Initial thought is that the player would either be a human, or one of the sentient races (elves could fit in with modern society with a bit of disguise... Dwarves could... but also some totally new races could be entertaining as well.. each with their own advantages and disadvantages).
I'm thinking a full 3-Axis world, where you can go solo or group play.
If going solo, perhaps you can win the trust of NPC companions... save a sentient creature that heals from a pharmaceutical mega corporation performing the most vile experiments on her to draw out her healing capacity and package it... as a team, you extract a mage type from a mercenary group performing quasi-legal operations in a fictitious Latin American or Caribbean island nation... etc...
If you go anywhere with this... I would like to offer my services for quest/mission development and text/dialogue editing. I know it's a long-shot, but I want to put that out there, right here at the start.

30 years of tabletop gaming and dungeon/game mastering has to help out, somehow.