CD Projekt's Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.0 + Phantom Liberty Expansion Thread

[gurugeorge]

Again, it's impossible to be certain about any of this, but if you look at the weight and tendency of the promotional material up to 2018, the game was meant to be different. Certainly some elements of the story would have been in there from the beginning, but not with Johnny Silverhand playing such a central role, especially considering that he's shown in 2018 as having died in 2076 in one of the promo videos, and considering that screenshot showing him as merely an inspirational figure. Neither of those can be excused as "fluff text" since they're ABSOLUTELY CONTRADICTORY to Johnny Silverhand having the important role in the story he has now.

For example, there's the ending, which obviously has 3 "flavours" (Nomad-ish, Street-kiddish and Corpo-ish), then there's the underdeveloped theme of the AIs and the Blackwall, really only shown in the Voodoo Boys/Netwatch questline, and jammed rather awkwardly into both the Nomad-ish and Street-kiddish endings, but not at all utilized in the corporate-ish ending. But notice how, in one of the promotional vids, Pacifica is shown as a place unto itself with its own particular flavour, not just as a backdrop to one quest in the game and a few side-gigs (as it is now), and how Netwatch figures more prominently in one of the other promo vids. That underdeveloped theme is also hinted at in the Peralez quest - which really looks like it ties into the whole AI thing. There's also the hint that Delamain's schizoid problem is some sort of AI virus.

I think the original intention was for the story to be more general and related to a) Arasaka's pursuit of immortality (so the biochip definitely figured in there), b) the AI/Voodoo Boys/Netwatch theme, and c) probably something related to the Nomads and the theme of ex-military Cyberpsychosis, which is heavily peppered throughout the game (perhaps re. the question of whether cyber-enhancement is worth it or not); the first being more related to the Streetkid V, the second more to the Corpo V, and the third more to the Nomad V.

It's kind of pointless arguing about it. But I do think everyone should look at that video, to remind themselves of exactly what the promotional videos were saying, and how that differs from what we've got.

dude what you are vaping ? They show one screen of something and you automatically assume whole game will be about it or half of it at least.

The screenshot is related to the Johnny Silverhand problem, the rest has nothing to do with that, and is my speculation based on other aspects of the game as we have it.

The Johnny Silverhand problem is hard logic - barring some monumental blunder, it's impossible for Johnny Silverhand's story to have been planned as central from the beginning (as you claim) if there was a promotional video in 2018 with radio news that he'd died in "2076." Think about it: that radio voice had to be voice acted, and that had to be paid for, scheduled, organized, a studio organized, audio engineer organized, etc., etc. Or to put it the other way round, if the story we've got was planned from the beginning then voice-acted news of his death in "2076" must have been related to some much earlier phase of the game's development, and would never have been shown in a promotional video. (But it's highly unlikely that it would have been voice-acted if it was that early anyway.) The screenshot of the character creation also shows that something quite different was intended up until the point Keanu agreed to join the game.

Again, nobody's blaming Keanu, and nobody's trying to let off CDPR lightly. The question is only what are we blaming CDPR for cocking up? I claim we should blame them for stuffing a storyline and character into a game that didn't need them, too late, in a way that took 3 years of some of the resources away from properly finishing the game they had, and had already had one false start on.

 

[SoupNazi]

The screenshot is related to the Johnny Silverhand problem, the rest has nothing to do with that, and is my speculation based on other aspects of the game as we have it.

The Johnny Silverhand problem is hard logic - barring some monumental blunder, it's impossible for Johnny Silverhand's story to have been planned as central from the beginning (as you claim) if there was a promotional video in 2018 with radio news that he'd died in "2076." Think about it: that radio voice had to be voice acted, and that had to be paid for. Or to put it the other way round, if the story we've got was planned from the beginning then voice-acted news of his death in "2076" must have been related to some much earlier phase of the game's development, and would never have been shown in a promotional video. (But it's highly unlikely that it would have been voice-acted if it was that early anyway.) The screenshot of the character creation also shows that something quite different was intended up until the point Keanu agreed to join the game.

I mean... Silverhand is also dead in the game we got. How does that prove anything?

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

 

[gurugeorge]

The screenshot is related to the Johnny Silverhand problem, the rest has nothing to do with that, and is my speculation based on other aspects of the game as we have it.

The Johnny Silverhand problem is hard logic - barring some monumental blunder, it's impossible for Johnny Silverhand's story to have been planned as central from the beginning (as you claim) if there was a promotional video in 2018 with radio news that he'd died in "2076." Think about it: that radio voice had to be voice acted, and that had to be paid for. Or to put it the other way round, if the story we've got was planned from the beginning then voice-acted news of his death in "2076" must have been related to some much earlier phase of the game's development, and would never have been shown in a promotional video. (But it's highly unlikely that it would have been voice-acted if it was that early anyway.) The screenshot of the character creation also shows that something quite different was intended up until the point Keanu agreed to join the game.

I mean... Silverhand is also dead in the game we got. How does that prove anything?

In the game we've got, the storyline is that he died 50 years before "2077" in the course of nuking Arasaka tower, and that's pretty crucial to the whole thing with the prototype biochip, Alt Cunningham's being beyond the Blackwall for 50 years gradually turning into an AI, etc. A lot of the dialogue we've now got (which again, has to be organized and paid for) hovers around the matter of his antiquity - even something as small as the discussion at the Afterlife bar about the drink named after him, for example.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Blamed for what ? Delivering really good story ? Also when did they lie about main story ? It was always V, Initial gameplay they showed outright said that you play as V.

The story is not good imo, but this is not even something I'm arguing about because taste is subjective. What I do blame CDPR for personally is scrificing the RPG and other gameplay aspects they advertised the game will contain (you can find exhaustive lists of all the promised features that were cut all over the internet) in favor of that story, and I do believe this change came about, at least partly, due to them being startruck once Revees was brought along (or at least forced by upper management to abandon their initial promises to capitalize on the star factor). To be clear, I'm not disappointed that the game ended up being what it is. I'm disappointed that it was advertised as something else during its entire marketting campaign. You might've seen that famous screenshot of how they changed the steam page to say "open-world action-adventure story" instead of "Open-world RPG" like it did shortly prior to launch.

dude what you are vaping ? They show one screen of something and you automatically assume whole game will be about it or half of it at least.

If this is unironic, then you clearly are out of the loop on all the marketting this game received during the past 8 years. Unworthy of discussing further if that's the case tbh.

More like you have some fanboy dreams about game that never existed other than in your mind. They litearlly showed you trailer from main story very early and game delivers all of those bits you saw.

No, this is not even true. The one or two missions they showed which ended up in the game STILL have significant portions of them cut out. Portions that were they left in, would give validity to your nonsense. In the trailers prior to launch those missions had way more options and C&C in them compared to the final game. For example, in the trailer they showed that when meeting Meredith Stout, you could choose to bring Jackie with you, and choosing whether to lie to her about having done so would have consequences. Well in the final game you can't bring Jackie with you at all, so those options are not included. There is similar things in both the rescue mission (with how they cut out the part where you can get Jackie to carry the chick) and the animals mission (the hacking is missing, also they made a big deal out of how letting the Animals boss live would have significant consequences, when it has none) as well when comparing actual game vs trailer.

It's not us who are imagining things. It's you who is ignorant of what was actually shown vs. what we received.

 

[res11]

tl;dw, another NPC opinion video?

 

[Twiglard]

Hey. I found out how to make Keanu Reeves' voice acting bearable. Just assume Johnny's up on narcotics all the time. Then it makes sense.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

tl;dw, another NPC opinion video?

Nah it's mostly about how the game is not "punk" enough. Not really about the RPG or the mechanics really. Just an interesting video imo.

 

[Gargaune]

Finally!

No Intro Videos

Thank you, mister modder man, you are truly prestigious among gentlemen.

That actually reminds me, a warning to anyone manually editing game files - keep backups, you may find patches refuse to deploy if they target altered files. In fact, mine still refused to update to 1.05 even after I restored the original inputUserMappings.xml, dunno, ended up downloading the whole hundred gig again and installed on top.

I'm not sure there haven't been compromises even with the "popamole design".

Very likely, it's just that what's left makes me believe that they didn't start with the ideal vision to begin with. I had hopes CDPR would be willing to mix up their formula as much as they did from TW2 to TW3, but that wasn't the case, they've stuck much closer to their previous game this time.

Versions of Spider's bike and the Arche Nazare are available to try out at some of the criminal hotspots in the starting area (China town), though those ones with the big backrest are more common (they're awful, slow and poor turning).

Sweet, time to bust some heads. It's a shame the game doesn't let you try clothes on the same way it lets you test vehicles...

 

[SoupNazi]

In the game we've got, the storyline is that he died 50 years before "2077" in the course of nuking Arasaka tower, and that's pretty crucial to the whole thing with the prototype biochip, Alt Cunningham's being beyond the Blackwall for 50 years gradually turning into an AI, etc. A lot of the dialogue we've now got (which again, has to be organized and paid for) hovers around the matter of his antiquity - even something as small as the discussion at the Afterlife bar about the drink named after him, for example.

I honestly didn't notice more than just a few references to him being from 50 year ago. Same with Alt - she's just in an unreachable place, not lost 50 years. There's maybe a total of 10 references like that in my opinion, and most of them were a bit too off to cuff for me to feel like the whole game is built around the concept. Remove those lines and I couldn't tell you if it was a year ago or 50. The only thing I could reasonably accept as evidence is nuking Arasaka tower, but then again, it is exactly the same in the flashback and in the city (in fact, you can get up there on the rooftop, see the destroyed turrets and dead bodies - it is exactly the same building and it takes place in the actual city - they didn't even bother mapping like an LOD version of the city centre for that segment).

 

[moon knight]

that he's shown in 2018 as having died in 2076 in one of the promo videos

Yeah, that was a fucking plothole, Silverhand disappeared after the Arasaka raid, allegedely killed by Adam Smasher.

Also where the fuck is Morgan Blackhand?

 

[Immortal]

AKA Stealth is shit and even when it works it's pointless.

Nope, you can hear some additional dialogues from NPC, like that "Pardon me, but we are back in Alabama" Deus Ex has.
Not sure, but maybe it could give additional lore pieces or maybe even quests?

No.

 

[Marat]

Biada tej ziemi nieczystej!

 

[Tyranicon]

that he's shown in 2018 as having died in 2076 in one of the promo videos

Yeah, that was a fucking plothole, Silverhand disappeared after the Arasaka raid, allegedely killed by Adam Smasher.

Also where the fuck is Morgan Blackhand?

It's already been definitively shown that this game wasn't made for the fans of the original TTRPG in mind.

Honestly, the 50-year technological stasis is hilarious and never really adequately explained, unless it's an ending thing. I'm not going to finish this game in its current state, I'm just not going to put myself through that.

 

[Darkwind]

tl;dw, another NPC opinion video?

Nah it's mostly about how the game is not "punk" enough. Not really about the RPG or the mechanics really. Just an interesting video imo.

Then why don't you put the one line description with the original video so we can decide if we want to waste time watching crap you care about but don't have enough respect for Codexers to TELL us what the fuck is in the video? I.E. We automatically care about the dumb shit you care about? Get a clue or go back to reddit. It's all so tiresome...

 

[Parsimonious cook]

In the game we've got, the storyline is that he died 50 years before "2077" in the course of nuking Arasaka tower, and that's pretty crucial to the whole thing with the prototype biochip, Alt Cunningham's being beyond the Blackwall for 50 years gradually turning into an AI, etc. A lot of the dialogue we've now got (which again, has to be organized and paid for) hovers around the matter of his antiquity - even something as small as the discussion at the Afterlife bar about the drink named after him, for example.

I honestly didn't notice more than just a few references to him being from 50 year ago. Same with Alt - she's just in an unreachable place, not lost 50 years. There's maybe a total of 10 references like that in my opinion, and most of them were a bit too off to cuff for me to feel like the whole game is built around the concept. Remove those lines and I couldn't tell you if it was a year ago or 50. The only thing I could reasonably accept as evidence is nuking Arasaka tower, but then again, it is exactly the same in the flashback and in the city (in fact, you can get up there on the rooftop, see the destroyed turrets and dead bodies - it is exactly the same building and it takes place in the actual city - they didn't even bother mapping like an LOD version of the city centre for that segment).

Silverhand´s death at Arasaka HQ assault at the hands of Adam Smasher is canon as depicted in the source book Firestorm Shockwave: The Fourth Corporate War book 2 (1997, p. 137-138). The CP2077 deviates from the canon only by having Johnny taken out of the tower and killed by Soulkiller (in the book he is obliterated by Smasher, basically he commits suicide out of guilt for letting Alt to die). The assault on Arrasaka tower happens in early 2020s.


As for Alt, her death (largely caused by Johnny) is depicted in the core rulebook of CyberPunk 2020 (adventure called Never Fade away) and is mostly accurately shown in CP2077 in one of the flashbacks, along with Alt´s kidnaping.


If there was mention that Johnny Silverhand died in 2076 in some trailer, it was most likely some retarded fuckup. I don’t believe for a second that Pondsmith would allow such a massive deviation from the canon.

 

[alyvain]

Just passing through to say that if you combine all the quest-names, you'll get a decent dad-rock playlist

It's actually already there on Spotify

 

[res11]

Just passing through to say that if you combine all the quest-names, you'll get a decent dad-rock playlist

It's actually already there on Spotify

Stairway to Heaven was also a quest and should be added here.

 

[potatojohn]

Honestly, the 50-year technological stasis is hilarious and never really adequately explained, unless it's an ending thing. I'm not going to finish this game in its current state, I'm just not going to put myself through that.

1969 - Man lands on the moon
2020 - We can barely make it into earth orbit

1954 - First nuclear power plant on the grid
2022 - Germany decomissions all nuclear power plants to replace them with coal power plants

 

[alyvain]

1969 - Man lands on the moon

Stanley Kubrick

1954 - First nuclear power plant on the grid

also him

 

[moon knight]

 

[potatojohn]

Yeah, keep posting this clickbait trash

You're no better than a facebook grandma falling for the stupidest shit

 

[Robber Baron]

Just finished it, did all the endings except secret. They really hit me hard, ranging from bittersweet to outright eerie - I liked all of them in some way, the lack of sleep only enforced that. The gameworld really grew on me, I still have some quests left to finish, but the endings did it to me so much that I don't know if I will return to complete them right away. I fully agree with all the criticism the game and the devs get - it's well deserved. As a piece of entertainment media the game has a lot to tell, some of it feels unfinished some of it sounds naive, but some things really hit hard and not just the endings. But I guess it's all just a personal preference in the end.

Spoiler

Can't believe we never got on that aircraft carrier. Same goes for those space rockets. What a tease.
Don't know how they'll do the DLC without it feeling forced or anticlimatic. V's story is over.
I really want DLC with a new story and a different character. Although all things considered I guess it's not very possible.
Saving Goro was hype. Felt awesome jumping up there right into the middle of the heat after Johny told you to run. One of the best moments in the game.
Arasaka ending where you agree to engram yourself is one of the most disturbing and eerie setpieces in the history of videogames.
The phone calls during the credits is a fantastic idea. A great way to say farewell to all the characters.

In the end those 125 hours felt genuine, I was very invested and it left me with something afterwards.
Farewell, V. You had a good run.

 

[undecaf]

Just finished and no.
Just no.

This could've been so much more with less spent on it. I'm sure Pondsmith is overjoyed. This sure honors the 2020 legacy.
In all the wrong ways.

There was some potential in the gigs and stuff like that, but it all goes down the shitter with the hamfisted storyline that doesn't seem to even belong to the game, the absolutely horrible itemization and the weakass translesbian circusmidget charactersystem.

It's one boiled cabbage of an "RPG". Soft, mushy and smelly, and not really anything it was supposed to be when it sprouted out from the soil.

 

[Koolz]

Is this game still talk of the town it looks like it!

As we head towards 2021 the Rand Corporation would love for you to get in touch with your inner Punk!

The have written detailed documents on how this will come to be in the world. They also are pushing for AI is your GOD.

Truly Cyber Punk.

Lot of references to the Beetles? Beetles were a creation of the Mi5 and CIA basically your typical Intel.

Hence if you look at the cover you will see many creations of Intel and those involved. 60s? Created by the Navy Intel along with CIA and Mi5. Same with Psychological Warfare as LSD, Horror Movies, and Beetles?

We all live in a Yellow Submarine. I am sure all of you already new this such smart fellows.