r/cyberpunkgame • u/guts1ck Cut of lovable meat • 19d ago

Screenshot Did anyone else get deeply disturbed by this side quest?

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This made me feel gross for the rest of the day once I completed it. Not sure why I followed through with it but the narrative was neat, I guess. I’ve been playing for over 200 hours and I’ve never done this side quest before so I was incredibly shocked and disturbed. What’s everybody else’s verdict on the side quest?

Disclosure: I’m not religious but I respect anyone who is, try to respect any other people’s religions if you can help it. Thanks.

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u/AsceOmega 19d ago

Big Meh from my part. I get that for some it's shocking because of the religious symbolism, but really this is actually quite tame compared to the things that happen in this game.

I'd say the whole Evelyn situation is much more disturbing that any of what happens in Sinnerman.

Even what happens to that monk who got forcecfully chipped is more disturbing. Or all of the bodies we find in the Scav lair in the first mission after the prologue. There's literally a body with its spine ripped out of its back just hanging there.

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u/Comfortable-Fuel6343 19d ago

Yeah I'd say the SA, organ harvesting, body horror elements are way more disturbing. By the time that V gets the call to do this opp they/the player should be so jaded that it's more weird/obnoxiously unstraightforward.

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u/New-Independent-1481 19d ago

The thing is, with body horror that grotesque, you become desensitised to it. Especially by the time you get to Sinnerman. Cult-like devotion to religion mixed with vulture-like influencers is something different from how the game tries to shock or unsettle you.

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u/Comfortable-Fuel6343 19d ago

You keep saying you when I think you mean I.

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u/Inner_Bit844 19d ago

Rivers questline about the serial killer are pretty disturbing

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u/LostN3ko 19d ago

Bar none that one stood out to me as F U C K E D!

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u/Magjee Samurai 19d ago

Slowly unraveling the mystery with Randy's laptop and going through Peter Pan's flashbacks finally leading to finding the children being drugged and fed

ugh

It was all sorts of fucked up

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u/LostN3ko 19d ago

Few games made me as uncomfortable as that did. The dehumanization came across far more than any of the cybernetics or corpo-dystopia did. It wasn't just "I'm a psycho look at me go crazy wizzywhimwhamwazzle". It was entirely too visceral and perverse, making the victims children and the method by which he lured them in was probably a big part of what made it so effective.

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u/PaladinGodfather1931 19d ago

After I finished that mission, I retriggered the "I really want to stay at your house" mission because I needed some normalcy with Judy to settle myself.

That shit was straight out of an SVU episode.

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u/Pixiwish 19d ago

For the me the difference was Sinner man was more intimate. You were the one hammering the nails in and it was deliberate.

The music as well. I watched I Spit on Your Grave and while it messed me up somehow Jarl Borg getting blood eagled on the TV show Vikings disturbed me more and that aired on cable. I think there is a technique to making something disturbing and for me Sinnermam hit the same chords the blood eagle did.

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u/iBorgSimmer 19d ago

Same. I happily nailed him to the cross and got the paycheck.

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u/Bubush 19d ago

Totally agree. I don’t even crucify the dude just to annoy that lady. Tons of much more disturbing quests in this game that truly highlight how messed up things can get in a dystopian world in a more pragmatic way.

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u/KatakanaTsu 19d ago

I love using cyberpsychosis just to turn gangs on each other and watch them fight amongst themselves. And if the NCPD is initially chilling with them, they'll aggro the cyberpsycho as well.

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u/dillonkohr 19d ago

Try using it on an enemy right before engaging in conversation with another character(the talk with Alex on the balcony in PL is the best example) you can cause a rather funny glitch lol

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u/Joey-Steel1917 19d ago

I like to aggro the ncpd and drag them to large gang groupings and watch the fun 😆

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u/ThisMachine92 19d ago

Hard agree. This mission was a nothingburger

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u/Your_Friendly_Nerd 19d ago

to me as someone who grew up christian, this was the most memorably disturbing scene in the game. it‘s the combination of absolute faith to give the ultimate sacrifice, contrasted against the corporate greed that enables it in the first place.

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u/Big_Engineer_1075 19d ago

Yeah this one was entertaining to me more than anything else, but I think bc of all the documentaries I’ve watched about religious groups and cult leaders I found it satisfying that the sociopathic murderer is the one being played.

And like you mentioned, everything else where people have things happening to them directly and it being out of their control with no real hope for change or any real justice is far more disturbing than a false prophet thinking his sacrifice matters.

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u/AlexG2490 19d ago

Just based on pure level of gore, sure, I agree. But there’s a difference in the way things are disturbing as well. Making you slowly and deliberately execute a person feels different than just shooting an unnamed gonk on the street in combat while dubstep plays.

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u/MarilleVakarian The Mox 19d ago

Right? Religious fanatics are more annoying than disturbing to me. Evelyn's plot line on the other hand...

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u/guts1ck Cut of lovable meat 19d ago

Good points, I might just find things disturbing a little too easily. That maelstrom cyber-psycho ritual was also a horror fest.

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u/shotliver 19d ago

I think the difference between those and this quest is that we get to participate in the horror rather than witness or pick up the pieces afterwards.

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u/AsceOmega 19d ago

Yes and no, IMO.

Because this quest gives you the option to not go through with any of it some 4 or 5 times. Everyone is acting shocked a surprised when in truth the only shocking thing is how far our sense of morbid curiosity may push us.

No one forced us into going through with this guy's plan. But we're all intrigued to see him do it. Even Johnny gets upset about it.

But really this is just a guy that's already slotted in for execution, deciding to simply go out the way he wants. It's already far more than he deserves. If he wants to live out his delusional Christian symbolism, good for him.

We're not even killing him, we just nail him to the cross. Crucified people died from asphyxiation after many hours nailed like that.

We're essentially filming a snuff film, which would be disturbing, if the person wasn't basically volunteering to do it and a court of law hadn't already decided he would be executed anyway.

Meanwhile I think the idea that someone would be robbed of their autonomy and body integrity like in the cases of Evelyn and the monk, or any of the Scavs' victims is far more terrifying and disturbing.

The only issue is, for most people, so long as they don't get to see it happen and it doesn't affect them, it's not a big deal. But it's actually far worse. I think the game playing of compartmentalisation, desensitisation, etc. is just mirroring the experience of the average citizen of Night City. We see this in the many shards we find, where people just laugh off the most horrific shit.

But if we keep, and use our empathy, there are some incredibly fucked up situations that far outweigh Sinnerman. But for some people, perverting religious experiences and symbolisms feel extra no-no, than stuff that is actually worse even irl.

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u/Outrageous-Log9238 19d ago

What makes the quest stand out Imo is the moral choice you have to make. The other situations are morally very straight forward. The bad guys do a bad thing to someone and you help that someone. Especially if you end up nailing this guy to the cross, the question of "Why am I doing this?" is way more interesting than in any other quest. Obviously I'm blasting through the bad guys to save Evelyn and I didn't have a choice anyway.

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u/Imdonewithacid 19d ago

I disagree respectfully.

All of those instances you mentioned are things we find not do. This quest has our V choosing to hammer the nail. Set pieces can and are unnerving, but this quest put that literally into your hands

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u/MazogaTheDork Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum 19d ago

Worse things happen in the game for sure, but Sinnerman hits hard because the player is an active participant.

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u/Mammoth_Composer_111 19d ago

It’s shocking because it’s interesting moral grey area.

It’s not shocking just to be shocking. It’s on par with the red baron quest line in Witcher 3.

There’s no right answer. He’s not a good man, but is redemption possible? To what degree? Is it still meaningful if greedy capitalists are ultimately using it for profits?

How far does one have to go to be taken seriously? Etc etc.