With a complete list of patch notes that is too long to list here, CD Projekt Red has made it’s biggest update yet to their sprawling open world future fantasy, Cyberpunk 2077.
PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X gamers (sorry, Series S friends) will see both Performance and Ray-Tracing modes, the latter of which introduces “photorealistic shadow rendering as well as gameplay at 30fps with dynamic 4K scaling,” but no mention of ray-traced reflections. Performance mode will include 60fps gameplay (with some minor and “rare” dips) at a “dynamic” 4K resolution.
CD Projekt Red seems to be caveating quite a bit in the interest of setting the right expectations for their fans. A little gun shy, they seem.
Additional content will be available across all platforms (with a few exceptions, such as crowd AI), and the list is quite extensive, so we’ll run through some of our highlights.
Your main character V can now purchase four different apartments in Night City, all at varying prices based on location and luxury. Ranging from €$5,000 to €$55,000, V can slum it or live the high life. You can also make modifications to your existing and new apartments throughout the city.
V’s appearance is also more flexible now, with the option to change much of his or her look after starting the game. What was previously a character model that could only be set at the beginning of the game can now be modified at V’s apartment. Users will be able to update V’s hair, makeup, piercings, and more.
On the combat side, AI and reactions for taking cover, positioning, reloading, dodging, and blocking has all been updated and, where applicable, fixed. In general, it seems that enemies are overall smarter and stronger, as the Easy mode difficulty has been ramped up just a bit.
One of our favourite changes is crowd behaviour. Before Patch 1.5, pointing a weapon at a random crowd NPC would cause them to flee or cower. With Patch 1.5, certain NPCs will actually enter combat if they’re provoked. The Night City crowd is also much livelier, and the time of day will also impact crowd density.
Driving has been updated to increase realism with both acceleration and braking, while motorcycles specifically have been given light-up wheels. Because 2077.
Traffic is also a lot more realistic, with NPCs now driving up onto sidewalks in moments of danger such as explosions and gunfire.
All the perks in the game have been rebalanced, as have weapon modifications, so when firing up Patch 1.5 for the first time, the player will be given all their perks and mods to redistribute. Doing so will allow a one-time refresh of the character’s abilities, and for those players who happen to be in a bit of a jam right now, perhaps a rebalance is exactly what will get them through.
Quests have also been tweaked and re-worked, with 20 of them getting explicit updates in the patch, and additional romance scenes added for Kerry, River, Panam, and Judy.
Finally (but not really, because there is so much more than we’ve shared here), the PC gets a benchmark mode which displays current frames per second on the screen during gameplay.
In addition to everything offered in Patch 1.5, new players to Cyberpunk 2077 are offered a five-hour free trial to see what they think of the game. Progress from the demo will transfer over into the main game if the player decides to purchase the title, which is currently on sale for $25 to $30 across digital platforms, and likely less in some retail stores, due to its frosty reception and broken promises at launch.
Take a look at CD Projekt Red’s complete list of patch notes for Patch 1.5 and their next-generation update for Cyberpunk 2077 here.