Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 is home to more than a few corporations, but even the most evil ones among them seem rather mild in comparison to the corporations from other games or real life. In a setting such as Night City, it makes sense that a large, futuristic hub with a large population ends up being run by corporations. Even holding the power in Night City, corporations that are depicted as evil in Cyberpunk 2077 are lackluster in their unethical behavior compared to gaming corporations like Umbrella from Resident Evil or Aperture Science from Portal. Then, there are also corporations in the real world that could have been used as examples for unethical behaviors to include in-game.
The combination of power, greed, and a lack of oversight puts the companies of Night City in a position to behave unethically for their own benefit. Given the amount of Eurodollars, Cyberpunk 2077's currency of choice, that these corporations have at their disposal, they could commit more sinister acts than they do in the game. Perhaps the abundance of evil corporations in Night City limits their ability to undertake the nefarious projects of companies in other games, but it might also make it feel like their reputation of being evil doesn't fit as well as it could.
The Deeds Of Evil Corporations In Cyberpunk 2077
Arasaka, a megacorporation in Cyberpunk 2077 that acts as one of the main antagonists, might be the most powerful company in the game, but it isn't only focused on its own benefit, taking measures to get rid of competition of Japanese companies and giving large amounts of to Japanese communities. The global presence of some megacorporations could make Cyberpunk 2077 DLC set outside of America a viable choice, and players might have had the chance to see more forced corporate takeovers in other locations, or find evidence of more unethical projects and practices. Aside from suppressing competition, Arasaka has a history of employing assassins, kidnapping officials, blackmail, and more.
Arasaka also delved into more secretive projects, like the questionable Relic program that sought to achieve immortality for humans, but it's hardly the only corporation guilty of dark behaviors. Militech has helped terrorist organizations, aided in military coups and killed the veterans afterward, and they massacre Japanese citizens. Biotechnica artificially impregnates women against their will. Meanwhile, Night Corp controlled its employees using AI, and also used that AI to control non-employees who it deemed useful.
Other Games Make Cyberpunk's Corporations Seem Tame
The first of the Outlast horror video games centers around the Murkoff Corporation, which experiments on asylum patients for Project Walrider, an attempt to create a host for a supernatural creature. Aperture Science from Portal has a long list of unethical and dangerous experiments, including exposing people to superconductors, turning subjects' blood into gasoline, injecting praying mantis DNA into subjects, and made participation in these tests mandatory for employees. Shinra from Final Fantasy 7 has a similar amount of power as Cyberpunk 2077 megacorporations, and it drains the planet's life source for profit, and also experiments on the Cetra and other lifeforms, even creating super soldiers.
Resident Evil has Umbrella Corporation, which tests viruses and has caused the destruction of Raccoon City. Several viral strains are derived from Resident Evil's Progenitor Virus, and they end up being tested on people - or animals - who might be unaware that they're being experimented upon, or they're unwilling and are forced to become test subjects. The purpose behind these experiments from Umbrella is no less evil, since the intent is to create an ideal population, and doing so would mean killing all the people who aren't compatible with the perfected viral strain, which might seem quite extreme compared to Cyberpunk 2077's corporations.
How Real Life Corporations Compare To Cyberpunk 2077
New United States in Cyberpunk 2077. On that list is Monsanto, a company that has created chemicals that are known to be harmful, including Agent Orange. Agent Orange was used in the Vietnam War as a defoliant, but its use resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and birth defects to innocent citizens.
Meanwhile, Cyberpunk 2077 survival mod makes food and drink necessary, and Nestlé has leveraged the need for survival and harmed infants in the process, as quoted by Ethical Consumer: "The organization says Nestlé contributes to the unnecessary death and suffering of infants around the world by aggressively marketing baby foods in breach of international marketing standards."
Corporations and corruption are centerpieces of Cyberpunk 2077 since it takes place in a city run by megacorporations that tend to operate on the unethical side. But it might feel like the game doesn't go far enough with the evil-doings when compared to the companies in other games and in real life. The competition and prevalence of companies might be used as an explanation as to why their projects don't go further into evil territories with the amount of money and power available, such as Umbrella funding the terrible Project W in Resident Evil with its profits.
Cyberpunk settings often use dystopian worlds that generally have at least one evil corporation doing shady deeds behind the scenes or blatantly in public, but those featured in Cyberpunk 2077 seem to miss the mark. While the corporations such as Arasaka, Militech, and others certainly display unethical and evil behavior of varying degrees, the lack of oversight for these companies combined with their available resources and, in some cases, armies should allow them to be more evil when compared to other games, but instead they come off as mild. When it came to the evil corporations, CD Projekt Red could have looked into other games and real life for inspiration to make the companies in Cyberpunk 2077 truly feel evil.
Sources: USAToday, EthicalConsumer
