I’ve spent the last few weeks playing what is essentially another full playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077. My goal was to come back to her later once the game had been more fixed and patched with QoL changes added. Now with the game’s recent resurgence, I figured this was as good a time as any to return to her, and 30 hours and 35 more levels later, I have a maxed V who needs to go meet Hanako at Embers.

Previously, I’ve written up compilations of patch notes with the laundry lists of changes that have been made to the game in the last two years, but actually playing through it is a different story. Here’s what I’ve actually noticed has changed since my first playthroughs. And it’s a good amount.

Performance, Stability, Bugs – While I didn’t encounter any bugs that fully broke my game in my initial Cyberpunk launch playthrough, there were plenty of annoying ones to be found. Here, however, with thousands of fixes in place, I think I maybe reloaded once to fix something stuck, but out of 30 hours, that’s not so bad. Sure, you get the occasional odd glitch like a stretched out corpse or a guy standing on top of his motorcycle seat, but we are miles from the launch era where bug compilation videos from the game were lighting the internet on fire.

The Visuals – While Cyberpunk always looked best on PC, it really has been taken to a new level these days. Night City is, what I would argue, the best looking modern/futuristic cityscape to ever appear in a game, and a truly gorgeous place to simply wander around and explore. This was not always the case on console, but here, it’s a beautiful game, one that has made a hobby of taking photos around the world.

The Living City – CDPR has noticeably, dramatically improved the density of the population of the city, where on my PC build at least, Night City is swarming with pedestrians, which are no longer clones of each other, nor do they react in goofy, identical ways when there’s danger nearby. That’s all been patched. And I’d argue there are enough random events as you move through a fresh playthrough, crimes, occasional conversations, to make the city feel more alive than it’s been previously.

The New Missions – There are not many, but I noticed a few of the new quests seeping into old ones, like one guy I rescued was referenced in a different gig when he wasn’t before. I very much appreciated the rewards I racked up from Fixers as I played, which did not used to be a thing, but they give you powerful weapons and good cars now that are useful as you’re playing. These are all best experienced with a new playthrough, less so going back to a game save where you’ve already beaten everything.

Difficulty – Difficulty in the game has been rebalanced, both in terms of giving you more XP and cash rewards on higher difficulties, and also making those difficulties…harder. My guns blazing build is strong, but it’s still possible that I’m killed even with like six Cyberware mods to give me bonus lives if my health drops. Very Hard is…very hard now, depending on your build. Certain things like quickhacks and Sandevistan cyberware are still overpowered, but you want a bit of that so you make sure you’re still having fun and not just getting brutalized.

Customization – I cannot speak highly enough about the new transmog system that’s been introduced, which allows you to trash all your gear, saving you hundreds of pounds of carry weight, but keep all those styles for customized V looks that retain your “powerful” gear benefits underneath. And the fact that you can change your V’s face and hair after all this time is great, albeit that’s something that should have existed from the start, and it’s absurd it took so long to arrive. I just wish that more clothes and tattoo and cyberware options had been added, but you have to purely rely on mods for those.

Driving – It just feels better. I know they patched in a bunch of changes to how cars handle, and it’s just…much better. Car combat however, remains not a thing, and that’s something they’ve said they will be patching in later. A bit late, that.

The Weather – One thing I noticed is that Cyberpunk realized how cool its dust storms were, and now those occur more often, and actually in the city, not just the Badlands. Between that and an increase in rain as well, it’s a lot more of a Blade Runner 2049 vibe, and makes the city feel more alive than before, and incredibly visually stimulating.

The Core – The core of the game is the same, and what’s missing before is still missing. Life paths mean more or less nothing. You are herded into essentially one relationship based on your V’s gender and preference. I still find Johnny extremely annoying for 90% of the game. Too many interesting sidequests end in frustrating loose ends. But, I maintain that the good quests here are still some of the best in the genre, thanks to NPCs like Panam, River and Judy. My re-run of Pyramid Song with Judy last night reminded me of just how much they nailed some things here.