Highlights
- Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 may look impressive, but it lacks the true feeling of a bustling city. The streets are not crowded and there is minimal traffic, making it feel rather barren.
- Games like Marvel's Spider-Man and Grand Theft Auto 5 manage to create busy and immersive cities, while Cyberpunk 2077 falls short. The next installment should aim to deliver a truly bustling city vibe.
- Despite its flaws, the emptiness of Night City doesn't completely ruin the gaming experience, but it does hinder immersion. The game's updates have improved many aspects, but there is still a long way to go for Cyberpunk to fulfill its potential.
The bustling streets of Night City take center stage in Cyberpunk 2077, but something feels a bit off. While the scale of the city is impressive, the actual population within it feels rather small. The streets are not filled to the brim with crowds, there is not much traffic anywhere, and the majority of the city just feels rather barren. Even with Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk 2077's Night City seems to lack that true city feeling, which holds back the immersion a bit.
Crafting massive cities filled with people is hard to do, as that can often hinder the gameplay experience and negatively impact performance. However, games like Marvel's Spider-Man and Grand Theft Auto 5 seem to be able to include cities that are not only busy, but also fun to navigate. While Cyberpunk 2077's city may be fun to explore, it does not feel like it is really that busy. It may be too late to fix that now, but hopefully the next Cyberpunk can truly deliver that bustling city vibe that players have been searching for.
Cyberpunk's Night City Lacks That Crowded City Feel
Cyberpunk 2077's Night City is an impressive sight when players first lay their eyes upon it. Massive skyscrapers dot the landscape, the streets seem to be filled with citizens going about their day, and so many random events crop up throughout the many districts. This all helps build a great open-world locale waiting to be explored, which is made even better by the sheer number of activities players can engage within the confines of its concrete maze. However, it is far from perfect, and even with Phantom Liberty, it still feels like it is missing something important.
While CD Projekt Red was able to capture the grandiose nature of a big sci-fi version of a city like New York, it still feels kind of empty. The city streets may have cars but not a lot of traffic, the sidewalks may have people but not a lot of crowds, and the city may have many buildings but a lot of them are simply set dressing. Only some areas of the city truly feel packed, which Phantom Liberty seems to have replicated with some of its locales. The rest of the city feels rather barren, which leads to a less immersive open world overall.
Night City's emptiness does not ruin the experience of playing Cyberpunk 2077, but it may hurt some players' immersion. When they boot up the game, they should expect to be greeted by this expansive open world that replicates a massive metropolis fantastically. While it got the expansive part correct, the actual metropolis feeling simply is not there. As streets lay empty and sidewalks are barren, it does not seem like players are in the bustling city the story wants them to think they are in.
Phantom Liberty and the 2.0 update were CD Projekt Red's chance to fix the game's many faults, which it seems to have mostly accomplished. Cyberpunk 2077 not only has far fewer bugs than before, but many of its systems have been completely overhauled to create a much better experience. It feels like this game is in a far healthier spot than it was at launch, which has led to a resurgence in the game's popularity. However, even with those updates, the city still has a long way to go before it fulfills its massive potential.
Phantom Liberty is the last piece of content Cyberpunk 2077 is getting, so it is unlikely that this version of Night City will ever be fully realized. However, the upcoming sequel could fix all of that if given the chance. If it also takes place in Night City, then CD Projekt Red needs to ensure that it truly captures that big city feeling. Even if it may be annoying sometimes, players should feel like they have to push through the crowds to get to their destination. That was what the city was sold on, so the actual in-game version should represent that.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is available for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
