CP 2077 Version 2.0 - Some Thoughts from 09-30-2023.
INTRO - 09-30-2023:
So, I'm about 10 hours into CP 2077: Version 2.0 (base-game only, as I don't own the Phantom Liberty expansion yet). Replaying this time as a Female V, since my 1st playthrough was a Male V - yeah, I wanted to here the other voice-actor here, the female V voice-actress. Got some thoughts. A LOT of thoughts.
This Version 2.0 is a massive overhaul and I don't even know where to begin.
COMBAT.
Combat is much better and way less clunky, which is great for a game you play like a first-person shooter w/ those type of controls, of course. Combat always was fine, but always had some jank & clunky-ness to it - but, not as much jank & clunky-ness anymore. Sure, it's still there - but much less so than ever before, for sure. I also seem to be dying less here and the game also feels quite a bit easier on the Normal default difficulty, compared to version 1.63 and earlier. I think I've only died like once here so far in Version 2.0, so it's possible gamers might want to crank it up later or replay it on harder difficulties, as it feels easy...well, at least so far it feels easier on default & suggested difficulty, anyways. Also, your weapons (guns, melee, etc,) now have Tiers with Ratings & Stats are shown, so they are much easier now to compare to each other also and easier to see what might be the better weapon for you to equip, when you're in your Inventory & all to try and figure this mess out.
ADDITIONS & CHANGES TO GEAR...AND MORE!
In version 1.63 and under your armor, head-gears, pants, etc - they had armor, stats, slots, buffs, and other values & buffs associated to them. Not anymore with version 2.0 as that's all gone; they're just cool-looking clothes you can wear basically. If you have some fly clothes for head, pants, shirts/tops, etc - once equipped, you can move what you have on to a Preset. Yes, you even can now even set-up Presets for a handful of so of Outfit set-ups that you cobble together, so you just go into the Inventory and switch your cool, crazy, awesome, unique, wild, or any kind of Presets if you want. This way, just to have the best stats, you likely don't look ridiculously cartoon-y character with no real matching gear, if you don't want to...since most clothes that were the best from version 1.63 and below weren't made by the dev's as matching gear-sets here. If you want matching outfits, it's up to you. If you don't want matching outfits & you do want to look ridiculous and/or unique, it's up to you. It's all on you, how you want to dress and outfit yourself, since no stats or anything are tied to this stuff anymore.
All values for Armor and whatnot now have a separate section called Cyberware in 2.0. Now you can buy, earn, or pick-up Cyberware for your body parts (Head, Arm, Legs, etc); this makes sense and goes with the whole Transhuman & Augmentation thing this game has going on. These items don't alter your look & has nothing to do w/ your cool Outfits, as this stuff basically plugs into you - so this is now where all your stats for Armor and other stuff goes now.
POLICE.
Police seems more reactive to you - but, since they do seem tougher and the AI's better...they can be more of a pain, especially if you decide to cause lots of trouble in the game-world. The GTA-like Wanted system is still here, if you keep escalating stuff by feuding with bystanders and/or Police - but it seems, for the most part, much improved & better. Their AI already improved with earlier versions like 1.5 or so, but now they're even better and are harder to get away from; especially if you rack up the 5-star or 6-star type of GTA-like Wanted star levels here.
SKILL-SHOTS.
The Skills system is totally revamped and different too. There seems to be more skills, different skills, more skills in the Cool section now (for stealthy and assassin playthroughs), and things of that sort. I really ain't dabbled much into the other trees - but Stealth seems much more viable of an option here than ever before; that's for sure! Also, skills seem to be much more meaningless w/ actual moves and major increases when you get further into the tree, instead of small ones that don't matter much. So, yeah - this also can really help the combat here, too - as now you have more ways to play and more meaningful ways to play & experiment here, as you're not always funneled eventually into the "stealth ain't robust as an option here, so I guess I gotta' just shoot it out or melee it out straight-forward" path like version 1.63 and earlier.
OUTRO...FOR NOW.
I'm sure there's a lot more here I could go on about with the improvements, changes, and other stuff - and there's also other stuff I'm still discovering here, too. I'm not close to done, but I seem to be enjoying this MUCH more so than my 1st run-through, a few years ago or so. But, this version (version 2.0) does feel like the game we should've had out-the-box and probably what CDPR (CD Projekt RED) was promising, some almost 3 years ago or so when this released.
