Return to Night City

After puttering around with No Man's Sky for awhile, I decided that it was time to start the tried and true summer gauntlet of re-playing my favorite games/series.  I briefly pondered starting a full Witcher trilogy playthrough but ultimately decided that since I hadn't played Cyberpunk 2077 since any of the big patches dropped, that it was time to make a return foray to the dysfunctional world of corps, gangs, and crushed dreams.  For this playthrough I decided I would change it up a bit--my female (sorry male V, I gave you a shot, but I just don't like your VA as much), street kid V is sporting a heavy intelligence/hacking build and I plan on giving the River romance a shot (sorry Judy, you're still my favorite!).

Firstly, I am not having a great time with the hacking build--it's likely due to my own incompetence (and the fact that I opted for the "hard" difficulty), but I had way more fun with my body/katana and stealth/sniper builds.  I've largely found that when I do have to enter combat (I mostly try to be stealthy) that I am getting one or two shot and it's difficult to keep the quickhacks rolling.  Hacking also seems fairly useless in boss fights.  Oh well, had to try something new--I'll survive.

One of the changes I noticed almost immediately is to the map.  The map has multiple options for what you would like to see displayed.  Probably my favorite feature is a filter option that allows you to customize the map.  Does this really solve the problems of modern game maps being too cluttered with pointless filler?  Nope, not at all, but it does help make the map slightly less filled with obnoxious symbols.

Semi-related to map symbols is a change to the way that fixers assign gigs--now, they piecemeal them out as you complete them.  One or two will appear on the map and once you complete the gig the fixer will call you, give you some encouragement and tell you that there are new gigs.  I was a bit annoyed by this at first, but it does fix the bugs that would occur in places where gigs, scanner hustles and side jobs were clustered too close together.  Handily, you can now see how many gigs each fixer has to assign so you know if there are more.  Fixers will also give you a reward for completing all their gigs (so far I've received a weapon and a cyberware mod).

The vibrant "flamingo" makeover for V's apartment

On the cosmetic level, you can now purchase several different apartments for V and/or spruce up the original apartment with a makeover.  The new apartments are kind of fun and throw in some variety.  Making over V's main apartment involves paying $10,000 and choosing from several different paint/color schemes.  I opted for a flamingly pink and blue look--alternately hideous and bright.  There are also a few new rare/iconic clothing items (that were part of the "free DLC").  The jackets are okay but are rare quality and cannot be upgraded to the next item quality--their usefulness is very limited to the early part of the game.

I vaguely remember that there was some attention given to improving the driving experience--to add more realistic reactions from other drivers and pedestrians (which, I guess I can see--drivers do sort of react if you hit them and pedestrians will flee for their lives if you remotely steer in their direction) and to make the driving feel smoother.  I can't say that I notice much of a change in the driving...it still seems fine to me (and quite frankly it's not a huge part of the gameplay).  The wet pavement looks wet too, in case you were worried (there was some minor controversy over a visual change to how things looked when wet during one of the patches).

The million dollar question remains--has Cyberpunk gotten better with all these patches?  I still feel like the experience is largely the same--many of the same annoyances still exist (namely bugs, but the more obnoxious ones seem to have been quashed--I still hate the way bodies act when you move them/drop them and keep having an issue where certain enemies who are busy beating/kicking people don't go down when disabled and instead continue their loop of animation) and the problem of open world bloat still plagues it.  The main story remains the highlight in a world of too many repetitive map symbol tasks...but, they've added in some fun cosmetic-y stuff, so yaaay?

I'm watching for news of upcoming DLC and have read a few rumor-y type articles that seem to point to a story that takes place in the briefly mentioned "combat zone" of Pacifica.  The rumors also imply that it will be a V-free experience that focuses on a different protagonist.  (You can read about it here) Here's to hoping that the DLC isn't filled with a million stupid map checkmark type of tasks and instead focuses on a cool story with morally difficult outcomes!