I’ve been replaying Cyberpunk 2077 and it’s DLC and thought I’d give my thoughts on the game now that 2.0 has been out for a year or so.

I began replaying the game this year after having an itch for Cyberpunk content. Now after all it’s been through, I think it’s one of my favorite games. It’s come a long way but holy shit I love this game. I love the world, I love the story, I love everything about it. I love how engulfing the city is, how you can hate it but also love it at the same time. It took me a while to appreciate and fully embrace this game, I think but hey it’s definitely one of my favorite worlds now.

A bit of background on my experience with Cyberpunk: the game was one of my most anticipated for years, but I never ended up getting it on launch because of the horrible state it was in. I decided to wait and ended up getting the game on sale roughly 1-2 years later.
My first playthrough was entirely different to the one that I experienced with the 2.0. I used to think that a lot of the mechanics and gameplay was very half-baked, along with the exploration. It made Night City feel void and lifeless. On top of that, I played the most of my first playthrough on PS4 which was interesting to say the least. Overall I think the best part of the game was its storytelling, and thought for a while that the game was a forgettable gaming experience with only a good story holding it up—leaving me to not pick up the game for a while.
That was until Edgerunners came out, and after I read up a bit on the modules did my opinion change a little. Finished my first playthrough and that was that. I got Phantom Liberty when it launched, and I loved it. I still love it. The one thing CD Projekt is good at is making phenomenal DLCs and I’ve said it before but man I wish it came with the game. I used the same character I used for my PS4 save on my PS5; Nomad route and netrunner build. I ended up 100%ing the game and put it down afterward.

2.0 is the optimal version to play the game on, hands down. The update has changed a lot of things and added a whole lot more: they tweaked the skills and stats system, added cyberware options (which is one of the things I had complaints for), improved the exploration and immersion by adding things like transportation and more.
Cars still drive pretty bad, and the police system is still not the greatest but I’ll take it over the old system. Overall, Night City feels like a city now, not some devoid ghost town like before.

That’s all I gotta say. Cyberpunk is an amazing game, it’s come a long way. One of my favorites for sure now. I think that if it launched like this, I would’ve immediately loved it.