Kurt Hansen in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's Colonel, BARGHEST and Dogtown

Who Hansen is#

Hansen is a soldier first, a warlord second and a businessman third. In-game he is the commander of BARGHEST and the unofficial leader of Dogtown, a man who keeps a Combat Zone in order with checkpoints and a gun trade. He is smart, patient and very good at presenting violence as policy.

People disagree about what he is. Some see a gangster and war profiteer, some a deserter and terrorist, and some a charismatic leader who built a home free of corporate and police rule. Most Dogtown residents will tell you it is safer not to decide.

How he got here#

Hansen came from the New United States, joined a juvenile gang, then enlisted in the Militech armed forces after reaching adulthood. He rose fast and made colonel young. In 2067 he was given command of Barghest, an urban combat and pacification unit.

In Operation Midnight Storm, late in the Unification War, his unit established a forward base at the EBM Petrochem Stadium in Pacifica. The assault on the city was then called off, and Hansen was ordered to retreat on June 9, 2070. He and Barghest refused.

He built his own territory out of Serenisands, the walled-off eastern end of Pacifica. A black market, gun trade and smuggling kept the powers that matter content to leave him alone. The base for it all is the Black Sapphire tower.

The Songbird bargain#

By 2077 he has a neural matrix and a Blackwall AI recovered from an abandoned Militech bunker. A netrunner named Songbird contacted him before mid-June offering to deliver President Rosalind Myers in exchange for access to the matrix. Space Force One was brought down over Dogtown, and the plan was for BARGHEST to kill Myers.

Hansen planned to capture Songbird afterward and use her for his own ends. That is the setup for Phantom Liberty, where V gets pulled into the middle.

Facts that explain the character#

Hansen's earliest mention is in the base game, in a shard that calls him a general leading a group in the Combat Zone. His development influences were South American drug lords, and fans have long noted a resemblance to Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now: his voice lines are tagged as Kurtz in the game files. His surname was Krausser in early development.

He is also playable for a short stretch. Hansen is the third controllable character after V and Johnny in the game, during Balls to the Wall.

Fixer's notes#

Our read: Hansen works because he is not insane. He kept an army together for seven years after the war ended with no state paying it, and he does it with plans, not speeches. Tabletop tip: use him as a patron who is both the best employer and the worst enemy in the neighborhood.

For the woman he is trying to kill, see Rosalind Myers.

Who knows who#