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

[Heroic Liberator]

Can't we all just get along?

 

[Koolz]

what bugs me about the main story:

Spoiler

it's fine until act 2. first act is just about two retards trying to make cash, nothing special, no ideals, no big plans, they could be playing lottery as well and it doesn't matter what background u choose. they just want money, status, cars, women and maybe hookers, whatever simple men want from life. there is an interesting conversation between the protagonist and jackie in the hotel room before the shit hits the fan. it goes something like this:

Jackie: Why do you think this guy (Yorinobu) abandonded all his wealth and position if he got everything a man could want and need?
V: He probably was just bored.

at this point my thoughts were: "okay, the game is building something up there, it makes clear that those two have no idea that there might be something more impotant in life than possessions and social standing." disappointingly, there doesn't seem to be any point during the mainstory about that. the first ending i got (when choosing to let johnny attack arasaka tower with rogue) ended with V deciding that getting a nice flat, becoming a "legendary mercenary" and new boss of afterlife is a great way to spend his last 6 months. tells u all about that u need to know. don't know what kind of deal he has with Blue Eyes but it seems like he ended up where he started, not developing at all, the same retard he was when the story began with the more serious problem of certain death. running in circles.

from my point of view the only satisfying conclusion u get is if u decide u involve the nomads and panam. V leaves the town to search for answers and a purpose outside of night city, finding a family and beginning a new life. the game is clearly biased towards that ending because all the others are dumb shit with V ending up lonely.

the antagonists, if anyone in this game deserves this word, are bad and uninteresting. u do not interact with yurinobo at all, u don't know anything about his ambitions, motivations and u only get a very short and unsatisfying conversation if u decide to rely on arasaka. during midgame i thought there would be a revelation why yurinobo decided to the steal and sell the relic, why it's so important and why it's silverhand's data on the chip. but those answers are banal nonsense (it's silverhand because it was a prototype - so the Cd just wanted to add keanu reeves - and the relic is there to ensure his father can continue his business), like most of the sideqeusts in the game (the most insulting being regina's cyberpsychos when she just tells u that she still doesn't know anything in the end). smasher is a nobody, really no one cares about him except johnny.

the corporation theme isn't presented in any believable way, instead what u see in town are gangs senselessly killing eachother and civilians like animals. maybe it would be a good idea if the corpos clean up on the streets.

the "data vs soul/consciousness" was much better explored in Soma for example. cyberpunk has nothing to add to that except more banalities.

ultimately the game seems to be about nothing but superficialities with no essence in between and even the protagonists main goal, survival, is counteracted by the revelation that u just bought yourself a couple of months no matter what decision u make. and the writing is pretty bad at some points.

What about Silvehand in your head!!!! Keanu makes Cyberpunk!!! Haven't you seen The Matrix!

They could have done an incredibly better job with the Narrative and it's flow, the ripper docs everything. I got bored of watching someone play it.

They were just to much that could have been done better. It's pretty frustrating over all.

I wonder what there map for the game was four years ago.

 

[Peachcurl]

I think they are telling you that your second guess was right, J_C

 

[Renevent]

ESL? Like Electronic Sports League? or English as Second Language? Sorry, I can't keep up with these zoomer insults.

Of course you can, only stupid and realized only for the second time.

I'm sorry, I'm retarded but I can't understand your english at all. How is that a reply to my quote?.

Confirmed ESL

I'm gonna fucking kick your zoomer ass if you don't tell me what ESL mean.

Pretty sure he's referring to "english as a second language." Honestly I think being able to speak/write with a second language is a good thing, but what you said was funny given the context. I'm not a zoomer btw, and I'd fuck your shit up

 

[Koolz]

Of course my Frustration stems from poor Music directing completely all over the place.

Almost as if different parts of the game had different directors or something.

 

[J_C]

I think they are telling you that your second guess was right, J_C

Haha, I knew it. I guessed it myself! I don't need some no-lifer to explain things to me. But wait, how is that an insult? My profile shows that I'm Hungarian, so obviously English is my second language. O.o

 

[Citizen]

I'm gonna fucking kick your zoomer ass if you don't tell me what ESL mean.

Stop ESL-ing

 

[Myobi]

Yeah, I would say for the most part a majority of people interested in the game have already played it. Game is somewhat tedious to replay, to the point of annoyance. This really is a one-time run game, with other playthroughs being more-so finding small intricacies you didn't find before. Think I am done until a major update or free DLCs, maybe if modding takes off immensely. I'm not expecting a huge modding community like Skyrim, but it'd be nice to be surprised as to what happens.

Bloody hell mate, ya should have told me sooner as I am already on my 3rd playthrough...

 

[DeepOcean]

No way they will add the missing features of this game in six months even with the whole team working on it and I bet that only the DLC crew will keep working on the single player version with most of the studio being on Cyberpunk online what makes this NMS come back scenario by june even more improbable. We are talking about a shitton of cut features, to actually accomplish what this fake leak is claiming, they would need to delay the online version by at least a year for the whole cyberpunk team to work on it. So, yeah, this fake leak is only exploiting the desire for heavy doses of copium that people are having.

They can try and do it like you describe it... and by that obliterate the reminder of what is left of their reputation.

If they cared about their reputation above money, they would have given the investors a finger and delayed this game by at least 3 months, they didnt do it to not lose money (ironically they lost money anyway). Besides, it isnt that the base game is horrible and this mythical 2018 build would require tons of work to implement on the single player, you dont throw 2 years of work out and just re implement it on six months. They will certainly try a damage control move but it will be alot more underwhelming than some people are expecting.

 

[LudensCogitet]

So what was the 6th stat they removed? On the character screen in the middle bottom between Intelligence and Cool. Seems pretty obviously like something is supposed to be there. It even highlights on hover and responds to clicks, but nothing happens.

 

[Renevent]

Yeah I always wondered about that too...I thought it was something we would be able to unlock later on in the game.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Might be foreshadowing DLC content.

 

[AwesomeButton]

One more argument that Cyberpunk 2077 is strangely inept at character building.

Contrary to Geralt, V seems to have no relationships, contacts, aquaintances in the world dating from before the game begins.

I played a Nomad, but even Street Kid V gets this weird in-character justification for not being familiar with anybody - he has spent 4 years in Atlanta. Which conveniently means that nobody knows him in Night City?

Geralt on the other hand is somewhat aquainted with most secondary characters or at least with enough of them to create the impression that he is a part of this world and has a past history in it.

I blame the idiotic CDPR pull towards "V is your character", "You are V", "You see the world through V's eyes". Who is the moron who even falls for this shit? You have to be 15 and not have played other games in your life. In the beginning days of cinema, when they showed a train going against the camera, people would stand up from their seats and attempt to run from the theater - now that was virgin audience getting truly immersed. This shit doesn't exist nowadays, hasn't for a long time.

 

[Renevent]

One more argument that Cyberpunk 2077 is strangely inept at character building.

Contrary to Geralt, V seems to have no relationships, contacts, aquaintances in the world dating from before the game begins.

I played a Nomad, but even Street Kid V gets this weird in-character justification for not being familiar with anybody - he has spent 4 years in Atlanta. Which conveniently means that nobody knows him in Night City?

Geralt on the other hand is somewhat aquainted with most secondary characters or at least with enough of them to create the impression that he is a part of this world and has a past history in it.

I blame the idiotic CDPR pull towards "V is your character", "You are V", "You see the world through V's eyes". Who is the moron who even falls for this shit? You have to be 15 and not have played other games in your life. In the beginning days of cinema, when they showed a train going against the camera, people would stand up from their seats and attempt to run from the theater - now that was virgin audience getting truly immersed. This shit doesn't exist nowadays, hasn't for a long time.

I didn't really pay attention to the story that much, but I believe his nomad clan was destroyed or he was permanently exiled (something like that). That said while it would have been nice to do some quests that cover his past, I think they did a good job with other aspects like his bro-in-crime, the romances, and that Japanese dude. All three I felt were handled well.

I kinda took the whole thing as something similar to the RPG trope "hero who doesn't remember anything"...but instead of amnesia they basically made his former life destroyed and the main character having to start again anew.

 

[Twiglard]

Alright, so the Arasaka ending really is utter shit. The writers went to make a tract to punch the player in the gut even further. But more importantly,

Spoiler

Looks like Alt is better at messing up with human mind than Arasaka techs. The researcher at first seems aloof but then it turns out V's a lab rat and she despises him.

Question is whether V will wake up in the digitization ending.

If Saburo stays at the helm, him and Miss Tightpants will keep their word -- but not right when the tech gets invented, but when it becomes affordable. V will wake up few hundred years into the future. Everyone dead, not the same gangs, clans, cities, existing anymore.

If Arasaka ceases to exist due to a corp war or acquisition, V will succumb to entropy with the storage medium.

So,

Nomads > Secret > Rogue > Arasaka

But play the Arasaka "bad ending" to get some perspective, before the good ending. As not to end on such a shitty note.

I blame the idiotic CDPR pull towards "V is your character", "You are V", "You see the world through V's eyes". Who is the moron who even falls for this shit?

It somewhat works: sometimes it's claustrophobic and I wanted to get out of the shitty situation, but couldn't.

Also in the Arasaka ending, the closeups on the face and mimicry were striking. Reminds me of the disgust I felt when seeing this in Kieślowski's Dekalog -- chapters about love, and idolatry at least. That was one monocled director. Neither Tykwer nor Maelstrom's whoever-was-the-director came nowhere near it, not for the lack of trying.

 

[Turjan]

I didn't really pay attention to the story that much, but I believe his nomad clan was destroyed or he was permanently exiled (something like that).

Yes, his family got obliterated because it gave up its independence. Which, by the way, is also the explanation why he would go along with Panam's rather outrageous plans, because he thinks that's still a better chance than being gulped up by Biotechnica (Saul's plan).

 

[Hellion]

Heh, Panam is hanging around in Afterlife during the Prologue, but we can't interact with her.



And apparently she keeps a bottle of booze hidden inside her ass.

 

[Mefi]

what bugs me about the main story:

Spoiler

it's fine until act 2. first act is just about two retards trying to make cash, nothing special, no ideals, no big plans, they could be playing lottery as well and it doesn't matter what background u choose. they just want money, status, cars, women and maybe hookers, whatever simple men want from life. there is an interesting conversation between the protagonist and jackie in the hotel room before the shit hits the fan. it goes something like this:

Jackie: Why do you think this guy (Yorinobu) abandonded all his wealth and position if he got everything a man could want and need?
V: He probably was just bored.

at this point my thoughts were: "okay, the game is building something up there, it makes clear that those two have no idea that there might be something more impotant in life than possessions and social standing." disappointingly, there doesn't seem to be any point during the mainstory about that. the first ending i got (when choosing to let johnny attack arasaka tower with rogue) ended with V deciding that getting a nice flat, becoming a "legendary mercenary" and new boss of afterlife is a great way to spend his last 6 months. tells u all about that u need to know. don't know what kind of deal he has with Blue Eyes but it seems like he ended up where he started, not developing at all, the same retard he was when the story began with the more serious problem of certain death. running in circles.

from my point of view the only satisfying conclusion u get is if u decide u involve the nomads and panam. V leaves the town to search for answers and a purpose outside of night city, finding a family and beginning a new life. the game is clearly biased towards that ending because all the others are dumb shit with V ending up lonely.

the antagonists, if anyone in this game deserves this word, are bad and uninteresting. u do not interact with yurinobo at all, u don't know anything about his ambitions, motivations and u only get a very short and unsatisfying conversation if u decide to rely on arasaka. during midgame i thought there would be a revelation why yurinobo decided to the steal and sell the relic, why it's so important and why it's silverhand's data on the chip. but those answers are banal nonsense (it's silverhand because it was a prototype - so the Cd just wanted to add keanu reeves - and the relic is there to ensure his father can continue his business), like most of the sideqeusts in the game (the most insulting being regina's cyberpsychos when she just tells u that she still doesn't know anything in the end). smasher is a nobody, really no one cares about him except johnny.

the corporation theme isn't presented in any believable way, instead what u see in town are gangs senselessly killing eachother and civilians like animals. maybe it would be a good idea if the corpos clean up on the streets.

the "data vs soul/consciousness" was much better explored in Soma for example. cyberpunk has nothing to add to that except more banalities.

ultimately the game seems to be about nothing but superficialities with no essence in between and even the protagonists main goal, survival, is counteracted by the revelation that u just bought yourself a couple of months no matter what decision u make. and the writing is pretty bad at some points.

I saw it a little bit differently.

Spoiler

One of the main themes is escaping from one's own reality to an idealised better place. At the same time there's a recognition that failure to achieve that, whether you try or not, is likely to end up with you dead. Viktor's probably the most grounded character in the game and even he has retreated from the world around him to an underground den with Misty as his buffer from dealing with too many people. Even fantasist Jackie is reading For Whom the Bell Tolls while being driven to escape an abusive childhood, gang wars which leave him nearly dead, and living in a garage with his bike. So the Afterlife ending is the idealised living legend but V's still going to die, question I took from it was whether it was worth it? It's the same question which comes up with teenage rebellion in Japan where Yurinobu decided that it wasn't and returned to Arasake to try and take his father's power and use it to try and create something new from Arasaka instead. It's world decaying even as everyone flees into fantasies.

 

[DeepOcean]

They can try and do it like you describe it... and by that obliterate the reminder of what is left of their reputation.

How many of those 13 million bought the game because of CDPR's reputation and not because it was shilled 24/7 from every media?

Naughty Dog pretty much blown up their reputation with a huge portion of their fan base with that bizarre shit they did with Last of Us 2, most of those will return to "consume product" mode as soon as their new game is announced. If reputation meant something on gaming industry, EA wouldnt be the second most profitable publisher only after Activision.

 

[Turjan]

Hmm, looks as if that penthouse you see from V's apartment is actually used in one of the endings. So I guess that was that.

 

[alyvain]

Spoiler

So the Afterlife ending is the idealised living legend but V's still going to die, question I took from it was whether it was worth it?

Spoiler

The fact that the new luxury living place is across the street from the old one probably indicates that no, it wasn't. Fun thing is that the future isn't as much "cyberpunky", as purely capitalistic. Honestly, in the game it doesn't even feel that the corpos, who can't even find shit in the city due to the plot limitations, have that much of a technical edge over the various misfits, it is just that big money and institutes fueled by them move the world in general. The creepiest techno-stuff is the Peralez family, and we don't even know whether corpos are behind it. My point is, in this game any rebellion against status-quo is meaningless, organised political action is out of the question. The only way to "win" is to depart from the world, to live on the outskirts, keep close to the people you care about, preferably a tight family-type community, such as the Aldecaldos gypsies or the actual family of the one-eyed-cop-dude.

So the overall message feels very conservative. Since success is perilous and you can't change shit anyway, save yourself, run, maybe put up a good fight, live in the woods, build a barn, that kind of stuff. Some of this feels like a sitcom or, I dunno, a Firefly episode, where you have a community, which cares about each other in not-so-hospitable world, other stuff is straight from the XIXth century. The fact that characters hardly interact with each other seriously undermines it, but I honestly didn't feel any other major theme being developed throughout the game. Silverhand was probably ment to function like a sad fucked-everything-up-looking-for-redemption dude from Disco Elysium to a certain extent, but this doesn't work well.

 

[Mefi]

Spoiler

The fact that the new luxury living place is across the street from the old one probably indicates that no, it wasn't. Fun thing is that the future isn't as much "cyberpunky", as purely capitalistic. Honestly, in the game it doesn't even feel that the corpos, who can't even find shit in the city due to the plot limitations, have that much of a technical edge over the various misfits, it is just that big money and institutes fueled by them move the world in general. The creepiest techno-stuff is the Peralez family, and we don't even know whether corpos are behind it. My point is, in this game any rebellion against status-quo is meaningless, organised political action is out of the question. The only way to "win" is to depart from the world, to live on the outskirts, keep close to the people you care about, preferably a tight family-type community, such as the Aldecaldos gypsies or the actual family of the one-eyed-cop-dude.

So the overall message feels very conservative. Since success is perilous and you can't change shit anyway, save yourself, run, maybe put up a good fight, live in the woods, build a barn, that kind of stuff. Some of this feels like a sitcom or, I dunno, a Firefly episode, where you have a community, which cares about each other in not-so-hospitable world, other stuff is straight from the XIXth century. The fact that characters hardly interact with each other seriously undermines it, but I honestly didn't feel any other major theme being developed throughout the game. Silverhand was probably ment to function like a sad fucked-everything-up-looking-for-redemption dude from Disco Elysium to a certain extent, but this doesn't work well.

The futility of struggle against 'the system' is kind of the core of cyberpunk, isn't it? It's not someone changing the world, it's a miracle if they change themselves by the end of the story arc. ("He spent the bulk of his Swiss account on a new pancreas and liver, the rest on a new Ono-Sendai and a ticket back to the Sprawl" as Neuromancer's Case ends up.)

Good point on the message about social structures within the game, although I'd frame it as a more 'human' idea than a strictly 'conservative' one. For Whom the Bell Tolls opens with a quote from Donne. 'No man is an island...' etc. Can see your point on doing it well and developing it even if I'm a little more sympathetic to the game. (Mainly because Johnny's arc can work really well but it's so dependent on order stuff is done in, which goes back to your point on doing it well to start with...).

Spoiler

That mind control storyline does have a corp background. It also seems to link occult and technology. Really underdeveloped currently though - seems either cut or base for future DLC.

 

[Twiglard]

Spoiler

don't know what kind of deal he has with Blue Eyes but it seems like he ended up where he started, not developing at all, the same retard he was when the story began with the more serious problem of certain death. running in circles.

What do you think? Who can offer more than Alt and 'Saka? It's only the techno-necromancers from Alpha Centauri. He's a proxy for AI past the Blackwall or something like that.

from my point of view the only satisfying conclusion u get is if u decide u involve the nomads and panam. V leaves the town to search for answers and a purpose outside of night city, finding a family and beginning a new life. the game is clearly biased towards that ending because all the others are dumb shit with V ending up lonely.

The thing is, V is still dying in that ending. He can shoot through the rough equivalent of the National Guard, but has no cure and no method of finding it. It's a carefree death for him.

The Nomad ending has the most positive tone overall, but for the Rogue/Secret endings you can potentially survive and get back with the waifu. I'd say chance is more than half.

the antagonists, if anyone in this game deserves this word, are bad and uninteresting. u do not interact with yurinobo at all, u don't know anything about his ambitions, motivations and u only get a very short and unsatisfying conversation if u decide to rely on arasaka.

Sort of. I think it's important to play all the endings to get a full picture, all facts revealed. Anyway he wants to sabotage the company from the inside, burn it to the ground. I'm of course assuming that facts from other endings happen as-is even if not revealed in the others.

during midgame i thought there would be a revelation why yurinobo decided to the steal and sell the relic, why it's so important and why it's silverhand's data on the chip.

Because of what he said. He wants to destroy the company. "Become the bomb".

the corporation theme isn't presented in any believable way, instead what u see in town are gangs senselessly killing eachother and civilians like animals. maybe it would be a good idea if the corpos clean up on the streets.

Cuts, and gameplay/narrative segregation.

the "data vs soul/consciousness" was much better explored in Soma for example. cyberpunk has nothing to add to that except more banalities.

Soma's pretty good but the content is sophomoric drivel. Let's all navel-gaze on the essence of chairs for fuck's sake.

I'd make a spoiler thread but it's not gonna be the same without Junta. Is he lurking by any chance?

 

[Danikas]

Spoiler

That mind control storyline does have a corp background. It also seems to link occult and technology. Really underdeveloped currently though - seems either cut or base for future DLC.

Spoiler

Peralez quest is definitely linked with night corp if you let Elizabeth guide you through her house you can learn that their law degrees were founded by night corp and sandra dorsett uncovered night corp experiments on mind control with the use of ai. Then there is the question of who programmed and equipped that cyberpsycho that attacks the town hall.

 

[Sòren]

The futility of struggle against 'the system' is kind of the core of cyberpunk, isn't it? It's not someone changing the world, it's a miracle if they change themselves by the end of the story arc. ("He spent the bulk of his Swiss account on a new pancreas and liver, the rest on a new Ono-Sendai and a ticket back to the Sprawl" as Neuromancer's Case ends up.)

and exactly this is my problem with the story. there is no character development during the game and neither u nor Johnny know what the ultimate goal of ur journey is -except survival. which fails. all the endings - except the nomad's - show that. it seems like the game was messed up by too many different ideas.



also, i think u are wrong on the peralez questlines. the game hints that some more sinister and powerful faction holds the strings, which are AI's from beyond the blackwall. which probably was the most interesting thing happening in the game.