Memory is a funny thing. Two people can have different recollections of the same occasion thanks to personal perspective, and the passage of time may influence how you interpret your own past experiences. But what would happen if someone could get inside your head and deliberately tamper with your memories? Poking and prodding until they fundamentally changed who you are? How could you handle your day-to-day life when you start questioning everything you ever thought you knew about yourself and your history? These are questions that come to the surface during the most unsettling quest in Cyberpunk 2077 – which happens to also be my personal favorite.
While there are plenty of memorable quests and gigs in CD Projekt Red’s RPG, the side job Dream On refuses to leave my mind. Each time I replay it, I find it just as disquieting as the first time I experienced it. What begins as a simple break-in investigation soon unravels into a dark web of shady politics and mind-altering manipulation. It steadily becomes apparent that something much bigger and far more sinister is going on than first meets the eye, and the way it all unfolds always hooks me right in. Even now, after trying out each possible solution at the end of the quest, I’m still not sure what the best course of action is, which only makes me appreciate it more.
It goes without saying that there are major spoilers ahead for the Cyberpunk 2077 quest Dream On
What I appreciate most about this side job is how a previous quest titled I Fought the Law sets it up. Early on in Cyberpunk 2077, the news is all abuzz about the death of Mayor Rhyne. Now, with an election to be held, new candidates are gunning for the role, and that of course opens up the way for some seedy politically fuelled dealings. One such candidate is Jefferson Peralez, who you meet after his wife Elizabeth calls you to set up a meeting. It’s all quite clandestine, with you hopping in a car as they offer you money to look into the death of Mayor Rhyne. They believe Holt, a rival in the running, is involved and after investigating, you go to their swanky apartment to deliver your findings.
It’s here that the first seed for what’s to come is planted. When you meet Jefferson in his home the first time, he’s speaking on the phone and having a very polite conversation. When you come back to the apartment to take up the Dream On quest, he’s on the phone again, only there’s a marked difference in Jefferson’s behavior. He speaks crassly and makes demands of the person on the other end of the call, and when he talks to you, he doesn’t sound quite the same in tone… Even his posture is altered. When I initially did the quest in my first playthrough some years back, I didn’t think much about this. It was only when I came to replay it that I truly appreciated the setup and realized the significance of those changes in him.
Jefferson and Elizabeth call you back for the side job in order to look into an unusual break-in at their apartment. Jefferson recalls waking up and seeing someone there, even reaching for his gun, but the next morning, it’s as though he dreamt it. All signs that anything has happened have seemingly been erased. Convinced that Holt is once again up to something, it’s up to V to find out what’s going on. I always jump at the chance to do any sort of detective work, and nothing speaks to me quite like a good mystery, which is also why this job reeled me right in from the get-go.
What makes this quest so memorable is the way it starts to build a strange, troubling picture that just keeps unraveling. Elizabeth guides you through the apartment, and as you interact with various rooms, it begins to become clear that something very weird is going on. When you look at her wedding photo, for instance, she recalls how beautiful the blue roses were, even though they’re clearly red in the picture. It’s a minor detail, but I can still remember the pit in my stomach and the foreboding that only grew as she made more mistakes.
You eventually find a hidden room she had no idea was there, and worse still, it’s full of monitoring equipment. It’s such an unsettling invasion of privacy, but it’s also the first tangible evidence that something much worse is going on than anyone initially suspected. Upon pursuing it further, with a little help from a satellite scan on the rooftop and a fast car chase across Night City, you finally learn the truth. In true dystopian form, the revelation plays into the darkest side of Cyberpunk 2077: someone or something is messing with their minds, changing their memories, modifying their personalities, and transforming them into the perfect puppets to control.
When you tell Elizabeth your findings, it turns out she had an inkling all along and her words are enough to give anyone chills: “His personality… He seemed to be changing right in front of me, becoming someone else. He stopped reading, forgot the title of his favorite movie, even his musical taste changed overnight.” In the world of Cyberpunk 2077, there’s nothing as deeply terrifying as the idea that technology can change who you are, or that people could manipulate you in such an invasive way. So much so far that you lose yourself. I love how it shares frightening parallels with what Johnny Silverhand’s engram threatens to do to you as V.
The main question Dream On leaves you with is one I’m still thinking about - despite playing it several times at this point. Would you want to know this is happening to you? Or never know the truth? You’re left with the choice to tell Jefferson what you’ve found or lie and tell him what he thinks is true - that Holt is the one behind the break-in. After seeing both outcomes, I’m still not entirely sure what is better. Could you handle knowing that your very memories have been tampered with? How could you trust anything or anyone, when you question your own mind? Your own memories? What’s worse, to live in paranoia, or live like a puppet on a string? I still don’t know myself, but that’s why I love this quest. The way it unfolds never fails to pulls me right in, and the uncomfortable questions it leaves me with are why it sticks with me.
Phantom Liberty didn’t change my mind about the best Cyberpunk 2077 ending.