even though CDPR's reputation as a business is gone for good in my eyes, the amazing storytelling chops of their writers are as clear as ever with this gem of a game and Phantom Liberty. really glad I didn't skip it entirely after the 2020 heartbreak (when I narrowly avoided a PS4 pre-order and felt so betrayed, I removed the game from my radar entirely)

the (new) gameplay is silky smooth, the world is absolutely amazing, the first person camera and real-time cutscenes (THAT YOU CAN FAST FORWARD <3) were more effective in sucking the player in than I could have anticipated and the characters - especially V, surprisingly - are amazingly well-rounded.

3 well-managed years can do a lot for a game and for a company. so you know, CDPR is dead, long live CDPR

glad i waited 3 years to play it, night city might be one of my favorite cities on any game, it's just so beautiful to look at and just to walk and see every detail, the gunplay it's fun, the history it's entertaining, but i don't know, the last mission felt kinda meh for me, i was waiting for more set pieces, something of a bigger spectacle to end the game (?) but maybe i was setting unrealistic expectations on the game, there are a ton of side missions to do, each with their own history, so you're never gonna be bored playing this

There's a lot that can be said about how the police chases that Cyperpunk's 2.0 update adds to the game can be genuinely thrilling (if you let them escalate enough and drive in first person) and how the car combat might be best-in-class in terms of its functionality. And I will let others say that for me because that's not why I'm giving this nearly five stars.

I never knew how much I needed a Stealth game where you have the ability to absolutely fucking yeet the shit out of the guards you knock out before this. Mix that with some absolutely comical gore, and it's damn near perfect.

That right there is the most fun I've had with a game all year. Typically, fist-only runs get written off as jokes because guns are more practical, and many of the setpieces you see in games elevate that from subtext to plain as day, printed in the NYT text. It's fun to see a developer not only encourage that but also make it one of the most entertaining ways to engage with their game. What makes it such a treat is that the new systems that add for cyberware here feel finely tuned enough to be rewarding as a separate method of progression without feeling needless in its implementation. Really, that's how I'd sum this entire update up: it doesn't feel like they've rewritten Cyberpunk here. Filler is still very much a part of the overall package; improvements and all, the crafting system remains a superfluous addition. But Cyberpunk has always managed to be better than the sum of its parts, and without running the risk of pushing that over the edge, they've delivered the most optimal version of that yet.

And it's still really fun to double-jump everywhere. I cannot emphasize that enough. Pair that with the ground pound (another reason to immediately dump all of your points into the Body tree), and the entire thing almost begins to resemble a beat-em-up that sometimes has guns in it, or something.

But mostly, my takeaway from this is that if more games let me throw bodies into walls so hard that hands pop off like corks, they'd all be ten outta tennnnnns

Took this game from a guilty pleasure to personal favorite.

As much as I loved playing Cyberpunk through the 1.X patches, the gameplay was definitely one of the biggest problems I had with it.

In 1.X it had a more Diablo/MMO esq gearing system, so every weapon and piece of clothing had randomly generated stats. Meaning there was no attachment to your guns or clothing as you would just have to ditch them about 5 minutes later when you get something else with better stats. Iconic special weapons that would complement your build would regularly get outclassed by trash you found on the side of the street, and trying to keep a consistent clothing style? Not happening unless you want to be made of paper.

Now, all guns of the same type have the same stats with small differences in damage and the like depending on what its rarity is, meaning the Iconic weapons are the build defining weapons they should have been from the start. Not to say normal weapons don't have a place, as they are the only weapons capable of taking weapon mods witch may complement your play-style better at the cost of having to buy/find better rarity variations instead of upgrading them like you would with a iconic. As for clothing, they are mostly cosmetic with only a few pieces have stats and they are more minor additive bonuses like a bit of extra armor or slightly quicker hacks.

So where does your armor come from now? Well, cyberware. The rework to cyberware is probibly one of the best changes they made as in 1.X most of the chrome for offer was minor stat changes that barely felt worth the money to get installed. outside of a few pices like the subdermal armor, your chosen arm weapon and your choice of speedware none of it really felt like it was important to your build witch was a massive letdown in terms of theme. Now your chrome is a lot more important as the majority of your armor comes from it and the cyber on offer is much more powerful, granting you build defining bonuses.

Best example is the interrogatory system, only thing of value was the sub-dermal armor, as more damage resistance is universally good, whereas fire immunity or shock resistance is only gonna come up every now and then. Now theres implants that give damage resistance based on distance to the target, give you damage resist during the use of the Karensikov ability, one that gives temporary invisibility so on and so forth. If an implant doeskin seem that worth it its now probably worth it to another build, or it has good armor attached to it. However with this change, you now have a budget on how much Cyberware can be installed on your character that goes up as you level and put points into certain skills, making this system more central to the games progression as you want to level not only to increase stats, but also to get more and better cyberware.

Ohh and the talent trees now... Dear god they are so clean! Each stat has three trees attached to them with about 2-4 core abilities each having their own modifier talents. These core abilities define more of your character, letting you queue up multiple quick-hacks, giving throwing knifes a poison effect that buffs other attacks, shotguns having a chance to instagib targets, taping into cyber-psychosis temporarily for buffs, slowing down time when aiming with pistols and lots lots more.

Character builds are just fun to make now, the progression no longer feels meaningless and chore-like. It feels like a full blown new game.

You can probably find my review of OG Cyberpunk, I liked the story stuff but found a lot about the game absolutely exhausting.

But now, Cyberpunk 2077 is one of my favourite games of all time. Easily in my top 10, an absolute blast and a must-play.

With the 2.0 Update and the release of Phantom Liberty, CDProjekt Red have done what I genuinely thought was a hard ask - give their relatively maligned game a massive turnaround into something more deserving of their lineage as a game studio. They truly managed it.

If the team that was across this update and Phantom Liberty are the ones wading deep into the waters of Unreal 5 for Cyberpunk 2, I couldn't be more excited.

Having played 99% of the time in stealth mode, aiming to finish the game with the secret ending at gunpoint has been quite a challenge. Especially with the Smasher fight as the climax of the whole scene, it was challenging and fun, albeit by the skin of my teeth!

The game has certainly come a long way since version 1.0; it only crashed on me once, and while the story hardly changes, the driving, gameplay, perks and so on feel much better constructed and cohesive. It even has a whole subway for you to use it!

Night City feels much more like a city than before, with more people, traffic, and smaller events to do. I certainly have a much better impression of the game than I did from the start (which isn't too complicated either) and I'm glad I gave it another chance this year!

An amazing update that completely overhauls so many of the games mechanics and adds so much more replay value to me.

The perk system has been vastly overhauled so now you actually get cool new abilities for different builds, rather than the boring passives you used to get. Investing in Technical lets you get more and more cyberware, investing in Body lets you throw enemies when they're weakened from being hit with melee, etc.

Vehicle combat has been added to the game as well, it's pretty jank, but I appreciate the inclusion anyways.

Johnny's face model also got upgraded so it doesn't look like his beard was drawn with crayons.

Performance wise, the game runs so much better than before, I get consistent 60 fps in anywhere that isn't Dogtown and that's much better than the drops to 40 I'd sometimes get.

Overall, I feel the update improved this game from something I felt was a guilty pleasure of mine into something I can proudly boast about. Mostly. As long as it isn't online.