Cyberpunk 2077 major free update completely overhauls the game

Not many games in recent memory have crashed so hard at launch, but risen like a Pheonix from the ashes quite like Cyberpunk 2077.

When CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 launched in December 2020, it was plagued with bugs, performance issues and a lack of promised content. In fact, the sci-fi RPG was considered to have launched in such a poor state, that Sony removed it from the PSN Store.

Cyberpunk 2077 would later return to the PSN Store in 2021, but despite receiving a series of patches to fix its woes, it was still far from an ideal state on PS4, and Xbox One. Thankfully, when the new-gen update arrived on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in February 2022, signs were showing that Cyberpunk 2077 was finally living up to its potential.

At around the time of the new-gen update, the anime series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners also arrived on Netflix. Set about a year prior to the main game, Edgerunners tells the story of David Martinez: “a young man attending the prestigious Arasaka Academy at his mother Gloria's behest, in spite of their financial struggle. David illegally modifies his cyberware to avoid paying for a required update to keep attending class.”

As reported by Kotaku, Edgerunners expanded upon the lore of cyberware and how over time, it can change the mental state of those that choose to augment their bodies and mind. The term ‘cyberpsychosis’ is used to describe when an individual is driven to insanity and loses all ability to function on their own accord as a direct negative impact of cyberware.

Cyberpsychosis does exist in Cyberpunk 2077, but it’s nowhere near explored to the extent of the Netflix anime series. However, this is about to change with the launch of the upcoming expansion, Phantom Liberty.

While it seems like cyberpsychosis won’t have a major impact on protagonist V in the expansion, some optional abilities in Phantom Liberty may have some negative drawbacks.

When speaking to VGC, CDPR’s quest director, Pawel Sasko explained some cyberware enhancements will make V more powerful, but it will come at a cost to V’s well-being. For example, an ability will enhance V’s combat skills but will come to the detriment of their health bar.

“It’s all about this balance between risk and reward,” explained Sasko. “We are not going as far as the introduction of cyberpsychosis though, have that in mind.”

I think it’s good that aspects of the anime series are being brought into the video game counterpart, but I can’t help but think that it would be unnervingly cool to make V hallucinate when implementing certain high-powered augmentations. Perhaps it’s something that will be explored in the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel? Only time will tell.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty will launch on 26 September 2023 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. What’s more, it will also launch alongside the aforementioned free update for which all will benefit from, whether you buy the expansion or not.