Extending Cyberpunk 2077's pre-heist rise through the ranks would risk a "meandering, unfocused experience", argues Cyberpunk 2 director

Both approaches can make for great games. In my book, a bigger issue in the base version of Cyberpunk arguably suffers due to is Johnny Silverhand's regular presence and commentary sometimes feeling like it can undercut that game's ability not to fill moments of silence that'd be perfect for Bladerunner-style broody contemplation with chatter that may not add much to proceedings.

Does this site not employ editors? That is some of the worst writing I’ve seen online. I would accuse it of being slop but I don’t even think slop can write a sentence that poorly.

It would be a perfect way to familiarise new players with the city alongside V in a more curated way instead of just dumping us into the city right after the life path intro. Also, more importantly, it could make Jackie's death actually impactful since he's suppose to be like family to V, while we as players spend with him maybe an hour or two. The only thing that elevates his death scene is the voice acting and even that can only do so much without everything else.

I love the game but the start is a huge fumble in my opinion.

CP2077 is a good game but it has some glaring flaws with its structure.

The game could have let players do 10-20 missions with Jackies before he dies to make it more impactful.

Also, I did not like how every fixer seemed to know V's phone number. It would have been better if we had more agency on how we meet each one. I want the option to make each one an enemy or an ally. I want the option to work with them or take their territory.

Ever since the game came out, I felt it would have been a better experience for that montage of V and Jackie doing shit together after the prologue should have been a few playable quests instead of just a video. Like, they could have easily replaced some of the side quests before the Big Heist that you optionally would have done and learned more about the guy who is supposed to be our closest friend at that point.

100% agree. Adding more to act one would just slow the pace of the story down even more

I disagree, insofar as meandering is part of the entire game. I'm sure he realizez it makes more sense for us to be running around helping people boost cars and helping fixes with their housekeeping before we have the ticking clock of Johnny in our heads giving us a serious main goal. Nothing we really do for any of the fixers feel "big league" so it would make more sense to have Dex be the first mega-fixer to take notice of us. Plus, more time with the Jackster.