Phantom Liberty is what the rest of Cyberpunk should have been like.

[Vakula]

After playing PL I gotta say that I wish this is what the rest of the game was... Choices that significantly impact the story, deeper side gigs that arent just "clear a building full of goons and read some optional texts", dynamic events like the supply drop, and actually interesting, deep characters, and not whiny baby Judy, plank of wood River, or Evilyn - a girl the community simps for in spite of the fact that we know her for all of 3 lines of dialogue.

Pretty big gripe with side gigs specifically - I know they needed to pad out content, but I wish they cut out 50% of them and made the rest more like the ones in Dog Town.

As far as base game characters, I didnt care about them cuz most of your intersections are V: "Im dying please help" Side Character: "You will get through it, good luck. Now can you help me with some chores?" Here you are on missions together, working towards a common goal, and just feel a deeper sense of camaraderie with these people - Songbird and Reed specifically. Idk maybe its just me, but I dont really care for the side characters of the main game aside from Johny.

So far for me PL has been way more engaging and interesting than the base game, and I feel much more invested in the characters and the story. Actually agonizing over choices, replaying missions to see the other outcomes is dope too. Wish more of that was present in the main game. Hope CDPR learned from this and really delivers in the sequel.

EDIT: Im talking about SIDE GIGS which is different from SIDE QUESTS. Those are different things.

[Octopuses]

Choices don't really impact the story at all until the last 30 minutes of the main quest.

Every gig has a completely meaningless choice you forget about in a minute since it changes nothing about your game except you hear a different 1-2 lines sob story.

[Rhapsody]

That's how it is with many expansions.

[Vakula]

Originally posted by Octopuses:

Choices don't really impact the story at all until the last 30 minutes of the main quest.

Every gig has a completely meaningless choice you forget about in a minute since it changes nothing about your game except you hear a different 1-2 lines sob story.

Thats not true. You make a major choice half way through that basically leads to a different endgame, and a major choice towards the end. Both impact the story. You even have a choice in the beginning to basically forgo the dlc by refusing to help the president.

Also side gigs have whole branching events that might not happen depending on dialogue - for example when you go to the athetic center you can get a guy up in your grill that will rat you out to the security, signaling that you are an imposter, depending on what you say to the bartender.

Sob story or not, and regardless of how you feel, Im sure you would agree they are miles better than main game gigs of “go here, kill dudes, get reward.”

[Kantermoose]

you are a NUSA agent or you are not and miss the entire DLC. big choices.

at least thats how i see it. maybe you just like it better caz its on a smaller map, caz Mr Hands contracts were indeed > go here, kill dudes

[Zero McDol]

I mean, I get that you like the story OP, but PL is not that much different than the rest of the game. Just literally more of the same thing, aside from the courier missions which I've heard are not very fun.

[Balekai]

Yeah I have to agree. To be fair (but not apologetic because it shouldn't have happened), the development of this game was originally hurt badly by last gen PC/Console support.

The exact same reason and outcome almost step by step that occurred with Dragon Age: Inquisition... 7ish years beforehand. You would have thought AAA RPG devs and especially publishers would have learned from that.

In both cases of DAI and 2077, they had to scale back on many planned features and still had performance issues and problems trying to get things to work properly on all systems. This ate up valuable development time, funds and resources until the Product was somewhat of a shell of it's original plans and a shock to fans on release (you could say marketing leading up to release in both games tried there best to hide/mislead players on what was happening).

In the end, both games had to abandon last gen support mid way through post release development to fix things up. Then released 1-3 DLCs (one in 2077's case) that showcased what could have been from the very beginning.

Cyberpunk 2077 did a better job in the end because the game is more Open World, allowing the devs to fix the game via a Fallout 4 Nuka World like DLC while adding back in all the combat/cop/vehicle mechanics they had to cut for last gen (including relic perks). The game's mechanics and City life are basically at a point now where people would have been "OK" with or pleased with at release. The only thing missing being more fleshed out extracurricular activities/features, and more reactivity/AI from base game citizens/quests/NPCs.

Moral of the story: If you want to be ground breaking and break the mould, you can't be making a next gen game to work on 5-10 year old technology so you can make a bigger buck, or please everyone in your fanbase. Next Gen and ground breaking features need all the resources and time focused on doing just that. So in the end you actually have the game you envisioned. Not some lackluster ghost of it that loses more sales/reputation than if you just made the best game possible for next gen tech.

[craigsters]

https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/9797 the furries made it to Cyberpunk 2077, they make there way into almost every game, skyrim, Fallout games

[Balekai]

Originally posted by craigsters:

https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/9797 the furries made it to Cyberpunk 2077, they make there way into almost every game, skyrim, Fallout games

Furries are always cut content that has to be added in through modding. I was quite peeved back in the day when Diablo 1, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Sim City, Age of Empires and Civilisation 3 all cut furries from their games.

These modders are doing us a service. Be grateful.

[Vakula]

Originally posted by Kantermoose:

you are a NUSA agent or you are not and miss the entire DLC. big choices.

at least thats how i see it. maybe you just like it better caz its on a smaller map, caz Mr Hands contracts were indeed > go here, kill dudes

Not all of them - counter point the Lina Malina side gig. And the rest, fine, but they actually had new characters you meet, interesting plot twists, and branching dialogue and choices, however you feel about them. Thats not something you can say for side gigs in the main game.

As far as the first choice, yeah fair, most people wont wanna miss the whole DLC. But the fact is you are still given that choice and thats cool. That doesnt change the fact that you still get two legitimate huge choices that impact the story. One choice gets you whole brand new missions, cutscenes, dialogue, gameplay rewards etc, and the other choice grants you a brand new ending.

[Vakula]

Originally posted by Zero McDol:

I mean, I get that you like the story OP, but PL is not that much different than the rest of the game. Just literally more of the same thing, aside from the courier missions which I've heard are not very fun.

More of the same, but better overall. Much better IMO.

[Kantermoose]

Originally posted by Vakula:

Originally posted by Kantermoose:

you are a NUSA agent or you are not and miss the entire DLC. big choices.

at least thats how i see it. maybe you just like it better caz its on a smaller map, caz Mr Hands contracts were indeed > go here, kill dudes

Not all of them - counter point the Lina Malina side gig. And the rest, fine, but they actually had new characters you meet, interesting plot twists, and branching dialogue and choices, however you feel about them. Thats not something you can say for side gigs in the main game.

As far as the first choice, yeah fair, most people wont wanna miss the whole DLC. But the fact is you are still given that choice and thats cool. That doesnt change the fact that you still get two legitimate huge choices that impact the story.

i take it you never did the religious quest that gets the dude crucified (or not). or saved brick in the first few missions (or not) or hacked the cred chip (or not). Or let the guy go to find smashers secret stash. these are just a few off the top of my head.

game offers tons of branching paths, i think you are just in honeymoon phase with PL being new my dude

[Vakula]

Originally posted by Kantermoose:

Originally posted by Vakula:

Not all of them - counter point the Lina Malina side gig. And the rest, fine, but they actually had new characters you meet, interesting plot twists, and branching dialogue and choices, however you feel about them. Thats not something you can say for side gigs in the main game.

As far as the first choice, yeah fair, most people wont wanna miss the whole DLC. But the fact is you are still given that choice and thats cool. That doesnt change the fact that you still get two legitimate huge choices that impact the story.

i take it you never did the religious quest that gets the dude crucified (or not). or saved brick in the first few missions (or not) or hacked the cred chip (or not). Or let the guy go to find smashers secret stash. these are just a few off the top of my head.

game offers tons of branching paths, i think you are just in honeymoon phase with PL being new my dude

Those are side quests. Im talking specifically about side gigs. Those are different things. Side quests in the base game were great. Side gigs were not.

[TripSin]

Base game has some of the best quests and stories seen in gaming.

Sucks for you that you can't appreciate that.

[Vakula]

Originally posted by TripSin:

Base game has some of the best quests and stories seen in gaming.

Sucks for you that you can't appreciate that.

I never said they werent good. How about actually reading what I said next time instead of typing out a reactionary, emotional response?

[Kantermoose]

Ah my bad didnt seethe side gigs specifically. The way i saw them is that the are static, so if im close its pretty much free XP for a few minutes of time.

If i wanna grind and not progress story, I will do these. plus you can kind make of mess of them and the outcome is still the same (minus full reward).

You are right some do not feel fleshed out as others but... they are static, as in - I dont have to go pick up the quest, drive around the map 600m away and then do some stuff. Go to point, do the thing, get the xp/reward. And yes I have already forgotten what i did 10 seconds after as it was same ol same ol. But I am happy they are there caz it sure beats doing NCPD scanner when i wanna get some XP.