Cyberpunk 2077 Refuses To Die || Edgerunners Update and Patch 1.6

A few people may still remember that following the disastrous release of Cyberpunk 2077, the almighty CDP Red tried to save their face and promised to shower players with free DLCs, but also fix the myriad of bugs and glitches and finally provide a version for next-gen consoles. Almost three years later, everything we've gotten was the necessary bug fixes (oh well, nobody complains about that) and some minor additions to content. The latter were quite laughable, too, just a few weapons and some flashy clothes, hardly enough to make me want to launch the game again.
However, when Patch 1.5 arrived on the scene in February, it picked my interest. Besides more fixes and a changed driving model, it finally gave the fans a chance to buy a few apartments around the city. They were neatly designed, had some immersion features, like letting you play the guitar or make your own coffee, and owning them made you feel like you've finally become a top runner and not just a filthy street rat. It was still far from satisfactory, but I allowed myself a little hope that Cyberpunk 2077 can get better.

Now it's September and time to get some new actual content. With the announcement of a full-scale DLC which is to be released next year and the release of an anime Netflix show set in the Cyberpunk universe, the CDP released another big update. Let's have a look at what's on the menu.

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V's new clothes

The Outfit system is almost purely cosmetic, but those players who treat role-playing seriously may find it really interesting. After all, you want to have different sets of clothing for different occasions, depending on where you show up and what you do. It takes only a few clicks to make an outfit and save it for further use, and modifying it with a single item like cool shades is as easy as it gets.

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Tools of trade

Bloody trouble is V's business and to make killing easier, they have access to a fresh shipment of weapons that just arrived in Night City. New firearms include a few Power guns and a neat Tech submachine gun, but the highlight goes to a beast named Hypercritical Iconic Precision Rifle which you can find during one of the new gigs. The stats of this unique, custom-made weapon are really impressive, but its considerable power comes at a price since it requires 15 Body Strength to use its full potential. As someone playing a scrawny V, I didn't get much success with the rifle and had to go back to ol' reliable Skippy and sniper rifles.

If you prefer to go full contact with enemy gonks, there's some new hardware for melee fighters as well. Among them, you'll find two knives with a really cool and deadly design, especially the aptly named Punkknife. Apart from its badass looks, the blade works really good when you throw it thanks to rehashed mechanics introduced in Patch 1.5. Maybe it's not for everyone, but it felt really satisfactory for me to extinguish an enemy with a single throw aimed at their head.

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There's a new axe and a machete for those who think that fancy katanas are for wimps. And last but not least... a real chainsword! As a veteran Warhammer 40k fan, I couldn't ask for anything better. The animation when you find it for the first time and rev it up to life is pure bliss, and then, hacking and slashing gangoons into pieces feels really great.

Roach Race

Vintage arcades are omnipresent in Night City and they should be, given that they belong to classic cyberpunk aesthetics. Too bad all of them are unplayable and function as fancy background props, quite pitiful when you compare it with, let's say, the Yakuza series. Well, I should say they were unplayable because now your apartments and some other locations feature the Roach Race.

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We're talking about a simple side-scrolling platformer starring Roach of the Witcher Fame. Geralt's faithful stead got spooked by something and is in constant galloping mode now. Your task is to use simple control (jump and double jump) to avoid obstacles and monsters, and collect power-ups and bonus points. Sadly, there's only one life and getting killed brings you back to Level One. Very little changes during the gameplay besides the pixel art in the background and the game quickly became quite boring. Sure enough, reaching the top of the highscore list supposedly gives your V bonus items and cash, but don't expect me to bother trying to beat a lousy retro game that wouldn't sell for one buck on Google Store app. So much about a new exciting feature for Cyberpunk.

Meet the Edgerunners
...or rather waste your time trying to find them. The newest update was released at the same time as the new Netflix show set in the Cyberpunk universe. Now you can find a trail leading to its protagonists, starting with picking up a random braindance kit and watching a scene from the show. One of your fixers agrees to help find the people behind the strange recording. You have to wait for two days of in-game time (the time-skipping function won't work)...

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...and all you get is an overlong text message from one of the Edgerunners and a lousy jacket from the show. What a mess.

Hustling Hard

Perhaps the most important novelty is the new gigs, in a staggering number of three, no less. One time we have to pull a veteran runner out of a building besieged by Militech's henchmen, another time we'll be fixing another megacorp's massive fuckup: one of their employees did a pub crawl all the way to dawn and ended up with a bullet in his head, and the 6th Streetgang plucked a valuable chip from his head. Which we must eventually get back. For desserts, we still help a desperate hacker take over corporate technology to save him from a deadly disease.

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Each gig is pretty standard, all too familiar to seasoned Cyberpunk fans. Arrive at the location, walk around it to do some recon, then choose if you want to be brutally cunning (hacking and sneaking) or cunningly brutal (frontal assault with proper use of cover and more hacking). Still, there are promising twists: as an example, after saving the sorry ass of Tiny, the runner I mentioned above, he invited me into his runaway car for a chat. I got pretty excited, expecting an ambush or maybe an offer to join him in his next big job, but the ride ended after a short conversation and I got kicked out of the car. The solutions to the other two gigs looked pretty much the same, a promise of bigger content dangling in front of my eyes which ended abruptly.
Honestly speaking, it looks like the new jobs were meant to become big sidequests with multiple stages, lots of new dialogue and maybe even branching endings, but nobody bothered to expand the initial ideas. What's worse, I have this nasty feeling that they didn't even write them from scratch, but they've been waiting in the back drawer, unfinished, since the release of the game.

Abandon all hope

If I said that the newest patch rekindled my faith in Cyberpunk 2077 as a game, it would be a lie. Still, I can't really call the entire experience a disappointment, just because I didn't have any big expectations. It's just what I expected: scraps thrown to the fans for the sake of promoting the anime show, and little more. Having said that, the Night City magic is still there. I got back to the game just to check the new content, but in the end, I stayed for a couple of hours, finishing some remaining side-quests in my third playthrough, or just driving around and enjoying the views. C2077 is a solid game, a flawed jewel, and it's such a damn shame that its potential is getting wasted.
Shortly after the arrival of the 1.6 Update, Google announced that they're closing Stadia in January next year. We're all supposed to get refunds, but I won't be able to play Cyberpunk anymore. And frankly, I probably won't buy another copy when the long overdue DLC is finally released.

Sorry, CDP, no more second chances.

All screencaps were taken, and some were edited, by me and me only.

Sort:  
 last year  

If I said that the newest patch rekindled my faith in Cyberpunk 2077 as a game, it would be a lie.

Try watching the anime maybe it will rekindle your faith a bit.😅

The truth is that I also expected a lot from this game, it's a shame that it came to disappoint me so much. 😔

Oh, be sure that the anime show is on the top of my Must Watch List. And I'm somebody who doesn't really like TV shows or movies.

I probably could write an entire post about why I'm the weirdest C2077 fan ever. On the one hand, I recognise that the game is a failure, on the other hand, I really adore it, it's easily in my own personal Top 20 Best Games ranking. Oh well.

 last year  

Hahahaha it's great, in the end what matters is having fun, so it's a great game!

 last year  

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who actually enjoyed this game and I like the latest additions to it. I'm also looking forward to the upcoming expansion and living in the game for a good, long while. I feel like it only really "failed" due to the idiotic decision to try and jam it onto last-generation consoles. 😕😅

When I wrote "failure", I meant that the game failed to deliver its many promises and fans poisoned by the gigantic hype felt burned and cheated. On the contrary, I never expected I would play it in the first place, so I just enjoyed my little Night City ride without complaining. I don't regret any second spent with CP2077, but I don't think I'll buy another copy when the DLC gets released... unless it becomes obvious it's really amazing hehe