Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the most highly anticipated video game releases of 2020, and while its myriad bugs and glitches have been all anyone’s been able to talk about since its launch, there are a few other aspects of the game itself that we feel could’ve used some improvement as well. Here are five ways Cyberpunk 2077 could’ve been even better.
More Romance Options
This is an RPG with dialogue options and backstories and NPCs to get to know better. And yet, there are only four romance options available to the player, not counting Meredith Stout, who only serves as a random one night stand option early on in the game.
To CD Projekt Red’s credit, all four romantic prospects are pretty fleshed out in their own right. Panam and Judy, in particular, have quickly proven to become the most popular romance options in Cyberpunk 2077, thanks to their extended quest lines and fascinating personalities. That being said, it’s definitely worth mentioning that there’s basically only one romance option for each sexual orientation.
Straight males and females have Panam and River respectively, while those seeking same-sex romance get Judy and Kerry for the female and male body types.
It’s definitely a sucky feeling to feel like you’re being railroaded into romancing only one person regardless of what your preferences are, and we’d have liked to see more options available for each sexual orientation in Cyberpunk 2077.
Better Economy and Money System
Cyberpunk 2077 is a pretty massive game, with tons of different perks to unlock and attributes to level up. You’ll definitely want to level V up quickly to start getting better equipment, but you’ll need to make sure you have the cash for it too.
One of the biggest problems we’ve encountered in this game is just how hard it is to get, well, anything. You can get a fairly steady flow of income from doing main missions, side gigs, and other optional quests. However, equipment and upgrades are extremely expensive, and just trying to get a couple of Ripperdoc upgrades will certainly deplete your bank account in the blink of an eye.
Money aside, getting experience for specific skills can also be a slog. Crafting, in particular, feels extremely unrewarding once you get to the mid-game stages, as it’s hard enough to gather crafting components to craft more valuable items, and it only stings more when you realize how little crafting experience you get from it.
The same can be said for pretty much any non-combat skill as well, making the game feel a little inflexible overall. It’s no wonder that players have been quick to find money and experience exploits to speed up the leveling process.
The Ability to Customize Character Appearance Mid-Game
This point’s been talked about at length already but we’d be remiss not to bring it up here. The fact that you can’t even change V’s hairstyle once the game has started feels like a major oversight on CDPR’s part.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a game about vanity and people’s obsession to be constantly changing up their appearances and augmenting themselves with cybernetics.
Not being able to visit a barber or hairstylist to change up your look every once in a while feels incredibly archaic, especially in a game from the developers who implemented a whole growing beard system in The Witcher 3.
More Impactful Lifepaths
At the start of the game, you’re allowed to choose one of three lifepaths for V: nomad, street kid, and corpo. They’re meant to serve as backstories for your character, which would help V feel more like a fleshed out protagonist with a proper past. The idea was that as you encountered more NPCs in Cyberpunk 2077 and took on more quests, your chosen lifepath would be able to help or hinder you in some way.
Unfortunately, that’s not exactly how the lifepaths work. Beyond a very short quest you do at the start of the game, they don’t seem to matter all that much at all.
You might get an extra dialogue option or two when talking to NPCs, and every so often, you might be able to find a shortcut in a quest with a specific lifepath, but they just don’t feel like they matter in the grand scheme of things.
Having a more fleshed out backstory and intro quest for V at the start of the game would’ve helped a lot with immersing the player in the game world and making them feel like they were in control of a proper character, and not just an empty vessel.
More Fleshed Out World and Factions
Finally, while Night City is absolutely stunning and dense and packed with things to do, there are parts of the open world that still feel somewhat empty and soulless. For instance, the rivaling factions and gangs that you meet in the various districts all feel like reskins of each other.
You’ll learn about them through story quests, but for the most part, the only way you can interact with them is by killing them, or infiltrating their bases and territory and… killing them. They, along with the random NPCs you encounter in Night City, feel like window dressing, especially with how one-dimensional their pathing is.
They feel like they’re just there to fill up space, with conversations that are often painfully one-note and shallow. With how rich and vibrant Night City appears on the surface, it’s a shame how quickly the illusion of depth shatters once you inspect it a little more closely.
Last but not least, we’d also be remiss not to at least mention the elephant in the room. Cyberpunk 2077 launched in a pretty disastrous state, especially on last-gen consoles where the game seemed almost unplayable. Even on current-gen machines and PCs, players were still experiencing frequent crashes and bugs, making the experience feel extremely unpleasant overall.
CDPR’s definitely done a decent job of releasing patches to quickly address the issues since then, but there’s no doubt that the damage has already been done. You’ve probably heard this a thousand times by now, but we’d certainly expect the game to be in a much better state a few months from now. If you haven’t picked up the game just yet, it might be worth waiting for a bit.
Published: Jan 4, 2021 09:30 am