Cyberpunk 2077 is one of those games that can feel totally different on a new playthrough as you realize that most of the job outcomes you got the first time around were not set in stone, but rather a consequence of your decisions along the way. For the most part, Phantom Liberty takes this ball and runs with it by including tons of quests that allow V to directly determine who lives and who dies.
In The Damned, a main story quest from Phantom Liberty, V and Reed have to turn to the criminal underworld of Dogtown for help locating Songbird after she went missing. If you’ve played this mission, you know that a certain somebody gets their brain completely fried at the end, and you’re probably wondering if doing things differently could have saved them.
Does Slider have to die in Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty?
For better or worse, Slider will always die at the end of The Damned. Unlike most quests in Cyberpunk, making certain decisions cannot save this man’s life. Making the right dialogue decisions can lead to some dark foreshadowing, however.
Just before Slider’s brain is fried, Reed cuts a deal with him. Slider is promised that if he helps V and Reed find Songbird, his crimes will be forgiven and his name will be cleared. Sounds reasonable enough. However, something about the way Reed rushes through this offer feels a little bit off (minor spoilers ahead).
After Slider is dead, players have the option to accuse Reed of lying by saying that he was probably just going to kill Slider after he served his purpose. Interestingly, Reed doesn’t deny this accusation. He doesn’t confirm it outright, but he does say that V is raising a “moot question,” since Slider is dead so it doesn’t matter what his plans were.
So, you may not be able to save Slider’s life, but you certainly can receive some added context and storytelling by selecting the right dialogue options during The Damned. The fact that Reed was going to kill Slider after explicitly making a deal to spare his life and clear his name really just adds to the entire dystopian theme of Cyberpunk 2077.
Reed is a “good guy,” and yet he was totally ready to murder a man in cold blood to ensure the secrecy of his mission. On top of that, Reed himself was betrayed seven years ago by the very people he is still working for and was forced to completely decimate his own life and reputation for the greater good. In our opinion, Reed’s actions during The Damned are one part sinister, and two parts downright tragic.
If players stick around after Slider is dead, they’ll see something that just further complicates this already messy moral dilemma of a plot. Johnny Silverhand will appear next to Slider’s body, and stare at the man’s corpse with a forlorn expression. After several moments, Johnny will say, “Rest easy, Slider.” With a heavy sigh.
If you’ve followed along to the story in Cyberpunk 2077, you know how out of character this is for Johnny to be showing empathy towards a random criminal that he just met. And yet, here we are—so far gone that Johnny Silverhand is behaving with more compassion and humanity than one of Dogtown’s and America’s “heroes.”
Can you tell we absolutely love the writing in this game?
