COG Considers: Is This A No Man’s Sky Situation?
A recent leak from an unverified source claims that Cyberpunk 2077 was released with a bunch of content cut. This problem is allegedly going to be rectified over the next several months, coinciding with the proper next-gen console versions of the game coming later this year. While all of this is firmly in the rumor realm until otherwise confirmed, it still raises an interesting question: does the ideal version of Cyberpunk 2077 exist, somewhere in our future? Or is CDPR building a castle on top of a swamp?
The immediate comparison made is to No Man’s Sky. Remember that game? The promise of infinite possibility built a floating mansion out of hype. What landed involved a lot more, umm, balloons and masking tape? We were sold a bill of goods, you see. But they eventually made the game they promised us! It just took them years to do so. Players have noticed some strange gaps in 2077’s design. The NCPD content feels like the framework for a larger section, a lot of the city feels more like décor than anything else, and it’s weird that everyone is selling you cars for no reason.
Such is the big question, then. What kind of DLC are we getting? Is the new content going to fill in some of these weird holes, or is this just bad game design laid bare? After all, it’s possible that every addition will only reinforce Night City’s empty construction. We could be witnessing the start of an ever-growing stack of shallow questlines, a wobbly tower of game design set to loom above the shiny buildings and gritty streets. On the other hand, how much can CDPR really mess with, under the hood? Judging by games like No Man’s Sky, Destiny, and other famously half-baked launches…. a lot.
Bring on the clumsy VR porn, stealing cars, self-driving cabs, bribing and/or shooting cops, gang wars, black market trades, and terrifying body mods! Much like the characters in the game itself, let’s transform and replace Cyberpunk 2077 until it’s unrecognizable. It’s not like you’ve got much more social capital to lose anyway. Why not take a few insane risks, you know? The more players are able to screw, steal, and slaughter their way to the top, the longer they’ll stick around. Also, the thread where this leak showed up is here. If the information in question is accurate, there’s an incredible amount of content they could be restoring. Basically, if players are willing to wait (a pretty big ask at this point), we could be getting a whole-ass game out of this smoldering mess.