own version of palpable grit - where finely dressed individuals gossip in halls as V passes by, executives look out their wall-spanning windows that overlook the city, high-tech security and personnel systems buzz, and even focus-enhancing drugs are at the player's fingertips, is exhilarating. It doesn't end there, though.
Cyberpunk 2077: Why Corpo Is The Best Lifepath Choice
From beginning to end, the Corpo lifepath tells a cohesive tale, starting at the glitz and glam of that corporate world, but then takes players on a stunning AV ride through Night City's skyline down to street level, giving them a taste of being among "common folk" in an unfamiliar world. It may only be meeting Jackie Welles in a bar, but it gives a sense of moving into foreign territory that the other lifepaths simply don't offer. Players get to see more sides of Cyberpunk's Night City when V descends from their high tower.
As a Street Kid, V begins and ends in the Night City streets, offering a handful of Cyberpunk 2077 characters to interact with, but it never quite feels connected. Most of that time is spent in mission-specific areas rather than the actual streets - though it's obvious V's reputation as an infamous player in street-level happenings holds important weight in the intro. The Nomad lifepath starts players on the outskirts of Night City where the hustle and bustle doesn't reach those making a living beyond the neon lights. Again, V encounters a few characters that chain together, but they ultimately play little importance in the short plot. As a Corpo, the events leading players to becoming a merc in Night City is driven solely by Jenkins and his plot to send V to kill the Arasaka Spec Ops Director, Abernathy.
Naturally, some players will enjoy the vast, almost lonely, landscape where the Nomad starts, or the rugged back alleys and parking lots of the Street Kid over the Corpo sheen of executive offices. Having a choice in which lifepath to start with is meaningful in its own right, and it's great that players have it. But the Corpo lifepath in Cyberpunk 2077 packs in so much diverse scenery, and tells such a compelling story in such a short amount of time, that it's a cut above the other two.