Copying this from another comment /edit: all of these updates are coming to the base game
TL;DR: This is not a DLC. This is Cyberpunk 2.0.
• virtually every system of the main game has been changed and/or updated
• police system is completely reworked with multiple tiers of NCPD/mercs chasing you down in vehicles according to your wanted level, apparently on level 5 maxtac will chase you down and it will be some sort of bossfight against them (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riK1i8lQwRM&t=511s)
• perks and skills have been completely overhauled, no longer simple passive stat boosts, much more active abilities like different melee finishers, a dash, or the ability to deflect bullets with melee weapons
• the difficulty curve is reworked/rebalanced
• the loot tiers are reworked
• archetypes of enemies have been redone for more variety in combat encounters
• an entirely new 6th skill tree that uses a different type of skill points (relic points) that will be used to add new abilities to your cyberware
• installing cyberware now has an effect on your body and you cant install too much or else you will go cyberpsycho (no idea what that looks like in game)
• installing cyberware now has a first person cutscene added to it, just like in the prologue at Vik’s clinic
• you can now “attune” cyberware to one of your attributes, making it more efficient if you have invested in that attribute; example here optical camo is attuned to the “cool” attribute: https://i.imgur.com/1UI9SEX.png
• armor is no longer tied to clothing, it instead tied to your cybernetics
• vehicle combat is added to the game, you can even use your katana on your bike
• vehicles are no longer bought from fixers, but bought through a website set up by mama welles
• some vehicles have guns installed on them (machine guns, rocket launchers)
• new type of infinitely replayable/repeatable missions are being added where you need to steal certain vehicles marked on your map
• new activity introduced “airdrops”, loot caches that drop randomly on the map that you can fight over and retrieve for yourself
• tons of new random events/activities are added to make the world feel more alive, like car chases and gang fights
Damn. I don’t usually replay story-driven games like Cyberpunk (especially ones with the sort of… finality that Cyberpunk has) but it seems like CDPR is making it a much more immersive experience. We’ll have to see how that rumored new ending turns out. I get that they had a story they wanted to tell (and I felt it was a good one), but it was more than a bit of a downer that
spoiler
all of V’s efforts boiled down to a few different ways to be chewed up, spit out, and dying at the end.
I like for my RPGs to give me more than an illusion of freedom (Phantom Liberty, nudge nudge?) , or else why indulge in the escapism?
I personally liked the ending, there aren’t many games that are willing to commit to something bittersweet, and it perfectly fits the Cyberpunk genre. Besides, you can literally drive off into the sunset with Judy and Panam in one of the endings.
Guess which ending I did :)
But yeah, I get your point, and I do agree, at least partially. The game’s world is a classic Cyberpunk dystopia, and it is honestly one of the few representations of that world that really drives home what an oppressive and controlling reality that would be. I think that they way that CDPR don’t flinch away from telling a story where the hero and all their friends unload everything they have at the Powers That Be and it barely even leaves a mark is admirable… but at the end of the day I play games to get away from our miserable reality, and CD2077 felt just a bit to on-the-nose. I know why there’s no ending where V colony-drops the Arasaka orbitals on Corpo Plaza and establishes a solarpunk anarcho-syndicalist commune in the wreckage, but I still kinda want it, you know?