Getting Somewhat Polemical: Commenting on a post about Cyberpunk 2077 2.0

My current HIVE blog gets updated rarely and I've never written a post commenting on something written by another Hiver. Moreover, as someone who's been following our wonderful Hive Gaming community for two years, I noticed that nobody else does that, too, and any kind of discussion happens in the comment section below an article. Now, finally, I have the opportunity to write my own polemical post, all thanks to Mr Herosik and his recently published article: CP 2077 1.6 vs 2.0 — loose impressions.

Just to make it clear, my answer is not supposed to be criticism per se — I mostly agree with the opinions expressed in the original post — but rather a sort of commentary and an attempt to look at the same thing from a slightly different perspective. I can only hope that my writing will turn out to be interesting for those people who haven't played CP 2077 yet or missed the newest big update.

All screenshots are mine. I can prove it. The image above is obviously an edit and you won't find it in the game.

Sold my soul to Night City

Before I get to comment on the original post written by herosik, I'll just try to explain my attitude about C2077. I bought CDP Red's wonderchild on Christmas Day, a few weeks after its first release. The game captivated me at first sight so much that it was the only game I played for the next two months. It was not only the stunning graphics and the virtual world of Night City that drew me to the screen, but above all the setting based on the now classic tabletop game. I happened to have grown up with the cyberpunk genre in the broad sense of the word, its aesthetics and literary tropes, starting with my childhood and the hours spent with Peter Molyneux's Syndicate. Add to that good acting, interesting, complex characters and a solid soundtrack, and it's no surprise to anyone that I've become a dedicated fan of Reds' newest release.

Or, maybe not exactly... my opinion about C2077 is a bit self-contradictory. On the one hand, the game has a solid place on my personal Top 20 of All Times, on the other, I agree with most of the well-deserved criticism it has received so far. For that reason, I can only nod along when reading herosik's post.

A Solid Seven

Just like me, Mr herosik starts his article by describing his personal experience with C2077:

...I spent a lot of time in Night City (I played through 6 or 7 times), I generally enjoyed playing it, but I rated the basic version of the game 7/10 or a far-fetched 8/10. The game was very broken. It's still imperfect, but at least it's stable now.

Reading this reminds me of another flawed game which made it to my personal Best of All Time list, namely Mad Max (2016). I spent dozens of blissful hours running in Max's leather boots, finished the main story two times, and even bothered to get all achievements — and yet, I'd be the last person to call that game a masterpiece. Without any doubt, it is one of the most interesting, if not the best, video game adaptations of a movie in history. The developers did almost everything to stay close to the source material, and the director behind Fury Road, the latest film in the franchise, took an active part in the development of the game. At first glance, they succeeded and managed to provide gripping gameplay, impressive graphics and a unique atmosphere. Still, play it long enough and Mad Max becomes disappointing. This game could have been a milestone, the Fallout of our age, but its potential was largely wasted. Probably due to the push for quick release made by the publisher, Warner Bros, in a typical megacorp fashion.

Cyberpunk 2077 seems to be a similar case. The publishing studio promised the players a milestone in the history of video games. Hype and expectations were being ramped up for years. Then came the first full release which turned into a scandal. The CDP crew found themselves in serious trouble, their stocks plummetting to the ground and their opinion seemingly ruined forever. At the moment of the game's release, nobody but paid shills or hopeless fanboys would give it a Seven out of Ten.

In all fairness, the Polish company spent the next two years doing massive damage control. Patches and fixes were gradually dealing with most issues concerning the game and also added bits and pieces of new content. And yet, does it mean that C2077 in its current form stands up to all the failed promises? Before I answer this question, let's look at the biggest changes brought by the 2.0 Update.

Cyberpunk+

The most significant change is the major overhaul of the cyberware mechanics. Armour is mostly determined by cybernetic implants, making the choice of clothing mostly aesthetic (with small exceptions). They also influence other character stats besides playing their main function — for example, the Gorilla Arms used by my current incarnation of V add a small bonus to health regeneration and a lofty 6+ bonus to skill checks (it turns out that intimidating a random gangoon gets a lot easier when you sport deadly cybernetic arms made of pure titanium). Finally, your favourite pieces of cyberware can be upgraded at the nearest ripper's basement, letting you decide about secondary stat bonuses. To prevent the player from becoming a walking cyber god, though, new restrictions have been introduced. Having enough money and free upgrade slots is not enough since V's body and mind have a limited ability to adapt to cybernetic enhancements. That ability is represented on a scale shown on the cybernetics screen. Each new implant uses some points, depending on its quality and power level, and soon enough you'll have to make difficult choices. The limit grows with experience and can be further expanded by certain perks, but it's still difficult to fill up all free slots with high-tier chrome.

The perk trees for each one of the five main stats have been heavily modified, too. Each tree has three paths made of primary and secondary nodes. By spending skill points, the player unlocks various bonuses to character statistics and, more importantly, various passive and active abilities. For example, if V chooses blunt, mindless violence and specialises in the Solo path, he can learn a powerful finisher for blunt weapons or the Obliteration skill, letting him shred enemies to tiny pieces with shotguns and machine guns.

Mr Herosik is not wrong when he writes that...

version 2.0 surprised me with the depth of the changes and the fact that at least some of the things that various reviewers had been talking about for a long time were introduced.

There can be no doubt that the changes introduced in the 2.0 version run deep and even true Cyberpunk veterans who have completed the game multiple times will find something new for themselves. such players will have to learn again how to create the most optimal character builds, experimenting with different configurations of stats and cyberwar. In this way, the 2.0 added to the game's replayability.

Speaking more generally, it's clear that CDP Read did react to all the feedback and criticism by releasing subsequent updates with new content and loads of bug fixing. Does it mean that the game in its current state deserves to be praised more than its initial release? I don't think so, but we'll come back to that question a bit later.

But where's the challenge?

I don't like the fact that the difficulty level has been lowered. (...) It's a pity, because the game is too easy. Just like in patch 1.6, I had to be very careful because I made 3 mistakes and died quickly (due to enemy accuracy, weaker items, worse statistics), while here I run like a monkey with an AK-47, do whatever I want and die... 2 times?

Here I can confirm that the game has clearly become easier. I just happen to be one of those people who get easily tired of counting hundreds of character stats, min-maxing and trying to make optimal builds; something that is so common in many cRPGs. On the other hand, I sometimes get too ambitious: in C2077 I played on the two highest difficulty levels from the start. Even with my V at his highest experience level, I had trouble with some quests and died miserably in hard fights — especially in the hidden ending of the game which pits the player (caution, a small spoiler) against almost impossible odds.

The 2.0 Update changed this. Out of a sudden, everything goes unexpectedly smoothly without much effort on my part. V can mow down gangers and Arasaka or Militech thugs in record time. The difficulty level has dropped without any doubt, which may disappoint some players. Is this really such a big problem, though? Cyberpunk'77 is an open-world game which offers so many possibilities, and with a bit of imagination and roleplaying one can make the gameplay hard enough. No one is preventing the player from sticking to one type of weapon or giving up on the most powerful cyberware. It's also possible to set ourselves mini-quests, or self-appointed challenges, such as "can I finish off this bunch of Animal gangoons with just grenades". And then, maybe the game has become more accessible to less experienced or patient players.

Chores, not gigs

Mr herosik seems to find working for Night City's fixers a dull, disappointing experience:

Fixers... I still haven't changed my mind. None of the plots interested me, at most some of them were a bit funny (mainly the ones from Wakako). They piss me off, they don't really fit into this world, every time I accept or close a contract, I can't help but cringe a little. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but I felt like I was playing some cheap Korean game, not a big game.

It's hard to disagree with this opinion. Most gigs and side jobs follow the same pattern: you arrive at the scene and receive a short call from the fixer who explains the outline of the job. Then, you receive an e-mail providing more details and maybe a photo or two. The real task starts and you enter the target area, kill or avoid the baddies, steal some data, kill someone or rescue a kidnapping victim, and then it's time to evacuate. If you wish, you'll get more backstory details by overhearing conversations or reading e-mails and info shards. Rarely there's something more, like a real conversation or meaningful choices. More than usual, you can only decide to incapacitate your target instead of ending their life, and that's it. Of course, some gigs are an exception to the rule and turn out to be real quests with a full-pledge story (the Sinnerman quest!), but they are hard to come by.

To make matters worse, the player's relationship with fixers remains static. Yes, one of the earlier patches introduced a reputation system and now you have to earn the trust of your fixer to unlock all available missions. The reward for maximum reputation is material, such as a weapon or a car, but that's it. We don't get a new dialogue, a symbolic handshake, or a personal quest to get to know the fixer character better. And worst of all, there's no chance Regina Jones will date V (what a bummer!).

Now, that's hardly exciting, is it? And yet, unlike Mr Herosik I quite enjoyed working for the fixers. Maybe I didn't play the original tabletop game or ever read the sourcebooks, but it seems to me that all those small jobs make the essence of the Cyberpunk setting. Most guns-for-hire are not stuck into an epic, tragic story with a piece of groundbreaking technology and a revenant of an anarchist terrorist stuck inside their heads. They're just little men doing little things, insects that could be easily trampled by any megacorp if the suits actually noticed them. For that reason, I liked doing gigs and learning about those little stories. But I realise that the lack of serious storytelling may be painfully disappointing to many people — and the 2.0 changed little in that matter.

No second chances

If I'm getting the original post right, Mr herosik thinks that the game has become better to some extent and would give it a higher rating than just after release. Despite being a fan of C2077, I cannot agree with this. Yes, I appreciate the painstaking work put into creating tons of bugfixes and patches, as well as adding new content. It's just that the vast majority of these bugs should have disappeared already in the beta phase. Most of the added content — housing, car combat or a working police system — should also be in the original version of the game. And even now, after two years of damage control done by the developers, the game remains imperfect in various aspects. It's enough to mention the abysmal road traffic AI or the clunky interface to.

Sorry, CDP Red, my final verdict is a Solid Seven and nothing can change that. Try harder next time.

Anyways, thanks for reading. As always, comments and constructive criticism are appreciated. Should the miracle happen and Cyberpunk'77 receives another interesting update, I'll probably write about it, so stay tuned. Cheers!