Cyberpunk 2077 Version 2.0 will be a far greater game than you might anticipate.
Cyberpunk 2077, released in December 2020, is widely considered to be the decade’s worst commercial failure. At the time, CD Projekt Red was widely regarded as a top studio, with almost no faultfinders. Since 2007, CD Projekt RED has been hard at work on The Witcher series, and since each installment in the series has been a smashing success, fans of the genre have universally praised the studio. In retrospect, I would say that Cyberpunk’s launch wasn’t quite as awful as many reacted.
I’ve discussed this in my article “Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.63 Indicates Interesting Phantom Liberty Updates,” where I quoted that CDPR shouldn’t have released Cyberpunk 2077 on the last-gen consoles since the game is only fit for the next-gen ones. So those who were the game’s critics during its launch mostly played it on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.
Of course, there were several problems, and there is no denying it. But I believe the unrealistically high standards the game and its supporters established ultimately doomed cyberpunk. Nobody doubted Cyberpunk 2077 would be the next big thing; everyone thought it would be the ultimate game. But I didn’t see it that way; instead, I saw a game that needed a flawless launch.
The irony was that nobody was wholly opposed to playing Cyberpunk 2077. I couldn’t have asked for more from a contemporary open-world game than this one. I was worried that CD Projekt RED and the cyberpunk genre might perish if this game wasn’t flawless in every way. As we all know by now, CDPR went from being one of the most loved studios to being one of the most disappointed ones, to finally becoming what I would term an optimistically good studio in 2023.
Besides, maybe Bethesda, very few studios have dealt with the failure of this skill. The future of Cyberpunk 2077 is bright, and it isn’t the improvement or planned modifications that will be implemented in Cyberpunk 2077 Version 2.0 and the Phantom Liberty DLC this September.
From what we’ve seen on the Phantom Liberty so far, my overall take is that in the past three years, CD Projekt RED has virtually redone the entire game,” says Suzi Hunter from TheSpherelHunter. There are enhancements to every single core component and mechanism.
It’s so new that even the character models look different. Instead of only gaining a tiny stat boost at each level, you now gain access to new attacks and abilities as you level up. More emphasis is placed on personalization. Therefore, clothes no longer provide stats or armor unless his physical armor originates from his cyberware. With enough cyberware experience, you can overdrive your gorilla arm punch and smash your foes into space.
Thanks to Cyberpunk 2077’s vastly improved AI, they can block and hide behind the cover. No matter how close you get, you might never manage to kill a single target with ease. You can now enemy zip to a spot instead of taking that short hop, and the melee fighting feels much more responsive. Also, he’s included some slick killing options, and your blade can deflect projectiles.
There have been far too many other alterations and enhancements to list here, similar to starting a fresh game. The core game will have the same updates as Phantom Liberty DLC. It’s not confined to the new space alone. Everything in the game has been revamped to include these features.
Even though many are still holding the view that Cyberpunk 2077, at the very least, is a game that didn’t live up to its expectations, the most useful thing I got from Susie’s stance was an emphasis on how fresh the game feels and how significant the underlying changes are. I think it would benefit the game’s longevity if every playthrough were like starting a new game.
Suzi mentioned the significant changes made to the AI, most notably to the fighting system, but we avoided discussing the alterations made to the role of the police. Similar to the way you may alter your look and potentially escape the authorities’ scrutiny in Red Dead Redemption, this feature will soon make its way into cyberpunk fiction. Thanks to the AI mentioned above modifications, there will be more stages for wanted and more scalable archetypes and enemies.
The entire system has been redesigned from the ground up. Aside from attacking you, the factions will attack others like, chase them, and engage in battles, and it feels like a real-world experience and hone your skills in a realistic setting. While this isn’t exactly new to the genre, in Night City, the NCPD will engage with you, but in Dogtown, a new militia will be there to foil you, and from what I can tell, they’re far more threatening than the Night City NCPD.
The Quest Director at CD Projekt RED, Pawe Sasko, has stated that these modifications to combat aren’t all there is. Our focus has been heavily on improving vehicle combat. You can use the glass in the window or the windshield to aim your weapon. There are also armed vehicles, some equipped with Gatling guns or rocket launchers.
Some of the vehicles from the first game will be revamped and given new weapons, while others will simply allow you to open the door and use your Katana, much like in our first trailer, in which V fired from a motorcycle’s open door.
As a result, the significance of vehicle-fighting has shifted dramatically. You’ll get access to a wider variety of weaponry. From what I can tell, not all cars will have this feature, but certain new vehicles and some older vehicles will, and you can pretty much ride around on the motorcycle wielding a katana to kill people.
There will be further enhancements made to the game’s combat system. To make the police chases more exciting, we will be upgrading the system. These modifications are what I believe will finally differentiate Cyberpunk 2077 from its predecessors and eventually make it the game that many people have been anticipating for so long.
Now I’ve been talking about the changes made to the game, and while I haven’t covered everything, such as the brand-new abilities and how the skill system works, or the completely reworked melee gameplay. Some elements of the downloadable content are worth mentioning, in my opinion. So far as I can tell, the DLC is a major extension; we’ve talked about the gray market but not the benefits of the new Zone.
As I indicated, you won’t fight the NCPD as much as Kurt Henson and his Force. Kurt is the primary enemy and ruler of Dogtown. This completely reshapes the territory outside NCPD’s control known as Dogtown Falls, where his militia and other hostile groups have supplanted the existing population. It’s intriguing to learn that Kurt’s militia is more threatening because it comprises former soldiers rather than police officials.
The DLC appears to begin immediately following the player’s interaction with the voodoo boy, albeit we have very little information about the main story. Upper Dogtown, Lower Dogtown, and Downtown Dogtown each have their character and feel. As I mentioned before, other groups within these areas regularly clash with one another. During these battles, you’ll have access to resources that will help you prevail.
CD Project Red has spent time detailing how the stats and equipment function. The weapon stats are much more robust, offering new stats like recoil control while universally adding penetrations on weapons and new damage modifiers, and this expansion will also include major updates on the weapon types and their properties. At this time, it appears that Cyberpunk 2077 has made some very impressive enhancements to the gameplay.
For my part, I can’t wait to get my hands on some brand-new cyberware weapons and experiment with different AI configurations. I can hardly wait to play around with the various builds and see what wild combos I can come up with. If you are on the fence about giving it another shot, then you should. Cyberpunk 2077 deserves another chance.
Had there been a successful launch, it’s a game that would’ve changed the video game industry. We’ve talked so much about the game before and after its release, and Cyberpunk 2077 version 2.0 and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty will be its final stand against all its criticism. It’s now or never for CD Projekt RED with Cyberpunk 2077. If they fail now, I believe it’ll be the end of this series for good.
