“The rich used to live here. Some still do. The rest of us just try to survive in their old apartments.”
New Westbrook is a district of painful contrasts — the former “Land of the Rich and Powerful” now crammed with refugees and desperate people who have nowhere else to go. The gleaming towers remain, but now they’re overcrowded with war refugees and the displaced poor, while the surviving wealthy cling to their last holdouts.
📍 Overview
Aspect
Details
Zone Type
Overpacked Suburbs
Threat Rating
Moderate
Population
Very dense, extremely overcrowded
Character
Faded luxury meets desperate poverty
Security
Patchwork — good in wealthy areas, minimal elsewhere
📜 History: The Fall from Grace
Before the War (2020s)
Westbrook was always a fortress — a “genteel and well-manicured fortress” built on hills overlooking Night City and North Oak below.
Feature
Description
Location
Natural hills, defensive position
Residents
Corporate VPs, Execs, Night City elite
Security
Arasaka contract, legendary reputation
Access
Skin-implanted ID chips, multiple checkpoints
Defense
Surface-to-air missile sites for aircraft
“Almost all the Execs working for the largest corporations lived in Westbrook — VPs from Arasaka, EBM, Petrochem, and many prominent Night City personalities. Admission was limited in only one way: the ability to afford it.”
The Extraction Legend
Westbrook was famous as the safest place in Night City to hide high-value personnel. Only one extraction attempt was ever made:
Outcome
Details
Attackers
Militech assault force
Defenders
Arasaka security
Results
3 AVs destroyed, 24 Militech soldiers dead
Legacy
Started the Arasaka-Militech rivalry in Night City
The War and After
When the bomb went off, millions of refugees needed somewhere to go. Westbrook’s luxury apartments were… available.
Former luxury apartments now packed with refugees — dozens of people where single families once lived.
Condition
Description
Occupancy
10+ people per unit designed for 4
Services
Failing — power cuts, water issues
Security
None — fend for yourself
Crime
Theft, violence, desperation
Arasaka Estate
Danger Gal reportedly has access to covert databases left behind in the old Arasaka estate in New Westbrook — a valuable intelligence resource from the pre-War era.
🌆 The Contrast
What Remains of Luxury
Element
Status
Architecture
Art deco towers, still beautiful
Rooftop gardens
Some still maintained (wealthy areas)
Private clubs
Operating for those who can pay
Shopping
High-end boutiques in holdout areas
Security
Visible only in Charter Hill
The New Reality
Element
Status
Apartments
Subdivided, overcrowded
Malls
Half-abandoned, night markets
Services
Strained beyond capacity
Streets
Homeless camps, tent cities
Crime
Rising, no one to stop it
👥 Society
The Old Money
Characteristic
Description
Attitude
Denial, nostalgia, superiority
Goals
Maintain status quo, pretend War didn’t happen
Connections
Still valuable, still powerful
Vulnerability
Isolated, surrounded by poverty
The Refugees
Characteristic
Description
Origins
Central city, Combat Zones, elsewhere
Goals
Survive, find stability
Resources
Minimal — whatever they could carry
Hope
Eventually getting out
The Middle Ground
Group
Description
Service Workers
Staff the remaining luxury businesses
Fixers
Work both sides
Survivors
Neither rich nor desperate
🌆 Atmosphere
Wealthy Areas (Charter Hill)
Clean streets, security patrols
Expensive cars, dressed-up residents
Boutiques and restaurants operating
Pretending the outside doesn’t exist
Walls (literal and social)
Refugee Areas
Overcrowded buildings
Makeshift markets
Children everywhere
Cooking smells from every window
Arguments over space and resources
The Boundary
Where rich meets poor:
Security checkpoints
Beggars ignored by shoppers
Tents visible from penthouse windows
Tension, always tension
Sensory Details
Sense
Experience
Sights
Art deco beauty next to tent cities
Sounds
Multiple languages, arguments, distant construction