Summary
InCyberpunk 2077, there are several factions vying for a slice of Night City. These range from the suit-wearing chrome-filled corpos like Arasaka and Militech to the gangs that roam the street looking for trouble, like the bike-riding Tyger Claws and beefed-up Animals. However, there is one faction that has gone severely overlooked inCyberpunk 2077that is easily the most interesting.
Cyberpunk 2077does a good job of introducing players to each of its varied factions and even offers lore entries for all of them. V will typically meet each of them in a mission before encountering them in later missions or in explosive encounters on the streets of Night City. Despite thehugeCyberpunk 2077updates that have added significant changes, including to many of these factions, one faction has been left to the wayside, and only the game’s sequel can fix it.
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In a game as long and complex as Cyberpunk 2077, it can be frustrating to face unexpected consequences hours after making a small decision.
Cyberpunk 2077’s Trauma Team Faction Was Wasted
Trauma Team Appears Once And Never Again
Cyberpunk 2077has a phenomenal opening mission once you get past the prologue, which sees Jackie and V infiltrate a high-rise building, kill the gang members there, and then rescue a dying woman from a bathtub and deliver her to Trauma Team. It’s thrilling, in large part thanks to Trauma Team’s presence, a militarized paramedic force that only the rich can afford, who come the moment their clients are injured.Trauma Team will ignore anyone not on their client list, leaving them for dead, making them essentially paramedics for hire.
It isn’t hard to imagine how they could fit into some ofCyberpunk 2077’smain missions, including when V is tasked with kidnapping an affluent corpo named Anders Hellman, who would almost certainly have the Platinum Trauma Team package. Trauma Team could also have appeared in certain Gigs where players are tasked with killing leaders of gangs or important members, who would also unquestionably have a Trauma Team membership. At the very least,some form of mission involving Trauma Team getting in V’s way would have made perfect sense.
There is a minigame called “Trauma Drama” that players can find in arcades and bars, which features a Trauma Team member. However, it is a 2D pixel-art minigame that has no bearing on the main story.
Unfortunately,after their initial appearance, the Trauma Team never shows up again, at least in the story. Players can see Trauma Team soldiers standing around their ships on the side of a road, but even then, they don’t react to the player unless they’re shot at. It is baffling, then, that despitePhantom Libertyand the 2.0 update fixingCyberpunk 2077’s biggest issues, CD Projekt Red never added Trauma Team to any new or existing side content or increased their presence in Night City.
10 Things That Make No Sense In Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 has an ambitious narrative and impressive game world, but there are certain things about it and its gameplay that don’t really add up.
Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel Needs To Fix Trauma Team
Trauma Team Needs A Bigger Presence In A Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel
While Trauma Team isn’t the biggest or most important faction inCyberpunk 2077, their absence is nevertheless felt. Much like how the lack of MaxTac spoke to a wider problem withCyberpunk 2077’sonce-broken police system,Trauma Team’s lack of presence is a missed opportunity for a deeper exploration of the game’s themes of capitalismand the dystopian divide between the rich and poor. They are also an engaging way to build tension whenever players embark on a violent spree.
Knowing that Trauma Team would appear if a VIP was hurt could make players approach missions in different ways, such as sneaking by those with a Platinum membership or using Quickhacks that block Trauma Team from reading their client’s vital signs. The potential of Trauma Team has also been explored in the comicCyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team, which follows a Trauma Team soldier, Nadia, as she is forced to assist the gang member that killed her squad. The comic explores both Trauma Team as a faction and the individuals who work for them and perhaps don’t share their same beliefs.
While theCyberpunk 2077: Trauma Teamcomic was written by Cullen Bunn, who has written onHarrow CountyandUncanny X-Men, to name a few, and published by Dark Horse Comics, it was made in collaboration with CD Projekt Red.
Trauma Team also makes a brief appearance in the excellentCyberpunk: Edgerunnersseries when dealing with the car crash that kills David’s mother.It is clear that there is a reverence for Trauma Teamfrom both CD Projekt Red, which had a hand in the comic and series, and fans, including one dedicatedfan who created an entire Trauma Team cosplay. While that wasn’t translated to the base game other than a brief mention, hopefully, it means that they’ll play a much bigger role inCyberpunk 2077’s sequel, with both a more significant narrative and gameplay presence.
