As the world is reluctantly preparing to say goodbye to Cyberpunk 2077, some are lamenting what could have been.
Players in an Oct. 23 Reddit post have been discussing what CDPR might have done to fill in the many gaps left during Cyberpunk 2077’s development cycle. The post, titled “I wish Cyberpunk 2077 had more expansions,” has brought together hundreds of players all expressing their grief and hope for Night City.
“Creating this beautiful city with such a scope and immersion just to use it in the base game, in one expansion and then never again feels kinda sad,” reads the original post. Cyberpunk 2077 faced a more than rocky launch, and it took nearly three years for CDPR to patch it all together. Now, with the release of Phantom Liberty, the developers are moving on to greener pastures with the Cyberpunk sequel title.
But fans think one expansion wasn’t enough. Night City is arguably a huge place, with many empty plots and mysterious, dark corners that could be harboring many untapped stories. That is precisely what one player claimed, arguing that CDPR barely scraped the surface of Night City’s oceanic depths. “Honestly they barely tapped the city they built. You could very easily make a whole other game in Night City that could feel pretty fresh if done right,” they said.
Another player theorized that CDPR is keeping all the most exciting stuff for the game’s sequel. Seeing how the game has fared over the last few years, that seems understandable. After all, they could only fix so much with updates, as any massive, free expansions would probably prove too costly to undertake.
“They are keeping it for the sequel. The reason there won’t be a second DLC is because they are dropping RedEngine and learning Unreal 5,” they said.
Cyberpunk 2077’s Act One was almost entirely cut, with only bits and pieces remaining. The playable character’s background barely affects the story, and Jackie’s character is entirely undeveloped. Such issues are plentiful in Cyberpunk, and they aren’t of the sort you just patch-note away.
Some players also had their own ideas as to what the fabled second Cyberpunk 2077 expansion could have been. As a reminder, the game was supposed to have no less DLC than The Witcher 3, which got two full expansion packs. One player mentioned they would’ve loved seeing a Trauma Team or Maxtac-related expansion pack. And just imagine the potential that could have had.
Trauma Team is the world’s dystopian version of privatized healthcare. Private interests are taken to an absolute extreme. Lives weighed against their monetary value. Such an expansion would allow us to dig deeper into the corporate darkness and greed of Night City, where the neo-aristocratic corporate elites rule with an iron fist.
But alas, we got what we got, and now we’re in for the long haul of waiting for the next game that will hopefully take us to all the places Cyberpunk 2077 never did.
