Cyberpunk 2077 from the makers of The Witcher

[jztemple2]

From PC Gamer, Cyberpunk 2077's new crafting system is so blessedly simple I'm still giddy about it

Like an angry cyborg ninja with something to prove, CD Projekt Red has taken a pair of bloat-cutting mantis blades to Cyberpunk 2077's formerly overwrought crafting and upgrade system. It now couldn't be easier to keep a favorite iconic weapon up-to-date as your V makes the long march from level one to 60.

Cyberpunk's loot system used to feature both rarity tiers and leveled damage numbers, with cool or unique weapons quickly getting leveled out of usefulness. You could boost a weapon's leveled stats at a rapidly increasing cost, and improving a weapon's rarity tier required significant investment in one of the game's attributes, Technical Ability. That's all gone now in favor of a much simpler system, with easily upgraded powerful Iconic weapons taking center stage.

[Octavious]

That's what made me never be able to get into the game. It was too much unorganized crap everywhere. My brain just shuts off and I give up.

[Skinypupy]

That's what made me never be able to get into the game. It was too much unorganized crap everywhere. My brain just shuts off and I give up.

I put about 6 hours into this over the last couple days.

I had told myself I quit playing the first time because of the bugs, but I now think I just don’t really like the core game very much. There’s always WAY too much stuff going on at any given time for my brain to process. Whether it’s the constant (and often overlapping) in-game phone calls and texts, the new quests every three steps, the chaotic combat, the myriad systems, the sheer neon density of the city itself, or the mountains of bugs I’m still encountering post-patch, I just find the entire experience to be very…overwhelming and not very much fun. I was hoping some of that would be streamlined with the 2.0 patch, but I didn’t really see any changes in that regard.

Just not a game for me, I suppose.

[Carpet_pissr]

Uh oh. I wonder what that will do to my ADD brain. Probably overload it and shut it down.

[coopasonic]

I mainlined Act 1 this morning and completed it in about 4 hours. After doing the initial steps in Act 2 I am level 10 and have 11 active quests, none of which I picked up myself, and a lot of stuff on the map. My approach my first play through was clear the map, do all the things. I am curious to see if my brain let's me do it any differently this time. I am doubtful.

[Octavious]

Uh oh. I wonder what that will do to my ADD brain. Probably overload it and shut it down.

Not gonna lie. I sometimes am just following things without even understanding what I'm doing. It's a really good game now, but it's still a bit much for me. Like all these data cards with paragraphs and paragraphs of info. I just nope past em.

[coopasonic]

I mainlined Act 1 this morning and completed it in about 4 hours. After doing the initial steps in Act 2 I am level 10 and have 11 active quests, none of which I picked up myself, and a lot of stuff on the map. My approach my first play through was clear the map, do all the things. I am curious to see if my brain let's me do it any differently this time. I am doubtful.

Started Saturday morning, hit the point of no return Sunday afternoon after about 17 hours played. Now time to do all the side stuff I guess.

[jztemple2]

Here's when Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty unlocks in your time zone

Three years on, Cyberpunk 2077 is finally ready for its close-up. Cyberpunk 2077's one and only planned expansion, Phantom Liberty, releases on Monday, September 25, with a global launch on PC. We loved it, calling it "a thrilling capstone on Cyberpunk 2077's 3-year redemption arc" in our 87% review.

Phantom Liberty is following hot on the heels of Cyberpunk's big 2.0 patch, which launched for free for all players on September 21. Thankfully, CD Projekt Red isn't following the recent trend of making Phantom Liberty available a few days earlier to folks who paid some extra cash. The release time is the release time for everyone, fair and square—unless you're on consoles, in which case you might be waiting a bit longer to play.

[Daehawk]

This is still worth a play even without the Phantom Liberty DLC right?

[Blackhawk]

Yes.

[Smoove_B]

This is still worth a play even without the Phantom Liberty DLC right?

If you haven't played the base game by now, what is stopping you?

For reference I finished the base game after the big free upgrade/patch to the core and found it to be quite enjoyable.

[jztemple2]

For reference I finished the base game after the big free upgrade/patch to the core and found it to be quite enjoyable.

Wow, that was fast. I put in over sixty hours on my first playthrough and still didn't do a lot of the side missions.

[Smoove_B]

Wow, that was fast. I put in over sixty hours on my first playthrough and still didn't do a lot of the side missions.

Not the most current free patch, but the one they release in February or March of 2022. I was a day-one purchaser of this game but it needed to cook a bit more. I really enjoyed the hell out of it in March of 2022.

[coopasonic]

Here's when Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty unlocks in your time zone

Three years on, Cyberpunk 2077 is finally ready for its close-up. Cyberpunk 2077's one and only planned expansion, Phantom Liberty, releases on Monday, September 25, with a global launch on PC. We loved it, calling it "a thrilling capstone on Cyberpunk 2077's 3-year redemption arc" in our 87% review.

Phantom Liberty is following hot on the heels of Cyberpunk's big 2.0 patch, which launched for free for all players on September 21. Thankfully, CD Projekt Red isn't following the recent trend of making Phantom Liberty available a few days earlier to folks who paid some extra cash. The release time is the release time for everyone, fair and square—unless you're on consoles, in which case you might be waiting a bit longer to play.

I'm around level 32 on my 2.0 run with a ton of side content left if I want to engage with it. I haven't decided if I want to level up more before Phantom Liberty or just jump right in tonight. I feel like FOMO will pull me into the new DLC area. We'll see. I really want to see the stuff in the new progression since basically everything I did all weekend was basically the same as the first time.

Reading what I wrote, it sounds like I have decided after all.

[coopasonic]

For reference I finished the base game after the big free upgrade/patch to the core and found it to be quite enjoyable.

Wow, that was fast. I put in over sixty hours on my first playthrough and still didn't do a lot of the side missions.

You can easily run the main story in under 20 hours.

[Daehawk]

[Octavious]

I'm totally hooked on the game and will gladly grab the dlc today. It's good timing as I'm like probably halfway through the main story.

[jztemple2]

[coopasonic]

So we have to watch it again? (look up two posts)

[Daehawk]

Wasn't me this time.

[coopasonic]

Wasn't me this time.

How did you repost that video 5 hours before jzt did!? Probably some cyberware hacks. Damn netrunners.

[jztemple2]

Wasn't me this time.

How did you repost that video 5 hours before jzt did!? Probably some cyberware hacks. Damn netrunners.

Oops, missed that . I blame society.

[Octavious]

The dlc is really really really really good. I just so happened to be one mission from unlocking it and I had to rip myself away to go to bed. This game just gets better and better the more you play it. And there's so many options to try in another build.

[Hamlet3145]

I'm re-playing most of the missions before jumping into Phantom Liberty and am really loving things. Patch 2.0 feels great and I like the new skill trees. I'm deep into the "Cool" tree and am having fun as a sneaky sniper type. Now I'm upgrading the tech(?) tree so I can use lots of implants.

Also, I originally played this on PS5 and am now on my upgraded PC. Big difference for me in graphics. I'm doing 1440p with a combo of ultra/high graphics and everything is very, very smooth. And the world feels much more alive too. I think the PS5 has the crowd size dialed way back. Walking around I feel like I'm actually in a city now.

[coopasonic]

I started a new save with 2.0 and played most of the weekend, getting to the point of no return and then doing some side stuff. Now I have about 3 hours into Phantom Liberty and, well, I am not sure what Octavious is seeing that justifies 4 "really"s. To me it feels very much like more Cyberpunk, not necessarily better Cyberpunk. I am not saying that's bad. I really enjoyed it when it was first released. I like what they did with 2.0. I just don't see Phantom Liberty standing out from the rest of the material at this stage. I will caveat that by saying my cyberpunk character is a lot like my skyrim characters, stealth archer, but mostly using a suppressed pistol now. I don't have cyberware in most of my slots. I don't use quick hacks, I don't melee. I just pop heads. I have 20 points in Cool and hardly anything else seems to matter.

[Madmarcus]

I'm not quite sure what to make of 2.0. I had a level 30 V slowly working through the middle of the game so I restarted with her. Fresh install. Obviously no mods even though I had many previously (mostly car related). It worked fine to fast travel to Viktor and did the perk rebuild and I was off.

With clothing being purely decorative I've suddenly lost most of my interest in clothing. Plus all the cool hats still mess with V's hairstyle.

The food I have in my inventory seems to have better buffs than it had before but I still doubt I'll be stopping to eat and drink.

The new skill tree feels like it forces specialization more. Perhaps a little bit too much for my tastes but that's harder to tell with a character that already has 32 skill points and a couple of high end iconic weapons to plan around.

I haven't played enough to see how I feel about the level scaling. Wading into a couple of gang members feels easy but combined with the new skill trees I could see things getting hairy as a short range shotgunner if the combo of scaling and lack of specialization means I can't easily start a fight with a stealth kill or two to whittle down the incoming fire.

It looks good but I'm going back to Starfield I suspect.

[Smoove_B]

I will caveat that by saying my cyberpunk character is a lot like my skyrim characters, stealth archer, but mostly using a suppressed pistol now. I don't have cyberware in most of my slots. I don't use quick hacks, I don't melee. I just pop heads. I have 20 points in Cool and hardly anything else seems to matter.

That's how I played and I still enjoyed it tremendously - the theme, the feel, the look - it was all interesting to me. Plus the characters and their various stories. I wasn't expecting them to be so good.

[Madmarcus]

I will caveat that by saying my cyberpunk character is a lot like my skyrim characters, stealth archer, but mostly using a suppressed pistol now. I don't have cyberware in most of my slots. I don't use quick hacks, I don't melee. I just pop heads. I have 20 points in Cool and hardly anything else seems to matter.

All Body/Tech here. Shotgun and backup Gorilla Arms. Prior to 2.0 I also used a tech rifle to soften things up but I guess it's just all in your face all the time.

[El Guapo]

I played mostly a hacker in the base game. I will say that at a certain point it felt like that was too overpowered. Basically once I got into the camera system at any given facility, I could then 'hack' and kill basically every security guard that was in range of a camera, which is usually 90%+ of them.

[Octavious]

I started a new save with 2.0 and played most of the weekend, getting to the point of no return and then doing some side stuff. Now I have about 3 hours into Phantom Liberty and, well, I am not sure what Octavious is seeing that justifies 4 "really"s. To me it feels very much like more Cyberpunk, not necessarily better Cyberpunk. I am not saying that's bad. I really enjoyed it when it was first released. I like what they did with 2.0. I just don't see Phantom Liberty standing out from the rest of the material at this stage. I will caveat that by saying my cyberpunk character is a lot like my skyrim characters, stealth archer, but mostly using a suppressed pistol now. I don't have cyberware in most of my slots. I don't use quick hacks, I don't melee. I just pop heads. I have 20 points in Cool and hardly anything else seems to matter.

Seriously? The first two hours is like playing a first person Uncharted. You sir are dead inside! Like I was legit exhausted by the nonstop action.

[coopasonic]

You mean endlessly popping the heads of everything they put in front of me? Some of them did take 3 headshots from my little pistol I suppose. That one big fight with that one big thing was interesting, but definitely not worth 4 reallys. I think 1 really is a stretch, 2 is definitely over-selling it.

[Octavious]

I really really think you are dead inside. I thought it was epic so there.

[Smoove_B]

After I finished the main game last year I had some extra points so I spent them on that wire thing that comes out of your arms. I would definitely recommend that route for upgrades.

[Octavious]

I probably have another 25-35 hours and then I'll play one of the other 900 games that are coming out and then roll another dude for sure.

Forza Motorsport
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Lords of the Fallen
Spider-Man 2
Alan Wake II
Super Mario Bros. Wonder (This I can certainly wait on)

That's nuts. I know at least two are going to be good if not great. Spider-Man and Mirage. Mirage I think I may just sign up for a monthly pass instead of buying it. Early impressions have been very positive. And Spider-Man forget it. That looks nuts. This year has just been a freaking treasure trove. Turn off the firehose!

[Hyena]

This game pulled me in like no other in years when I played it back in early 2023. I loved it, and when I'm done flying around in Starfield and go back to finish BG3, I'll probably get into PL. I did my first playthrough as monowire/pistol stealth, then started a new one as gorilla arms/shotgun blitzer. Never finished the second run-through, so I'll probably start over to get the full experience. Not sure if I'll stick with my new character, as I really like the stealth pistol/melee character...

[Punisher]

I don't think I got very far in the original game so I'm gonna start over.
Question.
If I decided to play through the original and then get the DLC if/when I finish will it break anything? Will it still make sense? Does the DLC take place during the original like a new questline ir something?

[Smoove_B]

I don't think I got very far in the original game so I'm gonna start over.
Question.
If I decided to play through the original and then get the DLC if/when I finish will it break anything? Will it still make sense? Does the DLC take place during the original like a new questline ir something?

From here:

It’s possible to jump straight to Phantom Liberty when you start a new game. When you select new game from the main menu, you’ll get a new option that lets you choose a regular start where you’ll have to play until you reach the new content or skip ahead to Phantom Liberty. This will drop you straight into the new content, but it will also level you up appropriately with an automatic distribution of Attribute Points.

If you’re starting a new game for the 2.0 update and want to take the long way there, Phantom Liberty will take about 20 hours to reach, give or take. The DLC content starts right after you finish Act 2.

If it were me, I'd probably verify I like the game (with all the free stuff they've fixed/added) first before purchasing and then trying to ingrate the DLC. No sense in buying it if you don't like (or didn't like) the base game.

[Octavious]

It slots in like another quest, but doesn't come up until later in the game. I'm not 100 sure what happens if you finish the game before starting the DLC. You can certainly start without it as that's what I did. All the major changes are in the 2.0 patch outside of the DLC.

[Max Peck]

I would expect that if you play up to the point where the DLC organically fits into the main game, you should definitely know whether or not you like the game enough to warrant purchasing the DLC. It's a rare opportunity to have your cake (by being fiscally cautious) and eat it too (by feeling good when you either make a good additional purchase or avoid a bad). There is literally no downside to this course of action and nothing bad can come from it.

[Octavious]

Ya that's fine that's what I did and I gladly bought it yesterday. I had bounced off it so many times that I didn't want to waste my money. It's stellar game now.