A Tally of Deception in Phantom Liberty

WARNING: This post and the spreadsheet linked to it contain spoilers for every single mission in the Phantom Liberty expansion.

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WHAT IS THIS POST?

Due to how popular discussions about themes of deception in the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion are, I have made an attempt to tally the amount of times a player might come across this deception throughout a regular game experience.

The spreadsheet attached to this post contains notes of every time a lie was told during this full playthrough, with the attached mission, character and context for the line.

This has no scientific value and was made because I felt like it.

NOTES ON THE METHODOLOGY

This is the result of a full playthrough of Phantom Liberty, with reloads on key points to get all four possible endings.

Because I wanted to represent a somewhat regular playthrough with the amount of lies a player might encounter when playing normally, I did not reload to get all possible dialogue choices. I don't believe that'll be an issue since most of the character dialogue is convergent anyway.

Whenever an optional dialogue (blue dialogue) was presented, it was taken.

Whenever a dialogue option to ask for elucidation or more explanation was presented (i.e. the chance to "grill" a character for more information), it was taken.

A regular playthrough was chosen over analysis of the script so things like body language animation could be factored in.

DEFINITION OF "LYING"

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, to lie is to "to say or write something that is not true in order to deceive someone". This was taken so that, to determine a character is lying, there must be an intention to deceive V or another character, or to obscure information from V or another character. A character speaking something untrue because they do not have the information or believe in something false themselves is not lying.

A single instance of lying was classified as a "train of thought". If a character takes multiple lines, as shown on the game's subtitles, to conclude a thought, those were counted as a single instance.

Lies were classified according to the following types:

Contradiction – A character makes two or more statements that contradict each other.

Deflection – When asked for additional information or clarification, a character changes subject or responds with something unrelated, refusing to provide the requested information.

Fabrication – A character states a fact that is untrue.

Forced Teaming – A character says something to suggest to the target that they have an urgent common problem.

Omission – A character intentionally neglects to part with information that would be relevant to the context of what they are saying.

Restructuring – A character says something that is technically true, but reframes, obscures or ignores context that would change the perception of what's being said

Self-Deception – A character attempts to convice themselves of something that is untrue.

GENERAL BREAKDOWN

During this playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, I counted a total of 113 instances of someone directly attempting to deceive V or saying deceitful things in V's presence.

The mission in which the most lies were told was Birds With Broken Wings, with 27 individual instances of deception, followed by The Damned, with 13.

The most common kind of lie witnessed by V was deflection, with 27 individual instances, followed closely by self-deception, with 26.

CHARACTER BREAKDOWN

For this breakdown, only FIA-associated characters were considered, them being Songbird, Reed, Alex and Myers. Characters like V, Johnny Silverhand or Hansen were not considered.

Deception directed towards Kurt Hansen was not considered either, given his antagonist position in the narrative. Therefore, obscuring your intentions in the Black Sapphire or impersonating Aurore and Aymeric Cassel were not counted as instances of lying for this experiment.

For individual character breakdowns:

• Solomon Reed is the character that lies the most, with 64 individual instances of lying. Out of those, 26 are instances of self-deception, accounting for a little over 40% of his total instances of deception. It's important, however, to keep in mind that Reed is the character that interacts with V the most in the expansion, and therefore has more lines in general. Removing the instances where he lies to himself would still net him the first place, with the other kinds of lies adding up to 38.

  • Self-deception: 26
  • Deflection: 15
  • Fabrication: 10
  • Restructuring: 7
  • Omission: 4
  • Forced Teaming: 1
  • Contradiction: 1

• Song "Songbird" So Mi lies a total of 29 individual times. Most of those instances are a reinforcement or repeat of one core lie, which is that the Neural Matrix could be used to cure both herself and V. She is also the character that has the most instances of forced teaming tacticts, though her most used kind of lying is plain fabrication.

  • Fabrication: 8
  • Deflection: 6
  • Restructuring: 6
  • Omission: 5
  • Forced Teaming: 4

• President Rosalind Myers lies a total of 14 times in V's presence – a significant number, considering her minimal screen time. Her most common kinds of lies are a tie between deflections and fabrications.

  • Fabrication: 4
  • Deflection: 4
  • Omission: 3
  • Restructuring: 2
  • Forced Teaming: 1

• Alena "Alex" Xenakis takes the fourth position, with a total of six lies, due to both her limited screen time and her general disinterest in the mission at hand. The majority of her deception happens in the mission Birds With Broken Wings.

  • Deflection: 2
  • Fabrication: 1
  • Restructuring: 1
  • Omission: 1
  • Contradiction: 1

Details on the exact nature and context of each instance of deception can be seen on the spreadsheet.

ADDENDUM

"You went too hard/too easy on [CHARACTER]"

Paraphrasing Solomon Reed, "I did my damnedest to be fair". But this is not a data science job, this is me being obsessive about a video game.

"You missed a lie"

Because I did not reload and pick every single dialogue option, I probably did miss something. Feel free to suggest additions, just make sure to follow the format described above, including the specific line, the mission and the context around the line.

Contextualization must stick to the text of the game and be supported by something that exists inside the game. For example:

"A FIA doctor suggested that Songbird might suffer from Avoidant Personality Disorder" – this is true, and can be verified in the game.

"Songbird is a narcissist because she reminds me of my ex-girlfriend" – this is not supported by anything that's in the game and is not useful as context.

"I disagree with something being a lie"

Disagree away, just be specific regarding context and facts when you make your case.

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TL;DR: I played through all of Phantom Liberty, doing all of the 4 endings and grilling every character as much as I could, and every time they lied I wrote it down on an excel spreadsheet. I am now sharing it with you. Enjoy.