Cyberpunk 2077 minigames: Hacking, car racing, boxing, and target range explained

(Image credit: CD Projekt RED)

Cyberpunk 2077 minigames will fill out your time in Night City beyond the eternal chase for eurodollars and near-future romance. Though developer CD Projekt Red is remaining cagey in just how much gameplay it shows off for its new open-world RPG, it allowed a pair of its employees to answer fan questions about the game submitted via Tumblr. One of those questions was about what kind of Cyberpunk 2077 minigames players can participate in, and it sounds like there will be all kinds of ways to fruitfully while away the hours.

Senior level designer Miles Tost started off by expanding on how the hacking minigame will work in Cyberpunk 2077. Don't worry, this isn't another perfunctory "wiggle the thumbsticks until you find the sweet spot" filler segment. Tost said Cyberpunk 2077's hacking minigame will make the process of subverting systems more challenging, engaging, and rewarding to boot. Get it, boot, like booting up a computer? Hahhh.

"A cool thing about this minigame is that it's not a binary thing, it's not so much about success and failure so much as how big you win," Tost explained. "The fantasy behind it being that the better you are at this hacking procedure, the more control you get over the actual network that you're hacking. And that manifests in additional rewards on top of your main objective, being added to you and maybe your inventory."

Depending on your playstyle, hacking could be just as important to your character as their trigger finger, letting you get around obstacles and directly mess with your cyber-enhanced opponents. Don't worry if your shooting skills get a little rusty after de-rezzing all that ICE, because another minigame will let you head to the shooting range to practice with your gunsmith pal Wilson.

"Another thing you might do - because vehicles play a big part in our game, and you are in Night City, the city of neon - so of course you're invited to engage in some car racing activities. So you'll be able to race your car through the city," Tost added. We even saw a little first-person motorcycle riding in the latest gameplay footage, though Tost didn't say whether we'll be able to race those around too. But wait, there's more!

"On top of that, you can also do boxing matches," Sasko said. "I don't know if you remember the first trailer we had shown, there was the big dude getting broken by this robot. So you can actually fight it in a boxing minigame. It's like a series of matches that you can attend."

That sounds like enough to keep us busy for quite a while even without the story and side missions bit. However, the devs didn't say anything about giving an exhaustive list of Cyberpunk 2077 minigames, so if you're still holding out hope for a dystopian future equivalent of Gwent, don't abandon your dreams just yet.

Get your gaming setup for Cyberpunk squared away soon with our list of all the best Amazon Prime Day game deals, or check out our video impressions straight from E3.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.

Latest in Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk 2077: Johnny Silverhand sits at a restaurant table with his hands together next to a plate of food
Cyberpunk 2 associate game director reveals his greatest development secret: 10 hour loops of music like "Epic Sax Guy" that "gives me insane focus and clarity"
The Witcher 2
Before he was Cyberpunk 2's associate director and was just "employee #86," CDPR dev says it took him 46 tries to beat an infamous boss in The Witcher 2: "I was losing my mind"
Cyberpunk 2077
Over 4 years after its launch, Cyberpunk 2077 hits 'Overwhelmingly Positive' on Steam: "Never dreamt it will be possible"
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty screenshots
If Night City is the "main antagonist" of Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 4's Continent could easily follow suit
Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty Screenshot
Cyberpunk 2077's surprise car customization update was co-developed by the Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake devs, lets you lower your wanted level on the fly GTA-style
Cyberpunk 2077 DLC screenshot
Cyberpunk 2077 is getting a surprise update a year after its once-final update, even after CDPR moved basically every dev to other games: "Sometimes, you want to do it ONE MORE time!"
Latest in News
inZOI Character Studio screenshot showing a young woman with short black/pink hair, black cat-like ears, and a black blouse with a bowtie
The creator of upcoming life sim Inzoi says he was "recklessly brave to even think about creating a game of this scale"
Rise of the Ronin
A year after its PS5 launch, Rise of the Ronin debuts on PC to "Mixed" reviews and performance complaints: "Stuttering on a 4090 is just... no"
Rise of the Ronin's photo mode offers some wonderful shots
On the heels of Rise of the Ronin's PC launch, its director says there's a "significant" amount of Japanese Switch gamers: "I am closely watching how this will change with the release of Switch 2"
Stardew Valley Castle Village mod
Stardew Valley Expanded creator is building an "even more ambitious" mod with a whole new city and "dungeons inspired by The Legend of Zelda"
Dino Crisis 2 art showing a young woman and man back-to-back amid tall green grass, both with their weapons drawn
Dino Crisis gets a fresh trademark filing by Capcom, but it might not mean the 26-year-old survival horror franchise will get a new installment like fans expect
Cujo
Netflix is making a brand new adaptation of Cujo, the infamous Stephen King book about a killer dog