Minor Improvements: Return to Night City

I just wrapped up my latest adventure in the gritty world of Cyberpunk 2077 and am mostly just relieved to be done (which is not necessarily a feeling you want to walk away from a game with).  Most of my reasoning for revisiting the game was a curiosity about how much had changed thanks to the "major" patches released earlier this year.  Now that I've finished my full playthrough, I feel like I have a decent feel for the game in its current state (undoubtedly the "final" state before they release DLC--okay, "if" they release DLC). 

1.) The big question--has the game improved since its legendarily disastrous launch?

The very simple answer is yes, but it's a bit of a complicated yes.  When the game was initially released it was plagued by a ridiculous number of bugs and glitches that rendered it...let's just say, unfun to play.  The multiple large patches since release have been mostly focused on squashing the worst of those bugs.  I am happy to report that in this last playthrough I did not encounter any of the truly disappointing/frustrating bugs that I did in previous adventures (namely an annoying bug where gigs wouldn't complete correctly and phone calls from fixers were messed up and would arrive out of order or missions/gigs that were too close to each other wouldn't complete correctly...and also a bug where the plan for a legendary/iconic weapon wouldn't drop under certain conditions).  Sadly, if you're hoping for a perfect experience free of bugs and glitches...keep dreaming.  I still encountered some minor, but nonetheless annoying bugs/glitches--let me name a few: enemies who are in the process of beating on innocent bystanders and are disabled do not go down and instead turn lootable but continue their animation loop; the annoying audio glitch where the scanning noise continues constantly (which can be easily solved by re-loading); the visual glitch where the aiming reticule appears when your weapon is holstered; a loot glitch where loot would repeatedly appear when enemies were disabled and shoved into containers...and I'm sure there are others that I am forgetting.

One of V's new apartment choices--the Glen apartment is my favorite.

Some of the general quality of life improvements are nice--I like the options for custom filtering on the map and I do like the fact that they toned down the number of phone calls that V receives (now they're text messages which is slightly less annoying).  They have added in many more legendary/iconic items (a few clothing items and several weapons), several new vehicles, as well as apartment options.  If you enjoy the more cosmetic side of the game...well, you'll probably be happy with these new options.  Fixers will now reward you with something fancy for completing all their gigs--these rewards range from cyberware up to vehicles.  Even though it was fun to be rewarded with a vehicle, these automobiles are re-skins of already existing cars...and not even very fun ones.  The upside to this is that V ends up with quite a garage full of nice cars without having to purchase any (downside:  now, there's really no need for the fixers to be offering up every car on the street).

One of the bonus vehicles added to the game--a Batman reference.

Storywise/characterwise there aren't many changes.  I noticed that there were more text message exchanges between V and pals.

2.) Did I make the same decisions or make different choices this time around?

I went with a hacking focused build for my V--most of my points went into intelligence, tech, and stealth--and found that I didn't love it.  The early part of the game in particular felt a bit brutal but the latter part was much easier (once you can invest in quickhacks that can spread things become much easier).  For V's romantic partner I decided to go with general good guy, River Ward.  Lemme just say...River has got to be the most boring romance out of all of them.  I've always found River to be a bit on the clingy side--he professes his feelings way too quickly and it's a bit nauseating.  I also found it a bit odd that V reveals the issues with the biochip to both Judy and Panam but not to River.  It was also a bit of a disappointment that River decides not to accompany V if you opt for the nomad ending (although, I totally expected it).  It really feels like a lot more effort went into the Judy and Panam relationships and they are both way more satisfying.

I will continue to look for news of DLC, but I think I'm all Cyberpunk-ed out for now.  If you're thinking of going back...best of luck, enjoy the new apartments and free cars.