If I Could Have One Wish For Cyberpunk 2077’s Sequel, I’m Choosing A Night City That’s Out To Obliterate Me

Cyberpunk 2077 may have gotten off to a rocky start, but it has bounced back, becoming many people’s favorite game. While it hasn’t quite dethroned my number one game of all time, I have a lot of love for Cyberpunk 2077, its sprawling narrative, phenomenal cast of characters, and engrossing soundtrack, which I haven’t stopped listening to since the final credits rolled. There’s no song quite like The Rebel Path. However, as much as I do genuinely love Cyberpunk 2077, T-bugs and all, there is one major flaw that I’ve struggled to overlook, if only because it’s so utterly bizarre.

That is, of course, Night City, the delectably detailed and wonderfully designed open-world space that V rips and tears across in their near-impossible-to-control car or bike. On a purely visual level, Night City is incredible, and I never tire of exploring its varied streets, if only because there’s usually some interesting bar or park I’ve somehow missed. However, for Cyberpunk 2077’s long-awaited sequel, Night City has to change, and in a really big way, so that it no longer feels like a strangely safe place to explore.

Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City Doesn’t Feel Dangerous

It Is A Surprisingly Safe Place To Explore

When I first started playing Cyberpunk 2077 and began exploring Night City, I almost immediately noticed something was wrong. It wasn’t the NPCs t-posing over their cars or coffee cups miraculously floating in midair, although that certainly contributed to my general sense of unease. Rather, despite Cyberpunk 2077 truly being one of the most immersive open-world games ever made, the distinct lack of danger that I felt while wandering the streets of Night City alone was utterly bizarre and a tad disappointing.

That’s because the game itself, all the supplementary expanded media, and the developers have all stated that Night City is one of the worst places to live on earth, a veritable nightmarish pit of crime, despair, and destruction, all of which threatens to get in V’s way. It’s all well and good to say that, but the game never really demonstrates that’s the case outside a handful of extremely scripted missions or some of Cyberpunk 2077’s disappointing side quests. At no point did I ever get the impression that Night City is a dangerous place to live while exploring.

To be clear, Night City is certainly filled with unscrupulous-looking characters, dirty, litter-covered streets, and plenty of patrolling police cars. Later Cyberpunk 2077 updates also added more random events, like cops chasing criminals, which are exciting. However, these elements simply don’t do enough to emulate the feeling that Night City is actually a dangerous and scary place to live, a place on the brink of total collapse. V looks, at least at first glance, like an easy target for criminals, so there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be getting mugged or robbed at any given moment.

Cyberpunk 2077 2 Needs More Emergent Crimes

Robberies, Ambushes, Carjacking

Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel really needs to implement some form of emergent crime system to make Night City feel suitably scary. V could get robbed while wandering alone, ambushed when entering particularly dangerous parts of the city, or just attacked while exploring. Currently, there are gangs hanging around on street corners that will attack you if you get close enough, but they won’t actively go after you outside of that, perpetually sticking to their predefined spot. Everywhere else outside of those encounters is relatively safe, beyond having just a general air of unpleasantness.

Night City is absolutely a feature Cyberpunk 2 must improve, as, currently, it can feel like little more than a gorgeous backdrop. There are also too few open worlds that feel meaningfully dangerous to explore from the outset, at least within an urban setting. Beyond the likes of BOTW and Elden Ring, which are set in inherently hostile worlds, the likes of GTA, Watch Dogs, and Cyberpunk 2077 play it too safe when it comes to exploration, ostensibly allowing players to safely move from one mission to the other unless they actively start causing trouble.

The only game I can think of that features a dangerous urban open world that the player has to navigate carefully is the extremely underrated FPS, Homefront: The Revolution. It featured numerous open areas, some of which were actively hostile, and others required you to stealth about in order to avoid being caught by the oppressive police. That mechanic of having a seemingly safe city environment that’s openly hostile to the player added to the overall exploration experience and made the first few hours of any new area incredibly tense and exciting.

If Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel introduced emergent crimes to Night City, it would offer that same feeling of being unsafe in an environment that’s typically considered safe in similar video games. One could argue that the NCPD Scanner Hustles, which are easily Cyberpunk 2077’s most immersion-breaking feature, offer something akin to this. However, not only do they have to be actively sought out, rather than affecting the player randomly while exploring, they’re also centered around assisting the police. Naturally, that feels antithetical to making Night City feel unsafe.

Cyberpunk 2077’s Sequel Needs To Make Night City More Interactive

There’s Not Much To Do In The Vast Open-World City

The lack of crime and the missing sense of fear while exploring Night City made me realize that it isn’t a particularly interactive space. There are shops you can visit, NPCs to talk to, and side quests to complete, but the city itself feels like an incredibly static location. That’s fine. Not every game needs to aspire to be Kingdom Come: Deliverance when it comes to immersive ways of interacting with its world. However, I do feel like, especially with Cyberpunk 2077 originally touting itself as the next-generation of open-world games, it should have tried harder.

Of course, none of this may matter, with Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel changing settings. However, if that is the case, or if the sequel even stays in Night City for a small moment, the next game in the series should make a concerted effort to raise the stakes while exploring. I don’t want to feel safe while wandering around what is supposed to be an inherently dangerous place. I want Night City to feel unpredictable, exciting, and a little scary. I basically want it to feel like visiting London for the first time.

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There is so much potential for Night City to be a truly innovative and unique open-world sandbox, and CD Projekt Red is close to making it a reality. The version of Night City we got in Cyberpunk 2077 is good, a visual delight, and a well-crafted concrete jungle. It’s varied and vast, and there is life, even if it can seem a tad static at times. However, I know it can be so much more than what it is right now, and I truly believe that CD Projekt Red has the talent to pull it off in Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel.

Cyberpunk 2077

Systems

8/10

Released

December 10, 2020

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol

Developer(s)

CD Projekt Red

Publisher(s)

CD Projekt Red

Engine

REDengine 4

Cross-Platform Play

ps, xbox, pc

Cross Save

yes

Expansions

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

Franchise

Cyberpunk

Number of Players

Single-player

Steam Deck Compatibility

yes

PC Release Date

December 10, 2020

Xbox Series X|S Release Date

February 15, 2022

PS5 Release Date

February 15, 2022

Nintendo Switch 2 Release Date

June 5, 2025

Platform(s)

PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, PC

How Long To Beat

25 Hours

X|S Optimized

Yes

Metascore

75

PS Plus Availability

N/A

OpenCritic Rating

Strong