Cyberpunk 2077 has gotten continuously better over, and would likely only continue to improve, but this renaissance may have come too late. As CD Projekt shifts its attention to the future, Cyberpunk 2077 may be left by the wayside just as it was finding its footing.
CD Projekt Red has confirmed that a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, codenamed Orion, is on the horizon. As intriguing as that news may be, it is also somewhat bittersweet for fans of the original. After a rough launch and years of dedicated labor on the part of Cyberpunk 2077's developers, the game is finally rounding the bend, but it's also supposedly nearing the end. Cyberpunk 2077's DLC will signal the end of its major content additions, being its first and only full-scale expansion. There is so much more to be done in Night City, and much of it could have been explored in a more solid Cyberpunk 2077 rather than a sequel.
Since its controversial and anticlimactic launch, CD Projekt Red has gone to great lengths to fix not only Cyberpunk 2077, but its relationship with the game's consumers as well. Throughout years of gradual progress, bug fixes, and content updates, Cyberpunk 2077 has begun to resemble the game it was promised to be. Night City has far more to offer than it once did, and it does so in an ever more polished fashion. Especially in the wake of the game's recent patches, now is the best time to start playing Cyberpunk 2077, and it would be a shame for the game's life span to be cut short before its best years can eclipse its worst.
Cyberpunk 2077 Deserves To Reach The Heights It Promised
While the Phantom Liberty expansion seems like an interesting progression from Cyberpunk 2077's main story, Night City is a rich enough setting that there are innumerable ways in which new stories could be told there. Hearing that Phantom Liberty will be the only expansion coming to Cyberpunk 2077 was shocking, because it seemed like the amount of work done thus far had been leading to a new era for Cyberpunk 2077, only for it to actually be the beginning of the end. Stories building off of Cyberpunk 2077's main narrative and characters will be left unfulfilled, and tie-ins like a Cyberpunk: Edgerunners expansion will remain a missed opportunity. The precise nature of Orion is still unclear, but it would be difficult - and unlikely - for a sequel to tie together such threads as seamlessly as expansions could have.
If next year sees the last major content updates to Cyberpunk 2077, many players will likely be left wanting more. Of course, this can also be taken as a positive; it's arguably better for a game to die too soon rather than overstay its welcome. However, it will be difficult to play future titles in this universe without imagining the kind of game that Cyberpunk 2077 could have been.
