Cyberpunk 2077 starts you off easily with one of the earliest mission-altering decisions that you’ll encounter. During the main mission “Automatic Love”, V is looking for Evelyn and their best lead is a sleazy guy hanging out in the VIP section of a club. You need to interrogate Oswald Forrest, nicknamed Woodman, to uncover the location where the quest will continue, and during the conversation you are presented with multiple approaches. If you have played RPGs before you probably developed a sort of spidey-sense for decisions that will affect the game later on, and you’d be forgiven if you thought this is one of them - it sure if framed that way. Luckily, your approach to interrogating Woodman won’t affect Evelyn’s fate, it only determines whether or not you need to fight and kill him to get the info you need. Since we don’t know if Woodman would show up later on, it isn’t clear what the consequences will be. You have three initial conversation options that affect the subsequent conversation tree:
You look like a reasonable man - let’s make a deal. You don’t understand what’s at stake. Tell me where Evelyn is.
You look like a reasonable man - let’s make a deal.
This is the peaceful option, and allows you to either purchase the information you need, or help out Woodman with a hacking problem. The latter option is only available to players who have at least 8 points in their Intelligence stat. In these cases, Woodman tells you willingly where Evelyn is.
You don’t understand what’s at stake.
This is the most nuanced approach, as subsequent decisions can lead to a battle or to a peaceful resolution. Here V tries to pressure Woodman into revealing the information, and he responds to different tactics in different ways. You can choose from the following options:
I’ll tell the media everything. - This attempt to blackmail Woodman succeeds, and he tells you what you want to know in exchange for keeping your mouth shut. Your bosses should know how you treat customers. - This will summon Johnny Silverhand telling you to mention the ‘cash angle’ revealing you know about Woodman embezzling money. This causes him to become violent and attack you. Could end you with my bare hands. - This causes Woodman to become violent and attack you. Let’s not make this harder than it has to be. - This causes Woodman to become violent and attack you.
Tell me where Evelyn is.
This final option is also a trigger for the battle with Woodman. If you end up fighting Woodman then you can get the necessary information by interacting with his computer after you defeated him. There is also some loot to be had - you’ll get a M251s Ajax Power Assault Rifle, some ammo and some grenades.
