“The great restoration of Night City saw the ruins removed and replaced by Asian corporations. What was once one of the city’s worst Combat Zones, was revived into an exclusive, ultra-secure area.” (CD Projekt Red official forum post).
What is the Westbrook District?
North Oak: The Rich
The majority of Night City dwellers will tell you that Westbrook is the ultimate dream: the best place to live, the best place to visit, the best place to spend your time and money. Westbrook is the residence of the richest and most influential, located on the hillside of the North Oak neighborhood which is the most scenic and secure subdistrict of the city. Emerging from its crime-infested past, North Oak now houses the untouchable elite: directors, managers, bankers, executives with private security forces, luxurious cars, private villas, and tennis courts. Even lawns, water streams, and palm trees here are cultivated to liven up the area and differentiate it from the rest of the urban environment.
Charter Hill: The Working and the Lucky
Charter Hill is the second best on the list of Night City locations, well-maintained mass housing and the paradise land of ambitious mid-level corporate workers. Don’t be mistaken – these people are still the upper class and have personal bodyguards and armored vehicles with their position under attack both during working hours and away from the office. Many work day and night and let off some steam with the luxuries offered by Japantown, hoping one day to become a CEO of some corporation and move to North Oak. The fierce competition, however, means that they are always at each other’s throats, ready to destroy in order to stay on top.
Lucky few who don’t have to participate in this intensive bloodbath to have access to the district are up-and-coming musical talents, artists, or just well-paid freelancers who made it to the top.
Japantown: The Fun
Westbrook’s Japantown is mostly inhabited by people of Japanese descent, but is a favorite destination of exhausted corporate workers, the elite, and excited tourists alike. Some are willing to take out a loan to pretend to be on top of the world and spend their eddies in gaming parlors, a variety of fancy bard and restaurants, street food stands, and capsule hotels, all within reach of the City Center’s Corpo Plaza and its own top-class hotels. For more seasoned inhabitants of Japantown, the Cherry Blossom Market and the Shinto temple are highly important destinations.
Well, that’s how Japantown paints itself during the light hours: clean and safe, a breathtaking scenic destination. Yet, when corpos are blowing off some steam in fancy brothels and addictive casinos during night hours, it’s careful not to cross them, especially if they are particularly drunk. The last thing you would want is to become a target to some of the most powerful people in the city. Same applies to the Tyger Claws that take over the district along with the darkness. If you are here to spend some money on semi-legitimate fun, try to not to attract attention or do anything stupid, or you might wake up with some of your limbs missing.
Westbrook and The Fourth Corporate War
Parts of Westbrook bordering the City Center district and its Corpo Plaza suffered significant damages with the nuclear detonation in 2023. Fifty years ago, the tall buildings of Japantown became the first layer to be hit by the shockwaves, spending next twenty years as crumbling, crooked skeletons haunting the landscape. Charter Hill became the hub for city refugees, stretching all the way to the hills of North Oak.
While the Charter Hill and Japantown were gradually restored, North Oak became one of the dangerous parts of the city, a violent Combat Zone, due to extreme crime rates. Corporate mercenaries had to be deployed to clear the area and truly restore the troublesome neighborhood. Once it was rebuilt, North Oak stole “the best” title from the Charter Hill and became the exclusive, ultra-secure area it is known as today.
Useful Locations
Major Factions
Tyger Claws
Tyger Claws rule the Japantown during the night hours, and they aren’t the sort of people you want to cross. They own a lot of lucrative businesses in the area and conduct many illegal operations in the backdrop.
6th Street has some history with the post-war Westbrook and controls some of the territory in Charter Hill to this day. Yet, they respect boundaries of Tyger Claws and others gangs with territories in Westbrook.
Dedicated contributor at EIP Gaming and a part-time collector of books she will never have time to actually read. Jumps on the newest releases just as quickly as on the uncovered dusty collections from the basement. For her, shiny graphics can never be an excuse to not have a polished player experience or an immersive story.
