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Side gigs (Cyberpunk 2077) or witcher contracts ( Witcher 3). Which is better.

So I've been grinding side gigs in 2077 for the past couple of days to get that luxury car for V. It seems that they are the equivelent to the third tier quests in witcher 3 specifically the witcher contracts but with less story context. Doing a lot of them in one go really highlights how witcher 3 was superior to 2077 is this aspect, at least for me.

Now a main iasue of side gigs are CDPR design these missions for multiple pathways like a run of the mill Deus Ex mission. You can hack this, open that door, go silent or go loud. So far, all of them comes with a text message giving context and sometimes rare dialogue choices. The problem is CDPR made too many these and a lot of them are dissapointing. Like i did one to steal some tax insurance shard from a vindictive ex wife of a corpo and after depositing the shard all I got was a congratulatory phonecall from Wakako. That goes for pretty much all side gigs too btw.

Contrast that to an early monster hunt in witcher 3, the werewolf hunt. It was one of the very first contracts you can do after getting to Velen and the first time you get to face off against a werewolf. You get to interogate a village and find out that the sister of the victim was in love with the werewolf and cause the victims death because of jeolousy. Geralt can then decide to let the werewolf kill the sister, or kill the beast himself. While combat was pretty much one note the entire quest felt like a short novella.

I vastly prefered the witcher 3 design of doing these quests and did every single damn hunt in that game while I will probably only do side gigs when I need eddies. This is probably my major critic of the game and does not get highlight enough because of the other noise.
 

Atrus

Gold Member
The quest system mirrors the ones in The Witcher and some of the best in 2077 show off the same narrative strength but overall The Witcher series is better in terms of delivering side story content.

A lot of side-story content is delivered through Shards and Terminals (a bit like Fallout) in 2077 whereas in The Witcher it is delivered through narration and the environment.
 
Not sure about side gigs to witcher contracts specifically, because I don't remember which missions are and aren't side gigs. But the side content that has written story elements in it is great in both games...as if they came from the same developer. The side content where you just go to an icon on the map to kill something and get some trash loot so you can tick it off the list is really bad in both games. Again, as if they came from the same developer.
 

Arachnid

Member
Both are pretty great, though I personally give the edge to gigs. With the gigs though, you do have to take the time to read through the whole gig and then scour the area the gig takes place in for backstory. They are fantastic. They're just not as spelled out to you with a cutscene (some random person telling you the contract) like in witcher. You need to take the time to read the texts. IMO, the gigs actually have a bit more to them than (most of) the Witcher contracts.

The problem with the gigs is what Touch outlined above. You can just drive to the location, kill everyone, and loot whatever document/item you need to end it. Getting immersed is on you. A lot of the time, the gigs are super engrained into the area (like when you take that gig about the Maelstrom initiation and see all the surgical equipment and set up to the area where they mutilated their new recruits). You could argue the same about Witcher, but like I said earlier, Witcher contracts at least always had a cutscene/person laying it all out (so you had to skip some lines of dialogue instead of skipping a text and some emails). Really similar set up, though mission structure/combat/exploration is better in Cyberpunk IMO.

I think those who unquestioningly give Witcher the edge here just didn't bother to give Cyberpunk a fair shake and really get immersed. Driving up, killing everyone, looting, and moving on is not the way to play an RPG or Sim.

Also, the title to this thread is a bit confusing. "Side gigs" combines two mission aspects of Cyberpunk. You have the gigs and you have the Side Jobs which are basically bigger gigs. Side gig makes me wonder which you're talking about, but I'm personally arguing in favor of gigs here. Side gigs unquestioningly shit on contracts, and are more in line with the Witcher 3 side quests (though IMO better).
 
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Exentryk

Member
The problem with the gigs is what Touch outlined above. You can just drive to the location, kill everyone, and loot whatever document/item you need to end it.

This is one issue - repetitiveness.

Another issue is the subject matter. Witcher 3 being fantasy just has a lot more variety and is a lot more interesting than the mundane Cyberpunk stuff (insurance, journalists, people doing illegal stuff, etc). Reading shards about that stuff just isn't as fascinating.

Witcher 3 contracts for example have you talk to a person and understand their unique situation; then go to the contracts site and figure out what's actually going on and how to summon the contract. This could involve you diving into a nearby well to acces a secret location which might reveal new things, or performing some unique ritual, or something else. Then ofcourse we have the fight itself after all that build up, followed by the various outcomes as a conclusion.

So yeah, contracts just feel a lot better in comparison.

Cyberpunk's character side quests and the main quest of course are really well done. Some of those animations and the graphics make it look real at times.
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Side gigs, primarily because I vastly prefer the gameplay of Cyberpunk. I enjoyed The Witcher for its story, world, and characters, but the combat wasn't very good and the slow walk + detective mode Witcher sense stuff got old pretty fast.

I'm a lot happier doing repetitive shit in Cyberpunk because it's a lot of fun to blast fools, sneak around and pick them off silently, or use your Cyber Spells to fuck with them.
 

jaysius

Banned
Witcher 3 sidequest using detective vision were lame, you just followed track... and followed some more... then followed some more. The only game that did this worse was Ghost of Tsushima because the fucking tracks wouldn't always show up on the ground because of the games "great" engine, also you'd have to follow the tracks in Ghost to get the next set to show up.

I liked that in CyberPunk you were going to different buildings, I didn't play enough sidequests to see repetition, but I had a helluva lot more fun doing the "random crimes" bits in Cyberpunk than I ever had in Wticher 3's combat.

TL;DR: Neither, but more Cyberpunk better of the worse.
 
Everything about the witcher is better than cyberpunk.
Donald Trump GIF by Election 2016
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Agreed, Witcher was just on another league. And it’s not only the presentation and narrative, but also the subject matter. Hunting a Werewolf is just more exciting that stealing a tax insurance shard. What a pity, so much for so little.

The Witcher 3 subject matter is typically more interesting (although I find Cyberpunk's 80s future mishmash of Shadowrun, Bladerunner, AKIRA, Judge Dredd, and Deus Ex setting to be fascinating and engrossing), but gameplay mechanics-wise, it couldn't be staler.
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
The quest system mirrors the ones in The Witcher and some of the best in 2077 show off the same narrative strength but overall The Witcher series is better in terms of delivering side story content.

A lot of side-story content is delivered through Shards and Terminals (a bit like Fallout) in 2077 whereas in The Witcher it is delivered through narration and the environment.

There's plenty of environmental storytelling in Cyberpunk, too, but a lot of it can be easy to miss since the environments are far more complex and cluttered than most of The Witcher 3.
 

Relique

Member
Both are pretty great, though I personally give the edge to gigs. With the gigs though, you do have to take the time to read through the whole gig and then scour the area the gig takes place in for backstory. They are fantastic. They're just not as spelled out to you with a cutscene (some random person telling you the contract) like in witcher. You need to take the time to read the texts. IMO, the gigs actually have a bit more to them than (most of) the Witcher contracts.

The problem with the gigs is what Touch outlined above. You can just drive to the location, kill everyone, and loot whatever document/item you need to end it. Getting immersed is on you. A lot of the time, the gigs are super engrained into the area (like when you take that gig about the Maelstrom initiation and see all the surgical equipment and set up to the area where they mutilated their new recruits). You could argue the same about Witcher, but like I said earlier, Witcher contracts at least always had a cutscene/person laying it all out (so you had to skip some lines of dialogue instead of skipping a text and some emails). Really similar set up, though mission structure/combat/exploration is better in Cyberpunk IMO.

I think those who unquestioningly give Witcher the edge here just didn't bother to give Cyberpunk a fair shake and really get immersed. Driving up, killing everyone, looting, and moving on is not the way to play and RPG or Sim.

Also, the title to this thread is a bit confusing. "Side gigs" combines two mission aspects of Cyberpunk. You have the gigs and you have the Side Jobs which are basically bigger gigs. Side gig makes me wonder which you're talking about, but I'm personally arguing in favor of gigs here. Side gigs unquestioningly shit on contracts, and are more in line with the Witcher 3 side quests (though IMO better).

I am going have to disagree with you regarding the contracts. They were less repetitive overall, often offering surprises along the way. Some contracts surprised you with who/what was responsible for the mayhem, some lead to tracking, chases, or some interesting dialogue and moral choices. Sometimes you meet a character to accompany you on the contract. Yes you often just kill a monster, but sometimes you can strike a deal or break their curse. It's been years since I played Witcher 3 and I can still remember several contract quests like the doppelganger pretending to be a Witcher, the succubus Salma, or the Wyvern just trying to protect her nest.

The gigs are just a mishmash of repetitive missions. They always started and ended the same way. Yes sometimes they offered interesting scenery and interesting information in shards. But text is simply not as effective or interesting as dialogue. Witcher did a better job of delivering a narrative. When I was heading to complete a contract I never knew what to expect, whereas the gigs are always break out a person, steal an item, plant something, or break someone out. You picked up a few eddies with not much interesting going on. I will concede that the combat in cyberpunk is more fun and allows more freedom how to approach each mission, but I think that is the only positive for gigs over contracts.
 
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Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
Some gigs are average at best, some are pretty good. Two examples from my recent time with the game:
1. Follow the lights (those that played know)
2. Infiltrating the temple - I used charged jump to ran on the rooftops, suicides one guy and put to sleep the other one, mission done
 

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
Also with 16 in Hacking and epic quickhacks I reached a point where I do not need to draw the gun anymore: Contagion, Overheat, Short-Circuit with legendary deck wipe the floor with anyone

I’m still salty so much crafting is locked in the Tech tree.
 

Wunray

Member
Well it depends on if your prefer gameplay or story, TW3 sidequest a written better but cyberpunk is more fun to play and for me gameplay trumps everything else.
 

Mattdaddy

Gold Member
I wasn't even aware gigs existed until I was almost done with the game. I never scrolled past the side missions in my journal, I thought everything was included in there.

I guess nothing that popped up on the little text message notification thing that caught my attention enough to go look for it.
 
Witcher 3 is just a better game.

Highly debatable and I've been a Witcher fan since I played the first game in 2010. For me, Cyberpunk's story and characters go places The Witcher games couldn't or just didn't. As much as I adore Geralt, I much prefer V being my V.
 

Isendurl

Member
Its difficult to tell for me.

Witcher contracts have usually more narrative behind them, but they need to have it, because inevitably they are all pretty much the same. All of them have pretty much the same structure - talk to a villager, follow witcher sense, kill the monster - done.

Gigs on the other hand give the player more options to express him/herself through gameplay. You have some where you need to steal something, or kill someone, or you need to track cyberpsycho and usually there are multiple ways how to accomplish these things and even your reward may vary depending on how you did it, so Gigs are a lot more varied.

I would probably still gave the nod to the Witcher, just because contracts play into the whole fantasy of being a Witcher, but I like gameplay of gigs more.
 
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Hugare

Member
Witcher 3 is my game of the generation, but I couldnt care less about contracts

"Go there and kill a version of the same monster that you've been killing for the whole game now, but now its color is purple"

The set up for contracts were as simple as the gigs from Cyberpunk. But at least in CP you have some very engaging gameplay to back it up.

I've been doing all the gigs that I find in Cyberpunk, while I've missed tons of contracts in Witcher, so thats that.

And there are some gigs there are very narrative heavy. Not all, of course, but I find the majority to be very enjoyable from a storytelling point of view.
 
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xrnzaaas

Gold Member
Gigs in Cyberpunk for most part aren't very interesting. You usually have to storm the location, find something/someone and exit. Only a few of them have interesting progress. It's good that Cyberpunk still has proper side quests which are mostly good.
 
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Side gigs suffer from the lack of human interaction. You get a pre-recorded phone call with 0 dialogue options that gives you basic explanation + mission brief to read.

They just feel too "gamey" and systematic.

So yeah, this one goes to The Witcher.
 

TriSuit666

Banned
Cyberpsychos are Witcher contracts. Side gigs are just small side quests.

There are TWO types of Side Gig - Major and Minor.

Major SG's will open up additional pathways in later Main Jobs (for example, you could assist a character who later turns up to help you out, or opens up an additional narrative choice to make another job easier to complete).

One SG actually improves the stats of Jackie's Bike. But y'all probably missed that one.

Choices in one of the very first SG's also has an impact on Pyramid Song.
 
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YoodlePro

Member
There are TWO types of Side Gig - Major and Minor.

Major SG's will open up additional pathways in later Main Jobs (for example, you could assist a character who later turns up to help you out, or opens up an additional narrative choice to make another job easier to complete).

One SG actually improves the stats of Jackie's Bike. But y'all probably missed that one.

Choices in one of the very first SG's also has an impact on Pyramid Song.
Huh? improve Jackie's bike?
 
There are TWO types of Side Gig - Major and Minor.

Major SG's will open up additional pathways in later Main Jobs (for example, you could assist a character who later turns up to help you out, or opens up an additional narrative choice to make another job easier to complete).

One SG actually improves the stats of Jackie's Bike. But y'all probably missed that one.

Choices in one of the very first SG's also has an impact on Pyramid Song.

Post details please. Very curious about these. Spoiler if necessary.
 

rofif

Banned
Had no luck with 2077 side quests. It's just go there and be a detective or go there, kill 3 dudes and drop an item back.
To be honest, I hate how there are side quests, gigs and crap... And all of those you get over a phone and you have 100 of them and all have some random title.... I am not doing all of this crap but it's impossible to know which one is good just by it's setup and title
 

regawdless

Banned
I've done a lot of side quests in Cyberpunk so far and ALL in Witcher 3.

Some of the CP quests are pretty interesting and have cool stories. But a lot of Witcher 3s side quests made me feel something, while I don't feel that involved in Cyberpunk.

I can't pinpoint the exact reasons for it. Cyberpunk also has some tragic stories and characters, goes to fucked up dark places etc. But it was more impactful in W3.

Maybe it's because Gerald is a way better character than V and made me care about the world and people around him. W3 also had some pretty substantial and long side quests, while CPs are done withing 5 minutes.
 

TriSuit666

Banned
Post details please. Very curious about these. Spoiler if necessary.
I'll leave the Jackie one for you to find, but the other one...

If you met with Stout (which is technically a Side Job), and then refused the corrupted credit card, this opens up one of the pathways that allows Gilchrist to prevail over Stout (he is promoted), she is assasinated by Millitech, and her corpse can be seen weighed down by concrete boots during the swim in Pyramid Song.

However...

In the same job, if you accepted and used the corrupted credit card, it opens up a pathway to obtain a legendary named weapon from Stout, and allegedly even to attempt to romance her! (And Gilchrist is assassinated)

I'll also add for that Main Job...

If you find and release the prisoner and get him to safety, he'll turn up in a later Side Job and offer you an opportunity to complete the mission without bloodshed and even offer you an extra bonus

However

You can avoid the confrontation with Royce all together, if you initiate Millitech to raid the pickup - Royce then fights on your side and will disable the Millitech units for you without you firing a shot

The whole game is littered with small choices like this that add up over the course of the play through.
 
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Both are pretty great, though I personally give the edge to gigs. With the gigs though, you do have to take the time to read through the whole gig and then scour the area the gig takes place in for backstory. They are fantastic. They're just not as spelled out to you with a cutscene (some random person telling you the contract) like in witcher. You need to take the time to read the texts. IMO, the gigs actually have a bit more to them than (most of) the Witcher contracts.

The problem with the gigs is what Touch outlined above. You can just drive to the location, kill everyone, and loot whatever document/item you need to end it. Getting immersed is on you. A lot of the time, the gigs are super engrained into the area (like when you take that gig about the Maelstrom initiation and see all the surgical equipment and set up to the area where they mutilated their new recruits). You could argue the same about Witcher, but like I said earlier, Witcher contracts at least always had a cutscene/person laying it all out (so you had to skip some lines of dialogue instead of skipping a text and some emails). Really similar set up, though mission structure/combat/exploration is better in Cyberpunk IMO.

I think those who unquestioningly give Witcher the edge here just didn't bother to give Cyberpunk a fair shake and really get immersed. Driving up, killing everyone, looting, and moving on is not the way to play an RPG or Sim.

Also, the title to this thread is a bit confusing. "Side gigs" combines two mission aspects of Cyberpunk. You have the gigs and you have the Side Jobs which are basically bigger gigs. Side gig makes me wonder which you're talking about, but I'm personally arguing in favor of gigs here. Side gigs unquestioningly shit on contracts, and are more in line with the Witcher 3 side quests (though IMO better).
Its the tier below the big side quests like Judy missions and such. The one you get by walking into an area and the fixer of the area calls you. Agent sabotage, Gun for hire, Hostage Rescue and Retrieval falls under this category too. The police stuff are pretty much monsters nests is the last andvleast interesting tier of quests.
 
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There are TWO types of Side Gig - Major and Minor.

Major SG's will open up additional pathways in later Main Jobs (for example, you could assist a character who later turns up to help you out, or opens up an additional narrative choice to make another job easier to complete).

One SG actually improves the stats of Jackie's Bike. But y'all probably missed that one.

Choices in one of the very first SG's also has an impact on Pyramid Song.
Did not know this. So its random which are major and minor SG. On the map I mean to say.
 
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I'll leave the Jackie one for you to find, but the other one...

If you met with Stout (which is technically a Side Gig), and then refused the corrupted credit card, this opens up one of the pathways that allows Gilchrist to prevail over Stout (he is promoted), she is assasinated by Millitech, and her corpse can be seen weighed down by concrete boots during the swim in Pyramid Song.

However...

In the same gig, if you accepted and used the corrupted credit card, it opens up a pathway to obtain a legendary named weapon from Stout, and allegedly even to attempt to romance her! (And Gilchrist is assassinated)

That isn't a side gig
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
The actual full side missions are great, but the gigs are probably the worst part of Cyberpunk. They should've taken the time it took to make those and made half as many more full missions instead.

And from there, they should've incorporated some of the side missions into the main story, because it's kinda crazy that some of them aren't.
 
I'll leave the Jackie one for you to find, but the other one...

If you met with Stout (which is technically a Side Job), and then refused the corrupted credit card, this opens up one of the pathways that allows Gilchrist to prevail over Stout (he is promoted), she is assasinated by Millitech, and her corpse can be seen weighed down by concrete boots during the swim in Pyramid Song.

However...

In the same job, if you accepted and used the corrupted credit card, it opens up a pathway to obtain a legendary named weapon from Stout, and allegedly even to attempt to romance her! (And Gilchrist is assassinated)

I'll also add for that Main Job...

If you find and release the prisoner and get him to safety, he'll turn up in a later Side Job and offer you an opportunity to complete the mission without bloodshed and even offer you an extra bonus

However

You can avoid the confrontation with Royce all together, if you initiate Millitech to raid the pickup - Royce then fights on your side and will disable the Millitech units for you without you firing a shot

The whole game is littered with small choices like this that add up over the course of the play through.

Okay I did/knew about that. The Pickup
I met the Militech wench and got the shard. I had enough Body to pull my iron out and pop Royce in the head lol.
Had to be done!

Jackie's bike improvement is 100% new to me so cheers!
 
Optional within the Main Job. You don't have to do it to ensure a completed mission, however all 7 outcomes from that mission influence other Jobs, both Major and Minor.

Sure, but it still has nothing to do with what the OP is talking about which are side gigs .

And you took the example from an early main job which has the most branching paths (there are only two end outcomes, not 7) in the game. Beyond that the main quests after the branching is almost nonexistant.
 
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TriSuit666

Banned
Sure, but it still has nothing to do with what the OP is talking about which are side gigs .

And you took the example from an early main job which has the most branching paths (there are only two end outcomes, not 7) in the game. Beyond that the main quests after the branching is almost nonexistant.

Nope, (and I was incorrect also) - if we're being nitpicky, there are 3 pure outcomes from 7 scenarios.

Those are:

2x Peaceful Outcomes
4x Violent Outcomes involving Maelstrom
1x Violent Outcome involving Millitech

In addition to Millitech, you can force the issue so Millitech forces don't show up, but Gilchrist still wins over Stout.
 

iorek21

Member
Cyberpunk’s gigs are just glorified Assassins Creed bandit camps, nothing more.
I heavily criticize them on Ubi games and I will criticize them on any game in which they are excessive.
Worst thing is, CP is bloated with them and its world map is almost as cluttered as in AC Unity.

This game is heavily flawed in its sidecontent.
 
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