I absolutely loved The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. Unfortunately, it’s one of the myriad of games I played in the years my blog was lost so I don’t have a write up of it right now; but I spent hours and hours as Geralt of Rivia, hunting monsters and bandits, romancing Triss and Yen, and trying to find Ciri so we can stop the White Frost.

So when I heard about a new game by the same creators, that was set in a futuristic world, I was extremely excited. I remember playing the original GTA (the top-down versions) which had multiple factions/gangs, and you had varying levels of reputation with each. If you had high enough reputation, you’d get more missions and other benefits from them.

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Spoiler Disclaimer: I don’t necessarily try to spoil anything, but I do give my authentic experience. Sometimes that entails giving details about the story or late-game items you may want to discover for yourself. Proceed with caution

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The initial hype had me hooked, hearing about the different backgrounds you can select and how the world was split into areas controlled by different factions — Voodoo Boys, Tyger Claws etc. When those first few bits of information started to come out, I thought back to those early GTA times and thought the relationships with the factions would be a big point.

Here’s to a Never-Ending Backlog!

Regardless of my excitement, I’m still a big proponent of not pre-ordering games. Especially in this day-and-age where we can simply download them. It’s not like you have to sit in line at a store so you can acquire your copy at midnight anymore.

So, I waited until the initial information about the actual game came out before buying it myself (and as we all know it was a doozy). Also, I’m perpetually behind on games, anyway. So I wasn’t exactly ready to play as soon as it came out. Fortunately for me, by the time I played, the vast majority of the kinks had been ironed out.

I will say that I was a bit disappointed in how the gangs and their territories ultimately came in to play. It doesn’t really seem like any of your choices are all that impactful. I think there are a couple specific quests where, if you go one way or the other, the way you’re treated later by some members might change. And I know choices are impactful for personal relationships. But there was definitely no reputation system and nothing seemed to be locked behind being to friendly with one clique over another.

Hell, in my first play-through, I was extremely hesitant to work with or for anyone who seemed like police. I kind of avoided Regina’s gigs and the Cyberpsychos, and didn’t really do of the Assault in Progresses. I was playing as a corpo-turned-criminal, and I didn’t want anyone getting the idea that I might work with cops.

That said, after playing a while, doing a couple, and seeing nothing change; I realized they were inconsequential. It doesn’t really matter. I can do a gig in a Tyger Claw bar, kill everyone in there, then walk through the front door to Clouds like it doesn’t matter.

I suppose there’s one quest — well, Side Job — where you’re somewhat recognized. There’s a food vendor who convinced his sister to leave her gang and take a job with a corp. A couple guys from the gang want to steal his bike in revenge, and if your rep is high enough, they might recognize you and run away.

If you’re becoming a “Night City Legend” though, it would seem that you’d get recognized like that more often, but you don’t. Combined with the lack of meaningful reputation, I don’t ever feel like I’m becoming a Legend. I see how I’m becoming more and more unbeatable; and am taking down groups of enemies without breaking a sweat — but without the recognition it doesn’t give legendary to me.

Enough Complaining

Having just played Watch_Dogs, I leaned into the Netrunner on my initial play-through. I really like the idea of sitting outside of a building, hacking into their cameras, and just taking care of whatever I need to take care of from afar. Makes me feel like the “guy in the chair” but more deadly.

Cyberpunk doesn’t fully let you do that — given a lot of the missions require physically stealing something, uploading software, or rescuing a person. But still, Doing recon and taking out anyone who might be in my way before I even set foot into the building was a lot of fun.

That said, I saw the other options open to someone who wants to vary their playstyle (or have multiple play-throughs) and very quickly had some ideas on what I wanted to do next. It’s taken a few years to get to that point. But with a few big updates (and, obviously, Phantom Liberty) behind us and the upcoming 0.23 release, I thought this was the perfect time to dive back in and try out something new (and see what I’ve been missing since those huge updates dropped).

Even while playing the first time a few years ago, I anticipated doing a female V for my second playthrough, using Sandy and the Mantis Blades. In hindsight, that character might be a bit cliché (I’ve been watching some Cyberpunk YouTube videos, and I realize I basically created Oda), but oh well it sounded fun.

While I see how you can still go through the game without really ever using the weaponized vehicles — and you wouldn’t miss out on much. It’s a nice addition, and they’ve certainly been fun to play around with.

I also don’t remember crafting being as robust as it is — being able to craft weapons and quickhacks & upgrade cyberware. I can’t say I touched the crafting menu once in my first playthrough, but now I often find myself looking through it to see if there’s anything new I can use.

Even after several hours in the new playthrough, I’m still finding new items and upgrades that I can craft (technically I’m kind of on my third playthrough, too, because I’m running a couple characters concurrently; so that helps with keeping crafting fresh)

Early Struggles with New Playstyle

When I started playing, I pretty immediately fell into old habits and wanted to play stealthily. I really like the idea of getting in-and-out of places without the people being any wiser. Nobody knows the thing is missing until they need it and check on it. Real Danny Ocean stuff.

I thought that one of the primary selling points of the Sandevistan was that you’d be too fast to be noticed. In the early-game, though, that wasn’t the case for me. Moving as fast as I’m able, I was still frequently getting seen by cameras and other enemies. And once I inevitably entered combat, my perks felt pointless.

I distinctly remember attempting to dodge a melee enemy, but they still hit me. Sometimes they were far away, but the hit still registered, and others they would just zoom up next to me by the time they were actually going to hit me. It was super frustrating; but in hindsight, I guess hadn’t upgraded anything yet, so it makes sense that higher-level enemies could still hurt me.

I also struggled in the early game with Sandy, given I had no real way to survey my environment or make enemies look away (so I thought, I figured out throwing knives later — oh and I did find the recon grenade as well, but those are ass…).

So in general, there was a lot of trial and error to figuring out this playstyle. Reddit told me to just be aggressive, go in and mess everyone up; but I didn’t want that. And now that she’s more established, I’m happy with the route I went.

Ghost in the Shell

A huge help in being stealthy was the perk that decreased detection as your mitigation chance increased (when crouched). Whenever I added more cyberware, I primarily focused on maximizing my mitigation chance; and now, my detection is at 12% [confirm this] when crouched. I am virtually invisible. I also got myself to a place where I could unlock crouch sprint pretty quickly, and that was a big help.

To leave nothing to chance, I also started using optical camo, too — it’s basically gotten to a point where I don’t feel like I fight enough sometimes. I find myself initiating combat when I don’t really need to, just to get the experience points. I’m basically a ghost, picking and choosing the times I bless the enemies with being able to see me.

Staying on the “Ninja” theme, I wanted to use blades whenever I engaged an enemy. Initially, I wasn’t sure how I’d defend myself from guns when I’m using a sword or arm-blades, and planned to rely on moving around quickly enough with the Sandy. I was pleasantly surprised, though, when I found the bullet deflect perk; and felt like Luke Skywalker returning bullets back to the shooters with prejudice.

When I first started out, I was watching Titans (the live-action show about Robin, Raven, Starfire, and Beast Boy); and saw this V having a similar skillset to Deathstroke — using a sniper to take care of enemies that were too far away to use blades. I soon realized, though:

1. That largely goes against the stealth aspect — I was found every time I shot (didn’t stick with it long enough to find out if there’s silenced snipers) and
2. There aren’t that many opportunities to snipe in the first place. Most encounters are relatively close quarters, being inside rooms and in alleys and hallways.

I decided to forego the sniper, my decision being a lot easier when I learned that I could throw knives. Honestly, I never knew throwing knives were in the game. And when I first found out, I thought they were their own separate weapon. I didn’t know that you could just throw knives. Once I found that out, though, those projectiles played perfectly with the blades theme I was going for.

With the Kerenzikov cyberware + Sandevistan cyberware + Juggler perk, you can run into an area and take out all the enemies before the guys crouching have a chance to stand up. I saw a clip of a guy who drove by some enemies, jumped out of his car with Sandy on, took out all of the guys and got back into his moving vehicle that stayed in the flow of traffic. I’m not quite that dialed in yet, but I want to try my hand at something similar soon.

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same…

There are some things that are frustrating that are the same three years and several updates later. The primary beef I have with this game (and games like it) are the dialogue options. There’s no indication of what’s actually going to be said when an option is chosen, or the tone it’s going to come out in or anything.

I understand making choices, and seeing the outcomes and consequences of those choices; but it doesn’t feel like I’m actually making a choice. It all seems arbitrary. I’ll read an answer in one inflection, but when spoken, V uses a completely different tone. I may want to be nice, but instead that option has V say something mean and the person I’m talking to gets mad.

I distinctly remember a conversation between V and Judy on the roof, where I was trying to be supportive. My girlfriend was watching me play, and we talked through which one’s we thought would be the best/most comforting/”nicest” option given the scenario. I reloaded the save a couple of times so that we could see the outcome of each of the three options.

Turns out, the once that both of us agreed was the least likely to give the response we wanted to give was in fact the one to give the most positive, supportive response. It makes it feel less like a role-playing experience and more like a guess-and-hope experience. I’m just glad this game lets you freely save-scum. I have no qualms with it in this scenario.

At Least Cars Actually Have a Purpose Now

I think driving still leaves a little to be desired. The cars handle a bit weirdly — turning can be difficult and drifting is far too easy. And cars are too quick to get to their top speeds, causing the engine audio to sound like you’re constantly redlining.

That said, I’m a Night City legend, so of course I had to get myself a Rayfield (or two). And since there’s a target on my back, I got myself a Hellhound just to be safe. I’m still working toward that Trailbruiser, it looks sick.

Something else that’s new that I really enjoy, is the body check for stealing vehicles. It’s always felt a little too easy just klepping the coolest-looking car in GTA. So making sure you’re strong enough to actually steal the car is refreshing. I kind of wish it were based on more than just body. I should be able to, say, open the door remotely if I can literally take over the whole car. But I still definitely like that they implemented this feature.

And this isn’t new, but I really like that some of the cars have video screens showing the outside, instead of windows. It’s the best of both worlds — more protection as well as being hidden from prying eyes. On top of that it’s just cool. Maybe not all that practical (you’d be completely blind if the cameras go down) but incredibly cool nonetheless.

Also, and this is apropos of nothing, but I think there needs to be a steal or pickpocket mechanic. If I want to role play as a thief, I should be able to get access to rooms by lifting the key off of an enemy; and not having to incapacitate everyone.

Later Chooms

There’s a lot of potential still to be had in Night City, I think. More reasons to use weaponized vehicles, the ability to acquire a flying car, and actually being able to experience the BD’s you buy (though, that could push the game into a completely different territory it doesn’t want to be in) are all ways this world can be built upon.

I heard there aren’t any plans to release more content in this game, but I don’t believe that’s actually true. The last couple updates were unplanned (or, at least, unannounced) so hopefully, that’s simply the case.

In the meantime, though, I’m really enjoying my 2025 playthrough(s) of this game. I’m constantly finding new and unique ways to combine perks, cyberware, weapons, and more to most efficiently solve gigs, take out enemies, cripple the corpos, and ultimately leave my mark on Night City. Peace, I’m off to find Songbird.