Their other claim to cyberpunk is 20 years old and largely unchanged. Cyberpunk 2077 uses the now familiar Deus Ex template, in which you move through a series of set pieces by choosing among stealth, combat, hacking, and dialogue, developing your character as you go. The conceptual cyberpunk in Deus Ex was mostly the idea of human augmentation, which has been a consistent theme in the series. Rather than leveling up your intelligence stat, you got an ocular implant. Same gameplay concept, different narrative approach. Which is fine. Theming matters. The Deus Ex games have consistently put the concept of augmented humanity at the forefront.
There’s plenty of augmented humanity stuff in Cyberpunk 2077 by virtue of the fact that there’s plenty of stuff in here. It’s a crowded game. I level up my intelligence and I get an ocular implant! Why not both? But at this point, after so many games like this, the chrome has worn off. It’s not so much a premise as yet another rote gameplay concept. It’s all so familiar. CD Projekt is doing the same things everyone else does, and the same things I’ve been doing since Deus Ex. It’s not cyberpunk when it’s just Videogame 101.