Cyberpunk 2077 website says free DLC coming early 2021, but how realistic is that?

[Cal Jeffrey]

Full disclosure: I am a very early adopter of Cyberpunk 2077. It was a game I knew that I wanted. So when Amazon had pre-orders discounted last March, I snagged a PS4 copy for under $50. I was a bit underwhelmed but not disappointed with my purchase.

Despite its rocky start on standard consoles, playing Cyberpunk 2077 on a PS4 Pro has not been a terrible experience. Yes, there were some terrible bugs at first, but the worst of those are smashed after three updates. My main complaint is that it felt a little short, so I'm ready for some DLC, but when can we expect some new content?

CD Projekt Red developers are reportedly set to release more content in the next few months. Engadget notes, the official Cyberpunk 2077 website prominently displays a side banner on the DLC page stating, "Free DLC starts hitting Night City early 2021." But can that be right?

The page went live on launch day, but issues have snowballed since then for CD Projekt Red, and its developers have been busy trying to fix the core game. While it is reasonable to assume that some preliminary work has gone into CP2077 DLC, it is just as likely that work has been delayed by at least two months.

As previously mentioned, devs have had their hands full since release, with three hotfixes and two "large patches" coming– one later this month and another in February. That said, if CDPR has a separate team working on DLC, it is still within the realm of possibilities that we will see it within the next few months, but don't get your hopes up.

In addition to the problems with the core game on consoles, CD Projekt Red is in the midst of a PR nightmare. Between the troubles issuing refunds to the game being pulled from the PlayStation Store to it now having to deal with a class-action lawsuit, the studio as a whole has been busy.

"To be honest, it's too early to judge," said CDPR co-CEO Adam Kiciński when asked about DLC during an investors call last month. "At the moment, please let us handle the situation, and please let us make some more assessments – that's still ahead of us; we don't know yet, and we're now focused on improving Cyberpunk. We'll discuss this early next year."

It is probable that the DLC page is just a placeholder, since there is no link to it on the Cyberpunk 2077 home page. If I had to venture a guess, I would say not to expect any DLC until at least late summer or early fall at the earliest. The last thing that CDPR will do is rush out DLC in the first part of 2021 on a game that has yet to be fully fixed, further compounding its woes.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/88152-cyberpunk-2077-website-free-dlc-coming-early-2021.html

 

[nnguy2]

The main story can be short maybe 20-25hrs?

But the side missions are top notch and plenty to do. Did you do River Ward's story line? Judy's? Kerry? Panam? Rogue? Did you get the band together? Hell hunting down all the cyberpyscho should easily take 5-10hrs to track down.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Em, speaking as someone with more time in Ark:SE than is healthy:

Fix your F***in game before adding DLCs.

 

[Lionvibez]

Em, speaking as someone with more time in Ark:SE than is healthy:

Fix your F***in game before adding DLCs.

1000% agreed with this how dare they talk about DLC's right now. When they have still pending ligation on the launch lol.

 

[Dimitriid]

It's realistic, just insincere: They could literally add 3 Tshirts and a single new car and it would technically be "A new, free DLC out early 2021"

And if you think I am just making a joke, well you'd be correct but is it really that far off from the implied promises of the pre-release material vs what was delivered?

I have a first playthrough of 90 hours and after starting a new character I immediately noticed just how incredibly developed the first act is: There's tons of scripted events with protests, a suicide, several murders with police barricades. The first mission has multiple angles, multiple outcomes, NPCs that are very well done introduced for the benefit of a SINGLE SIDE MISSION.

Then immediately after that it seems like it was January 2020 exactly one year ago, and the team was told "We're not correcting the press release, you must finish the rest of the game THIS YEAR" and then Act II and specially Act III feel exactly as that: as a desperate attempt to just finish the story. None of the missing mechanics were implemented, most of the content was turned from interesting additional or side mission to just literally a single ****ing phone call telling you "Go deal with X" and as you leveled up, non main-missions that do not involve an "Ending" influencing character just get sidelined: The missions become stupid fetch/kill quests, even the romance became a single scene you can't repeat and a single new dialogue tree that never changes again no matter what.

So just giving people a few new tshirts and a slightly different model car seems like exactly the kind of promise CDPR is doing with this game: the bare minimum.

 

[Dimitriid]

The main story can be short maybe 20-25hrs?

But the side missions are top notch and plenty to do. Did you do River Ward's story line? Judy's? Kerry? Panam? Rogue? Did you get the band together? Hell hunting down all the cyberpyscho should easily take 5-10hrs to track down.

I would argue that none of the ones you mentioned except River and maybe Kerry, cannot truly be considered "side missions" Since you are introduced to those characters as part of main missions and given how completing those "side missions" directly influence ending choices, and most importantly, the few "GOOD" endings there are (They aren't good but the least depressing ones) people are likely to explore them.

To me the real side missions are mostly the police ones and fixer phone call gigs and it seems like level design was kind of the last thing they spend some time on: there are several approaches that are interesting and that's because attention was put at the level design, but the writing it's incredibly poor overall, specially when compared to Act I which was really strong. But then the majority of side missions don't even have cut scenes, just random "Go kill/fetch X" and 2 phone calls, that's all you get in terms of writing: the bare minimum.

 

[nnguy2]

I would argue that none of the ones you mentioned except River and maybe Kerry, cannot truly be considered "side missions" Since you are introduced to those characters as part of main missions and given how completing those "side missions" directly influence ending choices, and most importantly, the few "GOOD" endings there are (They aren't good but the least depressing ones) people are likely to explore them.

To me the real side missions are mostly the police ones and fixer phone call gigs and it seems like level design was kind of the last thing they spend some time on: there are several approaches that are interesting and that's because attention was put at the level design, but the writing it's incredibly poor overall, specially when compared to Act I which was really strong. But then the majority of side missions don't even have cut scenes, just random "Go kill/fetch X" and 2 phone calls, that's all you get in terms of writing: the bare minimum.

I dunno. I would argue since you're not required to do them to finish the game they would be side missions.

The gigs you mentioned are the exact same nature as Witcher 3 monster contract. There are some lore associated with those gigs if you read the gig description and the shards found in the missions. This is exactly the same and TW3 monster contract. Go to a location, find clues giving some background to what happened, kill target/retrieve item. Yet I don't recall people nitpicking TW3's monster contracts as empty filler.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

The main story can be short maybe 20-25hrs?

But the side missions are top notch and plenty to do. Did you do River Ward's story line? Judy's? Kerry? Panam? Rogue? Did you get the band together? Hell hunting down all the cyberpyscho should easily take 5-10hrs to track down.

Yeah. I just hit the "point of no return" the day before yesterday, So I've currently back burnered the main quests to run down the side quests. That said, even the side quests don't add a whole lot to the game in the way of interesting and compelling story. The main story is what really drives the game and the side quests are great, don't get me wrong, but they are less about the narrative and more about gameplay IMO. There's nothing wrong with that, but I feel side quests and gigs could have been woven in better. As it is I feel like I'm pausing the story just for the sake of seeking that 100% trophy rather than trying to get some tasty morsels of story.

So for me, the narrative just went too fast. If side quests had been easier to fall upon and injected between sections of the main story, I think it would have been better. But I do understand that side missions are not always easy to implement in an open-world game. I think Red Dead Redemption 2 did a decent job of placing side jobs in such a way that you encountered many of them as you were going from here to there as you worked the primary narrative. With CP2077, I was just like cruising along and then: "Whoa! 'Point of no return?' Look at all these side quests still on the map."

The bottom line is I have enjoyed the story so far and am looking forward to Act 3, but I already know I'm going to be itching for an expansion here real soon.

 

[nnguy2]

As it is I feel like I'm pausing the story just for the sake of seeking that 100% trophy rather than trying to get some tasty morsels of story.

If side quests had been easier to fall upon and injected between sections of the main story, I think it would have been better. But I do understand that side missions are not always easy to implement in an open-world game.

The bottom line is I have enjoyed the story so far and am looking forward to Act 3, but I already know I'm going to be itching for an expansion here real soon.

You first point is a valid criticism. The side quests and gigs are a bit disjointed from the main story. However, I felt they were there for world building and lore. There's a lot of side stories that reinforces what a crazy world CP inhabits. For example, one of the cyberpyscho you find murdered her sister at her wedding. How that came about is perfect writing. A lot of it is up to the player since you have to read about it in the shards, and sometimes the clues are kinda like dark souls in that it's ambiguous and up to you to interpret.


All I can say is find Kerry and do his missions. You will not be disappointed. Although some of them are triggered a few days after completing the preceding mission and not something you can find via quest icon on map.

 

[Nobina]

It's only free because of the backlash for the bugs and the game being mediocre.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

You first point is a valid criticism. The side quests and gigs are a bit disjointed from the main story. However, I felt they were there for world building and lore. There's a lot of side stories that reinforces what a crazy world CP inhabits. For example, one of the cyberpyscho you find murdered her sister at her wedding. How that came about is perfect writing. A lot of it is up to the player since you have to read about it in the shards, and sometimes the clues are kinda like dark souls in that it's ambiguous and up to you to interpret.


All I can say is find Kerry and do his missions. You will not be disappointed. Although some of them are triggered a few days after completing the preceding mission and not something you can find via quest icon on map.

Yeah. I can't disagree. I did find the wedding massacre. It was an interesting side point, but I feel it would have been more engaging had it been triggered in some other way than by me going, "Oh here's another mysterious side quest I haven't done," and then driving to it. You know what I'm saying? Instead of just coming upon side quests (which some of them you do but not nearly enough), you literally have to seek them out, which to me is un-immersive AF.

But as I said before, I'm still enjoying them. I have most of the bigger side stories done. Kerry's, Panam's, Judy's, River's. Mostly have those smaller go fetch/murder/sabotage gigs from fixers like Rogue and Mr Hands. And a ton of NCPD encounters. I don't like those so much because they are buggy. Sometimes the game won't register them as a mission or whatever, so I'll go in and kill everyone or whatever and won't get credit and have to come back later to do it again. Annoying.

 

[nnguy2]

Yeah. I can't disagree. I did find the wedding massacre. It was an interesting side point, but I feel it would have been more engaging had it been triggered in some other way than by me going, "Oh here's another mysterious side quest I haven't done," and then driving to it. You know what I'm saying? Instead of just coming upon side quests (which some of them you do but not nearly enough), you literally have to seek them out, which to me is un-immersive AF.

But as I said before, I'm still enjoying them. I have most of the bigger side stories done. Kerry's, Panam's, Judy's, River's. Mostly have those smaller go fetch/murder/sabotage gigs from fixers like Rogue and Mr Hands. And a ton of NCPD encounters. I don't like those so much because they are buggy. Sometimes the game won't register them as a mission or whatever, so I'll go in and kill everyone or whatever and won't get credit and have to come back later to do it again. Annoying.

Yeah it becomes a bit tedious chasing the quest icons lol.

As for NCPD, I play it safe and wait for the transmission to finish and there's usually a chest you loot to register the end of mission.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

As for NCPD, I play it safe and wait for the transmission to finish and there's usually a chest you loot to register the end of mission.

Yeah, I do too, but sometimes the quest won't trigger. When they work right, the dispatcher will come on and brief you if you get anywhere close to the crime scene, but It's buggy. Sometimes it won't trigger at all. I've even walked right into the middle of the icon on the minimap, or run all around the area, and the dispatcher will still not come on the comms channel.

 

[m4a4]

Yeah, I do too, but sometimes the quest won't trigger. When they work right, the dispatcher will come on and brief you if you get anywhere close to the crime scene, but It's buggy. Sometimes it won't trigger at all. I've even walked right into the middle of the icon on the minimap, or run all around the area, and the dispatcher will still not come on the comms channel.

Did you try a different time of day? If I remember, some of them are time dependent...

 

[Dimitriid]

I dunno. I would argue since you're not required to do them to finish the game they would be side missions.

The gigs you mentioned are the exact same nature as Witcher 3 monster contract. There are some lore associated with those gigs if you read the gig description and the shards found in the missions. This is exactly the same and TW3 monster contract. Go to a location, find clues giving some background to what happened, kill target/retrieve item. Yet I don't recall people nitpicking TW3's monster contracts as empty filler.

The clues about the monsters felt more involved. Though I will concede that the core mechanics were not all that complex either for Witcher 3 contracts, but I feel there's more world building on examining tracks and Geralt's little monologues along with the lore entries for tips on how to combat than "Go steal a van from this gang" and you killing the gangsters guarding it by your usual means. I was expecting the gang would give chase, or that I would discover it had already been moved to a new secondary area, maybe even that I would find most of the gang members already dead and the survivor explaining, etc. But nope: just steal the van and we'll wire in some money for you.

There *is* some world building if you go ahead and read out all of the conversations those gangsters have on them and some of the documents they leave on their computers, but I feel there's a bit of a disconnect on the situation vs how you approach it because you can always approach all situations almost the same. Cyberpsychos never actually let you talk them down about anything (On the 10 or so I did) which is kind of what I was expecting.

I do think that by comparing to Witcher 3 it still comes way short. It's better than most other contemporary "RPGs" mind you (I am looking at you Bethesda and 76) but I also think that we expected an improvement on the Witcher 3, not a bit of a regression.

 

[Dimitriid]

Yeah. I just hit the "point of no return" the day before yesterday, So I've currently back burnered the main quests to run down the side quests. That said, even the side quests don't add a whole lot to the game in the way of interesting and compelling story. The main story is what really drives the game and the side quests are great, don't get me wrong, but they are less about the narrative and more about gameplay IMO. There's nothing wrong with that, but I feel side quests and gigs could have been woven in better. As it is I feel like I'm pausing the story just for the sake of seeking that 100% trophy rather than trying to get some tasty morsels of story.

So for me, the narrative just went too fast. If side quests had been easier to fall upon and injected between sections of the main story, I think it would have been better. But I do understand that side missions are not always easy to implement in an open-world game. I think Red Dead Redemption 2 did a decent job of placing side jobs in such a way that you encountered many of them as you were going from here to there as you worked the primary narrative. With CP2077, I was just like cruising along and then: "Whoa! 'Point of no return?' Look at all these side quests still on the map."

The bottom line is I have enjoyed the story so far and am looking forward to Act 3, but I already know I'm going to be itching for an expansion here real soon.

I feel like the pacing issues also tie up to a very unbalanced game. They could have taken a look at the street cred to both slow it a whole bunch and require it for some of the main story quests. Or at least some of the requirements for the "Good" endings.

You can tell they had this idea on the early stages of development due to the nature of the secret ending with Silverhand having a dedicated relationship meter and it could have been reasonable to tie down the Rogue story missions to it as well. But again, it felt like for 80 of the 90 hours it took me my relationship meter with Johnny was at 20% and after like 2 of the late missions it jumped really close to the required % for the "secret ending" as if the meter was there but there's a whole lot of interactions that they just forgot to take into account for it or didn't even make it into the final game.

This game is open ended but a more deliverate attempt to slow down the pace of the main story could have helped and could have been done creatively without feeling like it was just gating away content in typical "You need X level to proceed" fashion but it was very clear that they just ran out of time to fine tune all of this, even if the story is final and is not my favorite thing ever, more could have been done to pace it better.

 

[amghwk]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha


It's hard for people to come down to earth from an overhyped game. Amazing to see how they can really praise mediocrity.

 

[Uncle Al]

I am starting to wonder if the game isn't actually named for the current Administration in Washington. The comparisons are uncanny ..... lot of talk & little if any action; every move is geared toward helping the company more than the player, and of course it also seems to resemble a dishonest mob boss ...... who could ask for anything more?!?!?!

 

[BigBoomBoom]

The main story can be short maybe 20-25hrs?

But the side missions are top notch and plenty to do. Did you do River Ward's story line? Judy's? Kerry? Panam? Rogue? Did you get the band together? Hell hunting down all the cyberpyscho should easily take 5-10hrs to track down.

I have about 80 hours play time on Steam and already done everything, all side quests include beat the brat and the racing one. Three gigs bugged so I didn't get the achievements for completing all gigs & scanner in 3 areas. Tried all variations of final missions. Didn't grind to buy all the cars.

To be honest, it's actually a bit short for a game that has been in development that long and there isn't enough of a different outcome that makes you want to restart. The Witcher 3 on launch had more contents definitely. I spent around 130 hours to clear out launch content in TW3.

It's a good game but not a great game and that doesn't count the buggy launch.

 

[Squid Surprise]

I’m thinking horse armour

 

[shm0wie]

Hi! Former AAA designer/developer here! So, the people that would be making this extra content would not be super-tasked right now, as the problems with Cyberpunk need to be fixed by programmers, tech leads, and such - and not Level Designers, Level Artists, and other people responsible for actual in-game world content such as areas, missions, etc.

In fact, DLC has likely been in development for many months since typically the roles mentioned above are usually very light on "Launch" content within the last few months of the game launching, so this is perfectly normal and actually expected (That content would still be coming out) as it keeps people on the team "busy" that aren't able to contribute to code fixes and other complex problems. A lot of AAA companies would lay people off as launch approaches, but CDPR is a good company.

 

[Namtrooper]

It's only free because of the backlash for the bugs and the game being mediocre.

Well they did release so called "free dlc" for Witcher 3 which amounted to a couple of new haircuts and maybe an armor set and a few other things. So I suspect that is what they are referring to. Proper dlc expansions will and should cost money since that involves a LOT more work.