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

[Kjaska]

Even CDP snuck in an in-joke in one of the notes you can find in the game referencing it being a theseus' ship.

I always thought that this was a reference to replacing your body with cyberware.

 

[Hellraiser]

Even CDP snuck in an in-joke in one of the notes you can find in the game referencing it being a theseus' ship.

I always thought that this was a reference to replacing your body with cyberware.

I don't remember and can't find the actual shard via googling, but I think it was about some corpo project or something, hence why I got the impression it was an in-joke on the development of the game.

 

[Yosharian]

I fucking hate those guys. They are like, my Achilles heel right now

You can try the "Disable Cyberware" quickhack on them. It can be pretty strong now with multiple subsequent applications and if you have the perk that enables the quickhack queue.

Yeah but I'm running a Sandy build =D

 

[solemgar]

What's the Kool Kodex Konsensus on this update, and the game overall?

I already own the base game but never played it due to
1. how unfinished it was
2. i remembered that CDPR had never made a game with good combat before
3. I realized i didn't actually like the witcher 3 that much.

So a few questions:
1. It sounds like this update actually realizes the vision it was supposed to have?
2. Is combat actually good?
2a. Does it have weight to it?
2b. Is it challenging?
2c. Is it actually encouraged to use your skills wisely to win encounters or is it just a powerfantasy with 50 different win buttons you can indiscriminately choose from at any time.
3. Is exploration worthwhile?
4. I've heard some side quests are great and some side quests are bethesda garbage tier "generated by an AI algorithm - go kill X in place Y - with no additional context" - is this true? What's the proportion?
5. Is the story decent? At least in this department CDPR has done well with that historically with the Witcher series.

In general see my answers to 4 and 5 as that sums up what I think about this game.

1. Which vision though, as that changed at least three times during development? Even CDP snuck in an in-joke in one of the notes you can find in the game referencing it being a theseus' ship. Last one was open world action adventure or however they marketed it in the last year before the base game released, hoping in to rake in GTA Online levels of cash with their own take on such open world multiplayer some time after releasing 1.0. What we have now is their attempt at salvaging whatever is possible from the singleplayer gameplay and engine so that the goodwill and brand name value don't evaporate completely, due in part to the backlash after the base game released and because it is clear on a technical level that Cyberpunk 2077 Online isn't something CDP developers would be able to make.

2a. Have no idea what you mean by weight, enemies are somewhat spongy but less so than in 1.0 (bear in mind it was almost 3 years ago since I played it previously) so it feels less like borderlands, until you fight some elite tanky gangoon (HMG ones) or a boss at least.
2b. On very hard it is until you get the most broken high level perks and/or cyberware. Both 1.0 and now 2.0 required you to use stealth takedowns in the early parts of the game to survive nearly every encounter. It's either that or cheesing gangoons with hit and run, since you can barely win 1v2 fights with regular popamole tactics on very hard at that point.
2c. It's more your build has 1 or 2 "I WIN" buttons later on, particularly things like Sandevistan or Berserk implants.

3. No, while there is some hidden stuff, almost everything is marked on the map and what isn't is level scaled trash loot useful for crafting, found in dumpsters or containers in back alleys.

4. I disagree with calling the latter bethesda garbage tier because unlike bethesda's radiant stuff, the bulk of those "gigs" as the game calls them at least try to give you 1 or 2 alternative paths into the gangoon/corpo lair that you need to find yourself (sometimes the execution in the level design is better than other times). This is actually the best part of the game, the small set pieces where it kind of feels like smaller scale deus ex with jankier stealth or Bloodlines (think the Astrolite quest, although the gigs in Cyberpunk usually have bigger locations like a two floor chopshop, you get the idea), where sometimes you get the bonus opportunity of using the open world to for instance parkour from some roofs or over walls using you cybernetic jumping legs, for a good sniping point or just to get a better insertion point for sneaking. Some paths are locked behind attribute checks, some behind cyberware and some just need you to make the effort to scout the area and look for them with your own eyeballs (I don't mean V's implants, I mean the actual human in front of the screen). The game certainly could use better level design for some of those - for instance the DLC has cases like where the alternative entrance is almost next to the actual entrance, and the whole gangoon lair itself is rather linear (think some of the linear segments of Deus Ex Human Revolution, like escaping the capsule hotel though the back or the Tai Yong Medical section).

Sure, if you're a storyfag these usually don't have much but some fluff and just sometimes a choice at some point, but after going through so fucking many scripted cinematic set pieces in the main quest and some of the side quests, you'll realize that's really the high point of the game (someone even mentioned ITT they would like a NG+ with just the gigs/no main quest, I can definitely see the appeal). Not to mention that after yet another fucking driving sequence where you just talk with NPCs from the passenger seat, or another fucking brain dance investigation, you'll want just to go to place X, get a short call and text from the fixer to explain the job without the cinematic bullshit, and fucking do the job like the merc V is, actually playing a game and having choice what to do rather than watching a movie or trying to pass a mandatory scripted action set piece. Rarely does the main quest try proper "open" level design like the gigs do (one of the better exceptions is the warehouse infiltration with Takemura, that's how the bulk of the main quest should have looked like).

5. Whether the story is good depends on individual preferences. It's a "no good ending" bleak tale with a theme reminiscent of the Kurgan's iconic line from Highlander "better to burn out than to fade away" (indeed "Never Fade Away" is both an adventure from the tabletop as well as an in-universe song title). Some people don't like Johny Silverhand (he's an angry and bit whiny rebel rocker at war with the whole world), either due to his character/constant interruptions or because he's not in line with the tabletop's depiction of him.

As a story I liked it, however the execution (main quest line) is definitely crap for the cinematic reasons mentioned in the answer to point 4 and because there's practically no branching until the very end. There's less C&C than Twitcher games, most skill/lifepath checks [tagged] dialog choices are just fluff with no consequences, similar to what Starfield does, although actually Starfield does use them as alternatives to persuasion sometimes (even for traits, shockingly), so possibly even worse than Starfield. In general I am also not a fan of how they forged the story concept into the (linear) main quest in an open world game about a merc that flew too close to the sun, there are lessons they could have taken from New Vegas at least to make it feel more open, if they had no idea how to fit a reputation system with various factions and more sandboxy experience fitting the open world map they have into their idea for the plot.

Furthermore CDP wrote V along the lines of a night city native street kid origin (I mean they only had to write Geralt in the past, so not surprising they had trouble accounting for different archetypes) where as a Nomad V and especially a Corpo V would talk differently, and the occasional choice tagged with your lifepath doesn't help with this.

This is a very accurate summary of how I feel about the game.

During the playthrough you can clearly see how many times the game direction pivoted, and how developers did their best to salvage it into a somewhat coherent mess. It is a shame, with a clear view and clear direction the game would have been incredible. I hope CDPR learns from their mistakes and makes another Cyberpunk game refining the engine. I would prefer it to be 3rd person too. The only recent rpg I remember pulling of the 1st person view stuff is the medieval Chad simulator Kingdom Come, but it was designed like that since the beginning.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Am I the only one or do the dialogue attribute checks, besides the fact that they require 15+ to do, actually don't do anything?
Like you can ask a question or make an observation during a dialogue and what you get is a "whatever" kind of answer. They don't answer the question, you don't get any extra information and sometimes you also get insulted.
What is their purpose then? And sometimes, out of 2 yellow choices one of them behaves and has the same function as a blue one.
And an example when you meet Takemura for the first time in a diner after you recover, you can say as a blue option that Hellman is the creator of the bio chip in your brain and Takemura says that information is false, that is was made by another one, greater than Hellman. V has no reaction to this information. But after you exhaust the blue options, you choose a yellow one and in my case V said again that Hellman is the creator but this time Takemura doesn't contradict V and goes along as if that's confirmed information.
And this happened a bunch of times so far.
I didn't pay attention to this back when the game launched but now I did and all I can say is WTF? Blatant contradictions, no extra information even though it's a stat check and a high one (15+), cheap insults that don't answer the original question nor do they feel warranted.
Plus the whole tone that V is speaking in: always hostile, ready to yell, angry....
The dialogue and the VA so far have been....not good. And that's an understatement.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

I hope CDPR learns from their mistakes and makes another Cyberpunk game refining the engine.

Had CDPR kept their engine, I'd be cautiously neutral about the prospects of the sequel. It would still be a lot of (mostly enjoyable) cinematic filler, but all the tools to wrap that filler in a decent Deus Ex shell are there.

But since they're switching to Unreal, they're going to reinvent standing on two legs, the creation of fire and the wheel too, as they've done in the past, and whatever they put out next is almost guaranteed to be some flavour of hot mess.

The only ray of hope is that they'll manage to build up their internal tools with the next Witcher game, so by the time the get to making 2078, they won't be starting from rock bottom.

 

[Vic]

Plus the whole tone that V is speaking in: always hostile, ready to yell, angry....

female or male V? I don't get the same impression from male V, but it might fit a female V

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

Am I the only one or do the dialogue attribute checks, besides the fact that they require 15+ to do, actually don't do anything?

No, you're correct. Most of the time, they do noting except add some flavour. There are exceptions to this, mostly in side gigs, but those don't happen often enough.

 

[Vic]

Am I the only one or do the dialogue attribute checks, besides the fact that they require 15+ to do, actually don't do anything?

No, you're correct. Most of the time, they do noting except add some flavour. There are exceptions to this, mostly in side gigs, but those don't happen often enough.

is CP2077 an RPG?

 

[Utgard-Loki]

yeah, attribute checks are mostly useless. i know of only one that did anything and that was at the start of the game where you can tell jackie about modding his bike where you then get a "tuned" jackies arch, but i don't know if the bike itself actually handles any different than the standard one.

 

[Child of Malkav]

female or male V? I don't get the same impression from male V, but it might fit a female V

Female V. Since the Takemura diner scene is relatively early in the game I decided to try out fem V to see what it sounds like and it kinda becomes hard to bear.

 

[solemgar]

female or male V? I don't get the same impression from male V, but it might fit a female V

Female V. Since the Takemura diner scene is relatively early in the game I decided to try out fem V to see what it sounds like and it kinda becomes hard to bear.

I don't know, I found male V performance very bland. Maybe I should give him another shot.

 

[moon knight]

Female V is great, I don't know what are you smoking

 

[moon knight]

female or male V? I don't get the same impression from male V, but it might fit a female V

Female V. Since the Takemura diner scene is relatively early in the game I decided to try out fem V to see what it sounds like and it kinda becomes hard to bear.

Being angry and always ready to yell fits the diner scene. V has found out she's dying and has a talking tumor in her brain, and now she has to meet an Arasaka drone, how's the character supposed to feel?

 

[lukaszek]

yeah, attribute checks are mostly useless. i know of only one that did anything and that was at the start of the game where you can tell jackie about modding his bike where you then get a "tuned" jackies arch, but i don't know if the bike itself actually handles any different than the standard one.

it is faster. Not sure, might need nomad background for it too.

There is one more check with taxi ai that requires 20int and is important.

I think there was something about INT and rogue driven ending, but cant remember if it was flavor or actually did something.

When you are in clouds, INT allows you to learn more and unlocks another non violent option.

So yeah, not much. In few places STR allows you to bypass combat

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Zeriel]

yeah, attribute checks are mostly useless. i know of only one that did anything and that was at the start of the game where you can tell jackie about modding his bike where you then get a "tuned" jackies arch, but i don't know if the bike itself actually handles any different than the standard one.

From my initial playthrough in 1.0:

Almost all of the C&C is focused on the "E3 demo" part of the game. The Corpo/Maelstrom/food factory job. Which they advertised as being what the rest of the game would be like... but really it is the only part of the game that has that. Then the other chunk of C&C is the endings, but I have a very hard time calling it C&C because it's more like a menu of choices that you can simply exhaust by reloading the before-end-point save and going through them. Lamely close to "pick your color of ending" from Mass Effect, except here the colors have actual content differences. The only long-term consequence-to-ending path is sucking up to Johnny, which is even more insulting, but my disdain of the character is probably leaking through here. Overall, I'll just end by saying for anyone who is ever thinking of making an AAA open world game... whatever you do, don't fucking saddle the main character with a ghost in their brain that constantly berates the player and takes them out of the immersion and feeling of freedom of the world by reminding them they are the slave of the writer's pet.

My initial reaction to the game was: "this would be much better if they had just focused on the initial premise in the prelude, of the entire game being about making a name for yourself as a merc doing jobs in the city, making the city the main character". In all the time since and with all they've improved or fixed, that remains my firm opinion of the game. The design direction post 2018 is awful and ruins it for me. For those who love Johnny... its good I guess?

 

[Hellraiser]

That's him in the game:

Yeah, good thing I sliced him up with my katana... in cyberpunk.

 

[solemgar]

yeah, attribute checks are mostly useless. i know of only one that did anything and that was at the start of the game where you can tell jackie about modding his bike where you then get a "tuned" jackies arch, but i don't know if the bike itself actually handles any different than the standard one.

From my initial playthrough in 1.0:

Almost all of the C&C is focused on the "E3 demo" part of the game. The Corpo/Maelstrom/food factory job. Which they advertised as being what the rest of the game would be like... but really it is the only part of the game that has that. Then the other chunk of C&C is the endings, but I have a very hard time calling it C&C because it's more like a menu of choices that you can simply exhaust by reloading the before-end-point save and going through them. Lamely close to "pick your color of ending" from Mass Effect, except here the colors have actual content differences. The only long-term consequence-to-ending path is sucking up to Johnny, which is even more insulting, but my disdain of the character is probably leaking through here. Overall, I'll just end by saying for anyone who is ever thinking of making an AAA open world game... whatever you do, don't fucking saddle the main character with a ghost in their brain that constantly berates the player and takes them out of the immersion and feeling of freedom of the world by reminding them they are the slave of the writer's pet.

My initial reaction to the game was: "this would be much better if they had just focused on the initial premise in the prelude, of the entire game being about making a name for yourself as a merc doing jobs in the city, making the city the main character". In all the time since and with all they've improved or fixed, that remains my firm opinion of the game. The design direction post 2018 is awful and ruins it for me. For those who love Johnny... its good I guess?

The game has horrible pacing. I know they had to make worth of the money they paid Keanu, but all the relic stuff should have been like an ending mission arc, and do the first hours building reputation and gigs and not that crappy cinematic with Jackie .

 

[Ben Zyklon]

The vehicle combat isn't there for the existing campaign, PL is supposed to have a bunch of it though.

They just included it here because it improves the game as a whole even if it isn't going out it's way to utilise it.

That is just very immersion breaking, vehicle combat only supposedly happens in the expansion, it feels dumb, they should have redesigned old missions to include it, but they are lazy fucks.

 

[Ben Zyklon]

The main problem of that is none of the main story missions were built around actually driving and combat at the same time, so you have to kinda force the thing to happen, if gangs shoot each other thats fine but it's not really something you have to engage, it just feels like it doesn't warrant their own perk points and they removed some perks that were probably much better than something this situational.

They should have redesigned some of the missions so they actually involve this new mechanics but they are lazy to do it.

No one in their right mind expected them to redo the main missions. Meanwhile you only have like 50+ gang combat PoIs which you can attack with drive-bys. To each their own, if you don't want to play like this, but the option is there.

Whats the right mind? the fanboy hive mind that involves very low standards? the mind that gave this cunts a pass por lying about the features of the game that were going to be included and still bought the game and not only that but still defended them and blamed people for "hyping the game too much".

This "let's be reasonable" attitude is what got us many of the bullshit we have not only in gaming but IRL, being "neutral", being "on the fence", "being reasonable" to me is a position of cowardice and complacency.

 

[Gargaune]

Then the other chunk of C&C is the endings, but I have a very hard time calling it C&C because it's more like a menu of choices that you can simply exhaust by reloading the before-end-point save and going through them. Lamely close to "pick your color of ending" from Mass Effect, except here the colors have actual content differences. The only long-term consequence-to-ending path is sucking up to Johnny, which is even more insulting, but my disdain of the character is probably leaking through here.

I don't think that's fair, the resolutions through the final act are reasonably layered and consistent - you've got your mainline final quest with Takemura and Hanako (which then gives you a minor choice between two denouements), then you've got two alternatives with Rogue or the Aldecaldos if you've done their side content, plus the crazy option of surrendering to the Silverhand virus in Mikoshi. And also the minor "secret" option for Johnny fans to attack Arasaka alone. And the option of punching out early and offing two assholes with one bullet. How it handled the endings is one of the game's stronger points, it's not Human Revolutions' infamous three buttons.

Overall, I'll just end by saying for anyone who is ever thinking of making an AAA open world game... whatever you do, don't fucking saddle the main character with a ghost in their brain that constantly berates the player and takes them out of the immersion and feeling of freedom of the world by reminding them they are the slave of the writer's pet.

It's gonna bug you if you just can't stand Johnny as a character, I get it, but from a functional perspective, he's just a holographic Alex Jacobson. He's there to provide narrative framing and feedback to your actions. The concept itself is fine and I think you'd have found Night City to be even more depressingly pointless and barren without him prattling on at you.

 

[Zeriel]

Then the other chunk of C&C is the endings, but I have a very hard time calling it C&C because it's more like a menu of choices that you can simply exhaust by reloading the before-end-point save and going through them. Lamely close to "pick your color of ending" from Mass Effect, except here the colors have actual content differences. The only long-term consequence-to-ending path is sucking up to Johnny, which is even more insulting, but my disdain of the character is probably leaking through here.

I don't think that's fair, the resolutions through the final act are reasonably layered and consistent - you've got your mainline final quest with Takemura and Hanako (which then gives you a minor choice between two denouements), then you've got two alternatives with Rogue or the Aldecaldos if you've done their side content, plus the crazy option of surrendering to the Silverhand virus in Mikoshi. And also the minor "secret" option for Johnny fans to attack Arasaka alone. And the option of punching out early and offing two assholes with one bullet. How it handled the endings is one of the game's stronger points, it's not Human Revolutions' infamous three buttons.

Overall, I'll just end by saying for anyone who is ever thinking of making an AAA open world game... whatever you do, don't fucking saddle the main character with a ghost in their brain that constantly berates the player and takes them out of the immersion and feeling of freedom of the world by reminding them they are the slave of the writer's pet.

It's gonna bug you if you just can't stand Johnny as a character, I get it, but from a functional perspective, he's just a holographic Alex Jacobson. He's there to provide narrative framing and feedback to your actions. The concept itself is fine and I think you'd have found Night City to be even more depressingly pointless and barren without him prattling on at you.

Nah, I wouldn't have. It's pretty silly to think you know someone else's opinions better than they do. I'd have been fine with Johnny if he was kept to the main quests, or it was a brief period in the main quest where he's in your skull, then you get him out. Making him there for the entire game, post prelude, is where it rubs me the wrong way. There is no making your way in the world as your own character, and it in my opinion basically eliminates V as a character entirely. Doesn't help they made some weird choice to make the main character defined while also not written as defined and interesting as Geralt was as a main character, it's in this weird in-between zone where he's too defined as a character for you to believe V is your character, but also written too paperthin to be interesting as his own character you are just along for the ride to observe, ala Geralt. Ironically, it seems to me like you had more freedom to decide how Geralt would react to situations while still being true to his character in the Witcher games, so perhaps I'm barking up the wrong tree here and the final conclusion is just that their execution here was qualitatively worse on every level.

 

[Moink]

https://support.cdprojektred.com/en/cyberpunk/pc/sp-technical/issue/2509/patch-2-01-coming-soon

Hey, chooms! We want to give you a heads-up that Patch 2.01 will be coming soon.

Here's a list of most important fixes and improvements that will be included there:

• The distorted effect caused by selecting a specific dialogue option when talking to Johnny at the end of Automatic Love will no longer persist on the screen.
• V will no longer die in The Heist by falling through the elevator when riding to the 42nd floor with low FPS.
• Fixed an issue where the UI could show controller inputs when playing with keyboard and mouse.
• Made it possible to properly switch to arms cyberware by cycling through weapons.
• Gig: Breaking News will be properly triggered after approaching the quest area.
• Vehicle radio volume will be adjusted so it's not too quiet when compared to other sounds in the game.
• Addressed the issue of corrupted saves on PlayStation by increasing the maximum save file size limit. Note: this won't fix the saves corrupted before the update. If you're experiencing the issue, keep a working save (e.g. resave it as manual save) till 2.01 arrives.
• Performance improvements for both PC and consoles, especially in the Dogtown area.

Remember that these are just the highlights, so stay tuned for more details!

 

[ind33d]

https://support.cdprojektred.com/en/cyberpunk/pc/sp-technical/issue/2509/patch-2-01-coming-soon

Hey, chooms! We want to give you a heads-up that Patch 2.01 will be coming soon.

Here's a list of most important fixes and improvements that will be included there:

• The distorted effect caused by selecting a specific dialogue option when talking to Johnny at the end of Automatic Love will no longer persist on the screen.
• V will no longer die in The Heist by falling through the elevator when riding to the 42nd floor with low FPS.
• Fixed an issue where the UI could show controller inputs when playing with keyboard and mouse.
• Made it possible to properly switch to arms cyberware by cycling through weapons.
• Gig: Breaking News will be properly triggered after approaching the quest area.
• Vehicle radio volume will be adjusted so it's not too quiet when compared to other sounds in the game.
• Addressed the issue of corrupted saves on PlayStation by increasing the maximum save file size limit. Note: this won't fix the saves corrupted before the update. If you're experiencing the issue, keep a working save (e.g. resave it as manual save) till 2.01 arrives.
• Performance improvements for both PC and consoles, especially in the Dogtown area.

Remember that these are just the highlights, so stay tuned for more details!

holy shit, they fixed Breaking News? does CDPR read this thread? lmao