Visual glitch gives Cyberpunk fans a look at one of its most illusive characters

Over the course of the Cyberpunk 2077 story, players will come across plenty of faces, and some that stick in the brain better than others. One of these characters is Mr. Hands, who actually doesn’t show his face to protect his identity. But it seems like a glitch has finally shown the face behind the hands.

In the little video screen that players get when they call allies while traveling across Night City, one fan experienced a bug that lit up the shadow that Mr. Hands hides behind, showing his face to all in a screenshot posted on Reddit on Sept. 18. With a purple jacket and aggressive positioning, the self-proclaimed all-business fixer was revealed to have a thick beard, short hair, and a middle-aged look.

Now, whether this is canon to what Mr. Hands actually looks like is still up for debate. There is a chance that CD Projekt Red designed the Pacifica fixer Mr. Hands with this look in mind, but maybe it always had the goal of keeping him hidden and just had to give him any old face before cloaking him in darkness. Either way, he does bear a resemblance to some other popular characters in media, most notably for me Richard “Richie” Jerimovich from the TV series The Bear.

Fans in the Reddit thread gave their opinions on this reveal, debating whether this was Mr. Hands’ official face or not, among other topics. The consensus was that the character of Mr. Hands is more enjoyable if you don’t know what he looks like, especially since so much of his personality (especially the name of Mr. Hands) revolves around his secrecy. With his jacket’s bright colors, players expected his face to be a little more unique and almost villain-like, with a comment making an apt comparison to the Riddler from the Batman series.

When it comes to the voice acting of the character, it also doesn’t match the face that was revealed via this glitch. Another Reddit comment said the voice and attire made them think of Handsome Jack from the Borderlands game franchise. And as someone who put over 3,500 hours into those games, I agree completely. 

No matter what side of the Mr. Hands face discussion you focus on, almost everyone agrees that the face that was shown doesn’t fit the character. Now, the ball is in CDPR’s court to see if it will give any credence to this glitch before the release of the hyped-up DLC for Cyberpunk 2077, Phantom Liberty, on Sept. 26.