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

[Bliblablubb]

Arasaka compound bugged or for me because of that. Thought "screw you Takemura, I will rescue Ciri on my own time I'll be back later!"
When I returned much later, the van was driverless in the middle of the road. Everyone inside was friendly. Could loot the place clean while they spouted combat taunts. Without acting.
"It just works!"

 

[Perkel]

I've read people finished EVERYTHING in 80 hours. WTF did you do? Did you walk everywhere or ride the rollercoaster for 20 hours?

The "i finished everything in 80 hours" is only possible if you basically skip every dialogue and go from point to point as fast, don't explore at all city and your choice is to blam blam everything on easy. I finished game in 75ish hours as netrunner i did good deal of side quests but not all of them and i never touched blue ones and maybe did 2-3 gigs.

Other than that i don't know how the hell you can clear map so fast.

 

[Twiglard]

don't explore at all city

What's there to explore? The city is sparse in content with only surface activity. It looks nice but that's it. The game punishes exploration with all the closed doors. Filled areas are for missions you haven't accepted yet. Some areas are fully filled with closed doors and nothing of value anywhere at all.

blam blam everything on easy

I played the second playthrough (first was on an old GPU) on Hard from start to finish. Already knew what kind of build is optimal, maybe that's the difference. Stealth is so rudimentary that it's more fun to just shoot stuff. With netrunning you can just poke at enemies and scurry back to your hiding hole. So I took a suppressed revolver and a Kereznikov.

There should be a mod that removes gigs and blues, XP and street cred from random gangs and makes them drop trash loot.

 

[Perkel]

What's there to explore? The city is sparse in content with only surface activity. It looks nice but that's it. The game punishes exploration with all the closed doors. Filled areas are for missions you haven't accepted yet. Some areas are fully filled with closed doors and nothing of value anywhere at all.

Almost all mission areas are something you actually can get in before missions or even remove enemies there. Good example of that was when i was looking for Panam head honcho. I went there BEFORE that quest i hacked all cameras and security along with dealing with ground level scavs. Once i got there via mission i had to only fight at lower levels where i didn't go.

Some locations are closed but most are open.

Aside from that there are chock full of events, shady deals you can stop, unique dialogues in backalleys talking about stuff, gang wars, etc. This is not your GTA where nothing happens outside of missions.

 

[Bliblablubb]

Btw, after all the hype and preview I expected a Streetkid hunting for glory would be the best way to play it, but to my surprise... I got the most feels out of the Nomad.
The overarching theme being: loneliness.

You grew up with a tight family, people you could trust, but had a falling out. Your car, your "last friend", dies. But you meet Jackie, his mum basically adopts you, you get a team you can trust. Rocks fall, everyone dies. V is all alone again.
Except for the terrorist tapeworm in her head. You can bring up the loneliness in dialog at clouds for many feels again. Much better than the other options actually.
You slowly get to terms with Johnnie, he becomes your new (imaginary) best friend.
Being curious, I then tried the Arasaka ending

Spoiler

Johnnie calls you a traitor, everybody calls you a traitor. First thing V does after waking up: call for Johnnie. Nope forever alone.

Avocado ending just felt natural there, bringing V "back home"

But a Streetkid V used to being solo, hunting for glory and generally acting like an egoistic prick didn't trigger the same emoshunal engagement for me. Not worse, just different.
So yeah, V is not that predefined a character and can molded a little to your... immershun.

 

[Bliblablubb]

What's there to explore? The city is sparse in content with only surface activity. It looks nice but that's it. The game punishes exploration with all the closed doors. Filled areas are for missions you haven't accepted yet. Some areas are fully filled with closed doors

Even worse: areas for missions are open but empty. Opposite of where Panam waits for you is a building with cameras. So I went exploring. Loot, mails, backstory, secret room, a recorded video...okaaaaay?
Turns out that area is for River's mission and get only populated then. I would have preferred a locked door over confusing it as "unfinished content".
But spawning mechanic in general is terrible. In the early mission at All Foods, you can use the cameras to check other rooms... and they are empty. But once you get there, BAM, enemies have spawned.
And not only in that mission. Ruins the point of taking over cameras.

 

[Bliblablubb]

And to insult to injury, NPC can always hack you as as soon as anyone saw you. Forever. Even if no enemy or camera is alive. Becomes an annoying goose chase to find them. Unless you pick the perk to reveal. Which apparently every NPC has, since you always get a "revealing position" countdown when stealth hacking.

Plus for some reason hacking cyberware has no int req. Das rite, V can be a master haxxor with 3 int.
On the other hand, implants to negate shock req 12 tech. When you get aperk to do it at 14 tech. Yeah....
Putting req on those things make implants in general questionable. They are supposed to give you things your body can not do on his own.
A lung for more stamina is pointless if V has to have 20 body for it. At that point she would be build like brick and could outrun Usain Bolt anyway.

I swear the mechanics in this game can make you more depressed than any ending.

 

[Haplo]

And to insult to injury, NPC can always hack you as as soon as anyone saw you. Forever. Even if no enemy or camera is alive. Becomes an annoying goose chase to find them. Unless you pick the perk to reveal. Which apparently every NPC has, since you always get a "revealing position" countdown when stealth hacking.

Yeah, its like the devs WANT you to use wall hack cheat weapons...

I generally try to avoid shooting trough the entire building, but once some bastard netrunner starts frying my ass, I feel forced to.

 

[Bliblablubb]

Almost all mission areas are something you actually can get in before missions or even remove enemies there. Good example of that was when i was looking for Panam head honcho. I went there BEFORE that quest i hacked all cameras and security along with dealing with ground level scavs. Once i got there via mission i had to only fight at lower levels where i didn't go.

That's a pretty stupid design fuckup. Even Skyrim respawned areas if they get reused for a quest.

 

[Terenty]

I'm amazed some people here find ways to defend and even praise this abortion.

Fascinating

 

[Turjan]

I spent about 240 hours on it

I've read people finished EVERYTHING in 80 hours. WTF did you do? Did you walk everywhere or ride the rollercoaster for 20 hours?



I am still pissed the rollercoaster mission disappears after finding Evelyn.

Heh, while I rode the rollercoaster maybe a handful of times, I also sometimes just drove around, or tested different cars. Tried whether you can jump with a car across that canyon with the ramp, stuff like that. Also, that Chopin save is at 177 hours, with the different endings adding to that. I completely cleared Watson, Westbrook and the Badlands of all missions. So, absolutely everything, there's nothing left. If I feel like it, I can still return to the other city areas, as there are still gigs left, and even the boxing side missions, if I feel like it. I didn't so far. Plus, of course, I restarted missions a few times, just to see what happens if I do them differently.

I know the "proper" way would be to restart the game and try a different way, but I really can't be arsed to sit through all those cutscenes again and again. The story is a bit of an obstacle to replayability.

 

[Bliblablubb]

sit through all those cutscenes again and again. The story is a bit of an obstacle to replayability.

Since you HAVE to do the heist to unlock the whole city, best way is to just do mainquest missions except Panam. Not leaving the city, nuh-uh-uh. There be werewolves outside!

Locking most side missions to the PONR is just stupid. V just crawled home on all fours, but hey, let's visit an Asscracks concert first amirite?

 

[Turjan]

What's there to explore? The city is sparse in content with only surface activity. It looks nice but that's it. The game punishes exploration with all the closed doors. Filled areas are for missions you haven't accepted yet. Some areas are fully filled with closed doors

Even worse: areas for missions are open but empty. Opposite of where Panam waits for you is a building with cameras. So I went exploring. Loot, mails, backstory, secret room, a recorded video...okaaaaay?
Turns out that area is for River's mission and get only populated then. I would have preferred a locked door over confusing it as "unfinished content".

I had that experience with the apartment where you have the mission where you decide Takemura's fate. I thought what a weird apartment that was, in a posh part of town, completely empty, nearly absolutely dark. Left me scratching my head, got the revelation later.

 

[Tyrr]

I prefer questing just in Watson (act1), Mainly because there is no Johnny.
He annoys the hell out of me, commenting on everything everywhere.

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

Regarding Johnny knowing that Alt still "lived on" in the Net

Great post. One thing this game does badly is lore/canon exposition for the uninitiated. Having read the books after 1-3, I found Witcher did this to a degree, but crutched on the 'amnesia' trope.

Roller coaster was empty for me late game as well. I assumed the attendant was one of the fools I had wiped out in either the mall or one of Placide's goons.

I went around 100 percenting the gigs and blues before my point of no return save, except for the boxing matches. For shiggles, after doing the endings, I went back to max out quickhacks for the achievement and found that there's nothing to go back to. The random alley fights are a joke, so much so I wouldn't even exit the vehicle, just contagion+whatever and fry them all in one go. Even so, I never did hit lvl 20 on it probably having spread my kills out in too many ways up to lvl 50.

That Skippy pistol would have been handier earlier. Apparently there's a miniquest to give it back but I think the trigger is 50 kills with it.

 

[Bliblablubb]

That Skippy pistol would have been handier earlier. Apparently there's a miniquest to give it back but I think the trigger is 50 kills with it.

If you want to be like the pro consoletards, you tell him to go for bunnyloving pussy mode targeting limbs only, because..

Spoiler

after fiddy kills he switches to the opposite mode. Permanently. And wants to be brought back. If you tell him to fuck off, he stops talking aside from "bad user". If you tell him you will bring him back... and just don't, you keep him forever.

Who doesn't want a scaling godmode aimhack headshot weapon, so you can tell everyone you beat the game on very hard with one hand and "lol it's too easy lol" amirite?

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

Who doesn't want a scaling godmode aimhack headshot weapon, so you can tell everyone you beat the game on very hard with one hand and "lol it's too easy lol" amirite?

Widowmaker too, especially upgraded to legendary, but2 hands. /cr_wallhackmode ON.


Funny thing about Skippy, I think I may have kept him on the Arasaka satellite. I definitely did for Avacado and Blue-eyes endings.

 

[infidel]

Regarding Johnny knowing that Alt still "lived on" in the Net after the botched rescue attempt - I am not sure when exactly Johnny found out, but he knew about well before the bombing of Arasaka tower that Alt´s consciousness was held in Arasaka´s servers within the tower (at the latest he was told during the briefing before the tower assault). Setting her free was a major motivation for his participation in the assault. Short synopsis from the Firestorm Shockwave sourcebook (the adventure is called Guns... silenced):

<snip lots of cool lore>

I can see why it was grossly oversimplified for the AAA videogame. They needed to keep the story simple and personal, and picked one of the characters that they thought was the coolest for casuals. Then explored his assholery (was he even such a narcissist in 2020 tabletop?) to give the player someone who they can either love or hate. Also, that potential DLC about "how it really happened" that someone else mentioned does sound very likely. One can even imagine three or four DLCs each featuring another character in the raid who tells completely different stories Rashomon-style, Rogue, Santiago, Thompson, and maybe even Adam Smasher or young Yorinobu .

 

[Correct_Carlo]

The main missions are generally great, but having to replay many of them due to hitting a gamebreaking bug has demonstrated to me how they have zero replay value and really crawl your second time through.

All the Panam shit, for example. You have to meet Panam, drive to the encampment listening to dialog the whole time, grab some random stuff, put it in your trunk, drive to the abandoned city, fiddle with shit, wait while Panam hooks her car up, kickstart the generator, ambush the people, drive to that cave, kill a bunch of people, drive to the bar, have a drink, sleep, wake up and talk to Panam, then you can finally drive to ambush the convoy and finish the fucking mission.

I like this game's style of world building and getting to know characters, and I actually like the way the above mission is designed as it feels immersive.....but fuck if some of it doesn't drag the second time through, especially since about 90% of the mission is 100% scripted with no opportunity for interaction.

 

[Bliblablubb]

All the Panam shit, for example.

Dude, liek, duuuuuude, the whole point of Panam missions is to show off her ASSet.

Seriously, at least 70% of ALL her appearences are either:
- you walking behind her
- you walking behind her while she slowly walks up stairs
- you approaching her while she bends of a car/table/handrail
- you watching her while the paces back and forth with her back turned towards you
- you watching her while she crouches somewhere

I for one am mighty surprised nobody went apeshit over the objectificashun here. But maybe being irritating and yelling all the time is enough to make her a rolemodel instead.
Althought TBH I think the feminists just couldn't get the game to run on their console yet.

"GO GET THEM V!!!!" Shut the fuck up Panam we are sneaking here. Just because you tripped over a body doesn't mean we are in combat!

 

[Correct_Carlo]

All the Panam shit, for example.

Dude, liek, duuuuuude, the whole point of Panam missions is to show off her ASSet.

Seriously, at least 70% of ALL her appearences are either:
- you walking behind her
- you walking behind her while she slowly walks up stairs
- you approaching her while she bends of a car/table/handrail
- you watching her while the paces back and forth with her back turned towards you
- you watching her while she crouches somewhere

I for one am mighty surprised nobody went apeshit over the objectificashun here. But maybe being irritating and yelling all the time is enough to make her a rolemodel instead.
Althought TBH I think the feminists just couldn't get the game to run on their Piss 4 yet.

"GO GET THEM V!!!!" Shut the fuck up Panam we are sneaking here. Just because you tripped over a body doesn't mean we are in combat!

I was semi-shocked (but shouldn't have been) that in the mission when you are walking downstairs with Eveyln Parker in the club to use BD for the first time, she doesn't have underwear on and you can see her vag if you walk in front of her and look up on the stairs. I wasn't trying to look, I just saw it by accident.

 

[Bliblablubb]

Just remembered a funny thing:
The other day I was breaking up a TYGER claw party and looted some BANANA something pants. While I don't think they made that on purpose, it still made me laught.

 

[Peachcurl]

I wasn't trying to look, I just saw it by accident.

Not convinced.

 

[Bliblablubb]

she doesn't have underwear on and you can see her vag if you walk in front of her and look up on the stairs.

You sure? Because when she is leaning at Judy's desk her dress is.. uuuh a little short. And those panties were pink. Not that I stared, was too busy oogling Judy, honest.

 

[gurugeorge]

The main missions are generally great, but having to replay many of them due to hitting a gamebreaking bug has demonstrated to me how they have zero replay value and really crawl your second time through.

All the Panam shit, for example. You have to meet Panam, drive to the encampment listening to dialog the whole time, grab some random stuff, put it in your trunk, drive to the abandoned city, fiddle with shit, wait while Panam hooks her car up, kickstart the generator, ambush the people, drive to that cave, kill a bunch of people, drive to the bar, have a drink, sleep, wake up and talk to Panam, then you can finally drive to ambush the convoy and finish the fucking mission.

I like this game's style of world building and getting to know characters, and I actually like the way the above mission is designed as it feels immersive.....but fuck if some of it doesn't drag the second time through, especially since about 90% of the mission is 100% scripted with no opportunity for interaction.

I think given that you're always going to have the "magic" spoiled on a second playthrough in any game, because you always know what's going to happen in subsequent playthroughs unless there's a lot of C&C (which is always going to be relatively rarer even in the best RPGs), making it as immersive as possible on the first playthough, at the cost of some irritation having to 'C' through dialogues on subsequent playthroughs, is probably the best call, especially given that most casual players won't go through it more than once anyway.

And there's no doubt that for all the game's faults, the main cinematic style quests are very well presented and immersive the first time round, and actually the bits where you're carried through are part of it (they mimic the fact that sometimes in life events carry you along and you don't have much control).